It took about an hour to get to Manchester and check-in went quickly and smoothly. Getting though security was another matter altogther. The queue stretched all the way out of the secure area and doubled back on itself in the shopping area. It took forever to get through and we eventually made it to Starbucks. Got slightly worried when the snow started again and it got heavier and heavier, but then it stopped and the sun came out!
Just before boarding I went to check out which plane was due to head to MCO that day and a rather weather beaten G-VROY was on the stand.
Soon it was time to head to gate 215 and boarding was nice and quick ... it was stepping on board that I got my second surprise of the day, and it wasn't a pleasant one. Where was the nice 777 we normally have to ATL?! It seem to have been replaced by a rather old and tatty 767-300 that had clearly seen better days. This meant back to the old days of no seat back IFE, instead there were 2 projection screens and a couple of smaller screens above the aisle. Also this meant that there were fewer toilets and they were all at the back of the plane. So no choice of film and no opportunity to flick onto skymap to see where we are and how long left. And what viewing delights were we offered - Chicken Little! Followed by some of the strangest shows - Sharkopath a documentary that theorised that in 200 milion years there would be no fish in the sea and that instead of birds we'd have Flish (bet you can't guess what these are), giant squid with light shows to rival Vegas and super sharks that had flashing lights along their sides .... you couldn't make this stuff up! After that we were treated to A Pilots Guide to Finland - woo hoo! What a fabulous way to pass an 8 and a half hour flight.... not.
I've no idea what the food was, I didn't eat it as I'd brought my own. The drinks runs were plentiful, but only soft drinks for me as Delta now charge $5 per alcoholic drink - ouch!
We arrived in ATL and headed straight to immigration which was as expected - packed and moving very slowly. Given that every Officer was asking for a Russian translator, we must have arrived just after a flight from Russia. On the plus side it meant we didn't have to wait for our bags they were already circling the carousel when we got there. So a quick trip through customs and we handed our bags back. I have to admit to being a little dubious about ever seeing them again given the huge pile that was already in the re-check area ... but no time to worry, it was time to head off for the train to T and find the next Starbucks.
The flight to LAS boarded ontime, this time a slightly newer plane than before a 767-400. Still no seat back IFE but, it was only a 4 hour flight and I hadn't really expected that on a domestic flight. On offer this time was one of the Harry Potter films, it didn't interest me, so I didn't bother digging out the headphones. Food was a snack that consisted of cheese spread (bit like Dairylea) and crackers. Later there was an offer of another snack, don't know what that was, I think there was a choice of peanuts, pretzels and other things but by this time all I wanted was my bed! I'd been dying of cold for the last few days so was sneezing and coughing through out this flight at the last. Actually typing that last sentence reminds me that both flights were ridiculously cold.
It was really great arriving in LAS at night and seeing the strip all lit up. It was amazing to see everything on the taxi ride to the hotel (Bellagio), it felt like Christmas with all the lovely lights [:D] We were pretty exhausted when we arrived so we didn't have much energy to do much more than unpack and crash. We figured we'd be up bright and early anyway to start our 4 days of fun in Vegas!
