home again home again

Wow, did that "Comfort" Hotel wind up SUCKING ANAL CAVITIES. We lasted until Tuesday there before we just couldn't take it anymore. Advice to anyone reading this: avoid Comfort Hotel Airport North (near the western edge of Toronto) . I was ready to do inappropriate things to the general manager with my cane by the time I walked out the door, even tho he had comped our entire stay at that point (which only happened because he was stupid enough to deal with a customer he already knew was dissatisfied in the lobby during check-in when other customers were right there, instead of having enough braincells to realize that talking to someone who is pissed off is better done OUT of the earshot and visual range of people about to give you money. Duh, you have an office with a door on it for a reason, moron. Give me an audience that I know will increase my chances of getting my way and I'm GOING to make a scene as it's the fastest way to get out of there.).

The hotel chain's policy is that if they can't improve a situation that is their fault (such as the room having no AC, and the first of four rooms with two beds each that I could find that WASN'T like sitting on a trampoline - out of 8 beds, ONE had a box spring in good enough condition to not to continue bouncing for 30 seconds if I sat on the side of the bed - one bed out of 8, and the room it was in the AC didn't work... it was cool enough at night with the window open but we had to vacate the room by about 10am or suffer in a sauna, we wound up wandering a mall 2 days in a row to try to let Liam spend some energy before going to elderly auntie's house). Saturday the front desk morons (who couldn't figure out how to get extra pillows without help from housekeeping who wouldn't be back until morning, mind you) promised me that the AC would be fixed on Sunday. Sunday evening, AC still not working and no sign anyone had even been in the room. Complaint, offer to switch rooms yet again (yeah, after the hassle of getting the kids set up in the rooms to begin with - I'd unpacked and settled into that room on the promise that the AC would be fixed! Del's co-sleeper is a PAIN to set up with getting the security strap between the matress and box spring). They promised it'd be fixed Monday. Monday night was a repeat of Sunday - didn't even look like anyone had been in the room, AC still not working. They promised it'd be fixed Tuesday (and still didn't offer to comp the room per their own policy). I checked with the front desk girl on Monday at noon, she said she'd just spoken to the repair guy and he was on his way. The last straw was they had posted that there was hallway renovation going on for the 3 floors above us (which I ASKED meant noise for where we were since I'd specifically requested a QUIET area for the children when I made the reservation), then without warning they were hammering on the wall NEXT TO THE DOOR OF OUR SUITE while we were trying to get Liam to take a nap. Garvin complained, I waited a little bit then pulled out the video camera (it'll be on YouTube soon, I promise) and filmed the jerks working in the hallway right outside our door then took the camera down and showed the front desk lady to ask if that fit her definition of a "quiet room"... she told me the GM had ALREADY TOLD THEM they couldn't work on that floor since the guests hadn't been warned. I went back upstairs and the people doing the work had heard no such thing (and were also using words I'd rather not have my 3yo start repeating, such as calling each other "retard" - I'd actually rather he says "shit" and "damn" than "retard" given our family's history and where my mom works). We left a little before 3pm.

Oh, and top that off with the fact that the pool and hot tub advertised were closed until sometime Monday (we got there Saturday).

The housekeeper was lovely though, a very considerate lady with a Jamaican melodic accent I could have listened to for an hour happily.

When sleeping on an old full-sized sofabed mattress on the floor is preferable to staying two more nights in a hotel room, you know it's bad, right?

Contrast that with the Sheridan in downtown Toronto, where our beds were actually smaller (the Discomfort Hotel had 2 queen sized beds, Sheridan was 2 fulls), not actually any more comfortable aside from not being trampoline impersonators, but the staff was WONDERFUL. Every single person in any way connected with the hotel was a absolute pleasure to deal with, from the bellmen to the registration people to the servers. Absolutely fantastic service (though significantly more expensive, especially when you add in the $35/day parking - but it's downtown Toronto where parking is horrendous and connected via ACed underground to the biggest tourist attraction in the city - Eaton Centre - so not a big suprise). I wish I could afford to stay there when we're in Toronto visiting family, tho it's horribly inconvenient to where Garvin's family lives - it's only about 15 miles away but takes 45min to drive when traffic is minimal, which isn't the case during most of the day. Two of Garvin's extended family members have offered to let us stay with them in the future (which I wish Garvin had ignored his mother and asked in the first place instead of winding up staying with someone in an emergency situation instead), including the family that put us up while there, so hopefully we won't have a repeat of this with another hotel anyway. Last time we were up there, family members/friends (can't keep relations straight on his side sometimes) lived in the next building over from the Auntie G's parents were staying with and their building had a "guest suite" that we stayed in with Liam but they've since moved, unfortunately. Basically it's hotel-like rooms in the same building as their condo, complete with the other amenities found at most hotels such as a business centre and concierge service.

The conference was amazing (though spending 3 hours per day with Garvin in transit for childcare really dampered it for us, I'm strongly encouraging HPEF to try to find a way to facilitate on-site childcare for future conferences, even if it's just pointing parents to an online forum area for them to make their own arrangements for care-sharing or whatever). Steve Vander Ark's presentations were worth the cost of admission alone to me (we went to all 4 hours he presented and video recorded them thankfully because there is no way the audio will capture the majority of the presentation - he's a very kinetic speaker). Other presentations were wonderful too and I got to meet a lot of interesting people (and my screenname was recognized by a few even tho I've been absent from online fandom for the better part of a year now). Oh, and Ali who I made the Chudley Cannons stuff for was there WEARING IT!!! That was totally cool to see my creations being worn by someone I'd only corresponded with online. We literally kept bumping into her (bapping her with the borrowed wheelchair when we turned around several times). We bought the audio recordings of all the presentations because there were so many that we either couldn't get to because they were at the same time as others, or that were so good we wanted to be able to hear them again (as well as being able to share some of this information with church folks so they can get an idea of what I'd like to see us accomplish on a smaller scale - I really think Symposiums are the UU equivalent of the standard "cultural festival" hosted by other churches like the Greek Orthodox ones). Now I just gotta find out what Steve's speaker fee would be.... ;) I *think* he said he's in Grand Rapids, MI which Google thinks is a 4.5hr drive...

Plotting plotting...

Oh, and I got my HP personal fansite "decorated" finally before heading up to Toronto... I'm trying to sepearate it out from my real life/mommy stuff so people who aren't really all that interested in my HP fanaticism don't get inundated with it so much here (tho this is my primary blog so it'll still be here, sorry ;) )... if you want to see more of my Potterheadedness and read my fics, head over to www.astartesfire.com for links to those.