Skip to main content

Miami 2017: Checking In

The backstory for this post was that the Mild Fiancée and I were traveling to Miami. We'd thought ahead and packed some snacks (read: pizza), so things were already starting out well. We even managed to impress one of my coworkers in the process, drawing chuckles from all (read the previous post if you want the details).

Alas, things were not going to be quite so perfect the whole time. When we arrived at the hotel, we strolled up to the counter and gave them the information for our reservation. I've done this a bunch of times, no big deal. They found our reservation, but then the guy behind the counter grabbed the phone and started talking to someone. I didn't think anything of it, and let him do his thing.

It turns out he was trying to find a room with a really good view. That was awfully nice of him, so we chatted amongst ourselves as he went about his business. Eventually, he was satisfied that the room was up to snuff, so he put the phone down. The catch, however, was that they would need a few minutes to get it ready. We didn't mind, so they gave us a few drink vouchers to pass the time. I gave them my phone number so they could call me when things were ready, and off we went to the bar.

About a drink or so later, I got a phone call: you're all set, sir. Well, okay then. We finished our drinks, and walked back over to the counter. They remembered us, so they got to checking us in almost right away. And that's when the guy grabbed the phone again. In the brief time that the room had been cleaned, they had apparently booked it for someone else. My understanding was that it was some sort of a miscommunication, but either way, we had no room (again). So, armed with a fresh round of drink tickets, we headed back to the bar.

The phone call took a little bit longer this time, but they informed us that our room was a ready again. By this point, we were both a little beat, and wanted nothing more than to just put our stuff down and wash up after the flight. We were actually supposed to head to a conference-sponsored mixer thing, so we just wanted a few minutes to breathe before heading out again. Luckily, we actually got checked in and got room keys. We were on our way.

The problem, however, was that the ceiling above the bathroom was leaking. We noticed it after we put everything down, and someone decided to use the bathroom. The seat was wet, suspiciously so. Looking up, it looked like there was precipitation on the ceiling. I tested our theory as simply as I knew how: I stuck my hand over the wet spot on the seat. Sure enough, I felt a telltale drip. There was no mistaking it: there was a leak above our bathroom, right where someone would sit. That just wouldn't do.

We headed back down to the front lobby, to report our newfound issue. The lady was super nice, and we even ended up chatting about her upcoming wedding at one point (we may or may not have compared notes). Regardless, she got us a new room, but we had to make sure all of our stuff was packed so that they could move it for us. So, here was the new plan: head back to our room, pack up our stuff, go to the social mixer, go back to the lobby, get new keys for our new-new room, walk in, and all of our stuff would be there.

I have to admit, I was a little hesitant about all of this going off without a hitch. But we trusted in the process, and headed off to the mixer. Let's just say that we had a good story to tell while we chatted with a few other folks. It certainly didn't hurt that we now had food and drink, since that helped calm a few of our other needs.

Eventually, we called it a night, and made one more trip to the hotel lobby. Apparently, we'd made an impression, as someone we'd never talked to remembered us. "Oh yeah, I remember you two. You're getting married and you were chitchatting with the other lady who's getting married, right?" Yup, that'd be us. He checked us in, gave us new keys, and let us be on our way. No fuss, no muss.

Mercifully, everything had worked as expected. The room had one heck of a view, there were no leaks, and all of our stuff was present. Phew. It only took something like 6 drink vouchers, two room changes, and getting to know our lobby staff. Now that we were safely turned in for the night, the whole thing drew a chuckle from me.

Fortunately, it'd be fairly smooth sailing after that. Of course, there were still a few laughs to come on this trip.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Pink

Way back in high school, there was a male teacher that all the girls thought was attractive. It was an open secret that a bunch of them had crushes on him. In fact, the school newspaper even did an article about him that quoted some girl saying, "he's so cute, he even makes pink look good." Yes, he had worn a pink shirt to school one day, and it had apparently been a big hit. I was reminded of this story when my sister-in-law suggested that she would choose pink as the color for her wedding and bridal party. I don't think I've ever made a color look good before, but I remember thinking, "well, I know it's possible to not look stupid in pink as a straight guy, I guess I can try." And I think that's almost exactly what I told her. I also happened to own a gray suit, so I figured the combination would look all right. However, I was pretty much the only one willing to play along. My sister-in-law's brothers wanted absolutely no part of th...

Dreams

Normally, I don't eat very many sweets. I tend to eat pretty generous portions, but I generally prefer savory food over sweet. In fact, I usually prefer things half as sweet when possible. My preference doesn't have anything to do with health reasons, it's just one of those things that I've always liked better. That said, I do inevitably eat dessert, particularly if I'm out with other people. My stance towards dessert is roughly equivalent to those who are social drinkers . If other people want to munch on something for dessert, I'm not about to cross my arms and refuse. That'd be just a tad gauche. So, I do eat some dessert. I even have a few standby favorites that I'll usually order when presented with them (brownies, creme brulee, and apple pie). But left to my own devices, I'm not about to go hunting for dessert. Apparently, this means that the sugar can really mess with my system under the right circumstances. As I've discovered, ...

New York City Trip (Day 1)

After my crappy flight , I was now in Newark, New Jersey at 7AM on a Friday morning. I had done a little bit of reading up, so I knew which bus I needed to take and where I was going to get off. All in all, getting into the city was surprisingly easy. I suppose speaking the language does make things simpler. Through no real planning of mine (a theme of the trip, at least on my part), I picked one of the later bus stops at which to get off, Grand Central. I actually just figured that getting off at Grand Central would give me options, and heck, it's called Grand Central. That just screamed "decent place to disembark that might be close to some stuff" to me, so that's where I got off. However, it also meant that we drove down 42 nd St to get to my bus stop. That just happens to be a big street, and it gave me a glimpse of Times Square as we drove by. My bus stop choice had accidentally given me a rough layout of the city. Go me. I had about 6 hours to kill...