Just Got Back From Vegas

Last night Veronica and I returned from our adventures in Las Vegas. Overall we had a great time and I will be making blog entries about our journeys in Sin City as the days go by. I took lots of photos to share with you too.
When we left here, we went to Williamsburg for a 2 night stay at the Crowne Plaza Hotel at 6945 Pocahontas Trail, Williamsburg, VA 23185.
We were offered a 2 night complimentary stay at this hotel due to some issues that were previously reported in an earlier written blog entry.
Our stay this time was really nice. The front desk managers, Sam and Leslie, were really friendly and helpful.
Sam even offered us both a complimentary breakfast coupon.
During our stay, we found the staff to be very friendly and helpful, the room to be spacious and well maintained and the breakfast to be very good.
Our room was in the "Quiet Zone"...a hallway of rooms that were in an area that was kid free, alarm clock free and specially designated for those who wanted an additional amount of noise free sleeping.
They even had a wake up call guarantee in this area...if they did not give you a wake up call at the time you requested, your stay in the room was free. They even had a door and a sign letting you know that you were entering a special quiet area of the hotel.
Our stay was completely opposite compared to what we had encountered during our previous visit.
During our visit, this hotel lived up to the high levels expected from hotel displaying  the Crowne Plaza  brand logo.
A special "thank you" to everyone involved in making our stay a very enjoyable and positive experience.

Below are photos of our room in the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Williamsburg, VA



Vegas Bound

We are in the last stages of getting everything ready for our trip to Vegas. I still have to do some last minute cleaning, do a little wash and pack the car up.
We will be heading to Williamsburg for a day before we catch our early morning flight out of Newport News on Sunday morning.
I have our "house sitter" coming over later on this afternoon, before we head out of here.
The projected weather for Las Vegas is for the highs to be in the mid to upper 60s and sunny throughout our visit there. Sounds like we will have great weather and warm enough for me to pack up a few short sleeve shirts.
I will make sure that I return will many photos of our adventures to Sin City.

Crowne Plaza At Fort Magruder In Williamsburg, VA followup

Veronica and I had taken a long weekend break and went to Williamsburg, VA to visit Colonial Williamsburg and the surrounding area.
We stayed at the Crowne Plaza at Ft. Magruder in the Williamsburg, VA area.
Here is a link to that blog post about our hotel stay at the Crowne Plaza at Fort Magruder 
After leaving honest reviews at several web sites and also making contact with personnel at the hotel itself and corporate headquarters, we received a reply back.
Veronica had sent an email to someone at the hotel itself and told them that based on the sub par quality of our room, she felt that Crowne Plaza owed us a 2 night stay at the hotel in a much higher quality room.
Veronica received a telephone call from someone at the hotel. After discussing the issues that we encountered during our last stay, we were offered a 2 night stay for free. Veronica is supposed to contact this young lady, when we are interested in staying there again and that she would make sure that we received a high quality room for that stay.
I will make a blog entry  about our stay at the Crowne Plaza along with posting photos of our upgraded room there.
We haven't decided when we will return there. We are thinking that we might stay for a couple of nights before we head out to Las Vegas.
Veronica and I have decided to return to Las Vegas in February and we are flying out of Newport News.
Williamsburg is just up the road from Newport News, so we could take advantage of the 2 free nights that lead up to the date of our early morning flight.
I have signed up for many different fare and hotel alerts that I receive as email.
In one of those alerts, MGM had a special for the Monte Carlo, which is right on the strip.
I was able to get a 350 square foot Deluxe room in the Monte Carlo for around $36 a night plus they give us a discount coupon booklet for various things.
We will be staying for 5 nights.
It will be nice to return to Las Vegas and see some of the sites that we missed last time.
This time around, I won't be slowed down by any foot problems like I had last time.

Followup On Our Crowne Plaza Debacle

After having a full day to digest our most recent stay at the Crowne Plaza in Williamsburg, VA, I found myself rather irritated with the overall situation and the totally sub standard room that we stayed in, while we were at the aforementioned Crown Plaza.

I partly blame Priceline for their ridiculous rating system that truly misrepresents the quality of the hotels that they are rating. I can't for complete certainty say that this is true in all of the hotels that Priceline has rated but I can honestly say with certainty that this was the case with the Crowne Plaza in Williamsburg, VA.

The rest of the blame falls on the shoulders of the InterContinental Hotels Group PLC

From what I understand, and I might be wrong here....This hotel has paid for and has some sort of licensing agreement with the aforementioned entity and has the right to use the Crowne Plaza name on their property.

If the InterContinental Hotels Group PLC does not already do so, they should check and have someone to personally review and check out the properties and condition of all aspects of the properties that they are allowing to use the Crowne Plaza name.

If I were the owner of a different Crowne Plaza hotel, one that takes pride in their property and pride in carrying the Crowne Plaza Hotel name and logo, I would be really angry at the owner and those who are in charge of this lowly Crowne Plaza Hotel in Williamsburg, VA.

This hotel is representing the Crowne Plaza name, the overall brand and the level of quality that is associated with that name and unfortunately representing it in a very poor fashion.

The paying customer that stays at this hotel, will surely leave the property thinking that this property represents what they can expect from any and all Crowne Plaza properties.

Corporate personnel from the InterContinental Hotels Group PLC should visit this property and see for themselves the quality and level of this property and decide if they really need those licensing fees versus the low quality product that is being offered to the paying public while carrying the Crowne Plaza brand name.

I feel that The lobby might be satisfactory and the property might be sprawling but the room we had and the service that we received, or should I say didn't receive, was really pathetic at best. 

When the manager takes a complaint via room to front desk phone and does not even write the issue down on a list that they keep, and also tells me that someone will be up shortly to take care of the issue....2 1/2 hours later we are still awaiting the arrival of hotel personnel to take care of a television issue...there is a problem.

Couple this type of service with the really poor condition that our room was, lack of basics in our room upon arrival...such as any bars of bath/hand soap, lack of proper cleaning of the room on the following day, and what you end up with is a really sub par hotel and definitely not one that should carry a 3 star rating by neither Priceline nor any one else that is supposedly doing a reliable, trustworthy and competent rating system.

 I have decided to post some more of the photos that I took of our room.

For those of you that are planning or will be going to the Williamsburg/Colonial Williamsburg, VA area, do yourself a favor....spend your hard earned money at any other accommodations that are in the area but  don't waste your time nor hard earned money at the Crowne Plaza Williamsburg at Ft. Magruder, 6945 Pocahontas Trail. Williamsburg, VA 23185

Lastly....We were unable to get changed to a different room due to the fact that this hotel was all booked up dud to the William & Mary Homecoming weekend and football game. Followup review will also be posted on TripAdvisor.

Our sink was not cleaned at all the next day...we were their for 2 nights

Photos showing poor condition that this room and the furniture in the room is in, For more phots, please see blog entry just prior to this one.