20180523 – STL TO NYC: It was an interesting and eventful day. Andy got us around 10 AM and we went to airport and checked in. Flight was way ahead of schedule in landing … perhaps by as much as 30 minutes. What we didn’t know at that point was where to meet the limo driver. We thought he would come to where we got baggage, but found out later he could not. Seems as if about two days ago they changed the rules for limo pickups so that one had to walk and walk and walk to a garage where they all were. Our driver found us outside and led us on the walk as we dragged our luggage behind us. Then it was about two hours to get from LGA into near our hotel. And driver got mixed up as to which hotel and dropped us off at the Hilton Times Square instead of the Hilton Garden Inn Times Square Central. We went to the front desk there where they could, obviously, not find our reservation. Oh, wrong hotel. With luggage behind us, we walked the two blocks on crowded 42nd Street to the correct hotel.
It’s an odd place. The lobby, such as it is, is on the 4th floor. Small, to say the least. Got checked in but I was expecting my new credit card from AMEX and it was not there. Up to the room. Tried to log in to Wi-Fi and that didn’t work. Tried to call front desk, but it just kept ringing with no answer. Went downstairs and found nice manager who gave me another way to get onto the Wi-Fi and looked, to no avail, for my credit card UPS package.
Back in the room and on the Internet, UPS said my card had come here about 9 AM. After talking with AMEX and UPS, I went down to the manager again, showed him the UPS messages. Ah, found out that someone with the name shown as accepting the UPS package worked here downstairs. Manager called her at home. Yes, she had it in her desk and why she didn’t take it upstairs to the front desk when it came in is a mystery. Manager retrieved it and I had my new credit card. Limo service got back to me apologizing and giving me a credit on my bill.
Whew. Can’t find driver. Dropped off at wrong hotel and had to traipse through the crowds to right one. No credit card (we thought) delivered to hotel. Could not contact front desk without going down there. Hard time getting on Internet. Found credit card. Got credit from limo company. And this is just the first day!
About 6:30 we walked down 42nd Street to Lexington and then uptown to 50th (about a mile walk) for dinner at National Bar and Bar and Dining Rooms (Zacharian restaurant) for a great dinner and wine. Fun waiter. Much better humor for our walk back to the hotel. Marian hit the sack early while I fooled around getting credit card updates to vendors and such.
Share this post
