highlander447
<font color=green>It's a dirty job but someones go
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2003
- Messages
- 3,389
Thursday 18th Hot Air Balloon Trip Vow Renewal & Cabana
The Cast: Me 30 something total planner for holiday
DW 30 something likes a quiet life
DD 13 going on 21 total poser has an answer for everything
DS 10 nearly 11 loves soccer and winding us up
I awoke about 4.30 am got up and showered woke DW up at 4.45 pm then kids at 5 am we where being picked up by our pilot at 5.30 am the weather forecast today was clear & sunny temps up near the 80s we where all excited so the tiredness left pretty quickly, Don our pilot was spot on time we drove to Perkins for coffee and to meet up with other pilots and guests like ourselves then it was off to the take off spot it was interesting to watch them setting off little balloons to see the direction of the wind at the field we where taking off from there was about 10 balloons going up we helped set the balloon up never realised how big these balloons where and the basket looks so small the take off is so smooth no noise apart from the burner at times to keep balloon up in air the flight was amazing when we where up in the air Don began renewing our vows we had our own words to say to each other it had to keep on being interrupted as Don had to make sure Balloon kept away from power lines etc but it was nice and well worth doing the landing though was rough we got caught by a gust of wind so we basically crash landed no one was hurt but we where shaken after the trip tables where set up and we had a champagne picnic breakfast Don also presented us each with Champagne flute glass engraved with a Hot air Balloon and each a flight certificate he also promised to had into our hotel a vow renewal certificate and some photos he took on the balloon of us (he did this and delivered them later on ) while on drive back to our hotel, Don had a diary which he asked if we would fill in with our thoughts on the trip a nice touch the diary was full of previous testaments from previous customers in my opinion it was $500 well spent Dons a pretty nice guy and very helpful I had communicated with him by e-mail for a year arranging this trip and he never let us down, when we got back to the hotel a message was waiting for us confirming our Cabana rental at HRH we changed and headed over to HRH first impression of HRH was very nice looking hotel, we found our way to the pool and waited at the towel area it took 10 minutes before we saw any staff they directed us to the gym I paid for the cabana here and went to our cabana it was no 10 which I would highly recommend as the best cabana its the biggest and a good location, when we got there we didnt have our two floats so off we went to the towel girl again we had to convince her we didnt have the floats that took 10 minutes ( the service at HRH needs a lesson on customer service) the kids loved playing in the pool and the floats, they where filming right outside our cabana today for the Nick choice awards they kept on eyeing our cabana and our nice big sun desk chairs but I think my look conveyed the answer before they asked the question we ordered lunch via the telephone in our cabana very neat we also called concierge to get in touch with Tchoup Tchoup as we had a reservation for 7.30 pm we had decided to postpone this if possible to another night as we thought due to the early rise we just wouldnt enjoy it as much we got a reservation for next Tuesday at 9 pm, the lunch was pretty good 1 Chix Queso/loaded nachos chicken & wings 1 large Bud the kids and DW used the drinks we got in our fridge total $42.07, now this may seem stupid of me but I tipped our server $10 for delivering well above 15 % I did this with out realising 15 % already added to bill was not pleased at this at all no where were u advised of this charge I dont grudge tipping the 15% but twice I do also when I asked for our free refill of our fridge was told sorry we dont offer that I pointed out that they do as its themed and u get a refill for your fridge it took 45 minutes to get this refill we also got an apology but seriously how about better training for staff later in afternoon me & DD went to emacks for ice cream $12 3 cups they all agreed they loved the ice cream and plenty of flavours, the kids went on the slide so that they would get filmed by the crew, early evening me and DW had 2 love potions $18 after service charge we also decided as the kids where enjoying themselves to order some food for night in cabana this is where it gets bad we sent the food back twice as they got the order wrong twice then rather than BBQ wing we got hot wings not good for kids also the fries where absolutely freezing these where taken off our bill and manager of beach club came over to apologise because by now our server realised that he had a very angry Jock to deal with now and Shrek aint got nothing on me he apologised and offered free drinks but to be honest I told we didnt want a freebie we just wanted good service we left vowing never to return although I have to admit up until that point it had been a good day we returned to RPR and thought how lucky we are as the staff here at least know there jobs, we exchanged suprise gifts with each other although my wife totally out did me this time before we had came on holiday i had got her a new eternity ring so on holiday i had bought her spidey pjs and a big cat in the cat stuffed toy my wife presented me with a watch but this watch had been my grand pas who gave it to me on my 16th birthday as mine but it got broke after a couple of years but I still kept it as my grandpa had passed away not long after giving the watch my wife knew how much this meant to me and she had arranged to have it fixed I was flabbergasted it was a great gift and a beautiful thought then my second suprise was that the watch maker who fixed it advised us to get it insured as it is worth £5000 it turned out my grandpa actually had passed on a family heirloom to me just goes to show how old thing go up in value, kids finished evening watching TV but asleep by 9 pm we soon followed after a nice glass of wine, overall a great day not going to let any one spoil it
Tomorrow is shopping day Belz
Oh and by the way every time I went into the HRH pool the music was off although my kids assured me it was on when they went under there was also a DJ at the HRH pool doing fun & games from 6pm onwards he was good its just that basic level service is missing at a hotel of HRH calibre is unacceptable
The Cast: Me 30 something total planner for holiday
DW 30 something likes a quiet life
DD 13 going on 21 total poser has an answer for everything
DS 10 nearly 11 loves soccer and winding us up
I awoke about 4.30 am got up and showered woke DW up at 4.45 pm then kids at 5 am we where being picked up by our pilot at 5.30 am the weather forecast today was clear & sunny temps up near the 80s we where all excited so the tiredness left pretty quickly, Don our pilot was spot on time we drove to Perkins for coffee and to meet up with other pilots and guests like ourselves then it was off to the take off spot it was interesting to watch them setting off little balloons to see the direction of the wind at the field we where taking off from there was about 10 balloons going up we helped set the balloon up never realised how big these balloons where and the basket looks so small the take off is so smooth no noise apart from the burner at times to keep balloon up in air the flight was amazing when we where up in the air Don began renewing our vows we had our own words to say to each other it had to keep on being interrupted as Don had to make sure Balloon kept away from power lines etc but it was nice and well worth doing the landing though was rough we got caught by a gust of wind so we basically crash landed no one was hurt but we where shaken after the trip tables where set up and we had a champagne picnic breakfast Don also presented us each with Champagne flute glass engraved with a Hot air Balloon and each a flight certificate he also promised to had into our hotel a vow renewal certificate and some photos he took on the balloon of us (he did this and delivered them later on ) while on drive back to our hotel, Don had a diary which he asked if we would fill in with our thoughts on the trip a nice touch the diary was full of previous testaments from previous customers in my opinion it was $500 well spent Dons a pretty nice guy and very helpful I had communicated with him by e-mail for a year arranging this trip and he never let us down, when we got back to the hotel a message was waiting for us confirming our Cabana rental at HRH we changed and headed over to HRH first impression of HRH was very nice looking hotel, we found our way to the pool and waited at the towel area it took 10 minutes before we saw any staff they directed us to the gym I paid for the cabana here and went to our cabana it was no 10 which I would highly recommend as the best cabana its the biggest and a good location, when we got there we didnt have our two floats so off we went to the towel girl again we had to convince her we didnt have the floats that took 10 minutes ( the service at HRH needs a lesson on customer service) the kids loved playing in the pool and the floats, they where filming right outside our cabana today for the Nick choice awards they kept on eyeing our cabana and our nice big sun desk chairs but I think my look conveyed the answer before they asked the question we ordered lunch via the telephone in our cabana very neat we also called concierge to get in touch with Tchoup Tchoup as we had a reservation for 7.30 pm we had decided to postpone this if possible to another night as we thought due to the early rise we just wouldnt enjoy it as much we got a reservation for next Tuesday at 9 pm, the lunch was pretty good 1 Chix Queso/loaded nachos chicken & wings 1 large Bud the kids and DW used the drinks we got in our fridge total $42.07, now this may seem stupid of me but I tipped our server $10 for delivering well above 15 % I did this with out realising 15 % already added to bill was not pleased at this at all no where were u advised of this charge I dont grudge tipping the 15% but twice I do also when I asked for our free refill of our fridge was told sorry we dont offer that I pointed out that they do as its themed and u get a refill for your fridge it took 45 minutes to get this refill we also got an apology but seriously how about better training for staff later in afternoon me & DD went to emacks for ice cream $12 3 cups they all agreed they loved the ice cream and plenty of flavours, the kids went on the slide so that they would get filmed by the crew, early evening me and DW had 2 love potions $18 after service charge we also decided as the kids where enjoying themselves to order some food for night in cabana this is where it gets bad we sent the food back twice as they got the order wrong twice then rather than BBQ wing we got hot wings not good for kids also the fries where absolutely freezing these where taken off our bill and manager of beach club came over to apologise because by now our server realised that he had a very angry Jock to deal with now and Shrek aint got nothing on me he apologised and offered free drinks but to be honest I told we didnt want a freebie we just wanted good service we left vowing never to return although I have to admit up until that point it had been a good day we returned to RPR and thought how lucky we are as the staff here at least know there jobs, we exchanged suprise gifts with each other although my wife totally out did me this time before we had came on holiday i had got her a new eternity ring so on holiday i had bought her spidey pjs and a big cat in the cat stuffed toy my wife presented me with a watch but this watch had been my grand pas who gave it to me on my 16th birthday as mine but it got broke after a couple of years but I still kept it as my grandpa had passed away not long after giving the watch my wife knew how much this meant to me and she had arranged to have it fixed I was flabbergasted it was a great gift and a beautiful thought then my second suprise was that the watch maker who fixed it advised us to get it insured as it is worth £5000 it turned out my grandpa actually had passed on a family heirloom to me just goes to show how old thing go up in value, kids finished evening watching TV but asleep by 9 pm we soon followed after a nice glass of wine, overall a great day not going to let any one spoil it
Tomorrow is shopping day Belz
Oh and by the way every time I went into the HRH pool the music was off although my kids assured me it was on when they went under there was also a DJ at the HRH pool doing fun & games from 6pm onwards he was good its just that basic level service is missing at a hotel of HRH calibre is unacceptable
