My husband and I picked Nashville as our honeymoon destination. We stayed in Nashville the first week of October, 2006. Upon entering Tennessee and getting some coupon booklets, I recognized the Drake as being in some music videos, and movies. So, of course, we decided to rent the jacuzzi room for the first night of our honeymoon and then were going to find a less expensive room somewhere in Nashville for the remainder of our honeymoon.
Upon arrival at the Drake, the appearance was nice and tidy. We were checking in and a police officer came to the front desk clerk and said, "It's o.k. He won't bother you anymore tonight, or we'll throw him in jail for trespassing." The clerk must have seen the look on my face as he's running my husband's credit card and said, "oh, it's ok....we don't have problems very often." As my husband signed the credit card slip, a woman came in from outside and sat in the 'lobby' smoking a cigarette right under a 'no smoking' sign. The front desk clerk informed her that there was no smoking and asked if he could help her. She was there to see a 'friend' in which she didn't know his/her name, nor what room the person was in. She kicked open the door and tossed the cigarette outside. The gentleman gave us a swipe card and told us where our room was.
We drove around the back side of the building and as I went to use the card, I found no card slot. My husband drove me back to the front desk and I got a regular key from the clerk. He had forgotten that ours was the only room that still takes a regular key. We drove back to our room to unload. As I was inside the room, and my husband was still unloading the car, a man walked up to him and said, "oh, you're in the honeymoon suite." My husband told him we were on our honeymoon and the man asked him if it was going okay?! My husband just looked at him kind of funny and then the man said, "Well, if it's not, I have some weed....it's my wedding present to you." My husband came in and was laughing hysterically when he told me the story.
We went to get dinner and the best thing we found was a Pizza Hut. On the way back to the Drake, we found a back way to our 'suite' that came completely around the backside of the inn. Now, I am a redneck, but this was the first time I'd seen anything like this....a 1993 camaro iroc on blocks outside the room at 11:00 at night.
We got up at 7 am to find a new hotel. Upon leaving, I was looking for a dumpster to throw the rest of our pizza away, and came upon a housekeeping gentleman who asked how our stay was. We just kind of giggled and said it was 'nice'. We don't like to hurt feelings. He then asked if there was anything in the box. I told him there was pizza and i was looking for a dumpster to discard the rest and the box. He said, "well, can I have it instead of throwing it away?" Sure, why not?! Thank God we found an inexpensive inn right on music valley drive for half the money and 10 times the security. The whole neighborhood is in the projects. But, in the daylight, everything did a 180....it was great. This summer, my husband, my parents, and his parents are all going to Nashville on a vacation. I'm driving everyone by the Drake just so they can see the place that we were in the first night of our honeymoon having pizza and beer for our dinner.