Anxiety, Panic, and a Pizza: My Unforgettable Hotel Escapade

This weekend’s been pretty eventful, and I’ve got so much to fill you in on. I’ll wait until it’s over to give you the full scoop on everything that went down, but something just happened that I have to tell you about right now.

We just got back from an attraction and were hot, tired, and starving. As usual, our minds went straight to pizza, our go-to comfort food. So, we decided to chill in our hotel room for a bit before heading out tonight for some fun and let someone else handle lunch. Enter Doordash! I’m a huge fan of Doordash, and today was no exception. We ordered a pizza to be delivered right to our hotel.

I was anxiously tracking the delivery and when the driver was just 0.3 miles away, I headed down to the hotel’s designated drop-off spot for deliveries. I’m standing there for a few minutes when my phone rings and the driver tells me she’s at the corner waiting for me. The corner? It’s like 500 feet away from the hotel entrance. She tells me there’s a parade outside and she can’t get any closer. Seriously?!

So, I decide to go grab my pizza because we’re starving, and I step out into the blazing heat to meet my dasher. The moment I walk out the door, it feels like I’m getting smacked by the sun, but I push on towards the corner. Finally, I get there and the dasher hops out of her car and hands me the pizza. She then goes on about how it’s too hot and there’s too much traffic to deliver all the way to the hotel. Oh, and I noticed there wasn’t even a parade out on the street. The closest thing to a parade was some person with a slingshot and a bubble-blowing machine. Two slingshots don’t make a parade, but whatever.

I stroll back into the lobby and see a big group just checked in, so it’s gonna be a while before I can squeeze into an elevator. I just stand there and wait.

What I didn’t mention before is that you’ll need your room key to use the elevator. Just swipe your card, and it’ll let you choose your floor, except for the Mezzanine level, which anyone can visit..

When it’s finally my turn, I hop into the elevator with two guys and a woman. One guy uses his key card to get the elevator going and picks the 15th floor. The other dude asks him to select 13, but the elevator won’t register it and we’re already on our way up. The whole ride, the first guy and I are messing around, trying to get the elevator to recognize my key card, but no luck.

So, the elevator doors open on the 15th floor and the couple gets off. The guy who wanted to stop at 13 decides to just get out and take the stairs for the couple of floors down. I thought about doing the same, but the doors shut before I make a move.

So, I’m thinking, what’s gonna happen now? The answer: absolutely nothing. Just my luck to be stuck on the last elevator ride for now. I’m desperately jamming my key card in, and the elevator just won’t read it, so here I am, waiting.

So, thank goodness I had my phone with me and I called my travel buddy to fill her in on what was happening. Now, she’s recovering from two knee surgeries and just took off her leg brace. So, she’s lounging on her bed when I call. But she can’t even get to the phone in our room to call the front desk quickly. I asked her to go out and call the elevator on our floor, hoping mine would be the one that shows up and I can escape this contraption. So, she’s busy putting her brace back on when the elevator finally starts to move. I’m thinking, I don’t care what floor these doors open on – I’m getting out of here! Well, the doors open and who do I see but a housekeeper with her cart. I thanked her a million times for calling the elevator and warned her about the key card issue. Just then, a supervisor showed up. She had been in the hallway and heard me. She said she could access any floor and would take me back down to 6. During the ride, she asked for my key card and tried it herself. Same result. So, she offered to take my key card to the front desk to reprogram it. Seeing that I was a bit frazzled, she told me to go enjoy my pizza and she’d bring me a new key. And she did.

I know that for her, this was probably just another day at work. But for me, it was a huge deal because all I wanted was a pizza and some chill time. My anxiety turned a few minutes into what felt like hours, and panic kicked in. She probably didn’t realize it today, but she was like an angel showing up exactly when I needed one. I told her how thankful I was and promised to give her a shout-out on my blog. Seriously, she has no clue how much she saved my weekend. We agreed that housekeeping always has your back, and she was super gracious. So, for everyone out there, here’s a photo of my elevator angel! Don’t forget to thank housekeeping when you stay at a hotel – they do way more than just swap out the towels.