The Surrey Sheraton

Just got in from work and am savoring a lukewarm cup of this morning’s coffee. I need to finish revisions on chapter thirty while my mind is half way alert. Since I have a hair appointment at 10:00, I probably shouldn’t stay up until 5 or 6 like I normally do.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, here it comes again. More about Surrey.

This isn’t about classes or even the conference per se, but it is an important component of the conference. I opted to stay at the Sheraton where the conference was being held. I did this mainly because I didn’t want to miss anything and I didn’t want to be rushing around, trying to get to another place in the morning. Aside from that, I figured I just stagger to my room with no problem if I got too happy. For enquiring minds, I never really got happy, but I was very mellow. So mellow, I assumed everyone wanted to share in story hour with Julie. Heaven knows why anyone would want to hear about Martha and Tilley, the African Laundry Warriors, I See Outlines of Dead People and How I Reformed a Preacher’s Daughter. I think this forklift story was tossed in there as well, and heaven knows what else. I was…relaxed. It’s quite possible my audience was relaxed as well, although Lisa, to her credit, stayed with Diet Coke most of the time.

But, back to the story. You thought I forgot where I was going, didn’t you?

The Sheraton was fabulous. I loved everything about it. Well, the food prices were a little high, but I opted for the meals with my conference package and ate cereal in the morning. Thank you, Miss Lisa.

Check in was very orderly and quick. I asked the porter if I could get a mini fridge and had one delivered within minutes. The entire staff was wonderful. Everyone was so helpful and friendly. I know they had to be tearing their hair out at times with all the people, but I never once got anything except very gracious service. Their staff deserves a huge pat on the back.

The food was very good and they had a nice variety. I was tempted to eat breakfast just for the pastries.

I asked for a bowl and spoon for breakfast and the waiter tracked one down for me without a question. It was just a lot of little things like that which made me love this hotel.

Obviously, I love the mandarin and mint personal products. I’ve searched everywhere for them, but I understand they are made by Bliss exclusively for Sheraton. Seriously, those lotions, soaps and shampoos are so luscious it’s worth staying at Sheraton just for them.

Another nice addition was the Starbucks coffee and Tazo tea in the rooms and at the functions. I am now addicted to the Tazo passion tea. Oh. My. Gosh. It is awesome. Rachel Vater commented about the pretty color so I had to try some. Yum. It is also beautiful just to look at. I doubt they had anything like it in my approximately 1300 AD medieval world, but it‘s fantasy so I get to fudge a bit. I have my characters drinking a luscious red tea. It was so comforting to me, it was easy to describe it in the book and how it made people feel. And I wonder why I’m over on word count.

Ok, so I am impressed with little things. What can you expect from a hick?

I had a problem with the reservation and they reserved the room for one day less than I needed. They got it straightened out, but we were going to have to change rooms, which was going to be a pain. They manager finagled it around so we could stay in the same room and made other arrangements with the people who were booked into our room.

As I said, we got nothing but exemplary service all the way around.

This was, of course, my first writer’s conference, but I doubt many are as smooth as this one.

So, salute to the Surrey Sheraton and its staff. I can’t wait to return this year.