Two weekends ago we were booked into The Westin Nova Scotia. We booked this room more then two months ago and were REALLY looking forward to it. As it happened in between the time we made the booking and our date Aimee took a second job and ended up having to work on the Saturday, it certainly was not the end of the world but I think it was less enjoyable for both of us that Aimee couldn't be there until after 10pm. Aimee called the hotel to make sure that I could check in without her since the reservation was made on her card. They said it was fine and that check in started at 3pm.
So I started over on the bus around 2pm. It was not too bad really, it wasn't really raining yet and I didn't have to to wait to long for the connections. When I got there it was just about bang on 3pm. I was delighted of course when the doorman smiled at me and opened the door. Very nice touch. I love the decor of this place, walking in the lobby made me feel so posh. I went to the desk to register and was helped by a very nice (not hard on the eyes) young man. However I was very annoyed when he told me that our room would not be ready for an HOUR. An hour! The reason why we double checked the check in time was to avoid something like this.
Well all was not lost, I saw that they served Starbucks in their lounge and so I went over with Aimee's laptop and ordered myself a latte. Well let me tell you something. The sign says they serve Starbucks coffee and they have a little Starbucks sign but this is very misleading. The serve Starbucks coffee in the same way I can at home, you buy Starbucks brand coffee and brew it up. The girl who served me was snotty and the latte was just about one of the worst things I have ever tasted. She was no Starbucks Barista I can tell you that. Thank GOD for the wifi connection in the lounge of I would have been really pissed.
I passed an hour feeling a bit like a stranger in a strange land, it reminded me a wee bit of waiting in hostels or airports when I was younger but with the cynicism and fatigue of age.
At 4pm I went back up to the desk to inquire if our room was ready and the guy couldn't find one that was ready, until he looked up and saw the murderous glare in my eyes. Did I mention that this reservation was made TWO months ago? Well when the nice young man noticed I was getting pretty cross he magicked up a room.
I was looking forward to dropping into bed and sleeping for a while with no cats walking on my head. I figured Aimee and I would be up late gabbing so a nap would be a good idea.
I plugged the laptop into the internet provided in the room and was DISGUSTED to find that it was going to cost me $10.00 to get hooked up until check out the next day. $10!!! That is highway robbery! They have 310 rooms. If even half their guest use the internet hook up that is $1550 a DAY. How big is their Eastlink bill that they need to charge so much?
The room it's self was pretty.Good colours. Good use of the old architecture.
There were two good sized closets which would be great if you has stuff to hang. (Since I had such a tiny closet at the holiday in when Aimee and John got married this is something I now notice.)
One of the closets had a safe which I knew would tickle Aimee.
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The beds had lovely linens, I am a fan of good linen. No scratchy wool blankets, no ugly 80's bedspread. This is a big bonus for me. I like pretty things.
Speaking of pretty, we were on the back side of the hotel so we had a pretty kick ass view of the harbour and Georges Island, or would have if the fog had not been so dense.
There was a nice flat screen tv which of course I loved since I am a TV junkie in detox.
There was also a beautiful writing/computer desk. It was so cool because there were all kinds of plugs and inputs built into the front of the desk.
I love mod-cons! On the dresser/entertainment unit were a couple of $5.00 bottles of water. I love going through drawers at hotels. I guess I am on the look out for things people left behind. I have never found anything interesting. But this time in my hunting I found something really fun....
A MINI BAR!
I have never, in my memory, stayed in a hotel with a mini bar. I was trying to check it out, I mean I didn't really want a $20 bag of chips (okay I exaggerate a little) but I wanted to look. I turned the room upside down but I could not find the key. I certainly was not going to CALL down to have them send me a key so they could charge me $20 for a bag of chips. When Aimee arrived she did the whole thing over again and came to the same answer. So I hung out watching TV for a while (oh sweet TV I miss you so) then I realized I was hungry so I decided that rather then go out in the rain to Taj Mahal I would order in room service. I mean I have heard great things about the food here so I was pretty excited anyway. I should have braved the rain. While the food wasn't horrible it was certainly not good enough to warrant what I paid for a salad, burger, sweet potato fries and can of pop. The rest of the evening was split between the tv and drying off from the Christmas parade (that is a story for another day). The tub was nice, the water stayed hot and the bed was comfy. All good things. Then finally Aimee showed up. YAY!
She was flustered however because the whole parking lot for the hotel was full so she had to park, in the pouring rain, out on the street overnight and pray she did not get a ticket.She ordered dinner and I got dessert. Mmm. Aimee's dinner was a lot better then mine so now I know they CAN cook and my dessert was good although not what I was told I was getting.
Aimee and I spent the rest of the night howling with laughter at the names of the dirty movies and trying to decide if it was worth it to spend $12 to watch a regular movie. In the end $12 was just too much for a movie that I can probably already get on DVD for less.
Eventually we decided it was time to bunk down. When the TV we was off we noticed the strangest thing. We could hear really loud music coming fro somewhere. We checked the hall, nothing. We looked out the windows towards Electropolis, nothing. In the end we determined that we were RIGHT above one of the hotel ball rooms and there was a wedding going on. A very loud wedding. Which o course as a wedding guest I would love but when I am trying to sleep. Not so much. However eventually Aimee stopped chatting and the music went away and I drifted off to sleep. I even had a half decent rest, right up until the sun came up. See we had closed all the drapes in the room to block out the morning light but there was no drape in the bathroom which ordinarily would not have been a big deal but in this case the bathroom door was not solid wood it was glass so that bright morning light just came shinning in. Aimee and I were both solidly pissed at this.
The natural, unstoppable light at 7:30am
<========= evil! Breakfast came shortly after 8:30 and again the food was ok but certainly nothing to write home about and surely not worth what we paid for it.
After breakfast we went down to the pool. It was bathtub warm and had cool art deco architecture but there was no deep end which I found weird. The hot tub seats were oddly arranged so that you were either too deep or much too high out of the water and the surface of the tub was FILTHY. I was too grossed out and decided I couldn't stay so we got out. But of course there were no towels left. Figures so we dripped all the way back up to the room praying that no one would see us. We had lots of time to kill before check out but we just weren't feeling the vibe so we decided to check out early and do some shopping. The final slap in the face came when Aimee went to settle the bill and she had to pay $1.00 for a local phone call. ARE YOU SHITTING ME? I could not believe it. I was beyond grossed out at this blatant rip off.
The long and the short of it.... The Westin won't be on my list of places to stay in Halifax anytime soon! And that is sad for them because look how cool WE are!
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