Collecting Weekend

My wife and I just had a nice weekend in St. Pete, Fl and I wanted to pass along a pretty nice deal we happened upon.

We've never stayed in the St. Pete area, but my wife had seen this renovated 1928 hotel (inspired by the Pink Palace on waikiki beach)

http://www.doncesar.com

on TV. I figured it would be quite pricey but they have some cool package deals on the site.

For $199 we got:

A nice room with plenty of space, 2nd floor, partial gulf view (you can see it, but you're not dead center facing it.. no biggee, still nice view of the historic hotel and pool area) sunsets are very nice.The pool area is great, they even have music piped into the heated pool(s) there's a jacuzzi, day spa, etc. The beach is great as well.

Free Parking

Free (GOOD!) Buffet Breakfast for two.

A $25 gift certificate for a bunch of restaurants at the "PLAZA" mall in Tampa (one of them is KahoonaVille.. more below)

Two discount cards for the mall (lots of % discounts at various shops)

A DonCesar Hotel Photo album (basically a free 4x6 photo album with a doncesar-graphic aluminum cover)

kindof a weird package, but when you consider the good breakfast and lunch at Kahoonaville ($5 after the certificate), I figure this cost about $140.. for a really COOL hotel that really makes you wonder if you're actually on Waikiki Beach..

It was alot of fun- we hit Gulfport for the RetroRama show, which was a great vintage show.. if we didn't have our young son in tow, we could have hit vintage shops all day long. There's ALOT of shops in the area, including HULA HULA.

Then we went off to the Plaza mall for some consumerism on our way back home and decided to try Kahoonaville. I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this place or not on TC, but its kinda tiki-ish, although the only actual tikis are a pair of Bosko witco-style masks and some SHAG prints in the bar. Lots of thatch and little jungley areas screaming for a TIKI, but no other tikis. Food was pretty good, and not too pricey. I had the steak and cheese wrap, which I aptly named the "meat brick" -it was tasty though.

Anyway, if you're going to be in the St. Pete area, its worth checking out!

Florida's Pink Palace:

[ Edited by: fatuhiva on 2003-12-13 21:14 ]

I forgot all about RetroRama. How was it? Did you find any good stuff? How were the prices?

I used to live over near there on Treasure Island. Nice area.

RetroRama yesterday - very hip.
I made it despite my being at the end of a nasty cold.

I saw Tiki Bree there and bought a set of 4 Kahiki swizzle sticks from her.

I also found a vintage post card of International Marketplace.

And the find of the day goes to the Amber (not so amber in the winter) Love Goddess:

A Tiki Gardens serving tray in really nice condition.

I'll post pics here tomorrow.

Got a couple of mugs, too.
Nothin' special - just mugs.

They get special when I give them a little liquid attention.

My grandmother used to rent a place down the beach from that when she would stay in FL during the winters. I used to go visit during Feb. and walked by it often from the beach side.
:wink:

Here is the Tiki Gardens tray.
No, Tiki Gardener, you can't have it. :wink:


On 2003-12-17 09:57, pablus wrote:
Here is the Tiki Gardens tray.
No, Tiki Gardener, you can't have it. :wink:

Quoting Southpark "You bastard!"

Seriously though, I won one on ebay, and it got lost in the mail.

Great item! Still need to get one for myself.