First TR: SQ SIN-LAX via NRT RT (J) with California / Nevada / Arizona Road Trip

[yflyer]

Beautiful photos, Mlee888! The Grand Canyon looks quite awe inspiring...

Looks like you had a lot of fun in Vegas too! Especially Celine Dion live...nothing beats a live performance.

[Mlee888]

USA California / Nevada / Arizona Road Trip May 2016 Day 12 – Los Angeles

Day 12 began with what probably was the most depressing part of the trip. Leaving Las Vegas to drive to Los Angeles. We set off at 10am and give one last wave goodbye towards the Las Vegas sign before we hit the road to LA. We stop off about 90 mins later at the infamous world's largest thermometer located in Baker and grab a bite to eat at Arby's. More fast food! No photos though as it literally was just a quick bite and then back on the road.

We arrive in LA about 4:30pm and instead of checking into a hotel, we decided to give Airbnb a shot. For privacy reasons I won't be sharing any inside photos of the apartment. The Airbnb apartment was located a stones throw away from the Chinese Theatre. Literally 2 minutes walk away. It was a 2 bed apartment with 2 queen beds in one room, and 1 queen bed in another. Perfect for our group. The apartment also came with 2 parking spaces! We had one vehicle only but we were still more than happy with this.

Internet connection was strong and the apartment was extremely spacious and felt very cosy. Lovely view from the balcony.



After settling down, we make our way towards Canyon Lake Drive which has some of the best views of the Hollywood sign. To me coming to LA is always a bit of a downer after Vegas but it does help ease me back into the pattern of going home. One member of our group had never seen the sign in person before so this was another reason to come here to get the mandatory tourist shots.



Nice view of part of the city from here.



Action.......all of a sudden these helicopters come out of nowhere.



More helicopters join, shouldn't they be reporting the traffic around LA?



A police helicopter arrives....



Turns out that there's a man that climbed up to the top of the "D". There was a camera crew next to us who were really excited. The one guy kept shouting "my best friend is photobombing all your photos right now!".........

This was the story.

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/lo...380901481.html

After this we head back towards the Chinese Theatre parking back at the apartment.

We spot the Dolby Theatre....



The shopping mall next door...



Lame Hollywood Walk of Fame...

[Mlee888]

Back to the mall...



Chocolate anyone?



California Pizza Kitchen with Hollywood sign in the background.



Hollywood again....



After dinner a quick visit to the Chinese Theatre itself...



A nearby souvenir shop had this awesome display of Terminator.



After a depressing long day where we left the biggest fairground in the world, it was time to head back and grab some sleep. Only one full day of our vacation remained after this before I begin my trip back to Singapore.

[Mlee888]

Beautiful photos, Mlee888! The Grand Canyon looks quite awe inspiring...

Looks like you had a lot of fun in Vegas too! Especially Celine Dion live...nothing beats a live performance.

Thanks, Yflyer. Next time I will definitely spend more than 4 hours at Grand Canyon. Truly remarkable place.

[Mlee888]

USA California / Nevada / Arizona Road Trip May 2016 Day 13 – Rodeo Drive and Santa Monica

So our last full day in the US was upon us and we decide to spend the day on Rodeo Drive and visiting Santa Monica. We have been to Universal Studios Hollywood and Disneyworld Anaheim on past visits so no point in going to either of these again.

Our day began roughly around 10:30am with a quick stop at the Urban Lights at LACMA. Not my kind of thing however but my wife and friend seemed to enjoy it. I doubt I will come again.



Off we go to Rodeo Drive, a short 10 minute drive from LACMA. We find street parking that cost less than $2 for an hour. Not bad.

Some shots of the famous street and designer shops. My wife was a bit disappointed that we didn't see any celebrities though.













The whole place just seemed very superficial to me. Oh well, at least I can say we have visited now as I always skipped it in the past.

Back to the car we go and a 20 mile drive to Santa Monica. We arrive in Santa Monica around 2pm parking in the main shopping district.

Where to eat???



Oh look, another Cheesecake Factory. After San Francisco and Las Vegas, this would be our 3rd visit to this chain.

I went for the Steak Diane and Chicken with Fries.



Tasted great! This was a much needed meal.

[Mlee888]

After lunch we take a walk towards the beach and make our way to the pier.





Beach looks lovely. I remember seeing a womens beach volleyball game once in LA. That was awesome. No volleyball match today though.



Rollecoaster on the pier. $8 a ride.



Fishing in the Pacific Ocean.



View of the amusement park and beach from the end of the pier.



I realise the park has a name!



Back to the main high street.



Santa Monica is an extremely pleasant place. I always enjoyed visiting in the past and this was no different.

Rodeo Drive, done. Santa Monica, done. Where to next? OK, let's go to Citadel Outlets in Commerce, LA. Only 25 miles or so from Santa Monica. We head off at 4:30pm and due to traffic we arrive about 6pm. Oh well, last minute shopping never sucks. Last day complete and it's time to pack our suitcases one last time before we all head our separate ways back to UK and Singapore.

[Mlee888]

USA California / Nevada / Arizona Road Trip May 2016 - Day 14 SQ11 LAX-SIN via NRT Part 1

What a great 2 weeks this trip has been, after visiting San Diego, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Los Angeles, and Santa Monica. it was time to say farewell to my friends where my wife and I would leave first taking SQ 11 from LAX to SIN.

Our friend also residing in Singapore was booked to be on BR departing a few hours after us with a transit in TPE. The last of our group would be taking VS from LAX to LHR.

We leave our Airbnb apartment just before midday and arrive at the car hire location within 45 minutes. We hand our vehicle keys back and pack our luggage onto the shuttle bus that would take us to the terminal. We arrive at the terminal 2.5 hours before departure.

Tom Bradley in the past used to be a good spot for us as our group of travellers always departed from various terminals. We would sit upstairs at the back of pre-departures in the seating area and have dinner together at one of the many eateries available. When we arrived we were surprised to see this was no longer there. Shucks! An earlier goodbye than expected.

A couple of shots from the terminal at Tom Bradley. Notable airlines such as Etihad, JAL and China Airlines check-in at section A of the terminal.



Section B includes Emirates, BA, KLM, and Korean Air. Forgot to blur the folks out on the right hand side. Sorry.



Our 3:45pm departure points us to check-in in section C. Other airlines in this section included BR.



Despite the recent renovations in Tom Bradley, I see they still use the old style system for departure information.



Automated check-in options available for many airlines.



Time to check-in...



My friend takes a shot of Mrs Mlee888 and I waiting to check-in.



This is where the check-in process got slightly complicated. Due to a last minute aircraft change, with my wife and I originally scheduled to sit together in seats 96 D/F, with the replacement plane no longer being an all upper business deck, this meant that our seats were no longer available. On top of this, with us having separate bookings (wife took an earlier departure to US at the start of our trip), their systems automatically seated us quite a distance from each other. For a few hours this would be OK but with this being a 16.5 hour flight time overall, we would prefer to be seated together.

The SQ staff couldn't think of a way to change our seats to begin with but continued to try their best to see what alternative arrangements could be found. The supervisor eventually managed to work out a solution by calculating who had checked-in and who hadn't. Everyone in business class had been given a new seat in the last 24 hours so anyone who checked-in online prior to this would not had known of any aircraft change until they arrived at the airport. The supervisor switched our seats to 26 D/F for the first leg and told us we would have to wait until arriving in NRT to be given new seats for the second leg. She explained she could only override the system in LAX but was unable to do so for NRT, she did say she would make sure we would be seated together.

What great service this was. I was so impressed with the way they handled this. I can see why SQ is one of the worlds best airlines.

So to the below.....today's flight would be the following:

Plane: A380
Class: J
Seats: LAX-NRT 26 D/F, NRT-SIN 22 D/F (both upper deck)
Departing Airport: LAX Tom Bradley
Arriving Airport: SIN Terminal 3
Via: NRT (Tokyo)

We say our farewells to our friends and head for the departure lounge. Tom Bradley has an express queue for Business Class passengers so going through immigration and security was relatively quick and easy, compared to my experience when arriving a few weeks before.

The Star Alliance Lounge was packed! There was not a spare seat in the house and when looking at the departure board, I saw quite a few other Star Alliance flights departing around the same time.

The food also didn't look that great to be honest, I took a quick shot and then walked around the lounge briefly. Poor quality photo sadly.



There were more people inside the lounge than in the shopping area downstairs.



Mrs Mlee888 and I decide not to stick around and head to gate 150 where our flight would depart from. Quite a bit of heavy traffic here so looks like a full flight.



The staff getting ready and with T-45 mins no one is queueing up just yet.



Our beautiful whale that would take us all the way back to Singapore.

[Mlee888]

Boarding is announced with Suites first followed by Business Class and PPS members. I join the queue and find my seat and get comfortable for the next 10.5 hours.



Seat 26A with the older generation business layout. Still extremely comfortable and one of my favourite J class seats.



Today's LAX-NRT first meal options.





Snacks during flight available.



Due to the timing of the flight, when you land in NRT it is evening time so a second meal is served on board before landing.





Dinner menu from NRT-SIN.





Having a bubbly before take-off. Drinks were the same as on the way out so I didn't take a photo of what was on offer.



Flight map shows a flight time of 10 hours and 45 minutes.

[Mlee888]

USA California / Nevada / Arizona Road Trip May 2016 - Day 14 SQ11 LAX-SIN via NRT Part 2

An hour after take-off, the meal service began.

The marinated crayfish with garlic bread. Delicious!



Mrs Mlee888 used Book The Cook option and selected sweet and sour fish with fried noodles. She said it tasted quite good.



My BTC option - Steamed crab ravioli in creamy lobster sauce with mixed vegetables. It was nice but the portion wasn't very filling.



The yoghurt cranberry cake with cheese and crackers served together. Went well with my vodka and coke.



To keep myself entertained, I watched Zootopia which was great followed by London Has Fallen. I started watching Ip Man 3 but with about 5.5 hours of the flight to go before reaching NRT, I decided to take a nap.





Mrs Mlee888 already asleep at this point but this is a shot of how the flat bed appears on SQ on the A380. Your feet go into the corner which for some may not be comfortable.



I sleep around 2 hours and check on the flight map to see where we were.



I watch the rest of Ip Man and then decide to put Race on. An inspiring movie. I realised I watched more movies during this flight sector than on the whole way out.

With around 2 hours to go, the lights come on as the cabin prepare for the second meal to be served.



The prosciutto ham for starters....and more garlic bread.



Not sure what wifey ordered here on BTC. There were a couple of beef options on BTC at the time.



My order - Peppered fillet mignon with mustard jus, chanterelle mushrooms, fava beans, and paprika red potatoes. Very yummy!

[Mlee888]

40 minutes to Tokyo and the mood lighting is switched on.



As we arrive in Tokyo, I spot SQ12 preparing for NRT-LAX. They both arrive in Tokyo and refuel around the same time.



SQ staff in LAX were true to their word. As we entered the arrival area there was a big board with our names on it to get our attention. A staff member was there ready to give us our new boarding passes. We were given seats 22 D/F and would be seated together for the second leg. Excellent service overall.

Back to the ANA lounge for a quick visit and game on this.



Offerings at this lounge aren't that impressive. Unfortunately I didn't have time to go see what the main lounge was like.



Famous Japanese snacks. I end up leaving with a couple of boxes of Tokyo Banana.





Waiting to be called up for boarding with order as shown in the photo.



Back on board for the 6 hour flight from NRT-SIN and we take our new seats. Time to get comfortable!

[Mlee888]

An hour after take-off the food is served. After satay, they dish out the smoked duck breast starter with vegetables and a helping of garlic bread (again).



Mrs Mlee888 main course on BTC would be Grilled fillet of beef with pesto. Same as what I had on the way out.



I went for the chicken stuffed with prosciutto and mushrooms in creamy sauce with braised turnip, spinach, and potatoes. Again another great meal by SQ.



I accompany my meal with the movie Dirty Grandpa starring Zac Effron and Robert De Niro which I had been watching since the start of the flight. This would be my 5th movie of the entire flight and also my last. The film was much better than I thought it would be. After it ends I settle down and grab nearly 4 hours sleep and wake up around 30 minutes before departure. The lights come on and the cabin crew prepare for arrival.



We arrive 30 minutes before schedule and after immigration and customs, we eventually get home around 3:30am. 2 days later. Lost out on a whole day due to the international time zone but this just balances out how we gained a day when we flew out.

That's all for now. I hope you have all enjoyed my first trip report and I look forward to sharing my next adventures with you all (that's worth posting of course).

Thanks for reading.