Deep-Thots
10-25-2005, 05:14 AM
Kim’s SSR Trip Report – Days 1 & 2
Things ran smoothly right up until our actual departure when, for reasons unknown to us, our 6:15 PM flight out of Newark was delayed for 45 minutes on the tarmac. Typically, this would not have bothered me in the slightest. However, given my severe hormone-induced cramps, chocolate cravings, and the wailing of the three year-old in the aisle across from us, I decided to pop a Valium for the safety of all on board. A short time later, things were going really, really, really well. In fact, I even enjoyed the small “snack” sandwich offered by Continental, and my beloved husband was kind enough (perhaps it was the mildly crazed, “will kill for chocolate” look in my eyes that did it) to offer me his Take Five snack bar, which I gratefully inhaled, um, nibbled.
After we landed (a mere 10 minutes late), the line was rather lengthy at the Alamo rental car counter. Smart traveler that I am, I had booked the Flintstones class car, knowing that since we were arriving so late, they were far more likely to run out of said class and offer us a deal on an upgrade. And boy did they. We got a full-size car for only $10 more per day! Bonus. Of course, it didn’t seem like such a bonus while we stood there, cooling our heels, waiting for a full-size car to arrive so that we could take it. Ten minutes passed by and still no car. During that time, we were offered a minivan, but I mean, we’re childless, and we like it that way: It would just be too…weird… to get a minvan. Finally, a grey Toyota Camry pulled in, and we almost tripped over ourselves as we ran up to it. We had our car!! After walking around the outside to inspect it for damage, we determined that it looked remarkably clean – and the inside smelled really new, too. Well, when we turned the car on, we saw why: Odometer reading: 7 miles. Kewl.
Off we drove, at 10:30 PM, to our offsite hotel, to spend the night before conquering the wilds of SSR. Our chosen offsite destination: The Airport Best Western, which is pretty much a dive if ever there was one. Yes, the sheets and towels were clean and the staff was friendly. But, the room carpet had not been vacuumed in a good long time, and when I saw the place, I determined that the only way I would be able to stay there was if I secured some much-needed Bugles from the vending machine. Even though they were 130 calories, and 80% of those calories were fat and thus going directly to my hips, it was completely necessary for my psychological well-being to consume them. Anyway, after I took my shower the next morning, I realized, horror of horrors, that I had forgotten my socks and sneakers out in the bedroom. Now, given the cooties my feet were bound to suffer if I moved from my patch of bathmat without some sort of protection, I immediately hollered for Eric to bring me my socks and shoes: “Honeeeey: Can you please bring me my shoes and socks? There is *no* way I am stepping off this bathmat in bare feet.” He graciously acquiesced to my request, we checked out at 11 AM, and were off to SSR to try to check into our spacious 2 BR (lock-off) digs.
When we arrived there, alas, our villa was not ready. So we opted to eat lunch (it was almost 11:45 AM, and there had been a few minor confusions involving the spelling of the names of our guests, who weren’t due to arrive for a few days yet) at Artist’s Palette. I don’t remember what Eric had. I had the chicken, spinach and artichoke flatbread, which was pretty tasty. Afterward, we walked around in the extreme humidity so that I could take a bunch of pictures for the upcoming website. By that time, at least one portion of our villa (they weren’t sure which portion) was ready, so we drove over to check it out.
It turns out that the studio portion of the villa was ready (i.e., the portion that our guests were going to use). Before we dragged all our luggage up, I took pictures for the flash slide show for the website. Woo hoo! Afterward, we dragged all of our luggage up to the studio, and I promptly removed the shirts and pants that needed to be ironed for the various portions of our trip. (Note: I am a little bit anal about getting “chores” – things that I really hate to do – done. And since we wanted to get chores done that day, including grocery shopping, it seemed like a good idea to go ahead and get the ironing out of the way.)
Just as I was finishing up the ironing, we heard mousekeeping finishing up next door. We called to check if the 1BR portion was ready: it was! Kewl! So, first I took pictures for the website. Then, we moved our stuff over there, I tidied up the studio, and we went off to the Publix on Vineland, purchased our necessities, came back, and unpacked.
Then we went to dinner at Outback, after which we took a leisurely stroll to Ghirardelli’s for bellybuster sundaes. While we were at DTD, we also took our AP vouchers (obtained when we did the add-on) and converted them to PAP, receiving $10 refunds in the process!).
Unfortunately, when we returned to the room, we noticed that something that we had been trying to fix all day – our thermostat – was broken. More specifically, it was on permanently (even when we were out of the room), and you could not set it to anything other than the “body parts you didn’t know you had will become erect now” setting. So, at 12:30 AM, we had maintenance in the villa. They replaced the thermostat, but that one didn’t work, either. Finally, they took the thermostat from the studio, (putting the bad one in the studio, but assuring us that they would replace it the next day – uh huh) and put that one into our unit. That one worked, but it became so unbearably hot overnight that we had to call them the next day (Friday) about it.
We waited almost three hours for maintenance to show up on Friday. When they did, they set it to “bypass” so that our room now stays somewhere between 72 and 76 degrees continuously. [That seemed to do the trick, but in the meantime, they forgot about changing the thermostat in the other room (despite the fact that we kept calling about it) until Monday night (our guests are arriving Tuesday). I finally had to get very snotty with someone and mention the name of the first maintenance person who was here for the thermostat to get switched out Monday night.]
Okay, well, that ends my trip report for days 1 & 2. Coming up when I get to it: The rest, which gets better. I mean, how can it not: It includes a hurricane!!
Kim
Things ran smoothly right up until our actual departure when, for reasons unknown to us, our 6:15 PM flight out of Newark was delayed for 45 minutes on the tarmac. Typically, this would not have bothered me in the slightest. However, given my severe hormone-induced cramps, chocolate cravings, and the wailing of the three year-old in the aisle across from us, I decided to pop a Valium for the safety of all on board. A short time later, things were going really, really, really well. In fact, I even enjoyed the small “snack” sandwich offered by Continental, and my beloved husband was kind enough (perhaps it was the mildly crazed, “will kill for chocolate” look in my eyes that did it) to offer me his Take Five snack bar, which I gratefully inhaled, um, nibbled.
After we landed (a mere 10 minutes late), the line was rather lengthy at the Alamo rental car counter. Smart traveler that I am, I had booked the Flintstones class car, knowing that since we were arriving so late, they were far more likely to run out of said class and offer us a deal on an upgrade. And boy did they. We got a full-size car for only $10 more per day! Bonus. Of course, it didn’t seem like such a bonus while we stood there, cooling our heels, waiting for a full-size car to arrive so that we could take it. Ten minutes passed by and still no car. During that time, we were offered a minivan, but I mean, we’re childless, and we like it that way: It would just be too…weird… to get a minvan. Finally, a grey Toyota Camry pulled in, and we almost tripped over ourselves as we ran up to it. We had our car!! After walking around the outside to inspect it for damage, we determined that it looked remarkably clean – and the inside smelled really new, too. Well, when we turned the car on, we saw why: Odometer reading: 7 miles. Kewl.
Off we drove, at 10:30 PM, to our offsite hotel, to spend the night before conquering the wilds of SSR. Our chosen offsite destination: The Airport Best Western, which is pretty much a dive if ever there was one. Yes, the sheets and towels were clean and the staff was friendly. But, the room carpet had not been vacuumed in a good long time, and when I saw the place, I determined that the only way I would be able to stay there was if I secured some much-needed Bugles from the vending machine. Even though they were 130 calories, and 80% of those calories were fat and thus going directly to my hips, it was completely necessary for my psychological well-being to consume them. Anyway, after I took my shower the next morning, I realized, horror of horrors, that I had forgotten my socks and sneakers out in the bedroom. Now, given the cooties my feet were bound to suffer if I moved from my patch of bathmat without some sort of protection, I immediately hollered for Eric to bring me my socks and shoes: “Honeeeey: Can you please bring me my shoes and socks? There is *no* way I am stepping off this bathmat in bare feet.” He graciously acquiesced to my request, we checked out at 11 AM, and were off to SSR to try to check into our spacious 2 BR (lock-off) digs.
When we arrived there, alas, our villa was not ready. So we opted to eat lunch (it was almost 11:45 AM, and there had been a few minor confusions involving the spelling of the names of our guests, who weren’t due to arrive for a few days yet) at Artist’s Palette. I don’t remember what Eric had. I had the chicken, spinach and artichoke flatbread, which was pretty tasty. Afterward, we walked around in the extreme humidity so that I could take a bunch of pictures for the upcoming website. By that time, at least one portion of our villa (they weren’t sure which portion) was ready, so we drove over to check it out.
It turns out that the studio portion of the villa was ready (i.e., the portion that our guests were going to use). Before we dragged all our luggage up, I took pictures for the flash slide show for the website. Woo hoo! Afterward, we dragged all of our luggage up to the studio, and I promptly removed the shirts and pants that needed to be ironed for the various portions of our trip. (Note: I am a little bit anal about getting “chores” – things that I really hate to do – done. And since we wanted to get chores done that day, including grocery shopping, it seemed like a good idea to go ahead and get the ironing out of the way.)
Just as I was finishing up the ironing, we heard mousekeeping finishing up next door. We called to check if the 1BR portion was ready: it was! Kewl! So, first I took pictures for the website. Then, we moved our stuff over there, I tidied up the studio, and we went off to the Publix on Vineland, purchased our necessities, came back, and unpacked.
Then we went to dinner at Outback, after which we took a leisurely stroll to Ghirardelli’s for bellybuster sundaes. While we were at DTD, we also took our AP vouchers (obtained when we did the add-on) and converted them to PAP, receiving $10 refunds in the process!).
Unfortunately, when we returned to the room, we noticed that something that we had been trying to fix all day – our thermostat – was broken. More specifically, it was on permanently (even when we were out of the room), and you could not set it to anything other than the “body parts you didn’t know you had will become erect now” setting. So, at 12:30 AM, we had maintenance in the villa. They replaced the thermostat, but that one didn’t work, either. Finally, they took the thermostat from the studio, (putting the bad one in the studio, but assuring us that they would replace it the next day – uh huh) and put that one into our unit. That one worked, but it became so unbearably hot overnight that we had to call them the next day (Friday) about it.
We waited almost three hours for maintenance to show up on Friday. When they did, they set it to “bypass” so that our room now stays somewhere between 72 and 76 degrees continuously. [That seemed to do the trick, but in the meantime, they forgot about changing the thermostat in the other room (despite the fact that we kept calling about it) until Monday night (our guests are arriving Tuesday). I finally had to get very snotty with someone and mention the name of the first maintenance person who was here for the thermostat to get switched out Monday night.]
Okay, well, that ends my trip report for days 1 & 2. Coming up when I get to it: The rest, which gets better. I mean, how can it not: It includes a hurricane!!
Kim