No. 2 Tinkle: Hotel on Rivington New York City
The view from the throne at the Rivington
MTM and I wandered into the lobby of New York‘s Hotel on Rivington to claim our Cheap-o Special for Poor People. Situated on the Lower East Side, the building is a glass tower amidst seven and eight story buildings, and it has windows in the shower. We could never afford to stay above the seventh floor, meaning I’ve probably showered in front of countless strangers I’ll never see again. I prepared myself to be an exhibitionist as I waited with our bag.
The lady behind the desk stuttered. This NEVER happens.
What? MTM shot a me a look that conveyed concern. Did they screw up our booking? Did we even HAVE a room?
Um. Ah. You’ve been UPGRADED. To the Owner’s Suite. She shuffled around the desk like MTM was someone REALLY important, summoned a valet to carry our solo bag and escorted us to the seventeenth floor of the building.
The door slid open into shimmering luxury. Half the seventeenth floor was devoted to the Owner’s Suite, with the entire side of the building sporting a lean balcony that faced Midtown. The master bathroom occupied one corner, with a soaking tub that gave a glimpse of the Williamsburg Bridge. The toilet was front and center, negating the need for reading materials. One could just sit and gawp at the view.
With so many possible activities at our fingertips, we ran around the corner, ordered crepes and hauled our derrieres back up to the room. Why roam around the canyons of New York when you’ve been given the unexpected gift of gazing at it for one whole night?
A postscript: We paid the booked rate for our original room. The next day, our flight was canceled, leaving us stuck in New York for another night. We went back to the Rivington to book a cheap-o and found out the Owner’s Suite went for $2,500 a night.
They offered it to us for $1,250.
We didn’t take it.
This post is part of the series My Top 10 Tinkles. If this is your first visit to this urinary extravaganza, please click here to start the series at the beginning. Thank you for reading my blog, for sharing it, and for spending time here.
Sometimes good things happen to good people… sometimes.
Sometimes they do, Ted.
$2500 a night! I’d love to have just ONE of those in my lifetime!
Did you ever figure out how it was you were so lavishly upgraded? That must have been a very fun experience. I hope you walked around with your noses up in the air, causing everyone to wonder who in the heck you were to merit the honor. Secret celebrities on holiday! D
Debra, we never did. There is a playwright who shares MTM’s name. Maybe they thought that was him? Maybe some uber-famous celebrity checks in with that name? I have no idea.
Top Tinkling Tale Telling! Reminds one of EM Forster’s Room With A View.
It was so awesome, Jim.
Lady Fortune shines brightly on the Shadow Ninja.
It was MTM’s name that did it, Lou.
Wow, I bet that was an absolutely breath taking view. Good for you two. Awesome experience and wonderful blog post.
We were very lucky, James. Very.
Wow, that never happens to most of us. Congratulations. Of course if it had happened to me, I might have moved in and refused to ever leave. I love staying high up in NY hotels with a view of the city. Did the windows open so you could drop stuff on the peons below?
We went out on the balcony, but we never dropped anything. For shame, Carnell. For shame.
W-O-W! Makes one wonder what happened to cause the upgrade that would make them want to lose $2,500. How completely cool, though.
We’ll never know, Jessie, but it’s fun to ponder.
I don’t think I would have left the room. Seriously. Every minute and I wouldn’t have slept either I would have stayed up and soaked it in. That sounds like a wonderful experience. Wow. What must it be like to be able to drop $2,500 a night for a room? So? Inquiring minds want to know…how was it that you became upgraded? Did the owner catch a glimpse of your loveliness? MTM’s loveliness?
I cannot even fathom that kind of money, but it was nice to have access to it for a night. We still don’t know why we got upgraded.
A lovely mystery with great memories to boot.
It’s a mystery. That’s for sure.
What an awesome and cool perq. It was a combination of the ACM’s Klout score (folks are getting upgraded all over the place b/c of those) and the MTM name…?
Did you photograph the entire suite and the views? I’ve looked a bit at their website and the photos in their photo gallery don’t scale in Chrome. Had to switch over to Firefox to view them and have them scale correctly. (Somebody ought to tell their web folks.)
Love the lounge / bar. And the views are just amazing.
We mostly photographed the views. Here’s a link to the set on Flickr. *Warning* We use Flickr to back up our photos, so there are a lot of them in the set.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/51061132@N08/sets/72157629613799545/
I don’t think Klout existed in 2008, which was when this happened. But dang, if that’s the case today, I should be upgraded.
Cool. Love the ones of you MTM shot with the city at your feet as you lie sleeping.
I really don’t think his inner architect let him sleep at all that night.
We once stayed at the Ritz Carlton on Amelia Island (back in the day, obviously). We were only there for one night and they booked us into a room with a newborn next door. I called to see if we could switch rooms and they upgraded us to this fabulous luxury suite. All Andrew could say (and he was about seven or eight at the time) was – Mom, come look at this bathroom!! It was as big as our house. Isn’t it a wonderful surprise to be upgraded? This has been a fun series. I await tomorrow’s reveal with great anticipation.
Aren’t you so thankful for that crying newborn? These happy surprises when traveling are always so wonderful. I’m glad you had that experience, Jill.
What could possibly top this? No. 1 must REALLY be something!
I think $2500 would finance at least an entire trip or three for me! Of course, I’m the gal who drove from Seattle to Charleston (the long way ’round the horn; Seattle to LA and then across the southern route, ’cause it was January) for under $500.00 (it WAS 16-1/2 years ago, though; gas was LOTS less expensive then and I could exist on quite a bit of Burger King and Mickey D’s in those days, too).
Most of our trips happen for under $2500, so like you, I cannot fathom spending $2500 per night on a room. Especially when I don’t spend tons of time in the room when I go someplace.
I’d love to hear about the Seattle to Charleston drive sometime, Karen. That must’ve been something.
I was fearless in those days; just me ‘n my cockatiel, riding shotgun!
Wow! What a treat. I would ceratinly have taken a good soak in the tub while soaking it an in with my eyes. Lucky girl!
yaakov….
It’s funny, Yaakov. MTM and I had admired that bathtub at Moss in NYC for several years. When I used it in that suite, I decided it was not suitable for my purposes. Not deep enough. It was good to have a trial run, though, for not much money.
Wow! What a stroke of luck, Andra! I would never have moved from the window!
We pretty much didn’t, Kate. Both of us stayed up most of the night. I think MTM stayed up all night, because he took tons of pictures of the sunrise.
Was there peanut butter, jelly and bread in the pantry. Lifestyle of the Rich & Famous revealed.
Nothing in the pantry, Chuck. We had to go out and buy all supplies.
Wow, you scored big time!
I like your style in just enjoying the “room with a view.” We would have done the same thing.
It was a fluke. It has never happened again, but I’m glad it happened once.
I couldn’t imagine doing anything except enjoy that gift. I still feel like it was a gift.
Wow–how fun that must have been! We were upgraded two years ago during our Christmas holiday in Vietnam. We had a butler. I kid you not–a real, honest-to-goodness butler. It was crazy. We could BARELY afford the room we had originally booked.
Hugs,
Kathy
Kathy, those are always such happy surprises, such incredible gifts. A most excellent Christmas gift for you and Sara. A butler! I can’t fathom it.
Now that is a great upgrade, Andra!
Yep. Should happen to everyone once in life.
Wowza.
That’s what I said, Cameron.