HIFS Report

[HolidayRose]

We're just back from HIFS. According to their television channel at the hotel, they're going to remodel the kids' rooms with new Nickelodeon themes, enlarge the game room, install a slide and basketball hoops and add PS2s. Also, for those of you going soon, they give free game tokens at the front desk for answering Nickelodeon trivia questions. Some days the kids got 4 tokens; some days they received 26. The amount of tokens was unrelated to the questions answered. It seemed more dependent on who was working the front desk at the time. We noted no construction taking place now. The tv channel says the completion date will be 2004, but it must be pretty late because things are the same as ever now.

That being said, everything was clean. Security was omnipresent in the parking lots. Entertainment was fun for the kids. Remember to sign up for the Holiday Inn Priorty Club before you go. It costs nothing, and you receive a certificate for free popcorn and two 20 ounce coke products on check-in. Also, because we were returning guests, they upgraded us to pool view for free, and gave us a coupon for a free medium pizza.

The weather was great---mid 60s to mid 70s. It was so much nicer being somewhat cold in the mornings than sweltering all day like we had in the past. I had a wool jacket and wore gloves and a scarf in the morning and stripped them off in the afternoon. I was comfortable. The pool was warm enough for the kids to swim in, but I didn't so I'm not sure how warm it really was. I know that they went swimming in 50 degree weather. However, we went to a dinner at Bomas and there was steam coming off their pool but not the one at HIFS.

I am willing to answer any questions you may have.

 

[momofdbsdc]

Sounds like a great time! We are planning on going back in September! Thanks for sharing!!!

Kim

 

[kessieann]

Thanks for the update on the construction. We arrive on Jan. 23 and I have been a little concerened about what we would find. I had e-mailed HIFS and they said most of the work will be starting after we leave.

Did you eat at Club Car? Any thoughts on that? Any problems with noise with your room by the pool?

Glad you had fun-we can't wait!

 

[HolidayRose]

We only ate breakfast at the Club Car. It was fine; nothing fancy, but of course it is free. Every day they have scrambled eggs, canned pears or peaches, canned fruit cocktail, oatmeal, cream of wheat, dry cereal, bagels, english muffins, bread and probably other things I'm forgetting--oh yeah, jello, pink pudding or yogurt. They alternate breakfast meats so you have either ham, bacon or sausage. They also alternate pancakes and french toast. Each day they have either little donuts or blueberry muffins. Our favorite morning was when they had bacon, blueberry muffins and french toast! Seriously, there was much speculation of a morning as to what the meat would be, and sincerely expressed hopes that it wouldn't be ham.

We stayed in room 826 which had a jungle or rainforest theme---I'm not sure which. It was on the second floor, at the shallow end of the pool. We experienced absolutely no noise from the pool, although there really weren't too many people swimming anyway. Last year we stayed on the bottom floor in the same building on the pool side in September and weren't bothered by the noise either. We don't usually go to bed until after 11 when the pool closes though, and my kids are too old for naps. As a matter of fact, the only noise that bothered us last year was that of people conversing while walking by; with the second floor room we didn't get that. I believe the air conditioning/heating unit noise drowns out a lot of the outdoor sounds.