In short, what a waste of money. 🙁
Short story long, my dad and Linda mentioned they were coming down to visit, so my first thought was that we’d be able to go out! I was excited about something as simple as dinner and a movie…but apparently Tom had other visions.
I thought maybe we could do the dinner/movie thing or something like bowling with friends from his work (that we had fun with at the USMC ball), so he passed on the idea of a night out…and they came back with some huge party at a local hotel that would have cost over $500.
Um, no. Sorry.
I told him as much and he was upset about it because he apparently REALLY wanted to do something and since he had been the instigator for the idea, he felt he had to go. I again told him we were not spending $500 on NYE (that’s half a cruise!). He eventually cut out the hotel stay and dinner part of the event, which cut costs considerably—although it was still too much for me. But I gave in.
The tickets did include an open bar, which was a good thing…except we had just done that at the ball in November and I really wasn’t in the mood to do it again so soon, if you catch my drift. I mean, sure, I didn’t HAVE to drink, but with an $89 ticket I certainly would want to get my money’s worth (because I certainly wasn’t paying $89 to dance or for a veggie tray and chicken fingers—the “food” that was included). I also didn’t want to drink enough to require calling a cab to get home.
We pull up to the hotel so Tom could drop me off and see that there is valet parking which we (of course) didn’t need, but come to find out it was MANDATORY valet parking. For $10. I was pissed—no where in ANY of the ticket or event information did they mention mandatory valet parking. What a ripoff. We had both happened to throw some money in our pockets before we left, so we did have the money…but I was tempted to tell them where to put it. >:XX
So, we weren’t even inside yet and I was pissed off. Not a good start to the night. So right inside the door we had to show ID. Then Tom had to show ID to get the tickets. Then we both had to show ID to get the wristbands. I swear it was more security than at the airport. It was annoying, but not terrible.
So the last section was the coat check. I said I didn’t need to check my coat and they told me it was a mandatory coat check. I literally said “YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME.” Turns out they missed the fact that we were going up to our friends’ room and were going to leave the coat there.
But that was another obstacle—we didn’t have the necessary wrist bands to go upstairs! Only people who were staying the night were allowed upstairs. WHAT? SERIOUSLY? But apparently the front desk wasn’t clued into this, because Tom had just gone over and gotten the room number where we were headed—and they said nothing about needing wrist bands. So the security guy in front of the elevators was giving us shit, then after some back-and-forth with Tom, finally said “Just go on up, I’ll pretend I didn’t see anything.” 🙄 Whatever.
So we go upstairs and see signs that there are to be no personal parties in the rooms (which is funny, because the promos for the event made a big deal about how “all the suites overlook the dance floor/party area”—what’s the point if you can’t be up there?) and once in our friends’ room, they told us they were almost frisked for alcohol before being allowed up with their bags because the hotel DID NOT WANT partying in the rooms. It’s not like they would be cheating the hotel out of paying for alcohol, since every single person there had bought a ticket allowing them access to the open bar. Totally asinine.
So at 9 we headed downstairs and the main bar was sooooooooo slow (and it really wasn’t even busy yet) but there was a sign that Red Bull was $5. We were all like “I thought it was an open bar?” Oh, open except for Red Bull (which is of course what I had wanted to drink). At that point, I had had it with the evening and was ready to go home. Seriously. With the crazy stupid security, the mandatory valet parking, the mandatory coat check, the strict room rules, and now the Red Bull cost? >:XX I was seriously tempted to just keep asking for drinks and dumping them out, telling them it would be much cheaper to just give me a damn Red Bull (which, seriously, costs maybe $1.50/can).
Oh, and there was nowhere at all to sit—all the tables were VIP only (meaning you had to buy the space) so we knew we’d be standing the entire evening. Again, something that was never mentioned anywhere in the promos. >:XX So we all headed off into a side room where at least the bar service was a little faster, but the music sucked, so we pretty much just stood around. Then it started getting crowded. Other side rooms had other music, but nothing any better than the first room we were in. By this point the main room was so crowded it was a pain walking through it to get anywhere. The music on the dance floor sucked, too. I don’t think I recognized two songs the entire time we were standing there (probably two hours total of the night). And the clientele was scary—lots of skanky/trashy/whorish looking girls in stripper clothes and shoes. Sad. Of course there were some normal-looking people, but overall I just felt old and out of place and would rather have been at home.
At least I was somewhat looking forward to midnight, because the promos had said they would play the New York Ball Drop at midnight on the “40 LCD TVs AROUND THE ROOM.” Except they didn’t. Hell, they didn’t even start the countdown until about 12:02 (according to our phones). I think it was 12:08 when I told Tom it was time to go.
It took some time to find our friends so we could get a room key to get my coat, and I had been sober since about 11, so I was fine to drive. We were home and in bed by 12:50.
The only good thing is that now Tom owes me big. BIG. And we never need to go out on NYE again.