Well, the travel blog proper starts here, so leaving NZ on Mother’s Day, and arriving in LA, still on Mother’s Day, should have been great for Paula. It was memorable, but great wouldn’t be the first words that come to mind. Nice for her to catch up with daughter Julie first thing in the morning (and I do mean first thing), as Julie arrived early as she had sold a 3 piece suite that had been clogging Paula’s dance practice area for a while. Once that had been shifted, we headed for our usual Garden Centre coffee stop early. Being Mother’s Day, they had over 300 bookings!
We managed a table OK and then headed for home, to do the last minute stuff – then back to the Garden Centre again for another coffee, to meet Paula’s number 1 son and his two charges. No wonder the takings drop when we are away.
From then on, all went to plan, with the Super Shuttle as reliable as ever, picking us up at spot on 6:20pm. Sunday evening, so a straightforward run to the airport, where the Air NZ check in was a breeze and great staff as usual. (My case was spot on the limit of 23kg, Paula’s 21.3… But mine had 2.5Kgs of Whittaker’s chocolate in it.)
Usual lounge and easy boarding and all went to plan again – until 9 hours into the flight. Paula didn’t feel at all well. Very nauseous. The cabin crew were fantastic and brought an oxygen bottle; arranged for a doctor passenger to have a word; constantly checked that she was OK and even arranged a wheelchair at LA.
That turned out to be a Godsend, as the queues at LA as usual were horrendous. A slight hiccup when Paula’s fingerprint failure at the Kiosk meant going to the ‘reject’ line, instead of the fast track we’d expected, having been through the USA on that passport in December. Fortunately, the wheelchair meant a faster exit and what a coincidence. The friendly immigration officer was the same one we’d had in December!!!! He confirmed that by checking the passport stamp. We were through quite quickly and picked up the luggage, only to join the other long queue to exit.
Patricia, the lovely wheelchair assistant took us right through to the hotel shuttle stop and we only had to wait three minutes before the Marriott shuttle arrived. Paula was already feeling a lot better after a good dose of fresh air. The driver heaved our cases on board and we walked to the rear of the shuttle – but he accelerated away rather briskly, before Paula was even seated, at the rear of the coach, but I just managed to stop her smacking her head on the rear!
But wait, there’s more!
I have now stayed at the Marriott LAX 4 times and every time, the staff have been marvellous. The hotel is undergoing a massive renovation at the moment, so Starbucks was closed. Easy check in and up to the 3rd floor. We took two steps into the rather dingy, pre-renovation room - and walked straight out again. This is supposed to be a smoke-free hotel, but the stench of stale cigarette smoke was all too obvious, so I left Paula there and went back to reception. The delightful receptionists was most apologetic and relocated us to a room on the 10th floor – which had been renovated. Woohoo!
But wait, there’s even more….
We opened the door to a bright, fresh room but as I dragged the cases in, I noticed what at first appeared to be carpet fluff (new carpet) at the bathroom doorway, It wasn’t fluff. A ceiling panel in the bathroom had collapsed, due to a water leak from upstairs and the bathroom floor was awash. Back down to reception again…
But wait, there’s yet more…
This time, the receptionist’s face dropped when I walked in - but she was busy with other guests, so Alex, the Concierge dealt with it. He too was very apologetic and after a bit of time on the telephone, sorted out a room on the 14th floor. PLUS access to their Concierge Club on the 16th floor, where they have free nibbles and non-alcoholic drinks from 5:30pm (plus beers and sprits at what looked to be good prices) and also have a complimentary breakfast in the morning, rather than the $25 breakfast in the restaurant.
Third time lucky, the room was freshly renovated and at last, we felt as though we were checked in properly.
We opted to spend a bit of time in the fresh air, down by the pool, then about 5:45, thought we’d check out the Concierge Club on level 16. This hasn’t yet been renovated, but the nibbles were excellent (the coffee machine had broken so it was pump pot coffee) but we had enough to keep us going, (we were rather taken with the prawns on a cauliflower puree…) before heading back to the room. Paula was feeling a lot better, but was happy to try and get more sleep, even though it was early.
I returned to reception yet again, to get a form for the Marriott reward’s club. Once again, Alex was brilliant as he signed me up there and then – though I still couldn’t access free Wi-Fi and wasn’t going to spent $12.95 either. (Thanks to son Stewart, he has got me on the phone using ‘WhatsApp’, but I removed the Sim card to make sure I’m not paying a fortune on data. I’m no Luddite, but haven’t hooked into the whole mobile ‘phone thing, but WhatsApp may just change things a wee bit.
So, day 1 was a bit of a mixed bag, but hopefully, things will be much smoother from now on.
It wouldn't be a true green holiday without drama 😀
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