Okay, I'm (somewhat) rested, fed and gamed up. Now to tell of my travels...
The drive up wasn't too bad. It was three hours, but we survived it.
Once we reached Liverpool, we started to look for our hotel, which was really a bar with rooms for rent. Once we found it, that's when the trouble began.
We get out of the car and are deciding whether or not to take our bags with us. My mum jokingly says to not take the bags in, just in case they don't have any rooms for us (remember, that was a joke). So we leave the bags in the car until we have everything sorted out in the hotel. Also, we were meeting my uncle and aunt (hereby named Uncle T and Auntie D), who's anniversary it was, which was why we were up there, and we didn't want to have to trail bags all over the place when meeting them.
Anyway, we get into the hotel and ask for our room key. We give our name and here's the thing -- they don't have us on record! It was checked and double-checked, but we weren't there! Good thing we didn't bring the bags in, eh?
We phoned up twice -- TWICE -- and got a confirmation email, which my dad printed out, just in case, but they didn't have us written down. That's what confused us the most. They have a computer system to handle all of the registrations, etc, yet they need somebody to write it down in a book before it's official? Showing the confirmation email didn't help, either. As it turns out, the replacement manager was the one who took our calls and sent us the email, but didn't note us down.
Then we find out they don't have enough rooms! We were meant to get two double-bed rooms and one single bed room for my other uncle (let's call him Uncle D) who had come along to visit his friend. All they had was one double-bed room! It took about an hour to get everything sorted out. They would bring two extra beds into the only room left for me and my sister, and Uncle D, having no room for him, would sleep over at Uncle T's house. Okay, a bit of a pisser, but everything was sorted out.
The next morning was okay. Breakfast was great and brought in quickly. This was Saturday, the day of the anniversary party. We visisted Uncle T and Auntie D at their house for a while before going back to the hotel to get changed. We went to the party, and everything was going fine.
The party ends and we get a taxi back to the hotel. Now, we said before heading out that we would be coming back late, so we are told that one of the keys on our keyring would open the side door so we could get in.
So in any case, we get back to the hotel at about four o'clock in the morning (!) and try the door. Locked, as we expected, but it never hurts to try. Then trouble strikes again! We try the keys to the door -- all three -- but none of them open the door. We tried about a hundred times, but the keys wouldn't work! Hell, we even tried attracting attention by banging on the door and calling up to a room with its lights on, but nobody came down. There were other doors leading into the hotel, but they were also locked and the keys didn't open them, either.
So there we are, locked out of the hotel at five in the morning. We had no choice but to begin walking back to my uncle's, who's house we had went to for an after-party, and attempt to get a taxi. Fortunately, taxis were roaming about and we were able to get to my uncle's.
We arrive at about five o'clock (having tried for just over half-an-hour to get into the hotel). Thankfully, my uncle and aunt were still up. They were disgusted at the hotel, just like we were. It took another hour to decide where everybody was going to sleep. Eventually, we all bedded down in the living room, with me and my sister sleeping on the couches and my mum and dad sleeping on the floor, since there were no other beds free. We were offered beds, but we didn't care at that point. We had already decided to sleep in the living room and it would take even longer to decide who went in what bed, etc.
It wasn't the most comfortable sleep in the world, but at least weren't sleeping under a bush!
After getting up, we went round to the hotel and talked to the manager. We told him about the keys not unlocking the door. He tried them for himself, but we had to let him in, as the keys had him locked out, too!
Guess why they didn't work...? The keyring had two room keys! That's right! Two identical keys on the same ring! There was supposed to be
one room key,
one security key to get into the hallway with the rooms and
one late key for the aforementioned door. But instead, we get
two room keys!
Needless to say, we were not happy about it all. Still, we had breakfast and talked to the manager some more. After all the trouble we had had, he, too wasn't happy with what we to go through, so he waived the bill, meaning we got everything free! We weren't going to pay, anyway, not after all the trouble, but they offered, so it was cool.
It gets pretty uneventful after that, so I'll spare you the details.
What nightmare of a holiday!
