I guess if I lived somewhere that looked like this, I'd be nice all the time too. ;-)I live in NH, and it's not a terribly rude state, but it's not overly warm either. I've lived in MA, and I have had plenty rude encounters there.
I'm starting with a clean slate. My hypothesis is that people in the Northeast are not as friendly as people...well, every where else it seems. I don't travel a ton, but I will use my limited experiences to start rating my experiences with service professionals I meet along my travels and at a home. I'm throwing my pre-conceived notions out the window, and I'm going to use my highly scientific 1-5 rating scale (described on the right of this page), to rate my experiences.
I decided to do this yesterday, so I will begin with my interactions yesterday. I won't count rate interactions from before I set the rating scale in my mind, and cleaned my slate, but I will say, the people we met in San Diego were super nice and helpful. I'll be back there this afternoon, so hopefully I can include them in my "study." :)
The tricky ones to rate will be the worst cases, such as Comcast, where you call in and you're not sure where you are calling. I'll do my best to get location information when I have a telephone service experience, although I'm not sure if the terrible telephone service we generally receive is a result of location or just bad business. I'll just present the facts as they happen, and we can interpret them together. What fun.
Circa 59 Restaurant is located in the Palm Springs Riviera resort. With our package deal, we received free breakfast at the restaurant, as many other guest did, I'm assuming. We only went for breakfast there once, as it's my experience that free hotel food isn't always a good thing, and I was not mistaken. I'm assuming most people had free breakfast tickets to the restaurant, so rather than serving from a menu, there was a buffet that consisted of eggs, sausage, hashbrowns, bacon, juevos rancheros, pancakes, cereal, fruit, yogurt and muffins.
It was not intended to be a continental breakfast, but rather a full breakfast buffet, so under those circumstances, I found the buffet to be a bit lacking. There were no breads, the eggs were fake (not a surprise), the fruit didn't look fresh, etc... I made a plate of eggs, hashbrowns, fresh fruit and a slice of bacon. The food was cold and disgusting. It made me sick, literally. After that, I ended up having some cold cereal, which was fine.
The waiter, whose tip was included in the free breakfast I learned after, was fine. Not overly helpful or friendly, but perfectly fine. I tipped him just a little bit above the included gratuity, because I just felt I should. I'm sure it's not his fault the food was cold and not very fresh.
Circa 59 Service Rating: 3
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I haven't been feeling well, as I'm recovering from pneumonia, and I've been a bit out of it as a result. When we arrived at Soak City (where they charge you to sneeze), we arrived at the parking booth. Even though there is plenty of parking, they charge you to park, which I found to be absurd. This was not a location in the middle of a big city, it is quite literally in the middle of a vast desert expanse. Charging for parking at a location like this is just criminal. Not only do they charge for parking ($9), but they offer premium parking for $15. If you want to park at the lot closest to the entrance, it's an extra $6!
I couldn't remember where I put my money, and I was taking a long time going through the trunk, etc...all very unlike me, but again, I've been out of it. The parking attendant was completely understanding and didn't make me feel like I was ridiculous at all (even though I was!) She was patient and sweet and friendly the entire time. Her service rating is a 4.
When we got to the ticket booth, we saw that the lazy river was closed. That was a bummer, as it was the entire reason we were there. It's probably one of their most popular features, and for a small water park, they probably should have offered some kind of discount with the lazy river and one of the pools closed, but they didn't. The young woman at the ticket counter was fine. We asked if the lazy river would be closed all day, and she said yes, without really knowing the answer. I found out it was just closed for a few hours because they had to refill it. She was fine, though, and I would give her a service rating of a 3.
We got into the park, and went into the changing room. There was no place to store your things unless you rented a locker - for $10! We couldn't find exactly where to purchase a locker key, so we stopped by the snack shack to ask. The young woman we spoke too was extremely helpful and friendly. Her service rating is a 4.
We went inside to purchase the key, and the young woman at the counter wasn't sure how to run the credit card - no big deal. Her manager assisted her, and we were off with our $10 locker rental. She was fine, and her service rating is a 3.
The overall service rating for Knott's Soak City is a 3.5. While we had fun, because it's a water park!, I was not impressed with this particular water park. They charge $30 per person for a pretty small park, extra to park and extra to store your items. They don't have any competition, and they rely on tourists, so they don't need to worry about repeat customers that much. Locals can buy a seasons pass for $80, so if you use it 3 times or more, it's a bargain.
Village Pub, Palm Springs
We had lunch at the Village Pub. The food was good and reasonably priced. The service was fine. Our server was helpful, friendly, and fairly quick. Her service rating is a 3.
Palm Springs Convention Center
We went to go see the Indigo Girls last night. We had VIP passes, so we had a really great spot to watch the show, and we didn't have to wait in lines, etc... We also got to watch the concert with some neat people - a comedian, an 80's sitcom actor, etc... that was cool. The Indigo Girls were great - I've always loved them, and I hadn't seen them in ages.
The first person I encountered at the concession stand was very friendly and helpful. His service rating is a 4. The second person I encountered was slow, and forgot that I had already paid him (as the person next to him rang it up while he was preparing the order, and when I went to leave, the person who rang it up was no longer there to verify my story), so I paid twice because I'd rather do that than argue. Life is too short. He didn't even try to verify that I had paid, and he was unapologetic about the mishap. I paid $48 for a $24 order. His service rating is a 1.
The overall rating for the concession service people is a 3.
The security personnel staged at all the VIP entrances were okay. I don't know why people in security jackets or t shirts some times think they are an officer of the law. I know they need to take their jobs seriously, but they are in a service industry, and they don't seem to realize it. The overall rating for the security onsite at the convention center is a 2.
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