At Least We Have Windows

Posted on July 5, 2010 by Ching under Travel.

I called the hotel right after our movie the other day, only to find out that all the “view” rooms were already taken. Booo! I guess I should be grateful. At least we have windows.

This is our “non-view” from our window.

And at least I got a king bed, just as I requested.

We’d stayed at a few different places in previous trips to Kansas City, but we’d never stayed at Courtyard Marriott before. I think ten years ago, when we used to go to the Country Club Plaza (we don’t go to the Plaza so much anymore because we’re usually at the North Kansas City Harrah’s when we’re in KC) a lot, there wasn’t a Courtyard Marriott in the area.

At first I thought we’d be staying at a new hotel. I had visions of the Courtyard Marriott at Fishermans Wharf where we stayed while we were in San Francisco in February. That place was fantastic. I really liked the modern decor.

Well, our hotel is the exact opposite of that. Brian and I guessed that this was probably a different hotel or maybe even an apartment building before Marriott took over. The hotel itself was nice, but the decor looked dated and ancient.

I’m sure Marriott redid the entire place when they took over, but they probably had to stay consistent with the building’s architecture in choosing furniture and decorations as well as carpet and wall colors.

Our room was surprisingly roomy for an oldish hotel. It’s definitely much bigger than other rooms we’d stayed at in other hotels at Country Club Plaza. The best thing that I liked about our hotel is the location. We were within a couple of minutes walk from PF Chang’s and The Cheesecake Factory.

The bathroom, which looks like it had been redone as well, was pretty spacious also. It wasn’t fancy, but it was sufficient.

Besides the great location, the in-room fridge and microwave were a nice bonus (most hotels have a mini fridge, but usually no microwave). Great for storing and reheating those leftovers, because most restaurants always give you so much food. Although, we didn’t really get to use the microwave because Brian didn’t want to take his leftovers at all the places we ate. We did use the fridge to store our leftover chocolate tower from The Cheesecake Factory, though. We ate it as an afternoon snack the next day.

I think our “ancient” hotel is a historic building because there were these tiny doors in between the regular room doors. I’m a curious person by nature so I tried to open the one that had our room number on it, but it was locked. I believe the doors don’t serve any function other than to preserve the historic feel of the hotel.

This wall plaque explains the purpose of the little doors, which were actually “Milk Closets” circa 1900s.

Brian, the observant guy that he is, noticed something else that was funny about our hotel room. He saw this strange warning sign right next to the fire sprinkler head.

Here’s what it says up close:

Brian and I were amused at the thought of someone actually doing that. I mean, someone had to have done it for there to be a warning sign. Think of the hot coffee warnings on coffee cups. Prior to people actually burning themselves with hot coffee, there weren’t really warning labels. Usually, people think of putting the warning after the fact.

I was like, “Why would you even do that? Why not use the closet that’s provided?” Brian replied, “Maybe someone had a long dress that wouldn’t fit in the closet?”

“Can you imagine someone’s wedding gown hanging on that and then the bride returning to the room to find her dress soaking wet? They probably would’ve been furious.” Brian, who has little faith in people, added “I’m sure they probably blamed the hotel too.”

LOL. That’s the story we concocted in our heads for the reason why a warning sign next to the sprinkler head was necessary. We like to make up stories for things. Who knows what really happened. Maybe the hotel is just being proactive and they’re foolproof-ing the hotel rooms, because most hotel guests are too stupid to figure out that you shouldn’t do that.

Anyway, you know what the problem is with things that are foolproof right? A better fool will always come along. =P