Time for another “Spring Break”! Have to use up those vacation days…..

I didn’t feel like traveling a great distance (air travel doesn’t seem particularly safe or reliable these days) – where could I easily drive in one day, and with a baseball team that’s at home so I could take in a few games?

Baltimore fit the bill. Even though I’ve been there already – but it’s been about a decade since my last (and only other) trip there. Time to make plans!

I picked the Renaissance Harborview hotel. The price was acceptable, and it’s located right at the Inner Harbor – and therefore within easy walking distance of everywhere I was interested in going. And on the Orange “Charm City Circulator” free bus route (and two blocks from the Purple route) to make it easy to get to places a bit too far for walking.

Well…… there were a few things to gripe about.

Yes, they have parking under the hotel. But you have to pay online by scanning a QR code or texting a number to get to the website. You can’t pay at check-in. In fact, you have to pay BEFORE you check in. Which makes things difficult if you have an old and cranky phone that for some reason does NOT do normal data services. Now I can access the internet on my phone, but you can’t get the hotel’s wi-fi until you check in….. I managed somehow.

And speaking of the hotel’s wi-fi, most business who deal with the public have free wi-fi. Starbucks, highway rest areas, etc. Just accept the Terms of Service – you promise not to do anything illegal, and if someone hacks you, it’s not the company’s fault – and you’re in. Well, in order to use their wi-fi, I had to sign up as a “rewards member” first. NOWHERE was I told about that. And even so, my receipt at check out shows a fee of $12.95 per day for internet access….. Grrrrr….. Look, if you just added it to the regular room rate, I would not have known – and not minded.

Another minor annoyance? There are six elevators. Only four of them go to the floors with guest rooms; the other two only go to the parking garage and the floor with the conference rooms and hotel restaurant. And the signage to tell them apart is really, really lacking….

On the good side, the little coffee shop in the lobby features Matriarch Coffee. They’re a local coffee roaster, named for the owner’s mother, a coffee farmer from Rwanda – which is where they source almost all of their coffee. Much better than using the Keurig machine in your room! For those who aren’t hotel guests, there’s a Matriarch Coffee Shop in the Pratt Street Pavilion across the street on the Inner Harbor…..if they happen to be open.

There are two of those “pavilions”; they are supposed to be little shopping malls for the tourists. But for some reason, they don’t seem to be open often – or even fully occupied. A bit of a news check on them shows that they are indeed failing, There’s a plan in the works to tear them down and replace them with some huge mixed-use buildings – which will of course wind up ruining the whole park and public space vibe of the Inner Harbor. For some reason, the people of Baltimore voted for it…..

Eh, not my problem. Still sucks, though……

The view from my room, looking to the southeast. Across Pratt Street, from left to right, the “Power Plant” (which now holds a bunch of restaurants), the National Aquarium, the “World Trade Center” (the tallest building actually on the water’s edge), and the Pratt Street Pavilion. Now imagine a new building completely obscuring the view of the water…..

You actually pay a bit more for a room on the Pratt Street side, with a view of the Inner Harbor…I got a bit lucky here.