{"id":516,"date":"2011-03-24T09:42:41","date_gmt":"2011-03-24T16:42:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rayivey.com\/wordpress\/?p=516"},"modified":"2011-04-05T11:58:38","modified_gmt":"2011-04-05T18:58:38","slug":"spring-forward-day-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rayivey.com\/wordpress\/spring-forward-day-4\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"rss\"<\/a>\"instagram\"<\/a>

Cleveland<\/h2>\n

Note to the manager who was working at Zocaro Mexican Grill on the evening of March 15:\u00a0 When I complain about a disappointing entree which was very misleadingly described on the menu and your response is a lame shrug and a feeble, “sorry, ” please understand that you are losing me as a customer.<\/p>\n

I ordered the Carne Guisada, which was described as a “Mexican pot roast cooked with root vegetables.”\u00a0 What I got was a big bowl of stew that was mostly rice, potatoes and a few chunks of tasteless beef.<\/p>\n

\"I<\/a>
I try to find Mexican food wherever I travel. I don't always manage to find good Mexican food.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To be completely fair, I looked up “carne guisada” and it does seem to be known as a stew, but the menu never said stew and never said rice.\u00a0 I’m on a low carb diet and so all I could do was pick at the tiny pieces of meat, which meant I was done with my dinner in less than five minutes.\u00a0 Honestly, rice AND potatoes in the same dish?\u00a0 A dish that’s called “carne” anything?<\/p>\n

It’s a shame, Mr. Manager, because I’m here in Cleveland for three weeks, I love Mexican food and I’m my hotel is right around the corner from your restaurant.\u00a0 You made absolutely no effort to have me leave your restaurant happy.<\/p>\n

Well, at least I have the Mexican Food requirement taken care of for Cleveland.\u00a0 Bleh.<\/p>\n

\/\/\/<\/p>\n

Maybe I was just in a grumpy mood yesterday.\u00a0 Not sure why.\u00a0 Physically I have been feeling less than 100% since I got to Cleveland.\u00a0 I hope it\u2019s just standard jet lag.\u00a0 I\u2019m always paranoid that my anemia would come back, and I never want to feel like that again, particularly when I am traveling.<\/p>\n

I also had much trouble sleeping last night, finding that I was feeling quite anxious.\u00a0 Not sure why.\u00a0 Things are going swimmingly.<\/p>\n

I think I\u2019m probably just a little galled by the prospect of this huge 12 week trip, including the recent addition of the exciting but not a little scary destination of Moscow.\u00a0 There are some hoops we have to jump through to get me there (you actually have to have a visa to go to Russia), and maybe I\u2019m just a little scared.\u00a0 That\u2019s okay.<\/p>\n

\/\/\/<\/p>\n

More good news today:\u00a0 I don\u2019t have to hotel-hop like I was afraid I\u2019d have to this weekend.\u00a0 When I was booking my hotel for the three week Cleveland stay, the hotel I wanted to be in couldn\u2019t accommodate me for the entire three weeks.\u00a0 Something silly about March Madness or something.\u00a0 So, since I am a maniac and I really wanted to restore my Gold Elite status with my hotel brand, I set up a musical-chairs parade of hopping back and forth from one hotel to another one which is not my brand.<\/p>\n

Then a curious thing happened.\u00a0 When I checked in on Sunday, the cheery front desk clerk welcomed me as a Gold Elite member.\u00a0 I almost corrected her but checked myself.\u00a0 Sure, if she thinks I\u2019m Gold Elite, I\u2019ll take it<\/em>.<\/p>\n

As soon as I got to my room I checked out my membership information on the hotel chain\u2019s website and saw to my delight that I was indeed now a Gold Elite member.\u00a0 This was mysterious, because not two weeks before when I checked I still lacked about 30 days to get back to Gold level.<\/p>\n

I noticed something curious on the record.\u00a0 There was a notation of \u201c18 bonus nights.\u201d\u00a0 Bonus nights?\u00a0 Further investigation revealed that these mystery bonus nights had been granted by the hotel I stayed in while in Atlanta last October when I was there for the Client.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"We<\/a>
We love Gold Elite Status!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This hotel happened to be the worst hotel in the chain I\u2019d ever stayed in.\u00a0 The staff was clueless and incompetent, and a couple of nights before I left, a maid stole money from my room.\u00a0 I threw a fit, and was not at all happy about how the general manager handled the situation.<\/p>\n

So . . . .it appears the manager bestowed these 18 bonus nights on me to make up for the incident.\u00a0 Well, that\u2019s nice.\u00a0 I\u2019ll take it.\u00a0 But 18 is not 30.\u00a0 I\u2019m still a bit confused as to how I made it back to Gold Elite status.\u00a0 But it\u2019s a Quality Problem.\u00a0 Now I\u2019m working hard on keeping Gold for this year with my sights on achieving Platinum!<\/p>\n

Gold Membership Benefits that you Don\u2019t Get With Merely Silver Level<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  • 25% bonus on rewards points per night of stay<\/li>\n
  • Free internet<\/li>\n
  • Free breakfast<\/li>\n
  • Free local phone, fax<\/li>\n
  • Free room upgrade if possible<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    \u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

    The free internet perk is a valuable one, because not all hotels in the chain offer it for free.\u00a0 Ditto breakfast.\u00a0 But by far the sweetest benefit is the free room upgrade.\u00a0 This can have tremendous results if you get lucky with it.\u00a0 When I went to BlizzCon in 2008 I had a huge two floor, two-bathroom suite in Anaheim for $87.<\/p>\n

    Average Rating: 4.9<\/span> out of 5<\/span> based on 283<\/span> user reviews.<\/span><\/div><\/p>

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