Birthday at Marriott

We do everything on a budget. Our family doesn't have the money to take a vacation, so instead, we decided to do a "stay-cation" to celebrate the birthdays of our daughter and son. One day, while watching TV, an ad came up from the Marriott saying you could "Nickelodeon Your Stay"for the kids at all Marriott hotels. BOING. (That's the light bulb popping up over my head). My kids love Nickelodeon. They have their birthdays super close together. Let me find a Marriott on Long Island, with a pool, to do an overnight stay to celebrate their birthdays.
Off to the internet I went, found the Islandia Marriott with an indoor pool, signed up for Marriott Rewards AND was able to book it through a cash rebate site, so I went ahead and booked it! I booked it after reading about all the great stuff the kids would be able to get: Free goodies at check-in, A Nickelodeon Your Stay Bag, Stylish Sunglasses, Build Your Own "SpongeBob" activity, Splash Ball, Nick Your Stay turndown service, Souvenir pillowcase and Bedtime Storybook.
Off we went this weekend to enjoy our Nickelodeon room, swim in the indoor pool, have McDonald's for dinner, Carvel for dessert and put our SpongeBob PJs on and lounge around in the beautiful, comfy beds. Well, it didn't happen like that at all.

We arrived and the women were very nice at the front desk, welcomed us, said Happy Birthday to the kids, gave them candy, gave them each a bracelet, a Build Your Own Spongebob Activity and some other booklet. I figured, those were the freebies at check in. The rest would be in our room waiting for us..........I was WRONG. There was NOTHING. Absolutely NOTHING in our room. I called down to find out what the deal was, got a call back that they had run out of the pillow cases and they never mentioned the rest of the items they were suppose to get.
Severely disappointed, as the whole point of going was to really have this cool room for the kids. It's why I chose the Marriott to do it. My husband went down to chat with the front desk, while I composed myself and tried to not let it ruin the day. The kids were so excited with what they did get, I was reminded of how amazing my kids are.....they love the simple things. And then it reminded me of why I wanted to give them something super special for their birthdays this year, because they are kids who aren't spoiled and are genuinely excited about the little things in life.
My husband returned to our room to tell me that they were mailing us the goodies when they arrived, they would give us a "regular" rate for the room, plus they gave us a couple of other "amenities" to make the sting a little less painful.

HOWEVER, my issue is this: I booked this in August, we went in November. The Marriott had it in the reservation we wanted this for our room, which gave the hotel ample time to have the items needed to complete the room and give us the stay we were promised: Nickelodeon Your Stay!
Marriott - I'm not happy with this kind of disregard for my children. They deserve better and to be honest, though the staff was very nice, they failed to provide my kids with the Nickelodeon Your Stay as promised - which I gladly paid for, because my kids would have loved it. I could have done a stay-cation at any of the HUNDREDS of hotels around here. One in a much better location, ones with better rates, etc. But I chose Marriott for the specific Nickelodeon Your Stay option. I feel robbed and kind of screwed over, pardon my choice of words.
Now, I'm left with a sour taste in my mouth about Marriott......

Happy Birthday my babies. I'll make it up to you next year, I promise!


PS-The hotel didn't even have the Nickelodeon TV Channel. COME ON!!!!!!