Memorial Day Weekend VLOGS | Riding in Cars With Boys | Crochet Knit Dress + Jimmy Choo | Latitude 28 JW Marriott Clearwater Beach

 

So, this is the day that meant the most to me because it was the day I got to ride in the new car for the first time. I planned a whole night which is nostalgic to my time as a teenager and twenty something coming of age in the Tampa Bay area.

Most of my days and nights when I was not working or in school I was in fact at Clearwater Beach with my husband and my friends, other than Ybor City that was the place to be for those of you who are new to Tampa. Most nights when I was an adult, but still under 20 (so still a teenager) I did still have a strict curfew. So, we "rode out" most nights in my friends Escalade. BUT I WAS NOT ALLOWED TO RIDE IN CARS WITH BOYS. 

Lol, and that is why I named this blog post as such because the one and only time I drove my husband and his friend to the mall I got in so much trouble. Once I got older I was allowed to ride in the car with my now husband, but that's a story within itself!

So anyway, when my husband surprised me with a car last Monday, riding out was all I wanted to do because my old car was so old it wasn't even comfortable or safe to ride in anymore and I had a lot of anxiety about being in the car.

Naturally, he wanted me to ride in the car and get used to it. 

That old beat up Toyota got us through college, moving twice, and tons of road trips (and more) though, so, I don't want to make it sound so bad because it was reliable for the most part.

But now, I guess we are in a new chapter! 

Crochet swim cover up/ dress: JLUXLABEL

Tube dress: Free People

Latitude 28

JW Marriott Clearwater Beach

So this is my opinion of this dinner we had here and I am just going to be straightforward with you guys.

Everyone can "get got" and if you don't know what I mean maybe you will after you read this post. 

Here, in the area I live in, there are a lot of people who will say anything for a free meal, they will give 5 star reviews and never say it is sponsored or hosted. The reviews are biased and fake. I have never been like that. I know I have a reputation for being straightforward because it is a part of my personality, all I can do is just tell you what was up and try not to be too blunt because I am very blunt a lot of times even when I am trying not to be.

The reason I mention this is because this hotel, this restaurant and the other restaurant in the hotel have done nothing; but work with "influencers" since they opened two years ago. Everyone who goes there says who have all said this place is "amaze". "This place has the best food." This that and the other. Now, anyone can get got and that includes ME. I know I get labeled an Influencer and treated as such a lot of times, but I have always maintained that if I partner or work with ANYONE I will give an honest review and say it was sponsored or hosted.

I also predominantly stay at Marriott hotels as a member and so I am accustomed to a certain level of service so I believed the reviews and videos I saw.

So, here is my review of my night and I went here on my own, not sponsored and not hosted.

First off, the hotel is beautiful. It's got all the feels and the vibes. I live 20-25 minutes AWAY from this hotel and I honestly, would have stayed here, but given the high amount of sponsored posts they have I needed to see this place my self before spending my money and time. Now as far as dining goes...the bar was set that high because as I said, I have eaten at so many Marriott hotels and usually they truly have some of the best hotel restaurants and service. 

So, what I am about to say it does not have anything to do with our waitress or anyone at the bar who helped us etc.

When we arrived for our reservation we were told there was a wait and it wasn't even busy. We requested to sit outside and there were only 2 occupied tables outside. While waiting in the lobby a manager came and apologized for the wait almost immediately and offered us two free drinks at the bar. I was like "wow, how nice of them!" Well, we waited 25 minutes there while my drinks became room temperature and then we're seated and the sun had already started to set. 

Our salads took 50 minutes to come out. That is 50 minutes from when we were seated after we waited 25 minutes after arriving for our reservation.

There is now 4 tables of diners outside and all of us have been waiting and waiting and waiting. We actually never even got water until an hour after being outside after I asked for it.

By the time dinner arrived I asked for our bill because it had been another hour. Our food arrived cold and it was now dark outside. The food shockingly was so bland I did not even want to eat mine. My shrimp just tasted like they had been soaked in butter and garlic and cooked and placed on the risotto, but it had no flavor other than garlic. We had waited three hours and I was really disappointed. 

The complimentary drinks were actually fetch. The martini was one of the best I have had and I had martinis and the other one melted because it was so hot, but I still tried to drink it.

The table next to us asked us how long have you been waiting for food? at one point.We had been waiting for about an hour at that point. I mentioned there was about four tables seated outside earlier, well, all of us arrived at different times, but all of us got our food all at once which explained why our food was cold as well.

So, I think this is the second or third time this month even I got fooled by "influencer" reviews and trust, I have followed this hotel and their restaurants for 2 years now, but no one they ever had come out there that was an Instagram Influencer ever gave them a bad review.

As a person who has stayed at countless Marriott Hotels I was actually really shocked at how the dinner went and I just decided to eat a grilled cheese at home. 

Everything else was perfectly ideal though. The little beach, the view, the sunset, vibes, staff. All the issues were right there centered at dinner and I didn't want to make this look like a "perfect date night" because I did in fact not like dinner. It was also during the week so you know people have to go to work the next day and to sit outside waiting three hours for food is just unacceptable. 

I thought maybe they were just understaffed, but alas on Yelp there are a lot of reviews saying their dinner as well took hours to arrive. It is a nice place (about 2 spots down from Shepherd's) if they got things more streamlined I would try them again, but I just want to say I should have checked Yelp beforehand because I usually do.