Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Spend Now, Save Later

I was on holiday last week in sunny Florida.

It was lovely.

And relaxing.

And soaked in Bud Light Lime, rum, chocolate and hummus.

The drive to Florida was a long one so we decided to break up the trip by spending the night in downtown Atlanta, proving once and for all that sometimes, the neurons are not firing correctly.

I picked the Marriott Residence Inn because we could get a one bedroom suite at a reasonable price and I had a bunch of Marriott Reward cards that needed to be used. The biggest challenge for Dallas and I in our travels with my children is the whole hotel room situation.

My husband has a beautiful rear end. Magnificent, actually. But no matter how much I enjoy admiring his nether region while he wanders around in his boxers, there are two other pairs of eyes to think about. For step-dads, the rules are different and shared hotel rooms pose some unique challenges. Hence, the decision to stay at a Residence property, which tantalized with offers of two room privacy for the price of one.

Whatever. It sucked.

Parking at hotel: $21.00
Hotel room: $150.00
Dinner at cool downtown tappas restaurant: $150.00 (Gulp)
Bottle of chlorinated tap water: $4.50
Shitty, uncomfortable queen size bed: $100 future chiropractor visit
Shitty, uncomfortable pull-out couch which children shared: Whine, fight, whine, cry, whine, fight, threats of bodily harm from parental unit, angry, fight whispers and then blessed sleep. Not worth it. I promise.
Forgetting Wii Fit in hotel room (because we were afraid to leave it in the car because we were in downtown Atlanta, don't you know) where it promptly grew legs and vanished when housekeeping was called from the road several hours later: $100.00
Starbucks one block from hotel and open at 5:00am: Umm...priceless. It was the one good thing in a sea of bad.

Easy come, easy go, right?

On the way home, we elected to get two hotel rooms with an adjoining door. The kids' room had two double beds so when Olivia began kicking like a bull steer, Dylan slumbering in his own bed, was blissfully unaware. Dallas and I luxuriated in a king size bed so when he turned over to sprawl in the middle of the night, he didn't body slam me like a punk in a mosh pit. We spent about $200 total and they even threw in free, potable, surprisingly good coffee in the morning.

I consider our accommodations on the way home to be the bargain of the century.

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3 comments:

Helen said...

Hotel rooms in general are an invitation to family deaths. I love my children dearly, but after walking down the hall in my bathing suit soaking wet, while carrying at least one child, and then being forced to sleep in the same room with them? Someone is going to be threatened, if not whispered at cruelly!

Blog Deleted said...

"The drive to Florida was a long one so we decided to break up the trip by spending the night in downtown Atlanta, proving once and for all that sometimes, the neurons are not firing correctly."

Best.
Line.
Ever.

Been there. Done that. Learned the lesson got the t-shirt. xoR

Holly said...

Oh. Good. God.

Hotels are a rip off 99% of the time. Seriously.

Then the staff literally rips you off when you are too flustered to think straight and forget something in your room. They are supposed to bonded, or so I thought. My Dad lost a very old, very special watch in the very same manner. I've hated hotels ever since. But, we've gotten a few back with a violently ill child that had projectile vomiting SO bad, that I doubt there was a clean spot in the room when it was all over. :-P to them.