AWOL Until Saturday

I am waiting for management to tart herself up, the car is loaded and we are soon off to Welsh Wales Warners for a break -returning on Saturday.

I have a laptop with me so I may be able to access the forum but only if the room WiFi works OK. If not - I won't bother to go find somewhere in the hotel where it works.

No room WiFi Alan, works in reception bar area, restaurant, other bars and concert room.
I hope you have an excellent break

Try and get some good jokes.

Malcolm.  We have just arrived at the Warners Bodelwyddan Castle and the WiFi in the room is fine. We are in the Princes Hall above reception so within range of the modem. I just checked the broadband speed and it is 2.8 Mps which is not exactly speedy, especially when you are used to 200 Mbps.

When we arrived there was an ambulance outside the entrance with the rear door open and ramp down - as we went in they were wheeling an old chap out to the ambulance. This is the second time we have had this happen when we were checking in to a Warners hotel. Management reckons I am a jinx.

She is having a whinge because there are no slippers in the room - something we are accustomed to at most of the hotels we stay at. Reception told her that they stopped doing it last year and directed her to the Hotel shop where she bought a pair for £5. I'm happy to pad around in my socks like I do at home. 

We stopped at Llangollen on the way here to enjoy the sun and the scenery. The horseshoe pass is quite impressive on a sunny day so we saw it at its best.

We always stay in Llewelyn Hall well away from things and it's nice and quiet....how is your room ?do you have a view ?
Have a stroll around the gardens tomorrow, the weather should be OK according to the BBC.

The room (334)  looks out on the restaurant - but that is fine with us we are usually out all day.

We will take your advice and take a walk round the grounds - weather permitting. It is chucking it down with rain at present.
Management has gone to a Tai Chi fitness class and is expected to come puffing back any minute.

That looks OK Alan.....keep taking pics and posting 'em,  I will enjoy seeing them and hearing your comments.
Hope you enjoy your meals as much as I did.

I just got back to the room after a mixed evening. I would give Warners 6/10 for the meal and 2/10 for the entertainment. But you need to know that I set the bar quite high for standards and Libby considers me far too fine mouthed and fussy.

As so often with Warners, they allocate a table which you use for the duration of your stay. We were allocated a table alongside an elderly couple with two downs syndrome adults. That would be fine, except for their table manners and coughing, sneezing and wiping snot over their faces without using a tissue or hankerchief. Libby was heaving.  It was totally gruesome and we had to ask for another table - which was not available until others had finished their meal. Hence the carvery was low on choice when we sat down 45 minutes later. I hasten to add, this is not a criticism of Warners - it was our bad luck

We both elected for the carvery - the Turkey and gammon joints were excellent but I have a complete aversion to frozen vegetables - and that is all that was on offer. Soggy sprouts, cauliflower and mushy carrots are just not my thing. I like fresh vegetables cooked Al dente. The sticky toffee and custard pudding was superb though - as was the buffet salad starter and the red wine. 

We then popped into the Lowther Hall to listen to some music and for a dance - until it turned out to be just line and barn dancing on a floor far too small for the coach loads of geriatrics who were staggering around with music far too loud for me, even with my hearing aids removed. So I now sit here on the computer with ears still ringing.

I hope the meal tomorrow will be more palatable.   The entertainment tomorrow is line dancing followed by a performance by one Tamsin Killen doing a replica of Katherine Jenkins which is followed by more line dancing. I can't wait.

Libby is thoroughly enjoying it though and relishing the opportunity to remind me that this trip was all my idea.
.

Sorry to hear about your disappointing evening Alan.
We always chose our same table, up the stairs and immediately on the left, tucked out of the way so our conversation, if any, with other guests is limited.
As for entertainment we never have indulged in that in all the many times we have visited there.
Hope your breakfast is a better experience for you.

sounds lovely Alan wish I could join you!!

Oh dear Alan - you should try my cooking sometime. Like you I like fresh veg partly cooked. It is easy when you live alone to let your standards slip, though I try not to.

I used to enjoy line dancing - why don't you try it.

Alan-we had more or less the same problem on a Shearings tour to Cornwall,sat in front of us on the coach were two rather heavy smokers who lit up at every opportunity and to make things worse they were near us in the dining room what a stench it was.
After one meal i asked could we be moved which we was but the stench was still there on the coach.

We have only been to that particular Warners once,and 'Er indoors fell down some steps within a couple of hours,so she spent the stay in a wheelchair. We always now go to Alvaston Hall. The food there is exceptionally good at all meals. We wouldn't go anywhere else now. The dining room is a theatre restaurant, and we prebook our table. The table is yours for the duration of the stay,so you can finish the meal and go elsewhere until the show is due to start,in the knowledge that no one will have taken your seat. We always sit right on the edge of the dance floor. We know a lot of the staff there now,and always get a warm welcome. Hope you have a good time.

andsome wrote:

We have only been to that particular Warners once,and 'Er indoors fell down some steps within a couple of hours,so she spent the stay in a wheelchair. We always now go to Alvaston Hall. The food there is exceptionally good at all meals. We wouldn't go anywhere else now. The dining room is a theatre restaurant, and we prebook our table. The table is yours for the duration of the stay,so you can finish the meal and go elsewhere until the show is due to start,in the knowledge that no one will have taken your seat. We always sit right on the edge of the dance floor. We know a lot of the staff there now,and always get a warm welcome. Hope you have a good time.

Sounds just like the Borders General Hospital andsome. I always get a warm welcome there lately. The food stinks as do some of the staff. 

We didn't get a good start to the day - I overslept and didn't awake until 10:30. It was a glorious sunny morning and I hate to waste a minute of good weather during the winter. Management coaches the England sleeping team and would easily sleep until noon if I let her.

We drove along the coast road, over the Menai bridge and headed for Beaumaris, a nice little town with of course the Castle.

From there we visited Red Warf bay which is very scenic - even when the tide was fully out as it was this morning.

We got back to the hotel in time for dinner and organised a new table which is nicely located against a wall. I had deep fried brie as a starter with a salad dressing and redcurrant sauce. My main course was a medium rare sirloin pepper steak which was cooked perfectly with triple cooked chips, mushroom, vine tomatoes and a small salad dressing accompanied by a bottle of very pleasant red wine.  The meal was superb and the hotel thus redeemed itself.

We had a bit of fun - we didn't have desserts but the menu included Spotted Richard. We were both niggled by the concession to the PC brigade and Libby crossed out the word Richard and substituted the correct word "DICK".  When the waiter came to take our desert order he removed the menus and handed them to a couple at the table behind ours, who looked at them and called him back. I thought Oh Oh - but in fact Libby owned up and they thought it was a hoot. He left with orders for two spotted Dicks, one with ice cream and one with custard.

The entertainment was a lass named Tamsin Killen who is a Katherine Jenkins replica. She has a fine voice and sang for 60 minutes with some opera arias mixed with light classics and pop. Jolly good - but we didn't stay for the sequence dancing afterwards.