Transfer visa to UK Passport in London - Timeframe?

[jimmybkk]

I went to the Centara Grand Mirage at Wong Amat last week with my missus and our 5-yr old daughter planning on having lunch around the pool and spending the afternoon drinking cocktails and maybe having the occasional swim. We arrived and I went to the nearest food shack to order some food and drinks. The girl working the shack was not at all friendly and rather rudely told me she only serves popcorn and ice cream at that shack. We can't order drinks there but she can take a food order and she showed me a menu. As I browsed the menu I asked her if we were ordering food and drinks there was it OK to use the pool and she replied no, again rather rudely I thought, so I told her in a similar tone that perhaps we wouldn't be requiring food then, returned the menu to her and walked off to find a bar and have a drink whilst deciding what to do. With hindsight I don't know why I bothered asking her the question because over the years we've been there probably half a dozen times doing exactly what we planned to do on that day and it had never been a problem. I guess I woke up on the dumbass side of the bed that morning...

We find another bar area and decide we will stay for a late lunch anyway so we order some junk food basically, and some cocktails. We've been there 5 minutes and our bill is over a thousand baht - no problem. It's a nice environment and a great location and I have no problem with paying a bit extra for that. We go and sit down on a couple of sun loungers and hear someone on the walkie talkie system the staff use saying (in Thai) "They've only ordered food, they're not swimming..." We can't be sure they're talking about us or if we're just being paranoid but we figure that we're spending money, we've never had a problem there before so it shouldn't be a problem today if we let our 5-yr old have a splash around in the shallows in front of where we're sitting.

After 10 or 15 minutes the food arrives and the server lays it out on the little table between the sun loungers and gives me the bill which I pay in cash. He doesn't ask for our room number, if we're staying at the hotel or anything. He returns with the change and I leave a tip on top of the ++.

Maybe 10-15 minutes after the food is served (it's finger food so we're taking our time and kinda picking at it) a member of staff comes and starts talking politely (I think, although she doesn't seem to impressed with what she's hearing) to my missus in Thai and I'm pretty sure that he's telling her that our daughter shouldn't be in the pool as it is for hotel guests only. The moody popcorn girl has obviously reported us but hey, no problem - if that is their policy and they are not prepared to overlook it even for a kid, and even if we are spending a reasonable amount and not just sitting there sharing a bottle of water, that's fair enough. We were being a bit naughty by letting her get into the pool and thinking we could maybe get away with it but if that's their policy ultimately we must respect it. When i ask the guy if he can explain to me what the problem is apparently his English is not up to it and he tells me "Just moment... Just moment..." and walks off. As he's leaving I notice that we're probably just over half way through the food we've ordered and it crosses my mind that perhaps the timing is no accident - unless there's something wrong with your food it's psychologically harder to send food back if you've already eaten more than half of it...

A few minutes later a guy called K. Marut arrives on the scene. He is obviously some kind of manager and he speaks reasonable English. He says he's been working at the hotel for 7 years and his attitude suggests that he and the popcorn girl were classmates at the same charm school. He confirms that as we are not staying at the hotel we can't use the pool unless we are prepared to pay 1,000 baht per person, and yes, it's the same price for adults and kids. (Fine, I can accept that, but...) He then tells us that the sun loungers are also only for hotel guests and that we now need to move to the table and chairs section over there. What the...??? We're paying customers and the way he's behaving is as if we've climbed over a fence into their private compound in order to take advantage of a free buffet. His attitude sucked and it wound me up that they would wait until we were two-thirds of the way through our meal before coming to tell us we must move, despite knowing we were not hotel guests from the moment we told the snarly popcorn girl and the word was passed around on the walkie talkies, and if they had told us any earlier I would have returned the food and refused to pay for it. This place advertises itself as a 5-star hotel and charges 5-star prices - forget the fact that it's the restaurant by the pool - imagine going to a 5-star restaurant anywhere and finding a nice table to sit at with a good view and pleasant surroundings... you prepare yourself for a good evening/afternoon and so you order from the menu accordingly. The waiter takes your order, delivers the starters, then delivers the main courses and when you're half way through your main course you're rudely told that you shouldn't be sitting there, and you need to move to the table over there at the back, near the toilet...

When I explained to K. Marut calmly that perhaps the time to tell us that sun loungers were for guests only was when we sat down there in full view of the staff at the bar area, or else when the server delivered the food, or when we paid cash for the food, or when he returned with the change. I also questioned why we weren't asked for a room number seeing as how it appears certain privileges are reserved for hotel guests only and so wouldn't it be a good idea if staff were able to differentiate who is staying at the hotel and who isn't so as to avoid misunderstandings such as this. And perhaps signs on the umbrellas in the sun lounger areas beneath the No Smoking signs stating that the sun loungers are for the use of hotel guests only would also not be a bad idea. (The fact that there are no signs also means he could have used his discretion without being seen to be flouting the rules. With hindsight I think he must be trying to nail the snarly popcorn girl and that's why he was so intent on taking action...)

Eventually K. Marut became a little apologetic and admitted that yes, his staff should have informed us earlier that we couldn't sit in the sun loungers, but we still had to move and finish what was left of our food over there. He handled the situation so badly that I cancelled the order I had just placed for another round of cocktails and left. I shall never set foot in the place again, nor recommend it to any friends. Quite the opposite in fact.

As a bit of background I have been to this hotel around 10 times I guess, either visiting friends who are staying there or else doing what we planned on this day. I doubt my bill from any of my visits has ever been less than 3,000 baht and I know it's peanuts in the scheme of things but it shows I'm not some cheap charlie looking for a free swim. I've also recommended this place to at least 3 or 4 friends who have ended up staying there.

Although it may seem like this post is just a whine about receiving bad service and being poorly treated in a hotel, it also serves as a reminder why i love doing business in this country - they really don't set the bar too high at all...

[thaicookingchef]

As I want to kill the monkeys every time this kind of thing happens I go out less and less and spend less and less at most biz just as they deserve.

At home food is better and nobody is half as stupid as people working around here...

Edited May 6, 2014 by thaicookingchef

[bkkjames]

[kurnell]

Now I know why as a guest staying at the Centara, I couldn't find a chair to sit on by the pool.

[DD13]

This reminds me of a time 20 years ago

We were having afternoon tea at "what is now" The Landmark Hotel in London.....a beautiful setting under a glass atrium roof......afternoon tea at that time for 4 people was 85 pounds (somewhat over 4000 baht)

As we were leaving, my 5/6 year old daughter put her hand on one of the "real"....probably 8-10 meter tall

coconut trees......whereupon a "haughty" restaurant manager leapt forward and in a loud voice announced

"Those trees cost 7000 pounds

I turned to him and replied (in an equally loud voice) .....IF YOU CAN WRAP IT WE WILL TAKE IT....

then whispered to him "never embarrass a child, they will remember it for the rest of their lives"

Red faced ....he slunk away into the shaddows

[JSixpack]

Just think to yourself, "I've traveled to Moscow and this is just how we normally do things here, no offense meant."

Edited May 7, 2014 by JSixpack

[KittenKong]

I'm afraid you lost me when you got to the bit about being charged 1000B for finger-food and then leaving a tip on top of a ++ bill.

[Asiantravel]

What makes me nervous about posting anything like this is if they have such an attitude to patrons whether they would equally try to construe your description of events (even though they may be 100% accurate) as falling under the weird defamation laws here.

[moose7117]

stayed there twice and put my 80 year old dad up there for a week when he visited Thailand for my wedding , and i love the place !

staff have a completely different attitude towards paying guests than what you seem to have received.

moose

[rayongchelsea]

Aren't you suppose to identify yourself as a non hotel guest ?

I would have thought for security reasons alone this was necessary.

Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[toenail]

I first want to thank JimmyBK for taking time to write downt the details; for, so many of us can run into this kind of situation but fail to share the frustration. A couple observations: Last Sunday a friend of mine went to the Sunday buffet there. All I heard from the couple was how poor the service was and the food. They live in Pattaya and eat at various star hotel restaurants so have a good handle on what a "decent" buffet or restaurant service would be. Next, I know 2-3 families that "sneak" into the Centara to use their pool; they do not stay overnight at the hotel and do not pay a fee. I think if one is "up front" and pay for using the pool during the day, then less red-tape would occurs. --But how is one to know?

The theme with this topic, is the lack of people skills the employees have at many top-notch restaurant, hotel, and shops lack in Pattaya. It takes more than a nice outfit for a employee to have that makes him/her a good worker. But this is the fault of the management which seems to be afraid to do a "customer service" workshop with his/her employees. Or is it a Thai "thing" about not correcting anyone...just let it be????

[KittenKong]

A couple observations: Last Sunday a friend of mine went to the Sunday buffet there. All I heard from the couple was how poor the service was and the food. They live in Pattaya and eat at various star hotel restaurants so have a good handle on what a "decent" buffet or restaurant service would be.

I've eaten at catered events several times at the Grand Mirage and the food was good enough.