The views and scenic drive up the coast is incredibly beautiful and peaceful. Then we get to the hotel, which is an entirely different experience all together and not in a good way!
Having said that, this is the worst "4 star" hotel I've stayed at with the worst service I've experienced - ever!
I'll start with the hotel first. The hallway leading up to my room was dank and musty and smelled of a dump, which turned out to be coming from a garbage bag left around the corner.
The first room was disgusting! It was ugly, dirty, small, dusty and reaked of mold and fish - fitting for a haunted house. The faucet dripped, the toilet stained and filthy, no towels on the rack, but there were plenty of tissues and cloths on the floor and in the tub. The carpets were stained with food and felt greasy while walking, thank god we didn't take off our shoes. The bed looked made but upon a closer look it wasn't. The pillows stank, and looked like someone spilled some chowder on the bed and on the carpet - disgusting. A quick call to house keeping confirmed that the room wasn't cleaned at all and that we needed to wait 20 minutes or so to have it set up! Doesn't anybody check this sorta stuff? I told them to get me another room as this room needed a few more drastic measures than just a simple cleaning! After a long day on the road we were looking forward to freshen up.
The second room was no better, it too was dirty, dusty, and smelled, the carpets were dirty. The toilet was filthy, heavily stained, the towels were wet but folded though. The bed sheets stained, and worn, the pillows stank. Yet, hotel staff insisted it was clean. I requested to speak with the manager, who at first was apologetic at our "disappointment" but then took on a defensive tone when he said it's a "historical site" and sorry for not "meeting my expectations". Historical hotels can't be clean or have fresh linens and towels etc? Am I asking too much for a clean room? We've stayed at plenty of historical places in the "old world" including places in the "third world" where we experienced old world charm without the filth.
We settled into a third room that looked to be the most clean and was the most suitable for the night. For the price of a luxury 4 star hotel we were offered two disgusting rooms, and the last one was half way close to a standard motel room!!! Super 8, super 8 where art thou when you're needed??!?! We fled the next morning.
Dinner at the "revered" purple thistle was also a disappointment. Nothing local about the food, nothing special or memorable in a good way. The lobsters were... shrimpish, over cooked as were the shrimp and vegetables. We were expecting, no, hoping that they would get atleast the seafood dinner right, as we're in the East coast. Seafood, East coast and seafood, and being seafood lovers, I was hoping that maybe someone got that part right?!?! Maybe we were in the wrong part of the east coast and needed to be in Maine for seafood?!? Maybe we were expecting too much? The wait staff were also disappointing. Our food and drink order wasn't taken in the first 20 minutes, the appetizers came with my dinner, the wife had to wait an extra 15 minutes for her tough, over done lobster and soggy, droopy vegetables. I'm wondering if the lobsters were frozen? Again they were "sorry for not meeting our expectations". I'm seeing a pattern here that they think their bad service and bad food is truly deserving of accolades that real 4 star hotels get. Unreal!
The Keltic experience was beyond disappointing for the 4 star price we paid it's definately a rip off. The government should be ashamed of themselves for having such a filthy hotel with such disappointing food and service. It's safe to say that because we were shown the worst and the dirtiest of what the Keltic has to offer, we won't be back in this life time or even poke it with a stick in the next.
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