In contrast to the famous opening line of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, our first trip of 2026 proved to be neither the best of times nor the worst of times.
Our destination for this modest five-day expedition was Tampa, Florida. It's a 2,000-mile flight for us from Seattle that Alaska sometimes advertises at relatively reasonable fares, offering us a break from an especially rainy Northwest January.
Our flight out of BLI (Bellingham WA) to SEA (Seattle) departed at an ungodly 5:15 am. As we have in the past, we found an affordable park-and-fly rate at the relatively new and thoroughly pleasant Holiday Inn across the parking lot from the terminal.
We drove down the night before our flight, parked in the hotel's secure garage, and enjoyed a tasty dinner in the restaurant.
We never sleep well when we have to rise early. We both habitually set the alarms on our cell phones, and sometimes also set the room's alarm if we're still worried. Brian in particular needs his morning shower to function fully and can't remember the last time he went without one (that's a bit of foreshadowing, as you'll later find out). That requires an additional 15 minutes to accomplish.
We want to be at the terminal in time to clear security and board early enough to be able to store our rollaboards on the small jet we're flying, so we agreed that 3:45 am would be wakey-wakey time.
A few hours later we awakened in time to turn our alarms off in advance, shower, dress, and trundle ourselves out of the hotel, across the parking lot, into the terminal, through TSA security, and ready to board.
After the short hop to Seattle (about 20 minutes of flying time), we had time to order a couple of the excellent barista-made Cappuccinos offered in the Alaska Lounge before boarding our SEA-TPA flight, an excellent experience with our upgraded First seats.
We've learned to comparison shop both Uber and Lyft and on this occasion Lyft was significantly cheaper. Our destination hotel, Embassy Suites near the Convention Center, is also close to the arena where the Tampa Bay Lightning Hockey Team was playing the Colorado Avalanche on this particular evening. Traffic was snarled with an abundance of pedestrians, turning our 25-minute drive into a 45-minute ordeal for our driver.
We eventually checked in at the hotel, with the friendly employee at the front desk taking note of Kathy's Lifetime Diamond status with Hilton.
He volunteered that he unfortunately couldn't find an upgrade for our three-night stay (we hadn’t asked for one), since Kathy's Hilton profile indicates she prefers lower floors (actually, it doesn't). We've stayed in this property before, as recently as February 2023, so we knew what to expect. The hotel is a little tired, but offers plenty of room.
We went to bed early after dinner in the restaurant, there being a $30 daily credit as part of a Daily Mandatory Charge, a resort fee by another name.
Daily Mandatory Charge includes: Destination Charge with premium guest internet access; daily $30 food and beverage credit for use in all hotel outlets (excluding room service); 1 hour bicycle rental for 2. Mandatory Charge also includes a Tourism Marketing District Assessment.
As we closed the drapes, we noticed it was suddenly foggy, and we were happy to be indoors. The next morning when we opened the drapes we realized we had seen not fog but a wall of an adjacent building that completely blocked any view we otherwise might have had.
The water flowing to the shower was so hot as to be nearly unusable but we eventually managed it and emerged into a beautiful day. The free trolley that runs all the way to the historic neighborhood of Ybor City, once the site of a flourishing Cuban cigar industry,. has a stop right across from the hotel's entrance and access to Tampa's beautiful Riverwalk, where we walked daily for two or three miles
We returned to restaurants we'd enjoyed on previous trips, including two Ybor City eateries, Asiatic, a Thai restaurant, and La Terrazza, Trip Advisor's Number 5 of 2,567 Tampa restaurants.
We discovered on our second morning that the water, while no longer scalding hot, was tepid at best. Brian's hasty shower was barely tolerable and Kathy skipped hers. On our way out, we asked for assistance at the front desk and the employee said he'd had no other complaints. Several hours later, upon our return, we realized the water was still cool and got in touch again. Apologies were offered and quick attention was promised.
By mid-afternoon, after we returned from an enjoyable visit to the nearby Tampa Bay History Center, nothing had changed. We can't remember the last time we've asked to "speak to the manager." The young manager we spoke to was extremely apologetic. Brian, to make a point, asked what we had done wrong to explain the lack of a response. The answer, of course, was that we'd done nothing wrong and further apologies followed. The young man offered to change our room, which was a nuisance, considering we were checking out the next morning. He promised he would send an engineer immediately.
This time a hotel engineer arrived, in the midst of changing a shower head in the room next door. He revealed that he couldn't fix the problem, because it was a systemic flaw. He claimed the water pipes had been installed in such a way that rooms in the middle of the building don't get a consistent supply of hot water. He advised us to run the water for five minutes and we would then have hot water. He hung around for five minutes, and the water gradually became lukewarm. He also advised us to seek out a room on the side of the building.
We may not be the sharpest knives in the drawer, but it dawned on us that the hotel had not been completely candid with us about the hot water problems. A search and careful reading of Trip Advisor reviews later revealed several complaints about the lack of hot water along the same lines.
We called the manager back and said we wanted another room. A second manager arrived at our door promptly with a new key card. We came to realize this was in the same position as our original room but a few floors higher. We checked the room. Sure enough, the water ran cold. At that point, we'd had enough. We returned to the lobby, spoke rather firmly to the manager, and he hastily found us a room several floors higher on one side of the building.
6th floor to 10th floor to 16th floor on the side!
This time the water was hot and the view from the 16th floor was captivating, not that we cared that much about scenery at this point.
Our flight back home didn't leave until Saturday evening, so when checking out the next morning we stored our bags with the hotel and took the trolley back to Ybor City for lunch at Asiatic. That free 2 1/2-mile 25-minute ride is sheer fun for us.
We'd certainly return to Tampa for another lowkey holiday but - no surprise- it's doubtful we'd return to the Embassy Suites Convention Center. We were lukewarm at best about our stay there.
Our flights on Alaska were just fine. We flew BLI-SEA-TPA outbound. On the return, we flew TPA-SAN-(San Diego)-SEA-BLI. There's no question Alaska is facing some IT problems that are having some negative effects on the passenger experience. We hope they can sort that out. It’s a continuing discussion topic in online forums like Facebook and FlyerTalk.
In the meantime, we're safely back home for a week before another quick trip to the US South, a return trip to an Alaska destination, Charleston South Carolina.
Until then, happy travels!
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