My wife booked a New Year's Eve manager's special for us and another couple. Things went well upon arrival, we were sent up to adjoining Princess Suites. When we opened the door, the room smelled of a disinfectant, but that seemed to fade quickly or we got used to it. Our first problem came when we tried to use the toilet and it overflowed. I called the front desk, to report it and maintenance comes up about 30 minutes later with a plunger. First he grabs a towel to mop up the floor around the toilet and tells us he have some additional towels sent up. Then he tells me he can't fix my toilet and will be back with a snake. Since we had dinner reservations in the restaurant we left, assuming maintenance would fix the issue.

Dinner was an all you could eat buffet. The food was not the best, but not the worst. There was enough to eat and the package came with two drinks each. My friend and I ordered mixed drinks with Coke. The waiter comes back, after an unusually long delay, comes back with three drinks for our party of four. The ladies and I each received our drinks, but my friend is the bar is all out of Coke. Ironically, I was the last one to order a drink. My friend adjusted and we went on with dinner, trying different items, although nothing stood out. If the beef tips had been warmer, they would have been my favorite as they were still very red, just the way I prefer to eat beef. As a side note, during dinner, I went up to the buffet line and who do I see, but the maintenance man, getting his food, more on that later. My wife and I had been here years ago, and ordered their "Cuddles & Bubbles" package, which includes entrees cooked to order. This restaurant as I recall, does cooked to order food much better. But I don't believe that was even an option last night. Since it was New Year's Eve, there were party hats and noisemakers on the tables. There was a little fun as people throughout the restaurant would periodically blow the noisemaker and someone else would reply from across the room.

After dinner ladies returned to my room to change before the after dinner party that was also part of the package. My friend and stayed at the bar and ordered a couple of more drinks. The noisemaker game went off and on as different people came in for their reservations. At one point one of the waitresses snapped at my friend that it wasn't New Year's yet and she would take it away from him. She didn't seem to be kidding.

After we finished our drinks, we headed up to wait in the other room for our wives. During the wait we found out that the toilet doesn't work in this room either. Our wives rejoined us and we found out the toilet in my room is still not working. I called the front desk again, to report that it has been over three hours and my toilet doesn't work and now the other room that I booked also has a toilet with problems. The maintenance man comes back with his plunger, fixes the toilet in my friend's room, but leaves the plunger, just in case. I ask about the bathroom in the next room over and he says that he knocked and knocked on the door but no one answered. I explained that we had dinner reservations (remember he was in the buffet line at the same time, he had to have seen us) and I figured he had a master key (which I could see hanging from his neck). He told me he doesn't like going in guest rooms. Now, call me foolish, but if the guest reports a problem, wouldn't it make sense that the guest would want it fixed. They have "Do Not Disturb" signs for the door if that is necessary. Moreover, I also double lock the door and put the chain on in a hotel room if I'm doing anything other than watching TV.

Anyway, he leaves, gets a plumber's snake and goes into the room. He comes out of the bathroom shortly after telling me that someone must have put soap down the toilet. He got it so that it didn't actually overflow, but would rise to the top and then slowly drain. But he told us that the front desk could move us to another room. I called the front desk and they graciously offered to move both couples to another room, but that the rooms were the VIP rooms (lowest tier) and they would refund the difference. We went with the clerk to check out a VIP room and not exactly what we signed up for, much smaller, two full beds vs. the single king and the jacuzzi was much smaller than the suites. We opted to stay with the broken toilets. The lady at the front desk was very nice and offered us two bottles of champagne as well as an additional night free (for one room, a Princess Jr. Suite). Trying to make the best of the night, we took the offer and went to the New Year's Eve party which had started by now. The party was much louder than we were comfortable with, so we headed to the bar. While were sitting there, there were two bartenders working. The female bartender was filling 12 ounce cups for the drinks, the male bartender served us, pulling out much smaller, probably 6 or 7 ounce cups, less than half the size. Prices for the small cups were exactly the same as the larger ones. Granted they had less ice, but there was no explanation for the change. Shortly after we were served, the male bartender took all of the larger cups off of the bar and into a cabinet. I just found that very odd.

The party wasn't for us, which I can't complain about, there were a lot of people there who seemed to be enjoying it. We retired back to our rooms and went to try out the jacuzzi. They were nice, and bubbles were provided. The four of us stayed up late, and had a good time, retiring in the wee hours of the morning. Breakfast was included, as an all you could eat buffet. The food here was what you would expect on a breakfast line, scrambled eggs, french toast, etc The food was pretty good, but the only table for four in the restaurant was apparently on the east side. The sun was shining brightly through the window, and there are no shades, which made breakfast a bit uncomfortable.

After breakfast we returned to the rooms. Since we had some downtime, I looked around. Many of the reviews complain about the decor, which is irrelevant to me. My suite had a stain on the ceiling in the seating area, looking like someone sprayed something and it wasn't cleaned up. The bathroom door in both rooms sits at an odd angle in the frame, so there is about a two inch gap from the top of the door to the frame on the knob side. There were several broken tiles in the bathroom floor. Nothing that was going to cut anyone, but clearly cracked, one of them with lots of cracks. There was a patch job in the ceiling above the jacuzzi, and apparently not a great one, because there were small pieces in the jacuzzi in the morning. They weren't there when we checked in the previous afternoon. In the main room, just outside the bathroom, there was an apparent settling crack where the wall meets the ceiling and I probably could have done a better patch job and I'm not exactly known as a handyman.

I'm hoping that the issues were because of the holiday and the fact the hotel was nearly at capacity. I'll give it more shot with our complimentary night.