My Only Hotel Review

We stayed at the Surfer Beach Hotel.

This is the best part of the hotel:

It is right on the boardwalk at Mission Beach.

Which totally counts for something.

Plus the beds were clean and comfortable... once they finally found one for us to sleep in.

We arrived after being in the car for 8 hours (counting stops) with 5 kids.

Five.

They gave us keys to our rooms and off we went to unload our gear 

and let the little monsters loose on the beach.

But, when I opened the door to my room, it only had one bed.

One.

For me and my 3 kids.

So, back to the office I went.

Where I explained to them that I called and spoke to someone in their office 

earlier that week to confirm my room.

The man nicely listened to my explanation 

and then silently stared at the computer screen for 10 minutes.

While I was holding my resistant 3 year olds hand after being in the car for 8 hours.

Eventually he told me that there was no solution.

There were no other rooms.

They gave away my room.

Strike one.

They did offer a cot.

Awesome.

Whatever.

And a promise to move us to the right room right next door to our cousins 

the next night and for the rest of our trip.

So we change into our swim suits and I reach over to call the front desk 

to ask where we can find pool towels.

I quickly realized that the phone wasn't working.

I went to more closely examine the phone and I realize there was no phone cord.

Or phone jack.

Anywhere in the room.

All righty.

I called the front desk from my cell phone,

explained my phone problem and asked where I could find pool towels.

Towels?

For the pool?

Um... all of our towels are dirty.

All of them?

Yes.

In the entire hotel?

Yes.

Check back in an hour and we should have some.

I'll just go to the other room and grab some.

Insert key (for the first time).

It doesn't work.

Back to the front desk with the same 3 year old who is still all done holding my hand.

I get into my mother-in-laws room and there is 1 towel.

For the double bed room.

One towel.

Who cares!

Let's go to the beach.

Later that night I bought some basic groceries and went to put the milk in the mini fridge.

It is barely cold enough to keep my milk safely chilled.

But we'll make it work with some ice (there was some!)

from the ice bin.

Finally, the kids are all asleep and I want to take a nice relaxing hot shower.

I turn it full blast to H.

Which I presume stands for hot.

Right?

Ice cold water.

I'll let it warm up for a bit.

5 minutes later?

Ice cold.

This is a good time to note that there are no bath tubs for sandy beach kids.

Anywho.

Everything has been kind of backwards so far, so maybe if I put the lever to cold?

A few minutes later there is some luke warm water.

Never mind.

The next morning (Zoo day!) we piled all the things from both rooms into one so that our incorrect room could be cleaned and our new perfect sized room be prepared for us.

On the way home from the zoo, 

I called to be sure that our room was ready.

Indeed!

Hooray!

Our room was clean and ready.

But not next door to our cousins.

So, I walked with my 3 year old to the front desk to get my room key.

Walked to the room and

yes.

yes again.

The key does not work.

I called the front desk from my cell phone.

Can someone please bring me a proper key

 so I don't need to drag all of my children back to the front desk?

No.  So sorry.

I am the only person working.

In the entire hotel.

Okay.

Back to the front desk.

2 new keys.

One key works!!  

One does not.

As I open the door I prepare for the wrong room,

but am pleasantly surprised to find 2 beds!

I step across the doorway directly into a puddle.

Of water.

Streaming from the mini fridge.

I open said fridge and find leftover Outback food (gross!)

and 2 beers.

After throwing it outside

I head to the bathroom to get a towel to sop up the mess.

There is a single towel. 

One towel.

So, I use it.

And call the front desk and tell him to close his office and bring me a pile of towels.

Which he actually did!

I double checked the settings on the fridge and realized someone turned it off so it was defrosting.

So, I turned it back on and stuffed my perishables in the fridge.

The next morning I grabbed the milk to pour into my kid's cereal bowls and realized it was frozen solid.

Of course!

Of course it was!!

Trying to stay ahead of the curve,

I called early in the day to request towels for the pool / beach.

There were 3.

I couldn't make this up.

3 towels available in the entire hotel.

I walked back to the lobby and snatched those valuable towels right up.

After a truly spectacular morning at the beach and a lounging afternoon by the pool,

we headed out to get dinner.

When we returned, there was a plumber in my room.

Roto-rootering my sink.

Apparently this was preventative because the neighbor's room had a toilet overflow.

Relatively speaking, I felt lucky.

Real lucky.

So this sums up my experience at the Surfer Beach Hotel.

Good name.

Stellar location.

And... that's about it.

Cheers!