*Blows of dust*
Hello,
everyone; this has been a long time coming, right?
First of
all, I am so sorry for being so inactive on any of my blogs, but
it has been a mess for me to figure out things; please forgive me.
I never
thought I would write this kind of blog post after a second life vacation
because I never thought that something in second life could be so wrong if this
were.
Before I
continue, I will be brutally honest and speak my mind, so if you don't like
this kind of content, don't read any further.
So at the
end of last year, I was scrolling through a blog called the hotel inspector
second life, and he goes around with his wife to different resorts and rate
them and blogs about their experience. So when I saw that he had gone to a
Japanese resort, I was very stupidly excited about it because I love anything in
Japan/China, and to be honest, in second life, there are not many hotels or
resorts Japanese or Chinese-themed.
This was the perfect gift to give my second-life family. I started working
my ass off, and luckily the lindens poured in; I could save up the money I
needed in the mother of two weeks or so.
On the 23rd
of January, 2023, I booked and paid for the trip. And I also requested that I
would be able to check into the resort at 2:00 PM second lifetime. the owner
told me that that shouldn't be a problem and that she would need a reminder of the
check-in time closer to departure, so I said OK, that's fine.
So the rest
of January and all of February come and go, and before we know it, it's time to
go on a vacation for two days. I sent the Notcard on 6TH of mars, 2023, as we were going on the
7th of March, 2023. I was so excited, so as promised, I sent the owner a note
card with my information and the heads-up reminder of my check-in time because
her regular check-in time for the resort is 5:00 PM Second lifetime, that is
way too late for me. I could only spend 2 hours at the resort before my second
life family, and I logged off, so I requested 2:00 PM second lifetime.
I went to
bed thinking that I would probably see an old card from her the following day,
so that's what I was fully expecting when I came into second life the next day.
To my surprise, there was no message from her or anybody else connected to the
resort.
So then I started
to have a bad feeling that something was going to go wrong, and trust me when I
say I'm usually right about these things.
I was packing my last few things for the trip. I tried to
put it to the back of my mind thinking that she would respond to me later that
day or when it was time to go. But the feelings still were in the back of my
mind.
I need up
with my family add around 12:00 PM, second lifetime, and by then, I had still
not received anything from anyone. So I was talking to my brother, telling him I
hadn't heard anything from them.
Again I
send the owner of the resort a message asking if she has gotten my note card
about my early check-in; I am still waiting for a response; she is not online.
Then my
husband gets into the conversation, and he is a little bit of a hot head, so he
says screw this screw them, while blah blah, while his brother and I tried to
calm him down and tell him that we should wait.
1:00 PM
comes around, and it becomes more and more apparent that a check-in time of
2:00 PM is likely not going to happen.
I became
very sad, angry, and upset simultaneously because I had been planning this trip
so hard since the beginning of December last year.
2:00 PM
comes around nothing happens; my brother becomes more and more educated with
the owner of the place because she had promised me that it would be OK with 2:00
PM second lifetime
we all
three decided to go out for dinner in second life and try to make the evening memorable
as we eat dinner; we also choose to visit a Viking Museum in second life which was
very fun. I will have to blog about that experience here, also.
Who decides
to respond when the clock turns 4:55 PM in second life? The owner of the resort!
She
responds by saying that check-in time is 5:00 PM.
I calmly
and as politely as I could said to her, "if you can remember, I requested a check-in
time of 2:00 PM second lifetime" she responded by saying, "oh, I forgot" I sent
her a note card. On the 6th of March 2023, with more than 24 hours to go before
the trip, how the FUCK can you forget as a resort owner!
As I was
saying to my husband and brother, if you are going to have a "closed" resort,
meaning that you only take bookings, you need to stay on top of things.
So in my
eyes, that response is total bullshit.
She didn't
even try to compensate or go out of her way to do something for her mistake.
I tried to
brush it off and think positively that at least we are going now, but this also
meant that we only got two hours at the resort on the first day, which was a
bummer because this trip was not cheap.
We get
teleported to this very grand-looking airport.
The girl
checking us in proceeds to copy-paste what looks like a novel into the local
chat, and it takes forever to read, at least for me.
She hands
us note cards with our house information and any activities that we have
planned. I take one look at it, and the check-in date says 3.8.2022 (2022-03-8)
I didn't
say much about it at the time, and we proceeded to go through the "metal
detector," which the girl wrote another whole novel about; at this point, I had
given up on reading the chat, and I just followed my brother and my husband as
they were going through proceedings.
We go
through this black wall and end up in an airplane that is a simple backdrop but
pretty nice. The girl that had helped us so far preceded to write a third novel
about how to get to the resort. We could either go through the "airplane's back
wall "or take the landmark in the notecards.
At the end
of the girl's novel, she proceeded to excuse herself and wish us a happy
vacation.
The guys
and I got situated in the airplane for a bit, just chilling for a little bit. I
read it through the note card again in case my eyes had fooled me the first
time. 3.8.2022 I first overlooked the year, so I asked my brother what
date it was for him in case the owner was in a different time zone. He said the
date was the 7th of March 2023, which was the same for me; when I asked him to look
at the note card, we all started laughing. Now I understand when someone gets the
year wrong once while writing a note card because we had just begun 2023. It
can be tricky to remember to write 2023 instead of 2022 when you have been
writing 2022 for 365 days.
David and I
started to look through the note card, and every single date with any activity;
there were two activities that we were going to be doing that had the year 2022
on them.
After laughter
and taking pictures, we teleport to the suite. I wouldn't call it a suite
because it's a standalone villa with three bedrooms, but that's just me.
So we
finally got there, and the stunning place was gorgeous. I was so impressed with
the house and the beautiful surroundings.
I booked
the villa for two nights, and to only be able "use" the villa for two hours the
first day, it's leaving a horrible taste in my mouth as I sit here writing this.
I was very
sad and furious still because I had wanted to spend time with my family at this
resort for more than two hours the first day; it was crucial to me, and I feel
like the way the owner messed up my check-in time set the tone for the whole
vacation.
We quickly
noticed the need for resort staff. There were no other people to be found in
the entire resort. It felt like we had been left to our own devices as soon as the
girl was done checking us in through the airport.
We decided
to check out the animations on the furniture, and all three of us were pretty
shocked to find out that there were only cuddles and sex animations in the beds.
My brother pointed out that as a result of this kind, it's pretty awkward to
have to use a cuddle animation to sleep in the bed as a single man.
I had some
time to myself to percolate and get my thoughts in order before the guys came
home. as I walked around the villa, I noticed the lack of food and drinks for
those people that know me know that I am a big foodie when it comes to second
life and I love interactive stuff, but the house had so little instructiveness
it was irritating luckily I have an inventory full of food, so I got the boys
covered
and in the
places, there was food in the house; it was the same food all over.
At that
point, I started to regret the amount of money I had spent on this vacation because it was not
adding up to the price I had to pay.
I had
booked spa treatments for three people, 1500 per person. Before the
appointment, we walked around the resort to check the place and get a feel for it.
We walked past the spa area, and I was disappointed that it was an open space
area with two different locations, one for messages and one for pedicures or
whatever that was. It was not very big at all.
Later that
evening, I got a pounding headache in real life, and I asked my brother if it was
OK that we skip the straw. I tried to rebook for tomorrow, the third day before
we went home, and he said that's fine, I didn't tell my husband or my brother
about the fact that I had a pounding headache because then they would say, go
to bed go to bed, go to bed, which I didn't want to do. So 30 minutes before my
appointments start, I write in the support group asking the staff to contact me
as soon as possible. So I wait, and I wait, and I wait, nothing's happening, so
5 minutes before my appointment starts, I have to go into the group, check to
see who's online, grab the CEO and write them a message that them does not
respond to for 10 minutes when the person finally responds I ask to rebook my
store appointments for the 9th of March 2023 another 10 minutes go by him or she
says that they will look into some appointment times for me. I had requested a 1:00
PM second lifetime because the resort owner contacted me earlier that day
telling me that the tea ceremony I had booked would have to be moved to the
next day, so I requested 3:00 PM for the tea ceremony. Hence, 1:00 PM for the
spot appointment should be good.
The person got
back to me regarding my spa appointment rebooks and said that they don't have a
1:00 PM opening by that point; I was so frustrated that I just told them OK,
then I'll cancel the spot appointment together, it's OK.
The person
then says Are you sure you don't want the 4:00 PM that's just started I said no,
thank you, and the person says OK, sorry.
I take two aspirin
and spend a little time with my husband while my brother eats dinner with his
family. It is times like this that I really treasure and long for—Times of
talking, cuddling, kissing, laughing, and embracing one another.
Because
they were no one else but us in the resort, we had to come up with fun stuff ourselves,
so we decided to go fishing in the pond outside our house. I had previously
purchased fishing equipment for the boys and myself before going on this trip
because we had been talking about going on a camping trip, but this was a great
time to test out the gear and the animations that came with it.
The fishing
set that you are seeing us using is from the store called junk food, and the
exact name of the set is: Junk Food - Fishing Set (Pink) (because mine is pink)
You can buy just the fishing poles as well, but I am the kind of girl that wants
everything in a set if there is one, so I bought the set for everyone.
We casually
talked about what we had done earlier that day while the guys had a few beers. I
had to provide because the lack of food and drinks was laughable.
While we
walked around earlier that day, we also took a balloon ride, I have been on two
or three balloon rides in second life, and all are pretty recent.
I don't
know what or who did the balloon path for this ride, but it was crazy. This
balloon ride was so shaky and choppy. However, we enjoyed seeing the resort
from above, and we all realized how small this resort is, as it shouldn't even
be called a resort.
While
taking the balloon ride, we saw a Japanese city conjoined with the resort area
and a part of the resort, so we quickly had a 15-minute break from computers to
do what’s not in real life, and we headed down to that area. Trust me when I
say this City saves the whole resort!
It had interactive
shops; the food and drinks were interactive; they even had a freaking Hello
Kitty store where you could buy stuff. They also had a karaoke bar with real
karaoke in it with text and everything (do not worry, I am showing pictures
because this is the highlight of the trip, and that says a lot, unfortunately.
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The Japanese City photos start:
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| Yes, This is my Brother Making out with a Rocket♥ |
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| Some kissing and loving. My brother sitting at an "Antisocial distance." |
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| After downing a Jelly shot, he sat closer to us (don't worry, he is very happy.) |
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Hello Kitty!
The store Had Nails, so I went a bit crazy.
The City even had a Drug store with pot and other interactive stuff; the guys were very happy about that. It also had an Interactive bar but had fewer drinks in it.
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After some shopping, drinking, and even shopping for takeaway pizza, we decided to go home
to the resort area again. We took a pizza with us, but it disappeared once we
left the city area, so that was a bummer. It would have been cool to be able to
go buy a pizza and take it home, but someone has yet to invent that in
second life.
As soon as
we got home to the resort, we all went to bed to have a good night's rest before
day three started, so it actually ended up being two nights and one day for us
on this particular vacation, if you could even call two hours one day I don't
know.
Day three
was relaxing by the pool area, discussing everything and how we
felt about this vacation. My husband
Gabriel pointed out something I had not considered before. Still, he said he was so relaxed he almost fell asleep a couple of times which is good
in itself, but it also proves that the resort has virtually nothing to do with than
just walking around and, of course, the city.
We started
to discuss how our overall experience was with this vacation, and we all agreed
that this vacation ended up being a costly house rental in the end
because the staff was nowhere to be seen, there was nothing to do except walk
around, and the city as I have just mentioned.
The house
lacks interactiveness, and it also needs more food and drinks.
We also went to the resort's restaurant. I didn't take any pictures, but it was pretty and all, but not for 900 lindens
per person pretty, and again no staff, not even a bot to be seen anywhere. So, Needless to say, we were not impressed whatsoever. I waited with excitement for the clock to be 3:00 PM, second lifetime because add 3:00 PM, there was going to be the tea ceremony I had booked. Still, they had to move on to the last day, so I got my traditional kimono ready and my hair prepared by the end of the all; I looked like a true geisha, which I was happy about. I cooked the guys a traditional Japanese launch courtesy of the store Cinoe. As I mentioned, the resort's owner contacted me on the second day asking if they could move the tea ceremony to the last day. I said OK, what time? She said, " Oh, anytime you like, but I think the tea house is open after 3:00 PM, " so I told her 3:00 PM, please, to which she responded OK, that's fine, thank you so much. We all started
to pack up our things because we had decided to check out at the end of the tea
ceremony again; the checkout time was 5:00 PM SL time. So at about
2:45, we started to make our way up to the tea house where the tea ceremony would
be held. We got to
the tea house at about 2:55 PM, still very excited about it, but my husband
Gabriel had a sinking feeling that something was going to go wrong. 3:00 PM
rolls around, and staff is nowhere to be seen or heard from; it’s about 3:30. I
again go into the group; I check to see who is online; the owner of the resort
is online, so I sent her a message telling her that we are at the tea house and
wondering what's going on. No response. At this point, my brother David and I
are furious; I am pissed off. Meanwhile, my husband is trying to calm me down,
which he is usually pretty good at. Still, I am so frustrated that I don't know
what to do because, as I said at the beginning of this blog post, I planned
this since the end of December last year, and this was a gift from me to my
family. I counted on things to go smoothly because this is a resort and should
be taken seriously, but they did not. I felt so
embarrassed and ashamed, to be honest. 4 PM rolls around still no response from
the resort’s owner or a staff member, so I leave her a message saying that I
want a refund for they’re not a tea ceremony when I had been promised one and
had booked one. I also wrote in the same message that we were leaving the
resort, which we did. Remember, I
first wrote to her at 3:30 PM second lifetime; then I wrote to her again at
4:00 PM for the second lifetime. 5:48 PM second lifetime, I get a response from
her, “I'm sorry, I was AFK. Oh wow, they didn't contact you? and in my head,
I'm going, who the fuck are “they?”
I responded
by saying nobody contacted us, and she said sure, I will refund, and I got my
refund of 1500 lindens for the show of staff at the tea ceremony.
We all feel
that the hotel inspector’s blog review of this place is untruthful; it states on the blog that it has a garden, well, was just a bridge. And
the photos are over-processed; it does not look anywhere close to the pictures
on his blog but to each their own.
I am
so sick and tired of bloggers that glorify places by overprocessing photos
making a place look better than it actually is. I know that the Photographer
for the hotel inspector blog probably uses a viewer called the black dragon, but
still, the way that they rated this place and the way that they made it sound is
so far from the truth.
Ratings: House: 7/10 Food/Drinks: 2/10 Surroundings: 8/10 Interactivness: 2/10 Staff response: 0/10 Wild Life: 0/10 Beds: 3/10 (Beds are
small and obstruct face and animations due to bedding, Do not
accommodate taller people, and have no single animations) Japan City 10/10 Overall: 1/10
I do make
these blog posts. It is my personal opinion and the people I travel
with. If you have another opinion, that's up to you, but this is mine/ours. If you
decide to book with this resort, please only spend the money I spent on
this. It is not worth it whatsoever. I paid 11,300 lindens on this resort and
this booking, which is far from worth it.
/Tessa
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