I won’t bore you with all of the details but I’ve had a rough start to this adventure. I packed the van and hit the highway around 1pm. I was about 10 miles from home when I realized I had left my garment bag in my bedroom! So I had to turn around and get it and start all over again. I arrived at the Renaissance Hotel in Orlando and there was a problem with my Paypal debit card so I had to give them my personal debit card until I could get it straightened out.
My room is nice though I was surprised that for an upscale hotel there is no refrigerator in the room, only a cooler. The in-room internet is $14.95 a day but it is free in the lobby so…I am in the lobby. Also, in my opinion it is crazy to charge $12 a day to park your car at the hotel!! Anyway, I checked my Paypal stuff while I was in the lobby and there is plenty of money in the account, thanks to my sponsor Hotels Combined. The problem is they were adding $150 more to the bill than it is supposed to be! I went to the check-in desk and I was informed that it is standard policy at high-end hotels to put an extra $50 a night in the hold they put on your credit card, to cover any incidentals you charge to your room. Hmmm, I guess I stay in the affordable, family friendly hotels because I have never had this happen before. I explained that I wasn’t going to charge anything to the room and I didn’t have the $150 in either account to cover this. After a lot of the desk clerk insisting and me offering to go pack my bags and find another hotel to stay in, he said he would see if he could omit the $150 from the hold. He said he would talk to his superior and there would be a message on my phone later telling me the outcome. Fun!
I haven’t hooked up with any of my friends because most of them went to Howl-O-Scream tonight. I went to Friendly’s for dinner and now I am sitting near a waterfall in the hotel lobby writing.
The event kicks off tomorrow morning over at Ports of Call at SeaWorld. I’ll be updating here when I can but I will definitely be updating my Whrrl Story so keep checking in there!
I’m sure it will get better….I will keep reading! I’ve had that happened to me before btw, when I’ve gone for training s for work, its not like I was being paid enough to stay at swanky hotels on my own…I was so young too…I didn’t have any credit cards for them to put it on the first time…so I had to call my manager so she could put that deposit on her card. I have to say though, despite this I loved staying in a hotel at that time!