It's 8:20 am and I'm supposed to be sleeping in, but here I am typing away to let off some steam. Why do I need to let off steam, you ask? Because I was supposed to have three days of "rest and relaxation" but have yet to experience that. And it's only the second day!
So my friend and I reserved this weekend to pamper ourselves at the Silverado Resort and Spa for the weekend. We arrived two hours before check in time so that we can explore the resort, enjoy the pool, maybe sit in the jacuzzi for half an hour before our first spa appointment. HA. That, apparantly was too much to ask for.
2pm: We check in at the resort and everything is going well. They assign us to a standard, cozy king-size bedroom. There's a phone, a tv, a mini-bar and wireless internet--what else could we want? So I had my laptop with me to aid us in looking up directions and finding things to do around Napa. Who needs to prepare weeks beforehand when you can look things up on the spot? That's what a laptop and INTERNET is for, right? Well, when we tried to connect my laptop to the wireless network, there was absolutely no signal (no available networks). After calling the front desk and the internet provider, both of whom were no help, we decided to take my laptop for a little walking expedition since the Resort boasted that we could even access the internet at poolside.
2:30pm: Okay, so lugging my 10 lb laptop to the pool, we were able to get it to recognize that there is a wireless network available but the signal was still too weak to connect to it. So then we lugged my laptop to the "Mansion", the place where we first checked-in and tried getting a wireless signal there. Lo and behold it worked! Excellent strength and everything! But before we decided to pay for the $9.99/24 hour internet usage, we wanted to see if we could change rooms so that we were located closer to the Mansion because it seemed that the closer we were to the Mansion, the better the wireless signal.
2:45pm: Being the accommodating Resort, the nice, blond lady at the front desk tells us that Room 499 is available. But before we agree to change rooms, we lug my laptop to where Room 499 is located to check the wireless signal. A full four bars, which is great! So just to be sure, we walk around the area to make sure the wireless signal was still strong, and it was. We walk back and tell the nice blond lady that we do want to switch rooms and we'll take Room 499. But oh no, she gives us the keys to Room 451. We figure it's in the area of 499 so we take all our things out of Room 799 and move into Room 451.
3:15 pm: Upon arriving at Room 451, we realize they gave us a Suite instead of a Standard room. There was a separate living room, a kitchen and a bedroom. We thought they gave us a free upgrade and were very excited about it. But then we thought maybe they thought that we wanted a
bigger room instead of a room with better a wireless signal. Not wanting to go through the drama of having to argue with the Manager over the higher charges for the room, we call the front desk and ask the blond lady if she assigned us the Suite on purpose. She thought we were assigned to a Suite earlier so therefore she gave us another Suite. We asked if we would get charged more, and she said yes. So then we asked to get a Standard room and wait for her to call us back and give us another room, Room 431, and a bell boy comes by a few minutes later to give us the room key.
3:45 pm: We see the bellboy drive up and run out to meet him and grab the keys and then walked around in a circle to find Room 431. We saw the room, but we didn't see a real door. So we circled the building in an attempt to find a real door (Room 431 had one of those patio doors that slides instead of opening like a real door). As soon as we figured out there was no real door, we walk towards the sliding door, with key in hand, to attempt to open it. You won't believe what happened next. Another bellboy was opening the door to Room 431 and helping two other guests with their luggage. They were going into Room 431. And it didn't look like they were gonna go out. So we asked the bellboy if that was indeed Room 431. He agreed and we cried "NOOOO!!"
4:00 pm: The bellboy took our bags and gave us a ride back to the Mansion, where we hunt down the blond lady and inform her that someone already checked into Room 431
as we got there. She apologized and went to investigate why that happened. Something about a computer system switching over, some laughing in the back, and the blond lady assigned us to yet another room, room #4, Room #498. The bellboy helps us with our luggage and gives us a ride to Room 498. It's located upstairs and we follow the bellboy as he's carrying our luggage to our room. To all of our surprise, my friend, the bellboy and I, Room 498 was in no livable condition because it wasn't cleaned yet. My friend and I were about ready to kill someone. The bellboy calls the front desk, tells them what happened and adds that they should assign us the presidential suite for the troubles we've gone through. No such thing happened.
4:15 pm: The blond lady calls back and tells the bellboy to take us to our fifth room, #444. So we all hop back into the golf cart and ride on over to #444, where we tell the bellboy to check the room first because we didn't feel like getting off for no reason. He tells us the room is decent and looks fine. We give the room glance over and agree that it's fine, mainly because we had a 5pm spa appointment and we had to be there a half hour early. So we throw our things in the room but the bellboy tells us that he has to go to the front desk to grab our room keys so we had to wait for him to return. About ten minutes later, he returns with the keys so we can lock our patio door and he whisks us to the spa. We got there at 4:30 but we were so not relaxed.
Our first spa treatment for the weekend was decent. My 50 minute facial sure wasn't worth the $120 price, and my friend's deep tissue massage worth the price either. However, we had a great dinner at a tapas restaurant in town and enjoyed Harry Potter 4 (it skipped so many chapters that everything seemed to happen so quickly!).
Upon waking up this morning, I realized that I didn't have my running shoes. As I was re-tracing my steps, I realized that I had left my sneakers in the closet of Room #799, the first room we were in. Of course these things only happen to me.
Chilling Out
