Thought I would start a new thread where I can post information regarding Fiesta and it would not get buried in that long general thread.

The place for dinner is confirmed here is a link to the website. Regent has reserved the whole facility.

What makes this venue special is they do cooking demonstrations and then you eat the food they just cooked. Not sure how they are going to pull that off for 100+ people but I guess they have it all figured out.

It just looks so neat to me, not just a normal restuarant type situation. Click on "THE VENUE" to look at the slideshow of the actual place we are going.

http://www.hughscatering.com/

FYI - There are now 92 booked on the cruise and 107 reserved for FIESTA. Only D and above left and only a few D shower cabins left.

What a great looking restaurant, I think we are in for a treat!

Ngaire, I am pinning this post to the top of the forum so we can find it easily.

WOW...looks great !! There's even lamb chops for Ngaire !!
What a wonderful evening we'll have !!

What a great looking place! Looks perfect, Ngaire!

Ngaire - "The Venue" looks fantastic -- but having you, Linda, and Susan there will make the evening SPECTACULAR! :) :banana:

Absolutely wonderful looking, I'm sure it will be an amazing dinner.

Ngaire, after the number of people at HO-DOWN and now this cruise with the addition of non-cruisers coming for FIESTA, the Regent top people must scratch their heads and ask themselves, "How does she do it?" Of course, all of us know you are one super lady. This location looks great. Thanks for just being you.

What am I missing? When is FIESTA?

Could not possibly have said it better! Thanks, from us too, Ngaire!

Andi did you not get the flyer I will send it to you right now.

Oh Andi you and Doug must join FUN2!

yes Andi and Doug jump in now.

We got the flyer, but I didn't focus..wedding in a couple of weeks. We signed up for FUN2. Looking forward to seeing you all.

We didn't get flyer either, Ngaire,
Jan and Fred

We just booked the cruise, but need to know, where should we stay the night before? Any good advice?

Margo, so far the majority of us are staying at the Sheraton Fort Lauderdale beach hotel, which is where I think Ngaire said the bus will be picking us up for the FIESTA party. You can read about it in this post.

The shuttle will be leaving from the Sheraton Fort Lauderdale Beach Hotel. Most are booking with AMX points or AMX points plus cash. However you can stay where ever you like and get a taxi to the Sheraton to catch the shuttle and a taxi home from there. Everything is pretty close.

Thank you ladies....I'll check on my Starwood/AMX points!

Wooohooo Andi and Doug, finally get to cruise with you again. Can't wait to see you both.

Margo - looking forward to seeing you and Lars again as well and to hear all about your summer in Sweden, glad you finally found this thread.

JoAnn: so nice of you to say. We can't wait to see you again, too!

Doug

Guess we'd better book hotel soon for Fiesta!
We'll have just arrived in Fla to spend our first winter in the new place we just bought in Sarasota so we won't be going on FUN2, but we will be driving over to FIESTA for a couple of days.

Nice Gil, see you then.

ngaire: the New York Times has had quite a few aarticles about the nasty subject of BED BUGS. What do you know about the motel in Ft. Laurderdale that we are all going to in January? Any problem with it? What about the cruise ships? Anything to worry about there?

Jean I have read the NYT article on bed bugs but our hotel (not motel) Sheraton FL Beach has no reviews about that issue, if I recall, but I will go and look at reviews - if 25% of reviews are bad vs 75% good I do not pay attention to the 25% - I think karen stayed there last yr? And my daughter in law stayed recently and enjoyed it --- not a hellhole by any means

Working in the hotel industry, I'd like to chime in here.

The sudden rise in the bed bug problem is an alarming cause for concern. The treatments and costs involved in ridding a room or rooms of infestation, as well as the purchasing of new bedding, is a nightmare of monumental proportions.

It is a misconception that bed bugs are solely a sanitation matter. This is not entirely the case. Even the finest and seemingly most sanitary hotel properties are experiencing this growing dilemma. This isn't merely a "flea bag hotel" problem. People are under a huge misconception that a high-end property can't be impacted. Truth is, they are. Bed bugs are carried from place to place,most commonly infiltrating luggage. They literally travel. Never, ever put your luggage on your bed. Rather, use the luggage stand to place your luggage off the floor.

Properties try, at all cost, to keep any word of infestation from getting out to the general public. Regardless of reviews, good, bad or indifferent, more times than not, the general public would never know. It's a death sentence to a property if word spread of infestation.

Housekeeping staff at my property continues to be properly trained to inspect rooms and be very pro-active in alerting management if there is anything remotely suspicious in a guestroom. You have to hope the next property anyone of us visits has staff doing the same.

Makes sense Denise and scary so much so I am itching - since we have no way of knowing hotels with problems unless reported we just wing it right????

I can't imagine that is if someone woke up with bedbug bites all over them that they wouldn't run to Trip Adviser or some other site and announce it to the world!

Jean, I stayed at the Sheraton last year and didn't notice any kind of bug bites on me so I am not too worried.

I guess if you are concerned, you can pull off the bottom sheet and look at the cording around the edges of the mattress as that is where they hide during the day, according to a 60 minutes piece that I saw.

PLUG for Hawthorn Suites Weston FL stayed for 3 nights recently no bites ...and LOVED LOVED this hotel...

This is a problem worldwide and in the last 5 years really become a problem in the states.. I agree its a problem from luxury hotels to little motels.. This problem has cost me tens of thousands of dollars with my rental properties because it is very hard to deal with: and it can be transferred as easily as someone sitting on someone elses couch and then going home and its that simple to bring them back with you.. sanitation does have a bit to do with it, but clutter is a problem as well.. I have several cans of Bedlum is a product used by the licensed professionals and I usually spray an entire hotel room with it when we enter, around the bed area and the baseboards is the key. I have stayed at the Sheraton, I still call it the Yankee Snipper probably over 10 times and never had a problem..

I am sure everything will be fine, its just that lately its getting more press than it has in recent years...

FV

Well, here is an interesting site! It's called The bed bug registry and you can look up your hotel before you book.

This is the report for our hotel, they need to update the name, though


Sheraton Yankee Clipper Hotel
1140 Seabreeze Blvd
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316-2426

There are no bedbug encounters on record for this address.

Here is another interesting site that is a bed bug registry for both domestic and international hotels.

Sorry, the devil made me do it ;)

People do report and post such experiences. However, sites such as TripAdvisor, do have competitors that post bogus, negative things about properties, clouding what is actually truth vs. falsehood, to sway and gain occupancy for their property. Same goes for properties who, anonymously, post raving reviews of their own properties. There are no real controls in place.

We are currently giving out TripAdvisor comment cards to guests, to post their stay experience at our property. There are guests who have never heard of TripAdvisor. I assume the same holds true with guests staying at properties, world-wide. Therefore, many good and/or bad experiences, including incidents of bed bugs, go unreported in public venues/message boards. Guests tend to work things through, via property General Manager, Guest Services Manager, and Corporate Guest Relations.

We, here on LCT, educate ourselves and research. Therefore, we're enlightened. The news and shows, such as 60 Minutes, have brought this growing concern into the spotlight.

Best guideline, IMO - select by recommendation/word-of-mouth, if at all possible.

Suzie - :D

Thanks for all your input! There seems to be a very large outbreak all over the country and I know it's not just "flea bag" hotels. I didn't mean to imply that the one we're going to in January is one! I also read that the best place to put your luggage is in the bathtub!! Lucky for us we don't "do" tub baths. Travel is getting tougher and tougher all the time. I just thought of planes! What about them??? I imagine they get a good spraying now and then but not every turn around. Oh my. How do you deal with your luggage when you get back from a trip?

Not to get off subject but I believe the majority of comments on Trip Advisor are from actual people who have stayed at the property.

No way to validate who was truly a guest and who "planted" reviews on sites such as TripAdvisor.

That is true, Denise but I think that if all the reviews were planted, Trip Advisor wouldn't be as popular as it is. Plus, the total review ratings are usually spot on, in my experience and I have used it many times to choose my hotel.


There may be a planted review here and there but I don't think that skews the ratings since the many real reviews outweigh the ones that might be planted.

Just a quick response to not belabor this discussion any further.

I didn't imply that all reviews on TripAdvisor were plants. This certainly would skew those reviews that were true and valid. I stated what I know to be true within the industry.

Good to hear your TripAdvisor recommendations were favorable, Karen.

I, too, depend on TA and I think we have to balance the excellent reviews vs bad ones for any property - sometimes hard to believe people stayed at same place?

I am glad we agree, Denise!

I depend on TA and have also found the overall rating spot on. I am a contributor and try to be as accurate as possible through my lens. One place we visited this year at the same time as my daughter and her husband got different reviews from each of us because we had different expectations and previous experiences. We were very concerned with the place we selected in Newport for the wedding as there were very mixed reviews. Some reviews said that the innkeeper had an abrasive manner and ruined the experience. We had nothing but a lovely time and this innkeeper was very gracious to me. However, Doug had a little sampling of the abrasiveness. Folks also wrote the room we selected had such a musty odor that they had to leave. It did have a musty odor until we ran the air conditioner, but it was a great room and we were happy. So, there is usually a little truth in most reviews, even those that contradict one another. Everyone looks at things differently. I love TA because it gives me at least some intelligence rather than going in blind. I also find that some hotel managers read the reports and get back to you when something is wrong. They use it for QA and correct anything negative. I have been contacted by managers so that they can correct the situation.