The Groupon Weekend Getaway - Part 1

Fact #1: I fully admit, that I've turned into a bit of a hotel snob.
Fact #2: I fully admit I have a motel 6 budget.
Fact #3: I am my mothers daughter and hate to pay retail.
Fact #4: I like pretty things
Fact #5: I needed a Christmas gift for the glass man.
Fact #6: I could go on endlessly, but then you'd get bored as usual.

Groupon is a pretty cool place. Well, except for the incredibly stupid descriptions and the moronic cat, other than that it's pretty cool. There are tons of offers there for places and events. Like: restaurants, spas, hair salons, botox (yeah really!), hotels and tons of other stuff. All for 50-80% off retail!

The businesses want to reach more customers so they offer you a screaming deal to get in the door. Pretty cool eh?

So back to the gift part. I bought a Groupon for one night's stay at Hotel Phillips in downtown KC and gave it to Gene as one of his Christmas gifts to be used later. Caveat: he was not allowed to pass this off as my "valentine's gift". He's been warned!

Twice.

I thought it would be fun to share some of the fun things we did on our Groupon weekend (I bought 3 all together), and show you some parts of this historic hotel. In fact, It's on the national register of historic places.

Our room was surprisingly bigger than I expected. I think we might have been upgraded to the executive suite. Nice. If we weren't, then I'm even more impressed.

The front desk staff was very helpful and kind. The woman that checked me in had a thick french accent, and didn't seem annoyed when I had to ask her to repeat herself twice. *oops* (English accent, I can handle pretty well ;)

With our package we also received free parking, which ended up being Valet service. That was so nice! Just call down and the car is there and waiting for you a few minutes later. The valet attendants were really polite people also. Not once did we feel like one staff member was impolite.

Our package also included a bottle of wine which I had just one glass and Gene had most of the rest *lol* I prefer a very sweet desert wine, and he likes his much more dry. It was pretty good, but he liked it better than I did.

We stayed on the 19th floor, which I didn't ask for, but I always want to be as high as I possibly can. Mainly because I love the view! My only complaint was that the windows were kind of dirty so it was hard to get good pics, but really considering the time of year, it's a minor complaint if one at all.

The hotel is an historic art deco period hotel with much of the original decor. Don't expect brand new construction. If you do, then I hear there's a Best Western a few miles a way. Remember that this hotel was built at a time where the average American isn't 325 pounds so the elevators and hallways are a little narrower than what you see in new construction.

Having said that, the decor of the hotel is really stunning, and I'm *not* a big art deco fan. I just wanted to hang out in the lobby and take photos all day. It might be fun to dress up a model or bride in a period dress (I just so happen to have a period gown.. ;) and do some shooting in this lobby.

*must investigate further*

I would say, that my favorite part of the hotel, wasn't even in the hotel... it was the view. We had the best looksee of all downtown. We stayed right next to the Bank of America building and still couldn't see the top of their building it was so tall. It gave the best reflections all times of day and night.

We were very close to Bartle Hall and Sprint Arena. I have dozens of awesome pics of the sculptures on Bartle Hall.

I don't know the name of this building (I'm sure someone reading probably knows), but the lights change that light up the tower all night long. It was straight out our window. And FYI, the pic on the right was handheld at 1/4 second, ISO 320 at 200 mm. Be impressed.

The next morning, we had the last part of our package - it was breakfast for 2 at 12 Baltimore in the hotel. It was very good and there was only one incident where I accidentally shot a sausage patty across the table at Gene while cutting it.

We both recovered beautifully.

Our wait was a little long, and we did get stuck sitting very close to the strangest couple. (she wouldn't speak, and he wouldn't shut up), but really, if we'd gotten around a little earlier (hello, it was sunday!!!) then we wouldn't have had either issue.

The restaurant sounded really pretty good. They had a large pizza with 2 toppings that you can get delivered to your room for $9. That's cheaper than any chain pizza place. I kinda regretted having dinner reservations when I saw that.

This whole package cost us around $90 - with a retail value of $214 (which at retail I thought was a good deal).

Over all, I give this hotel an A. I definitely want to go back again just to explore the hotel a little more and take some more photos... and stay the night!


Tomorrow - I'll share the rest of our Groupon weekend!

The Groupon Weekend Getaway - Part 2

I meant to share with you yesterday the second part of our Groupon weekend, food!

Oh, we ate and we ate! Trust me... the old pants were tight.

One of the things that Groupon seems to offer (in my area anyway) on a regular basis is different restaurants. Everything you can imagine across the spectrum. Places I've never heard of... and that's the point, for the business to gain access to a new larger customer base, for not a lot of advertising dollars. Win-win

Our first stop was at O'Dowds authentic Irish pub. In North KC. Having actually been in a real irish pub, I looked forward to it.

I knew before I got there what I wanted. I wanted Bangers and Mash (sausage and mashed potatoes) just like the last time I was in an irish pub (when I went to the UK). Gene ordered a Shepherd's pie. He really enjoyed his, and I was a little disappointed. It was good but not *omg I want to quit my job and be irish* good. The decor was pretty good and seemed pretty real. Considering it's in one of the busiest retail developments in KC (zona rosa) and not in say, Ireland, I give them a solid B.

We got $20 worth of food, for $10 (plus a tip)


That evening, we went to Em Chamas which was a spur of the moment purchase for me. I bought this literally minutes before going to bed on Christmas eve (actually Christmas day around 1 a.m.!)

Em Chamas is a brazilian place, and the concept I knew Gene would love. You get a "coin" at the beginning of your meal and when it's on the blue side, it means you're interested in the waiters to stop. What do they have? Spears of all kinds of meats.

Gene is a carnivore. I knew this was a hole in one.

And it was, he really enjoyed it a lot and it was a unique experience. We got to try lots of different things that we'd never seen before, or often. Gene seemed to like it more than me. Probably because lots of things were more rare that I like them - which is well done.. WELL. I don't like to see blood on my plate.

*shivers*

(No idea who those ppl are on the left lol. I just wanted to show some decor)


We ended our meal sharing a apple turnover type desert. Very yummy. The down side was, it was very busy. We were sitting in the middle of a busy room (I hate that.. I want a booth lol), and even with a reservation, we had to wait around 15 minutes (after being told it would be 5).

I'd give it a B- Gene would give it a B+. There is a location in St. Joseph, so we'll probably try there at lunch time and see if we enjoy it more.

We bought $50 of food for $25 - plus tip

Tips on buying food on Groupon.
-Make sure that you check out the menu online first to see if you're getting a good value for your money. I want to know that I CAN eat on just the groupon if I wanted to. Plus, I want to know that they have things I'll like.
-If you want to take friends, make sure you can get multiple gift certificates and can use them all at once.
-Make reservations if you can, it could be very busy!


Over all, we enjoyed the experience. It was a way to try new things with not a lot invested.
For the weekend, we spent around $135 for $300 worth of "stuff" (not including tips).