Castle in a Cloud

Monday, March 21, 2016
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, United States
After a long drive we pulled in to Myrtle Beach without a hotel room. We were a week before peak season and had checked enough to know there were vacancies - but since we have to look at the room before we can take it anyhow, we just decided to pull into town and stop a few places.

This was a mistake .

But we didn't know. This is how you learn.

Have I mentioned that we not only need a non-smoking accessible room with 2 queen beds, but also one that accepts PETS? Yes, we brought Speed on this trip! High maintenance travelers!


So we drove up and down Ocean Blvd and we stopped at several places and asked to be shown their accessible rooms that were pet friendly. I patiently explained at each stop about our particular needs - and was ALWAYS assured that their rooms were accessible.

Yah - RIGHT!

One hotel manager showed us a room that not only REEKED of smoke but had a full STEP on the threshold into the room. Not just a little lip - a 6 inch step up. I politely explained that this would not work for us, as a wheelchair has trouble with STEPS.


Another place showed us a bi-level room with 2 steps from the entry area/bedroom area into area where the kitchenette and living room were . I'm not kidding you. How would that work for us??

Each time I returned the keys to the front desk and politely told them - no - the room will not work - do you have anything else? No.

So darkness is now falling. We've stopped at 5 or 6 places where this routine has ensued. We should have stopped for dinner but we didn't...we wanted to land somewhere we could call home before we ate.

We called Hotels.com. A nice Indian man named Mike came on the line and was VERY awesome. He patiently listened to all our needs: hotel room with 2 queen beds with kitchenette, tonight through Fri, pet friendly, wheelchair accessible, beachfront, non-smoking...I could hear him slightly gasp, but out loud he said " I will do my very best to accommodate your needs. It is very late to be looking for all of these things, but I will find you something, I promise you that."  "Oh and Mike - we don't want to pay very much." Heavy sigh. "I promise I will find you something."  :)

The thing with Hotels.com is that they eventually find you exactly what you need - but it takes a long time. We were tired, cranky, car-lagged, hungry and this waiting period was hard. We were parked and using the Bluetooth connection to my cell phone to be on speaker with Mike from India. He must have heard some family unrest, but he never let on .


And eventually...Mike found us exactly what we needed. And we did eventually find and stay at the place he recommended - the beautiful and lovely Westgate Oceanside Resort. But, Lord forgive me, I didn't book it through him.

I think that makes me a bad person!!!

But I do give LOTS of props to Hotels.com every chance I get!


And in our defense, we were really gun-shy about booking anything without seeing it (that's understandable, right?) so we drove to the Westgate - which Mike from India had said would work for us - and Luke and I hopped out to investigate. We marched into the lobby with newfound confidence and said "Please help us, we are looking for a room with ....." and listed our needs.
The first room they wanted to book us in (because it was in our price range, I assume) sounded great - but ...when we took a key and went to look at it...no go. It had a tub and narrow door opening - this was not going to work for Mike's wheelchair or showering/bathroom needs
I went back to desk fully defeated.


There was now a line at the desk. Luke chose to go back to the car and wait with cranky dad instead of wait here with a mom who was almost in tears. 


We must have looked so defeated. And then a miracle happened.

An angel at the front desk named Ebony found a different room for us - a suite that was FULLY wheelchair accessible. Though it was located far away from the front desk, she found coverage for the desk and personally walked us over there to show us the room to make sure it would work for our family. My jaw dropped - the room was gorgeous! Everything in the room was designed for someone in a wheelchair, including lots of floor space, handicap entry, lowered light switches, roll-in shower and multiple grab bars around the toilet. We had initially asked for a two queen bed room, and this was a King bed with a pull out sofa, so Ebony told us we could have this room for the same rate . I almost couldn't breathe...it was so much nicer than anything we had looked at or had allowed ourselves to dream of.  It had a Jacuzzi in the master bedroom! It was a suite with 2 rooms. The boys were happy to sleep on the pullout because it meant they had their own TV in a room separate from their parents! I think I may have said yes and then thrown my arms around her and cried. Maybe. There's no proof.

Ebony from Westgate will feature in every story I ever tell about Myrtle Beach. Our hotel search was OVER!

We stayed from Sunday to Friday and loved every minute of it. Our kids swam in both pools and spent a lot of time on the beach, which was just steps out the back door. They also loved the arcade, which was conveniently near our room, too.
The Myrtle Beach police department loans out beach wheelchairs for free, including delivering them to the hotels. The Westgate front desk staff were always happy to securely store Mike's wheelchair while we transitioned him to the borrowed beach wheelchair for some fun in the sun .

I think Josh was in the Jacuzzi before Mike had even made it from the car to the room.

When we have to, we head out on vacation even when we are somewhat unprepared. I know there are families that do it different - but we take the risk. There are moments of "Oh shit!" but there are moments of "hugging Ebony" too. Don't let anything hold you back. Just roll.


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