CHAPTER NINE - THE END....AND MORE WATER
When we came rolling back into the hotel room last night, late night, after unknown quantities of Fat Tuesday drinks and with eighteen cents left (at least in my pocket), we opened the door to the room (at least it was shut this time) to find that housekeeping had not been in the room all day long. Bed unmade. Nothing cleaned at all.
This is the kind of thing that makes me crazy, because, A) they are not exactly giving these rooms away for free and B) I am one of those people always arguing on the tipping threads that you should always tip housekeeping.....and I always do. Our housekeeping had been tipped five bucks a day so far, and then one day, they left our door wide open, and the next day, they didn't clean it at all. Hey, maybe there was a connection here. Maybe they didn't clean it because we complained that they left the door open.
Hmmmmmm........
I got on the phone.
"Front desk, can I help you?"
"Yeah, um, sorry to bother you, but we just got back after being out all day, and housekeeping didn't clean the room."
"OH, I'm sorry sir, but are you sure you didn't leave the 'do not disturb' sign on?"
"Very sure. But we did leave five dollars on the desk which the housekeeper would have had if they had cleaned the room."
"I'm sorry Sir, but they always clean every room. The only reason they would not have cleaned your room ios if the 'do not disturb' sign was on it."
"But I'm sure it was not left on. I do have a theory, though. Yesterday when we got back, our door was wide open. Since we called to complain, maybe the housekeeper got in trouble and decided not to clean our room at all?"
"Oh, I'm sure that's not the case. But would you like me to send someone up to service the room?"
"It's 2 in the morning."
"Oh, well-------"
"But you know, speaking of which, do you think we could get a late checkout?"
They gave us a 1PM checkout. Fine.
By 2:30, we were tucked away in bed. The infant next door did not start howling until 3:30, so at least we had one good sleeping hour.
The next day, Sunday of Labor Day weekend, we took advantage of the late checkout and slept wayyyyyy in (once the infant stopped screeching), and got out the door at just a little before 1:00. Our flight was at 6:45 PM, and we had been planning on checking out the Buffalo Wing Festival, but they had been advertising it all week long like crazy, and we had a feeling it would be undoable.
So what to do instead? Let's go look at more water!
See that big mob of people way down there that look like ants? Those are people trying to come back from the Maid of the Mist boat ride that we went on day one, when Niagara was deserted and it was a walk on. In order to get back from the boat ride, you have to line up and take an elevator back up to basically where I was taking this picture. That's a good hour long wait just to leave the ride, and you don't even want to see the line to get on the boat. You don't want to see it, right? Well I hope not, because I didn't take one, but it was Galaxy's Edge long.
Hey, here's Phil with water! Again!
Buddy with water! Again!
Phil and Buddy with water! Hey Phil, get off my back!
And leave it to us to locate the one and only bar in Niagara State Park!
And it's time to leave!
We got to the airport way earlier than we expected, and there was the shortest security line I had ever seen - we basically walked right through.
We had a bunch of time to kill, so we decided to go to the Buffalo Airport outpost of the Anchor Bar - you remember - they claim to have invented chicken wings.
Those things at the end of the table are fried green beans, which I didn't think we were entitled to after this week, but they were yummmmmmmmmm. Something that is both good for you and bad for you at the same time.
Phil opted for a bunch of wings with various sauces, and I tried to be good and had a very boring turkey sandwich.
Well, time to go! Bye, Niagara. We hardly knew ya!
The next time you see this Philmonster, he will be sitting in an airport on his way to WDW!
And we still had a good half hour before the plane was going to be called, so I decided to take that time to get a Niagara last-cap and thank all of you awesome people for reading this endless report, even though it didn't have anything to do with Disney. I appreciate all the likes and the great comments, because when I read them to Philmonster, it always makes his head pop off and roll all over the floor. And that's always a ton of fun.
I guess I will keep this thread active, and then if things go according to plan, I'll add the Disney World report to it in February. I'm waiting for a resort discount to hopefully be announced, and then I'm booking, dammit.
. Hoping for Riviera, but Wilderness Lodge is also a possibility. I know there is no slow season anymore, but if anyone has any advice on weeks to consider and weeks to avoid around that time, I'm always very grateful to hear it.
In the meantime, happy Halloween, happy Thanksgiving, happy Hanukkah, happy Rosh Hashanah, happy Kwanzaa, merry Christmas, happy New Year, and happy anything I'm forgetting! And see you soon!
Cheers! (dancing again)
Thanks again for reading.
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