However..............
It is time for a hotel review. We started staying at Ocean Dunes back in 1997. Back then they were a sponsor of the Retired Military Classic tournament. It is a nice area, and at the time they were perfect. Over the years the property declined. The conditions on Memorial Day weekend with the Bike Fest people finally got so bad we found Royal Garden in Garden City and started staying there. It is a lovely place and has everything we need.
Ocean Dunes has a new owner now and changes and improvements are being made. I've been getting their emails and ads and snail mail telling about all of them. Then they ran a special to "come and see". We were in need of a little cabin fever get-away so we thought we'd try them. We were disappointed.
We booked a room with two queen size beds in the hotel. The "Try us!" $59 per night rate was for the first night only. Then it went up the second night and went up again for any additional nights. A $300 deposit was required. Booo!
The next issue was no one on duty at the front desk when we got there. Evidently they aren't scheduling people to be on duty all the time. We had to walk over to the other desk in the Sands building. So, we finally got to our room on the second floor - I had requested a higher floor, but didn't feel like arguing that point. The room was clean and had a fresh coat of paint everywhere. The bathroom had been re-done. It looked nice at first glance.
Then the issues were discovered. There was no closet, not even any hooks anywhere to hang anything. The dresser was small, and with no place to hang anything, it was not big enough. If there had been one of those folding stands to put a suitcase on, I would have used that, but we didn't have one of those either. There was no place to sit and relax, read, or visit unless we sat on small hard-backed wooden chairs that were at a small round table. There were no safety bars in the bathroom. Nothing at all to hold onto getting in and out of the shower. Safety issue!
Housekeeping was a joke. Golfer and I are neat people and I usually spread up the beds when we get up in the morning anyway, but the service was sad. The trash was taken out every day, but the floor was never swept once. The bathroom was not cleaned. I had to ask for towels one day. And on that subject, when did it become the "thing" for hotels to not furnish hand towels????
Various new shops and places to eat on site were advertised, but none were open. Work was being done in the outdoor pool area and noisy jackhammers were in use a LOT.
So, as I said, we were disappointed in the hotel experience. We had a wonderful time and enjoyed ourselves, but I doubt we will be returning to Ocean Dunes any time in the near future.
And to end this review on a silly note, here is some advice. Start packing your own soap. We started doing that several years ago so we were okay, but I just had to show you this:
The "bar" of bath soap is just about 3/16" thick. The label says "made with vegetable oil". It was like trying to wash your hands with a wad of Crisco. (sorry, Crisco)
Stay safe and God Bless America!
No comments:
Post a Comment