Radisson Admiral Semmes.
Written: Jul 11 '09
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Not far off Interstate 10.
Cons: Most of the hotel.
The Bottom Line: Go to Microtel.
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| Ladysmom's Full Review: Radisson Admiral Semmes |
Recently my family and I went to Mobile Alabama to attend the wedding of my wonderful nephew. All of us were staying at the Radisson Admiral Semmes, 251 Government Street Mobile, AL 36602. The hotel wasn’t hard to find at all. Just about a half of mile off interstate 10. It did take us a few minutes to maneuver the one way streets to get to the parking garage that is behind the hotel.
The Radisson Admiral Semmes first opened its doors in 1940 and was considered one of the finest hotels of its kind. It was damaged in 1979 due to hurricane Frederick and remodeled in 1985. The hotel is in the historic district of Mobile and a short walk to everything you need to do, except pick up a tuxedo. That is another adventure in itself.
Check-in time is 3pm. We were lucky and were able to check in a little earlier than that. It wouldn’t have been a pretty sight with all of us just loitering around the lobby for a few hours.
When you walk into the front door, you see a bar on the left and a restaurant on the right and you continue down the black marble floor to the front desk that is on the left. Check-in was a breeze. We were given our keycards and went up to our rooms in one of the two elevators. When we arrived on the 8th floor, it was almost unbearably hot. Our rooms weren’t much better, but we did find the air conditioner and turned it on.
The room was appointed with a sleep number bed, fridge, desk and chair. Outside the bath, there was a dressing table with a blow dryer that didn’t work. Thank goodness I brought my own or I would have looked a mess for the wedding.
In the bath, they provided shampoo, conditioner, bath gel, shower cap and white towels. We found the ironing board and iron in the closet. The closet was much larger than the ones in most hotels. That would be nice if you were planning on staying awhile.
We had to go back to the parking garage to get our luggage and to place a placket in the window stating that we belong there so our cars wouldn’t get towed away. The key we had to our room was used to swipe so that we could get in and out of the garage. Parking was $7.80 per day and was charged to our rooms. Even though we were guests of the hotel, it still cost us to park.
After getting our luggage, we took the elevator down so that we wouldn’t have to lug the stuff down stairs and let me tell you the elevator stunk to high heaven. It made your stomach roll because of the stench.
We managed to get ourselves and our luggage out of that elevator and into the hotel without getting sick all over the place.
Once we were set up in our room, all of us met in the lobby to wait on the bride to bring a bridesmaid dress and then we were going out to dinner.
While sitting in the lobby we couldn’t help but notice that the furniture was terribly tattered and had seen better days. It was time to throw that stuff out and hit a few garage sales for something better for the guests to sit on.
The furniture was so uncomfortable, we decided to move to the bar to get something cold to drink. We waited a while for someone to wait on us. We were the only ones there so it shouldn’t have taken any time to get a few cokes ordered and to the table.
The bride came by and dropped off the dress and we decided it was time for dinner. We couldn’t find anyone that was in the restaurant so we went to a burger place to eat and then back to the hotel.
Several of us decided to explore the hotel because its advertising gave us a list of amenities such as “Tennis · Swimming Pool - Outdoor · Swimming Pool · Self Parking · Restaurant / Cafe · Porters · Photocopy service · Phone Service · Multilingual · Meeting / Banquet Facilities · Lounge / Bar / Nightclub · Live Entertainment · Handicap Accessible · Free Parking · Fire Alarm with Light · Fax · Family Plan · Exercise Room · Elevators · Coffee Shop · Car Rent Desk”
We did find the pool and thought we would take a swim because it was so hot. Not a chance. The pool was closed and a very small pool at that. Most backyards have larger pools. As for the free parking, not a chance. It cost us everyday we were there. The exercise room must have been down at the Y because we did not find it and neither did other guest that were looking. There was no live entertainment, except for the guest looking for the exercise room. No car rent desk that we could find and the gift shop was never open when we went by.
When we got up to our room, the bed was turned down and a nice plate of cookies were left along with one bottle of water. The room had started to cool down and we were ready to try out the sleep number bed to see if we liked it or not. Couldn’t figure out how the danged thing worked. The directions were not there. The TV worked pretty good except the volume was always on high when you would turn it on.
By the next morning we were ready to head for breakfast and noticed that the hall had cooled down considerably. My sister had found the thermostat and turned on the air conditioner.
We went to the restaurant and nothing was going on there so we asked if there was any other place we could go and they recommended A Spot of Tea that was a few blocks from the hotel. We ended up there at every meal that we ate.
That night we got back to the Raddison Admiral Semmes and headed to our rooms to get a good nights rest because the wedding was going to be the next day and it was going to be a hot day.
We entered our room and noticed that it had not been tended to. I shouldn’t say that. The room had been entered and some money was missing and some of my makeup was gone. Then to top it off, there wasn’t any water in the room and you couldn’t drink the tap water so my husband went down stairs to complain and get water for everyone on the floor. He had to pay for it.
During the night, the air conditioner vent was over the top of our heads and it felt like we were sleeping in a wind tunnel. If you turned the air conditioner up enough to stop it from running, it didn’t turn back on.
Don’t let the picture of the hotel fool you. It wasn’t that nice inside. I think we would have had a better deal at a Microtel than at the Raddison Admiral Semmes. At least at Microtel, you don’t expect much and you don’t pay much.
Recommended:
No
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Ladysmom
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