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Somehow the world looks different from a Ritz-Carlton. Last Friday was my chance to experience this more starkly than I ever had before. You might recall that I had been enjoying a weeklong “staycation” with my girlfriend at a lovely beachside hotel in Fort Lauderdale. Until our last day, Friday, when we packed up and swung over to the nearby Ritz. It was funny, really. I tossed our suitcases into the back seat of my PT Cruiser convertible, then pulled out of the hotel parking lot, turned two corners and rolled in at the new Ritz-Carlton. This grand journey took a total of less than one minute, literally. On arrival, the customary Ritz service was quickly obvious. Opening car doors, opening hotel doors, escorting us to the reception desk and basically taking care of whatever needed to be taken care of. Always punctuated by that famous Ritz mantra, “My pleasure.”
When we got to our suite my first word was, “Wow.” It was gorgeous, with a large living room, huge bedroom, two bathrooms, two flat-screen televisions and a balcony that was maybe 30-feet long. That balcony overlooked the lovely 7th floor swimming pool – and the Atlantic Ocean. The suite was impeccably tasteful, as usual in Ritz-Carlton hotels. All pastel yellow and beige and white. Honestly, I didn’t want to leave the room.
As I said, our previous hotel was wonderful. We did the whole beachy thing there, flip-flopping our way through most of the week like the other folks strolling A1A. Once we got to the Ritz, though, that changed. It truly seemed as if we had stepped into some elegant world that had been hidden to us earlier in our seaside stay. From the polished marble floors and columns to the spectacular lobby bar, from the understated flower arrangements to the manicured lawn and gardens around the pool. Everywhere and anywhere on the property, you knew you were vacationing in a world-class hotel. Still, there’s nothing stuffy about this Ritz-Carlton. Some guests indeed were walking around in flip-flops. But Gwendolyn and I weren’t among them. This seemed a good time to take my nice slacks off the hangar and put on some socks and dress shoes. Later this week, I’ll tell you about a few of our interesting experiences during this brief stay at Broward’s new Ritz-Carlton. Including my conversations with the most amazing alarm clock I’ve ever seen. Or talked to.
When we got to our suite my first word was, “Wow.” It was gorgeous, with a large living room, huge bedroom, two bathrooms, two flat-screen televisions and a balcony that was maybe 30-feet long. That balcony overlooked the lovely 7th floor swimming pool – and the Atlantic Ocean. The suite was impeccably tasteful, as usual in Ritz-Carlton hotels. All pastel yellow and beige and white. Honestly, I didn’t want to leave the room.
As I said, our previous hotel was wonderful. We did the whole beachy thing there, flip-flopping our way through most of the week like the other folks strolling A1A. Once we got to the Ritz, though, that changed. It truly seemed as if we had stepped into some elegant world that had been hidden to us earlier in our seaside stay. From the polished marble floors and columns to the spectacular lobby bar, from the understated flower arrangements to the manicured lawn and gardens around the pool. Everywhere and anywhere on the property, you knew you were vacationing in a world-class hotel. Still, there’s nothing stuffy about this Ritz-Carlton. Some guests indeed were walking around in flip-flops. But Gwendolyn and I weren’t among them. This seemed a good time to take my nice slacks off the hangar and put on some socks and dress shoes. Later this week, I’ll tell you about a few of our interesting experiences during this brief stay at Broward’s new Ritz-Carlton. Including my conversations with the most amazing alarm clock I’ve ever seen. Or talked to.
posted by LauderBLOGGER at 11:22 AM
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