Oof - parking is a hot mess at the Dolphin today. When we checked in this morning, we were told that the normal self parking lot is currently taken up by an event tent, so they’re using one of the valet lots for self parking and they have an attendant sitting there to let guests in. We drove to AK late this afternoon and returned around 8pm to have the parking attendant tell us that self parking had no spaces available and that we could either valet (at the usual cost) or park at the Swan Reserve for free. We decided to drive to the Swan Reserve, where the attendant told us that parking is never free there and he had no idea why the attendant at the Dolphin would have told us that.
We heard two more cars of guests telling the Swan Reserve attendant that the Dolphin attendant had just told them the same thing. I drove back to the Dolphin, went to the valet lane, explained what we just experienced and asked for the car to be valeted at no additional cost to what we already paid for parking. I was told to drive down to the valet lot where a manager would let me in to self-park. After sitting at the gate for 15 minutes, I drove back and told the same valet attendant that no one showed up. He grabbed a manager who was standing right there, and that gentleman walked down immediately and told me to meet him there, where he let me into the lot. They assured me that all parking charges will be removed from my bill so I’ll be checking to verify that tomorrow, but with this being the first time we’ve ever stayed here, and after leaving Poly CL this morning where we had a wonderful stay, this definitely soured my experience and I’m not sure we’ll give it another try.
