At The Long Beach Coast Hotel

[Astronomer]

Don’t you just love Wi-fi?

Work up this morning about 3:45 and could not sleep, we had spent all day yesterday packing and making sure everything was as ready as we could make it. I had not got the chance to take a copy of my passport and drivers license, itinerary etc to my brothers house as I usually do on a long vacation, but we had so much time this morning I decided to just ru that by on our way out of town.

Of course it was 4am and Moondance was still asleep, I was like that kid in the Disneyland commercial, “I’m too excited to sleep”. I decided to go ahead and put all the suitcases in the car, this was no small feat as we are terrible over-packers. We each have a large suitcase, and then we each also have a large rolling duffle suitcase, and then of course the large garment bag, and a carry-on loaded with cameras, and wine, Not to mention Moondances extra large straw purse, and the laptop case.

Of course I could not have done this if Moondance had not had everything so prepared the night before. So by the time she woke up around 5:45, it only took about 20 min for us to clean up and check everything and be on our way, our adventure had finally started at last.

Dropped the envelope off at my brothers and headed out for the 6 hour drive to Long beach. We traded off driving so that each of us could relax and close our eyes for a bit, it was amazing how fast we got to the LA basin, it helped that we have a fairly powerful SUV also. Coming into LA one thing was tremendously noticeable. Smog, it was worse than I remembered it, still we didn’t let that dampen our spirits, in very short order we arrived at the exit for the Queen Mary ( which is the same exit for the Long Beach Coast hotel )t in its parking lot was some kind of Cajun festival, lots and lots of people, and booths and police directing traffic. Very congested, but it looked very festive.

The Long Beach Coast hotel was lovely when we pulled in, we were way too early, it was around 12:45 pm when we walked up to the registration counter, I really didn’t expect a room to be ready for us, I asked that we be placed on the south side and it an upper floor with a balcony in the direction of the Pride dock, the manager said it was no problem at all, and if we came back in an hour they would have everything ready.

The parking lot was really packed, we had to park at the far end of the hotel parking lot. No big deal though. We decided to take a walk, we walked to the Queen Mary, on the way there we started to notice that 2 out of 3 people walking on that side walk were walking in the same direction we were and all had prominent tattoos and piercing, several colored Mohawks were also seen including on elementary school age children.

We passed the Cajun festival thinking that was where the painted guests were going, it was a very lively festival with music and lots of food, but no the kept passing it by heading in the direction of the queen.

When we reached the Queen we were almost laughing, by now there were literally hundreds of people ( both sexes and children ) mostly tattooed and quite a few full body tattoos milling about. Sure enough between the Queen Mary and the Pride dock was yet another festival of motorcycles body art and piercing. I let Moondance know that I would gladly pay for her to get a tattoo of “Hooter” somewhere prominently….. she declined.

So that was why all the parking lots where filled to overflowing and just crowds of people, not only that but at the Coast hotel there was not 1 but 2 outdoor weddings preparing to be preformed that afternoon.

The Queen Mary was just stunning and a marvelous piece of history, we did not do any tours of her, but did enjoy walking along the dock beside her. The bay along here was just gorgeous, lots of boats, sail and power, one 3 masted sailing vessel that was just spectacular powered by.

We returned to the hotel at about 2:00pm and asked if our room was ready, the person that was working the counter had left, we were told that the room had already been assigned to someone else but that regular check in was at 3pm and they were sure to have what we wanted ready then. I was slightly annoyed but decided not to let it bother me.

We came back at 3 after having a beer in the beautiful outdoor part of the restaurant. We were told that a suitable room would be ready in another 15 min and to please return to the desk then. Quite a ling was forming and I was starting to get annoyed at doing what they asked me to do and still not having a room.

I returned in 15 min, waited in the line again ( watching others receive keys ) and was informed that they had a room for us, and gave me the room number but that it would be another 10 min before it was ready.

We sat on the couch again and waited another 10 min, and then another 15 waiting in the line again. When we got to the counter again, we were informed that the room that they were preparing for us had been given to another party.

I had enough, I didn’t get irate, but informed them that this was starting to get annoying, and that I understood how busy they were, but I had booked this room some 6 months ago, and wanted to know if they were going to honor the reservation.

The manager stepped up and told me rather sternly that it was not the receptionists fault, I let her know that I knew it was not her fault, but that the situation was indeed becoming annoying. She started to say something else but I cut her off and let her know that I would be pleased to wait right there at the registration desk until the next suitable room was ready. Her eyes got quite large as I politely smiled and made no move to leave as I waited for the next 15 min.

I can imagine with 2 weddings coming in the last thing they needed was me taking up counter space, but I really didn’t want to go through the “We gave your room away” speech again.

The manager looked down at her computer and whispered something to the receptionist and we were immediately upgraded to what they call a mini-suite ( it is still just one large room, but it is a very nice room ).

One last glitch, when getting to the room the key didn’t work, back to the counter and another wait in line for them to fix that mistake.

So around 4:30 we got into our room at last. On the plus side the room is very nice, the balcony is lovely, and the room service food I just finished was delicious, and I do realize that with all that was going on they were in quite a state down there. I still feel justified deciding to make sure something happened, particularly as I did not raise my voice or appear angry, just a bit annoyed.

Enough with the bad stuff, for all of this I would still recommend this hotel, it is quite lovely and is positioned perfectly for awaiting a Cruise. I seriously doubt it is as unorganized as I found it, that HAD to be because of the festivals and a duo of wedding.

The Queen Mary just let out a loud blast of her horn, Moondance is grinning from ear to ear.

Moondance and I are going to take a relaxing evening and try to get a good nights sleep tonight.

We are still just as happy as can be, we weren’t about to let this small glitch mess anything up for us.

Tomorrow… The Pride :D

[kcscrapper]

I feel like I "know" both of you from your prelude and preface to a cruise posts -- and I am just unsanely happy for you to be boarding tomorrow!

[ladycaveat]

We'll be staying on the Queen Mary before our cruise next January . . . sure hope we don't encounter the problems you did at the Coast Hotel!

[phroggie]

Coming into LA one thing was tremendously noticeable. Smog, it was worse than I remembered it, still we didn’t let that dampen our spirits,

 

?????? There was smog today???????:confused:

 

No wonder it didn't dampen your sprits. The official rating for today's air quality was moderate.

 

Have a great time and I'll be watching Carnival Pride dock tomorrow. Wave to the webcam when you sail.:D

 

Say "Hi!" to Homer and Imade who serve in the forward starboard corner of the upper level of the Normandy Dining Room and to Poppy who serves drinks.

[Wennfred]

Wifi rocks in that hotel, we have it booked for Sept again, We loved staying there last Oct. For those going there, make sure you try the Calamari there at the Reef Resturant, its the best Calamari I have ever had.

 

Also I hope you enjoyed the view of the fireworks over the Queen Mary around 9pm last night. If you booked the Park and Sail package you have a breakfast buffet too, its pretty good.

 

Look for the Pride as she starts to dock around 5:45 to 5:55am

 

Have a wonderful cruise !!!

 

Fred