Month: May 2013

By Nick – Random Segments

I visited the Detla Heritage museum a couple of months ago, but have been delaying posting the pictures because I was debating on the best way to share them.  Rather than have a post that is extremely long with a huge amount of pictures and no real good organization to them, I decided to post them on Google+ in special albums dedicated by hangar.

Hangar 2 (With the Spirit of Delta)

Hangar 1 (Including interior of DC-3)

I know this makes this not as fun, but I wanted to get this out there, especially with the renovations about to begin.

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By Nick – Random Segments

While most of the time I stay in chain hotels to maximize points and benefits, there are times where circumstances prevent me from staying in a chain.  An extra night on a stay in Tampa provided to be one such situation.  I was returning home from a quick vacation, and they oversold all the flights to ATL for the day, so were needing volunteers.  I had the time, so took the bump, and they provided an overnight stay.  Unfortunately, most of the regular hotels were unavailable for the contracted rate, so I was placed at the Mainsail Suites.  It is located a couple of miles from Tampa International and provides shuttle service from the airport, and the return shuttle picks you up right outside of your building.

This is a hotel that is really just an apartment complex that is used as a hotel.  In fact, you would not believe it was a hotel except for the locks on the doors.

The welcome experience was pleasant but not outstanding.  Off the main reception is a restruant and a convenience mart (which was undergoing renovations during my stay.  Down the hall is the fitness center, business center, and out back is the pool and the hot tub.

The rooms are very basic apartments.  Generally what you expect to find when shopping for reasonable places around where you live. The nice thing is that you have a real kitchen instead of the standard extended stay kitchen of stovetop and microwave.

With a little welcome gift.

The bed was passable, but nothing special in the least.

The soaps are Archive, not one you usually encounter.  Decent, but again nothing special.  My one issue with the room is that the wireless is $9.95 a day, but the wired is free.  I was traveling with just my iPad, so was having to use my cellular data instead of a room connection.

Since I had dining certificates, I dined in the hotel, and had a reasonable fish and chips.  Again, nothing special, but a nice change from many hotel dining options.

Overall, this is a decent hotel for an extended stay.  The kitchen wins me over because of the oven for more in room cooking options.  Not luxurious, but when you need a place to crash, you can certainly do worse.

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