We’ve posted in the past about hotel fails:
But they just go to a whole new level when they’re video.
That one towards the end, about asking for the iron, where there was an obvious translation problem? It reminded me of a situation we had, YEARS ago, while visiting France. It was around 1995, way before cell phones were available with pictures, never mind translation programs. We were also 25+ years younger…and greener 😉
It was our last night in France – I *think* we were staying at Newport Bay resort, at Disneyland Paris – and we were flying home the next day. Our flight was VERY early in the morning and our alarm was set for some ungodly hour like 4:45am. But we were young and had made sure to thoroughly enjoy our last night, packed after we got back to the room, etc., and probably didn’t get to bed until after well midnight. So every second of slumber counted.
Anyway, we were all sleeping, and around 3am or so, our television, for no reason whatsoever, suddenly went on, with the sound blasting. And it wasn’t like it was even on a station. Nope…it was on a channel that had signed off for the night (as some channels did, back then), so it was just snow/static, like from Poltergeist.
Let me tell you, it scared the CRAP out of us.
We lowered the sound, shut the TV off, got settled again and just as we were falling asleep, the TV turned on again, all by itself, just snow/static, with the sound set as high as it could be.
Obviously, we had to do something.
Joe used the phone in the room to call the front desk. He explained, as politely as he could (considering his shocked-out-of-a-dead-sleep stupor), what was happening with the TV, and we had an early flight and needed our sleep, could they help, yadda yadda yadda. Problem was, he spoke no French. And apparently the person manning the front desk at 3 o’clock in the morning spoke little-to-no English. So he had to simplify what he was saying.
Joe: TV. Television. Turns on. By itself. MAKE. IT. STOP!!!
He hung up and we had no idea what was going to happen next. Did they understand enough and were they going to fix it? Were we going to be kept up by the TV for the rest of the night? We had no idea.
A few minutes later, we heard a knock. We opened the door and a man from the hotel (I don’t remember who. Front desk person? Maintenance? I think I vaguely remember a uniform that looked like maintenance) came into the room.
He went to the television, reached behind it, and unplugged it.
Yeah. That was it. Unplugged the TV and left.
Like I said earlier, it was over 25 years ago and we were still pretty green to travel; especially international travel. But we still never felt so stupid in our lives.
But hey, at least we got to sleep for another 90 minutes.
Enjoy your day, travel friends!
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