The Ahwahnee: Críticas

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We have heard(oido) about the famous Ahwahnee Hotel but never even(incluso) planned to stay there, because the rooms are too expansive. This past weekend-Esta semana pasado, they ran-dirige a special of 1/3 of the normal room rate(especial de 1/3 de la tarifa normal de la habitación), so -así que we gave it a try-nos dio, una prueba. If we would have pay full rate, we would be really really disappointed.(Si nos hubiéramos. El precio completo, nos lo que realmente, realmente nos decepcionó.)



The hotel is really beautiful, but the rooms seem to be the same as they were build- eran construido in the 20's. There are a few updates-unos actualizaciones here and there, but overall-en general, it is not much better than a $40 motel room except for-a excepción de the amazing view. Here are just some of the problems with the hotel:



1) Heater doesn't work very well. At the highest setting-entorno ,the room is at 68 degree near the air outlet-enchufe. It is much colder at the bed near-junto a the window.



2) The bathroom is the smallest I have seen in any hotel. The door won't even open all the way- todo el camino because it hits-plazca the toilet-inodoro. The towels are kind of hard and crusty-crujiente. I guess they don't believe in fabric softener-suavizante de tela.



3) The carpets and decor are really dated-anticuada... okay-bien maybe-quizás not back in the 20's.. but more like the 70's. The walls and doors are thin(fino, delgado).. you can hear everything in the hallway_pasillo).



4) There is one tiny elevator (fit about-en forma de 6 to 7 people max) to all the floors-todas las plantas. The weekend(el fin del semana) was very empty, ,but the wait was still(aun) long. I cannot imagine what it would be like on a crowded-lleno day. It is one of those really really slow moving one too.



5) You have the option of self park(aparcamiento de autoservicio), but they have very few parking spaces, and the parking lot has very few lights at night. They have those auto motion detect lights, but they turn off really quickly once you walked pass it. It blinds you and then left you in the pitch dark to find your car. Most of the time you can't even find a parking space.. this is on a very very slow weekend.



6) The entrance area(zona) is dangerous. They have these roof with build up of snow and ice on top (Cuentan con estas azotea con la construir de nieve y hielo en la cima). We were about 5 feet away and saw a small avalanche. Luckily(Por suerte ) no person or car was there, or there will be damage or injury(daño o lesión ) for sure.



7) The seating halls are very very nice with the fireplaces-chimenea. The problem is that they are trying to keep(mantener) it spotless ALL the time(todo el tiempo). On a Saturday night, when you are trying to sit and relax to read a book or surf the internet, you have all these people trying to clean the carpets and furnitures around you-de alrededor. Come Sunday morning... they are still there cleaning...



8) Speaking of internet, they have no wireless in the rooms. The TV is about 10 years old( La televisión es de 10 años) and only got about 5 to 7 broadcast channels-canales (I don't think there is cable). The picture is fuzzy on most of them.



9) Wireless phone reception for both AT&T and Sprint are horrible. I have full AT&T signal up in the middle of nowhere on the road, but barely got-apenas llegamos 1 bar at the hotel.



The view from the hotel is amazing, but you don't really have to rent a room to use the hotel. You could just drive there and visit and stay at one of the other hotels. It is really cool (guay）to see the waterfall-cascada outside your room window at first, but then you will probably be leaving the room until it is dark（hasta que es oscuro）. Once-Una vez que it is night time, all you got a dated room with a small bathroom and poorly isolated-mal aislado pitch dark window.



I only pay 1/3 of the rate, so I think it was an okay experience to stay at an historical building at that price. I would not stay there again for even for the discounted rate.



XX

You are undoubtedly reading this review, because you have heard about the stunningly beautiful Ahwahnee. Chances are-Es posible que that you either-o bien read that in a brochure-folleto or heard it from a friend that saw the place on a day trip, but did not stay there.



Why? Because this place is a dump-pocilga, tugurio that must get guests solely on the basis of its stunningly beautiful location (no doubting that) and the fact-el hecho that it was a great hotel when it was built 80 years ago-atrás and somehow-de alguna manera, despite(a pesar de ) Trip Advisor, retains(conserva) that rating.



Before getting into the details below-de abajo, consider one fact that I personally failed(fallar, fracasar) to overlook before I booked my recent trip: for a hotel with its reputation and costs, why are such a huge number of reviews on TA negative? Outstanding-excepcional hotels around the world-alrededor del mundo have few, if any, 1-3 star ratings. This place has a very large number…it’s not just a couple people with sour- amargo grapes, folks; the place is a dump.



Positives: the location is stunningly-increiblemente beautiful-precioso. That’s it. You can get 100% of that benefit by just stopping in for a day-parando justo en un día and perhaps bringing a picnic-dandonos un picnic. I recommend that anyone coming to Yosemite come to the hotel and bring- traería a picnic. It’s gorgeous.-preciosidad.



Negatives:*

Genuinely dumpy: I doubt-me dudo they have put anything-algo into repairing the place in 80 years

* Terrible service: almost(casi) all aspects of the property appear to be run- se dirige by high-school dropouts from local communities.

Cold: the room heaters FAIL(falso). We were there in the winter; our room was-era in entre the 40’s.

Lack of hot water. The showers use water-saving “mist” shower heads and restrict you to a very short shower. There is not enough hot water, for example, to fill a bath. The water heater is slow, so you use it only every couple hours. If you are a couple, decide which of you will stink, or take a cold shower, before you get out of bed.



* The towels appear to be the originals from 1929. Crunchy-crujiente, hardened and gross(asqueroso-sickening, filthy,foul.)



* I didn’t care about watching TV, but if you do-pero si te hacen, you should know they don’t work. They are just there so that the hotel can say they have them on the brochures.



Mice and rats: personally, I am OK with mice (I think that they are kind of cute- mono and they don’t really mess with people). I sort of had fun chasing them around and watching them. If you are not a big fan of rats and mice, this might be a factor. If you like rats, this can make up for a lack of TV.



* Food was mediocre at best. Leftovers-sobras, restos from 1929? One suspects-sospechar that may be the case-puede ser el caso.



* Costs are what we called in business school “Rip-off pricing”. I am not talking about the hotel costs, which you can see for yourself-por ti mismo and I don’t believe should drive reviews on Trip Advisor. I am talking about $25 for a cheeseburger, $20 for a glass of wine (eat that one up New York!) … which lead to routinely- rutinariamente paying upwards of $100-150 for a low quality routine meal. Have a nice bottle of wine and you are looking at $200 for a meal that is not really very good. And to be clear, if it’s not obvious-si lo es no obvio, you are captive…you have no choice but to eat/drink here!



So, do you still want to go to Yosemite and you are looking for a suggested- sugirió alternative? Here are some better options: stay-Alójate at the Yosemite Lodge at the Falls. It’s not great either, but it’s no worse and a lot less money. Stay at the Wawona. It’s actually- En realidad a nicer place. Or camp. If you feel that you absolutely must stay at the Ahwahnee to make your life complete, one night will let you check that one off your bucket list-lista de cubo before moving on with your life.



Two quick calibration points* If you think that I am just a sour traveler, see my other reviews and you will see that is not the case. This is truly-de verdad one of the world's dumpy hotels.

* I have a very hard time believing that any reviews that are 4-5 stars were written by people that actually stayed at the hotel (as opposed to just stopping by during the day) and who do not work there (and thus write fake reviews).