San Carlos Plaza Hotel & Resort

Happy New Year!

Mike and I decided to splurge and bring in the New Year from San Carlos, the resort town about 15 miles north of Guaymas. We picked the San Carlos Plaza Hotel & Resort because it has a four star rating and we wanted to be spoiled. And for $119 USD we thought we deserved it!

Unfortunately, we knew when we walked into the room it was not what we were expecting. I thought there would at least be a coffee maker, a clock/radio and some brochures about what the hotel has to offer (activities, pool hours, menus.) But no, there were none of these things. There wasn’t even a Bible in the drawer. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the view of the Sea of Cortez from our room on the fourth (and top) floor of the hotel.The bellman assuredly told us that at midnight there would be a wonderful hotel fireworks display that we could see from our room or that we could go down to the pool area to watch. That was perfect for us! So at 8:30 we went down to the hotel restaurant, Joey Bistro, with the intention of enjoying a leisurely dinner before the fireworks. We had already looked at the menu and Mike was dying for a plain, ole rib eye steak.

The restaurant was very busy when we got there, but there were still empty tables. We were asked to seat ourselves and it was quite a while before a waiter gave us menus and water. Eventually our orders were taken. To our surprise our waiter presented us with a complimentary Caprese Salad (traditionally mozzarella, tomato & basil drizzled in olive oil, but this salad had prosciutto and no basil.) He apologized for the long wait in getting our orders taken. That was a great gesture.

Unfortunately, Mike’s long awaited steak (keeping in mind that his appetite has been off for quite some time and he needs to eat) was full of gristle and it was tough. I had a salmon filet, but it was very dry and without flavor. Also, it was served on a bed of julienne carrots with a barely warmed accompaniment of carrots, broccoli and cauliflower. I like carrots but enough already! Where was some rice or something??The other diners were older like us and at least the restaurant had a nice ambience. That is until the four wild children began running circles through the restaurant, barely missing the waiters, and screaming the whole time. It took just a minute to pick out their parents – two younger couples laughing and pouring wine at their table 30 feet away, totally oblivious to their obnoxious children. HMPFFF!

And the fireworks? Well, there weren’t any at our hotel. (Maybe our bellman was "new"?) But when we stuck our heads out our window and strained to crank them at a 90 degree angle, turning our faces to the right, we could see the short fireworks display from down the beach. And that was it.

Oh and we did have three phone calls on our room phone. One while we were getting dressed for dinner. Mike answered, but there was a hang up. One at 4:10am with two rings and then a hang up. And one at 6:50am with two rings followed by a hang up. Hmmm, we hadn't requested any calls in the middle of the night.

We were home by 9:30 this morning. The pool and spa just didn’t look as appealing today as they had yesterday. It was not the New Year’s Eve celebration that we had anticipated, and we are very disappointed with the San Carlos Plaza Hotel & Resort.

Here’s to new twists and turns in 2009!