Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel
March 25, 2015
The Bayfront Hilton in San Diego has exceeded NPS expectations and set a new record for Hilton goodness. Lets see why.
One view from 2935
The other view from 2935
Getting here on Virgin was very good indeed and a huge step up over united. On time, relaxed, room to work, wifi. You go Virgin.
Seat 3C (the usual) on @VirginAmerica A320. Main cabin select is great. Hey @united, they have wifi. pic.twitter.com/tCryu8c15Y
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) March 24, 2015
Room 2935 is a hamster cage design, but it has two banks of windows with a gorgeous view of the city. A very nice room indeed.
Windows in 2935
From the door 2935
And the shower is glass. NPS approves.
Hilton has a glass shower.
One of Kimpton’s fun hacks is putting a fish (usually named Walter) in your room for your stay. Hilton is trying to go there by putting virtual fish on the TV. Not quite the same.
And now some good things and bad things about this Hilton.
Real hangers = good
iPod dock = good
Power by bed = good
Water for sale = bad
All in all we’ll give this hotel four showerheads, which is a definite step up for a major chain. Most excellent!
In other San Diego news, El Dorado bar has seriously great cocktails as well as a bunch of antique collection bourbon and rye on hand (real Stagg from multiple years for example). Brionnie Briem made a superb and masterful Sazarac (with Sazarac 18). The experimental cocktail she whipped up was only meh, but hey you can’t have everything!
Experiment
2 oz Rittenhouse Rye
t of fallernum (too sweet!! too sweet!!)
2 dashes Angostura
lemon zest
Lou and Mickey’s is still a great place for a steak. Amazingly, they can handle a group dinner of over 20 without a hitch (perfectly cooked everything). Well done chef!
The secret speakeasy Noble Experiment is an oasis of hip in San Diego. Superb entrance, great skull decor, and best of all seriously good cocktails. My spoiled cocktail geek friends and home brewers all loved it.
We were served by Jesse Ross who was happy to play. Though my friends started with a Nevada (nice to see that on the list), but I went straight for the fun.
Pine and Rye
2 oz sazarac 6 rye
.25 oz sapping (a piney French concoction)
.75 oz Dolin’s dry
heavy dashes of Pernod Absinthe
This drink was so similar to what I have been drinking at home lately (the old 48) that it was a shock! Serve on a big cube with a healthy slice of orange peel. Boozy deliciousness.
Non-cyn Thriller
1.5 oz Whistle pig rye
.75 oz Port
.75 oz Campari
dashes of Chocolate Mole Bitters
We ended the evening with some 2014 George T Stagg. Hotter than the last couple of years, but something unbalanced about it.
The evening was just super fantastic. Do not miss Noble Experiment if you find yourself in San Diego.
United versus Virgin: Grizzly Veteran Flies New Airline
December 3, 2014
As a 100k flyer for over a decade with 1,589,963 United miles under my belt, I know a bit about United airlines. Since the merger with Continental, things have frankly gone to the dogs. We have documented the downfall of United here. Jeff Smisek may be good at mergers and marketing, but he sucks at operations.
Every time we think things may be getting better, they don’t.
So it has come to this. No more United. I will now show as much loyalty to United as they show to me. Towards that end, we flew Delta earlier this year, we flew American, and we just flew Virgin to SFO.
Just to make this all clear, two weeks ago I did a trip through SFO on United. Yesterday I did the same trip on Virgin. The experience was not the same.
One United flight had a wifi logo on the side, but the wifi did not work. The return flight did not have wifi at all. Having no wifi is like having no oxygen. On a hub to hub trip (IADSFO) there is no excuse any more for no wifi.
The United flight was crammed full and the crew was surly. But there was room to work in Economy Plus. Well, I could have worked if there had been some wifi. Instead I watched a movie on my nexus.
United: pringles that cost $, busted seats, and no wifi
This is the advanced technology display on an actual United aircraft
Nice upholstery on United
So the United experience was pretty bad all told, especially for a business flyer.
How about Virgin? It all started out fine, but then:
Uh oh, there is bad weather in San Francisco.
Everyone was delayed, but United chose the drip delay method as opposed to the doom and despair drop.
Virgin was staffed by very friendly and nice people. And their wifi worked as advertised (much to the chagrin of my staff). But the seats in economy do not allow laptop use in a comfortable fashion. That extra four inches in United economy plus makes all of the difference. I still have a headache from using Virgin wifi for 5 hours.
Virgin is too crammed for a mac air
Ultimately, this may all boil down to money. Pay more for a better seat? I guess so as long as there is a real productivity impact.
We’ll try that on Virgin in 2015.
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