The arrival was good - once we figured out that "near Rhyl" meant "nowhere near Rhyl" and we duly queued for our check in. Now we were early so did not have to suffer the bitter cold of the evening queuers - poor souls. Someone should have gone up and down that line with hot tea. Bit shocked to have to fork over £100 "deposit", especially given what we discovered on entering our "new refurbished chalet"....
Refurbished apparently means new lino and "we painted over the worst bits". There was damp down one wall with what looked like distemper. There was a great big hole in the bathroom under the sink, with what looked like some rather important connectors sat on the floor. There was a window stuck open in the kitchen area, which explains why it was always so blood cold. There was 1 plug socket in the kitchen. For the kettle, toaster and microwave. Which was on the other side of the cooker. Where there was a scary switch. Seems you could either cook, or have hot water. But not both.There was no table, no chairs, hell no glasses and no cereal bowls. Which was odd as they definitely sold cereal in the 'shop'. Perhaps you were meant to eat them out of the packet...
On returning to reception with our list of complaints, we found that the entire sci-fi community had turned up and were shivering right down the length of the building. So we went for dinner.
How can an event which has SOLD OUT not have a full catering facility? Half the canteen was in use and you could have either chicken, scampi or pork. Vegetarian? Well it's chips, broccoli and carrots for you, you lucky thing. On any kind of diet? Begone foul beastie back to the Nisa market of doom!
Special mention at this point to Waddy and Rob Lupine, raconteurs especiale who entertained us throughout dinner and the evening with tales of Wadfest, Clarecraft and how a bruiser of a chap managed to get chatted up whilst in a primrose frock. Utterly charming, if you get the chance, find them on twitter...
Alas our joy was too soon ended as we returned to the ice bucket of 'home'. We figured our how the fridge worked (You need to pull it right out and plug it in) and put on all our clothes to go to sleep.
I believe it was the next morning when Bear started to lose his rag. He awoke and attempted to have breakfast. No cereal bowls and only teeny tiny cups for a brew. OK. We hot footed it to reception. Queued again and then handed over our list of complaints. Not even a "sorry". Just "they are building your table and chairs now" and "teething troubles". Not a happy bear now. We had a VERY disappointing breakfast ("Whaddya mean there's no beans???") and a wander around the dealers room before settling down to watch A Princess Bride. (Inconceivable! No really we did)
And then the news started on twitter. Guests not coming, events cancelled, then the preview was cancelled and I think at that point I'd lost Bear completely. We approached the canteen for lunch. Again people it was SOLD OUT. One person on a till does not suffice!
Shortly after this having returned to our chalet to find that no-one had even been to check on our problems and we packed our bags. There was nothing we wanted to see or do badly enough to put up with either the accommodation or the food. We pulled ourselves up to our full middle class heights, demanded sushi, sparkling water and a world where you could have both an oven AND hot water and left.
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