We chose to stay overnight in Glasgow so we both took days off work and headed through in the early afternoon. Once our sat nav finally stopped telling us we were in a field and actually got us into Glasgow city centre, we headed straight for Five Guys.
As I’m a vegetarian I’m usually limited to just fries in places like Five Guys but fortunately for me, they have a grilled cheese sandwich available. I can’t say no to a good grilled cheese so of course I ordered that along with “little” fries and a vanilla milkshake. My other half kept his order fairly standard in the form of a cheeseburger, fries and a strawberry and oreo piece milkshake.
While we both thoroughly enjoyed our meal and were left desperately needing to loosen our belts off a little, we were ever so slightly disappointed. Five Guys is very hyped up and while the food delivers, it’s atrociously overpriced. £30.00 for 2 meals out of a brown paper bag is a bit too much for my liking. I think I’ll stick to making copious amounts of grilled cheese sandwiches at home and if I ever crave a Five Guys, I’ll stick my own creations into a brown paper bag.
Once we’d devoured our lunch, we headed to the hotel. We were staying in The Crowne Plaza which is conveniently located right next to The Hydro; the venue for Nitro Circus that night. The staff were very friendly and the reception, bar and restaurant area were lovely but that’s where my compliments end. We were well aware of the fact the bedrooms were being upgraded (although they failed to tell us that while checking in) but we didn’t expect to be right next to a room where the upgrades were happening.
As soon as we walked onto the 14th floor (after accidentally going onto a few other floors to begin with) we heard the drilling and hammering of the upgrades. It was significantly worse when we walked into the room to the point where we couldn’t even speak to each other as the drills were so loud. My other half and I aren’t really ones for complaining about service or other issues so we just sat on our butts and accepted it. The work eventually stopped at 5.40pm but to say we were both annoyed (me in particular if you saw my tweets) would be an understatement.
We did enquire about when the upgrades begin again in the morning and were told it was 9.30am. We were hinting that we weren’t overly pleased with the noise but no apology or even an acknowledgement was given. I think that’s what really annoyed me in the end, its basic customer service as far as I’m concerned.
After a few questions at reception we wandered over to The Hydro for Nitro Circus. Disaster struck again when we discovered we had missed the last 30 minutes of practice and Q&A with the riders that we had paid to attend. My other half purchased club tickets but annoyingly, the tickets said doors were at the standard 6.30pm. As it turns out, we were supposed to be in the venue for 5pm and the ticket website was supposed to send emails out with more information. Again, we were annoyed but we brushed that one off.
Fortunately Nitro Circus itself was incredible. It was really cool to be in the same room as guys I looked up to as a kid and teenager and I may have slightly fan girled from time to time. The whole show was so energetic and insane that I happily forgot every other negative thing and took it all in. The only thing that went wrong was actually when Cam Sinclair was attempting the 4 man backflip but a mechanical fault resulted in the bike falling off the ramp and a few of the guys going to hospital. Still, that didn’t put a dampener on anything and hopefully the guys involved are ok!
Once Nitro Circus had ended we wandered back over to the hotel with our ears ringing from the sheer noise of the venue. It had been a while since we had eaten so we ordered room service and chilled. The room service was extremely quick (although again, it was another £30.00) and the paninis we ordered were delicious. The one I ordered did say it had roasted peppers in it but such thing did not exist. I didn’t actually want the roasted peppers anyway so maybe they read my mind and didn’t put them in.
Safe in the knowledge that the upgrades weren’t due to start again until 9.30am we climbed into our very comfortable bed and fell asleep. I’m awful when it comes to sleeping in hotels so I woke up a lot during the night but still remained well rested.
We had ordered room service for breakfast and were expecting to get it somewhere between 9-9.15am. Due to the time, we planned on getting up as close to 9am as possible but that didn’t work out very well. The upgrades started again at 8am as did the cleaners so we woke up to hammering and atrociously loud Glaswegian accents yelling at each other. That’s not really my idea of a great wakeup call but again, we let it slide.
Due to the extra amount we were paying for breakfast in bed (£18.00 on top of the amount we were already paying for breakfast) we decided to order way more food than we usually would. I went for a vegetarian version of a fry up as well as croissants, orange juice and hot chocolate. My other half went for fruit, tea, orange juice and a fry up. While the food was perfectly adequate, it didn’t arrive for a good half hour after it was due to and everything was cold. My hot chocolate was more like a chocolate milkshake with cocoa powder floaters.
Thanks to the drilling, hammering, yelling and cold breakfast I was pretty much done with The Crowne Plaza and couldn’t wait to get out of there. My other half and I quickly got ready and headed down to reception to checkout. Unexpectedly my other half mentioned the upgrades and we were swiftly apologised to. We were given free parking (it’s usually £6.00 a night), a VIP upgrade next time we stay and £10.00 was removed from the panini room service as a result. We still had to pay the full room charge and although I was tempted into completely losing it, I kept my cool and swiftly walked out of the place.
We were both left totally unimpressed by a hotel that should’ve been incredible. We’ve both stayed in some questionable hotels but even the cheapest ones where the shower breaks when you look at it have been better than The Crowne Plaza. I really wish we’d spent that £149 (which was for a standard room) and the extra money for room service elsewhere. If Nitro Circus wasn’t so damn amazing, I probably would’ve put my first through a wall out of sheer frustration. Oh well, this means we’re guaranteed a good time soon right?
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