Thursday, The Ides of March:

For those of you who follow me on Facebook you will have already seen my rant about Embassy Suites but here it is again with updates.

Every year for about 16 years my two girlfriends, Yvonne Wake and Jennifer Wesselius, go to Mariner Spring Training in Phoenix. I usually make all the arrangements from hotel to car to tickets to researching restaurants. I also do the driving with Yvonne as my copilot.

I made the arrangements in December. The Embassy Suites hotel that we stayed at for years is no longer a hotel, as of last year, so we stayed at another one in the Scottsdale area. This year we decided to try the one closer to downtown, the Biltmore.

Jennifer is a chair user so we need an accessible room preferably with a roll in shower. There have always been issues at Embassy Suites with making sure we get the right room and sometimes have to settle for one with a shower chair.

On Wednesday morning I received an email from Embassy Suites saying I could go online and check in. That was a first but I did so and saw the room number but no indication it was an accessible room, so I called to confirm. The woman who answered asked if she could put me on hold and told me she was new. She came back on and said, “Yes, the reservation is for an accessible room.” I thanked her and hung up.

About three minutes later the phone rang and it said Embassy Suites, so I answered. The woman said she had checked with her manager and that the room I had reserved was not available as they only had one (!) and there was someone in it until the 24th. After I sputtered and asked how that could be, she said sorry but the room was taken. I hung up. No, I did not yell or swear or anything but I was in disbelief and PISSED!

It was the day before our arrival and during Spring Training when the areas around Phoenix are packed with baseball fans and we had no room. There had been no offer of helping me find another room or other hotels or anything. I was in a state of shock.

I looked at my confirmation and it even stated that the room type was guaranteed, unless something happens out of the control of the hotel. Well, screwing up a reservation certainly seems to be within the scope of the hotel’s responsibility. The least they could have done was notified me. We would have shown up at 10:30 at night after the game with no accessible room.

After taking a few deep breaths, I got online and started looking for accessible rooms again. I called one and they had one but no roll in shower and no hideabed. There are three of us so Jennifer and I usually share a bed and Yvonne takes the hideabed.

I then remembered I had sent an email to Jenn and Yvonne with a couple other options back in December so I found that and checked online the first one on that list, Gainey Suites in Scottsdale. Yes, it showed they had one. It was also about $150 more a night but at that point I was desperate.

I called to verify and the guy that answered the phone was not very customer service friendly. I had looked online first and it said there was an accessible room available and he confirmed it. I explained the situation and verified it had with a roll in shower, two queens and a hideabed. He verified that it did. Great! And the price was $359 a night which was not too much more than the Embassy Suites. I booked it and got an emailed confirmation. Crisis averted.

Since our first game on Thursday was a night game, we could take a later flight. We usually had to take the earliest flight to make a day game so this was a nice change, especially for Jenn who lives in Woodinville. Jenn got to airport first and went to Ivar’s for lunch. Yvonne and I caught up with her there.

Usually, we are boarded first since she has to have an aisle chair with assistants to get on the plane and into her seat. Well, we were a bit late to the boarding area and they had already started boarding the rear of the plane. We were towards the back so before calling the next group for boarding they halted everything and took us onboard. I was giving her a hard time about messing up their on time statistics but we left the gate early and took off.

It is about a 2 hour and 20 minute flight to Phoenix and all was well until we were about 30 minutes out. The turbulence started and got extremely bad by the time we were landing. I have only experienced that rough of a ride once before and that was in a little 11 seat plane flying from Wyoming into Denver. But, we made it okay.

I always get off and head straight to the shuttle for the rental cars since Jenn is last to leave the airplane and Yvonne sticks with her. They get all the luggage and meet me outside.

I am a Hertz Gold member so they now have you pick any car you want in the Gold area. We need a larger car for all our luggage and Jenn’s chair so I went around and checked trunk size and found a Ford Taurus with an enormous trunk. It was nice and roomy inside too. I picked them up and we were able to fit all our luggage and Jenn’s chair in the trunk. We usually have to put it in the backseat next to her.

We went straight to the game against the Oakland A’s at Hohokam Statdium since it was already after 5:00 and the game was at 7:05. Our friend, Anne Sollars, has been working in Tempe for the last couple of weeks and had gotten a ticket and was meeting us at the game.

We were all hungry so got the Asian noodles that they make in these huge woks over propane burners. It was okay but a bit scorched tasting and smelling to me.

We were along the third base line and the usher was from Seattle and quite chatty and warned us to watch for foul balls. Of course, every time one of the balls was hit our way we were chatting and didn’t see it coming. One hit a chair two rows in front of us but no one was hurt. Scared us all though.

Pregame warmups

Yvonne, Anne, and I. Jenn was chatting with someone her mom knew so she didn’t get in on the selfie.

The score was 2 -1 one, with Mariners ahead, when the bases were loaded and Taylor Motter came up to bat. He sailed one over the left field fence for a Grand Slam. I could just hear Dave Niehaus calling, “Get out the rye bread and mustard, Grandma, it’s Grand Salami time!” I am not sure I have ever witnessed one in real life at the ball park.

We had a great time and did lots of laughing. If you ever want to have some fun, Google Funny Baseball Player Names. We almost lost control over some of those.

By the time we got to the hotel it was after 10:30. I went in to check in and she found my reservation and I asked if it was an accessible room, she said, “No.” My stomach dropped and my heart beat started going up right away. Then she said, “But we have one available.” I told her it was a good thing since I would have had a melt down if one wasn’t available.

(I mean, come on now,we are in Phoenix which is probably 90% elderly and almost everyone has a disable parking hanger in their car or on their license plate so you would think they could get their reservations correct! I don’t know what else I can do.)

The main room was a little smaller but the furnishings were nicer and it has a full kitchen. Not that we will probably be doing any cooking but the option is there. Plus, the fridge has filtered water and ice dispenser so we won’t need to buy as much bottled water and the water is awful down here.

There is a breakfast each day and a happy hour each night. Breakfast was crowded but pretty decent. They kept things well supplied and there was a nice variety. So far, so good with this hotel.

I am going to ask to speak to the manager but will wait until Monday morning before we leave. I want to see what I can do to guarantee that we get an accessible room to stay for next year and also let her know about the gentleman who made our reservation not getting it input correctly.

Yvonne and Jennifer not happy with me for taking a picture Pre-shower.

Well, off to Texas Ranger stadium in Surprise today. Not a favorite place for us because the traffic getting in and out can be awful, plus it is about 40 miles away so we will be a long time getting home in Friday night traffic.