I left for work at the usual time, leaving Jem to sort the hotel situation out - she can be pretty persuasive at times, and I was confident she wouldn't take any of their shit! The room we were supposed to have gotten wouldn't be available until late afternoon, so she went to the scuba centre to continue her training.

I finish work a bit late, and get back to the hotel just as Jem's walking through the entrance - good timing - we get our new room keys, and head up to check it out. Well, it's got the queen-sized bed and an ashtray, but it's still not the quality of room we expected - not that we're above our stations or anything, but everyone has their standards, and this hotel simply doesn't meet them! We head back to our previous room to retrieve our luggage - but our keys don't work (you know, the electronic credit card-type swipe keys). In fact, I can hear people in the room - WHERE OUR LUGGAGE IS! I can definitely hear people in the room, but no-one answers when I knock - even kicking the door very abusively doesn't get their attention.

Jem decides to go down to reception to get someone up here ASAP - I stay, and continue in my attempt to get into the room. After about 5 minutes, this sweaty Latino opens the door - I ask him what he's doing in our (albeit old) room - he asks what the hell I'm doing knocking his door down. Fair enough, not his fault - the hotel have obviously reallocated our room, knowing that they've given us a new one - but they knew our stuff was still up here - BASTARDS! Hang on though, this sweaty's giving me attitude - but I remember I'm here with Jem, so I decide against smashing his face in - besides, I can hear someone in the bathroom, and don't want to cause a scene!

Jem comes back with the manager in tow - he assists us with taking our stuff to our new room - how very nice of him - apologising profusely as he goes. I'm not interested in his apologies - his hotel's complete incompetence has made our minds up - we're gonna stay for one more night, and find somewhere else to stay. Man, I can't believe how angry he's made the two of us. And to top things off, someone's been through Jem's suitcase - ARSEHOLES!

We head straight out - back to the office to get online, as the hotel don't even have Internet facilities - we find a nice hotel back near the airport - the Quality Suites - which we book for the remainder of Jem's stay here. It's slightly more expensive than this place, but I don't care - it's not about the money anymore, it's about us getting somewhere that we feel good about staying in - the Ramada Inn Orange County is NOT that place!

In fact, we're so enraged by the whole affair, that Jem decides she's going to speak with them in the morning and demand an entire refund - I don't blame her. I'm going to use my newfound journalistic talents to write a letter to the Orange County Register - the local paper - informing them of our experiences at this place. Hopefully, a combination of the two will help to ward off unsuspecting tourists like ourselves, and increase the hotel's level of competency - it's a hard task, believe me, but I live in hope that no-one else has to suffer the discomfort that we did!

END OF DAY 31