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A First-Time British Guide To Vegas: Part Two

November 6, 2009 at 4:09 PM | by juliab | 0 Comments

Greetings, fellow British folk. So yesterday we prepared you for the shock of your first time in Vegas, and told you how to feast on the American side of Sin City.

We know you’ll love it here. But we also understand that Vegas is like orange squash - a big bottle of America concentrate. And, during your stay, you may well feel like some dilution before you can drink it again. So here’s where to go for a little taste of the green green grass of home. Or, rather a taste of the UK, as Vegas imagines the UK to be. Let’s go all Vera Lynn.

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A First-Time British Guide To Vegas: Part One

November 5, 2009 at 5:32 PM | by juliab | 0 Comments

Brits on the Strip are here to stay thanks to the new British Airways service from London and the phenomenally good package deals that they’ve been touting to haul us over the Atlantic.

But if you’re one of them (the first sign of a Brit being that you’ll never call yourself British) and it’s your first time, you might be disappointed.

Coming from London, we feel your pain. We made our first trip to Vegas expecting to see Clooney and the Oceans boys hanging out in the casinos (or at the very least, fit men in dinner jackets), Hunter S Thompson clones gurning along the hotel corridors, and Cameron Diaz tottering out of a wedding chapel. We drove down the Strip looking for an ailing Nicolas Cage or an Elvis lookalike walking to work.

Needless to say, on arrival, we were sorely disappointed. We wanted to hide in our room, read our copy of Valley of the Dolls, listen to Frank Sinatra and weep quietly for our shattered dreams. Luckily for us, we were staying at Planet Hollywood and said room was less than inspiring, so we ventured out. And thus we learned to love Vegas.

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Four Days Into the BA Flights, and They're Too Expensive For Us

October 29, 2009 at 1:51 PM | by juliab | 0 Comments

A whole week since the British Airways launch party for its London-Vegas flights, and four days since the flights themselves started. And what has happened?

Well, according to BA’s CEO Willie Walsh (that’s him checking in at Heathrow T5 with Mayor Goodman and his showgirls), London-Vegas is BA’s best-performing new route "by far", with the inaugural flight on Sunday full.

So far, so good. Unfortunately, the inaugural was also 90 minutes late, due to a brake fluid leak, meaning that they missed being greeted by Holly Madison, who had to go and perform in Peepshow.

The next day, Willie Walsh was given the keys to the city, Mayor Goodman threw a special lunch for British press at the Bellagio, and the Brits were let loose on the Strip to start tweeting about $12 diet cokes at the Wynn and the Grand Canyon making them feel "uncomfortable" (no, we have no idea what she means about that either, unless it's an undiagnosed fear of heights coming through).

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The 'Happiest Mayor in the World' Has the Best Business Card in the World

October 26, 2009 at 1:26 PM | by juliab | 0 Comments

We already knew that Mayor Goodman sounded like a hoot from articles like this, and even if we hadn’t, we’d have guessed it from pictures from the BA London-Vegas launch party like this.

But we have newfound respect for after he gave us his business card at the party. What happened was that we lurched up to him excitedly and slurred our goodwill at him, he flashed us the indulgent smile of a man who can’t cross a casino floor without some drunk lurching up to him excitedly, and handed us his business card.

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A Glimpse Into the Very Near Vegas Future: Brits On The Strip

Where: London, UK [map]
October 23, 2009 at 12:18 PM | by juliab | 0 Comments

Three signs of a good night: you wake up clutching a poker chip in one hand, Elvis Presley’s email address in the other, and your camera seems to have magicked up pictures of you with vodka luges and feather boas that you definitely don’t recall going anywhere near. This was our morning after the BA London-Vegas route launch party at Studio Valbonne in London last night.

Mayor Goodman was guest of honor along with his wife, Carolyn, his showgirls (six of them) and his Elvis impersonator. Two Cirque du Soleil folk were doing acrobatics around the room, Rain DJ Paul Oakenfold was on the decks, and everyone was in the party spirit – including the waitress who was so sozzled that she fell over as she was taking a picture of us with Elvis.

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Mayor Goodman and His Girls Have Landed In London; Mel B Confirmed for the Party

Where: London, UK [map]
October 21, 2009 at 2:08 PM | by juliab | 0 Comments

The mayor has landed! Oscar Goodman and his showgirls arrived in London today in preparation for tomorrow’s party celebrating British Airways' direct London-Las Vegas flights which launch on Sunday. Good thing they put them in business class, what with those head-dresses.

And here’s Mayor Goodman looking pretty perky, considering he’s straight off a red-eye (we’re guessing from LA, unless they laid on a special Vegas flight for him. Which we wouldn’t completely disbelieve). The suits are (L-R) Rossi Ralenkotter, CEO of the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority, Mayor Goodman, and Richard Tams of British Airways. Loving that black cab – and hoping it was taking him to Buck House to meet the Queen…

In still more happy news, those nice bods at BA listened to our plea to get Mel B along to the bash – she confirmed this afternoon. That’s what we call customer service. Now if they could only abolish their ridiculous seat-booking charges, we’d love ‘em to bits. Any chance of you hearing us on that one, chaps?

Full party report, complete with Mayor Goodman, Peter Andre and the lovely Mel B, to come on Friday.

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Paul Oakenfold, Oscar Goodman and, um, Peter Andre Ready for London's BA Launch Party

Where: London, UK [map]
October 16, 2009 at 11:47 AM | by juliab | 0 Comments

Just nine days to go until the launch of direct British Airways from London to Vegas and we got some word about the party. It’s taking place at Studio Valbonne in the West End next Thursday, and Rain DJ Paul Oakenfold will be on the decks (the night’s doubling as a launch party for his new album Perfecto Las Vegas).

Guests of honour will be Mayor Goodman and his showgirls, Jen and Porsche, and our sources say they may well be joined by former England captain Matt Dawson, his teammates and tabloid staple Peter Andre. Not sure what any of that crowd have to do with Vegas (the rugby tournament maybe?), but until recently Peter was married to Jordan and his last business venture was MCing a male stripper show, so he should be just fine.

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Oscar Goodman Is Bringing His Showgirls To London To Christen BA's New Route

Where: London, UK [map]
October 2, 2009 at 3:17 PM | by juliab | 0 Comments

Have you heard of London's mayor Boris Johnson? He’s um, a buffoon character. Instead of neat politician hair, he has a woolly blond thatch, instead of saying bland politician things, he likes to weigh in with jokes that others sometimes take offence to, and instead of being a dull politician who nobody really cares about, Londoners either love him or hate him.

Boris likes to think he’s one of a kind, but he’s about to meet his match – Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman is crossing over the pond this month for the launch of British Airways’ direct London-Vegas flights on October 25.

Along with meeting Boris and, possibly, the Queen (he's working on that), he'll be guest of honour at an as yet top secret party.

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British Airways to Fly Nonstop from Heathrow to Vegas

May 18, 2009 at 1:14 PM | by Erika Pope | 0 Comments

Representing the culmination of literally years of negotiations between Las Vegas tourism officials and British Airways, Las Vegas is finally getting nonstop service from Heathrow. Dare we say, “Bloody ‘ell…it’s about time!”

Hundreds of thousands of Vegas-crazy Brits are surely dancing in the streets right about now. In fact, the UK is the #3 provider of foreign tourists to Sin City, behind neighboring countries of Canada and Mexico. Thanks to this new service, we anticipate a precipitous rise in the number of hen-night and stag-party revelers stumbling along Las Vegas Boulevard – all with those charming accents of course – as a direct result of this development.

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