Oops, Hotel IT Asks What’s Twitter

As I write this post I am on vacation in the Bahamas in our timeshare at the Harborside Resort.  Harborside Resort is part of the Atlantis properties on Paradise Island.  I’m telling you this to help you understand the incredulity of this scenario.

Since the last time I was here, Harborside has discontinued any free wireless.  They now charge $15 per day for Internet use, either wireless or through a LAN line with a discount for multiple days.  There were several things I wanted to do online:

1. Start setting up a new blog for an Internet store that I recently started.
2. Communicate with my husband via e-mail
3. Keep up with the Atlanta flood situation via Twitter and Facebook

So, since I don’t drink or gamble and didn’t have my handsome husband to take me out to a fancy dinner, I paid my money, logged onto the Internet and immediately had some problems: I could receive incoming email through Outlook but could not send; I tried to send from my Yahoo account and that didn’t work either; I could not log into Facebook and Twitter thought I was a robot.  So I called IT for help .

You Know You’re In Trouble When . . .

You know you’re in trouble when you explain your problems to the IT person and they ask “What’s Twitter?”  This is why I pointed out where I am staying.  Atlantis is one of, if not THE premiere hotel/resort properties in the Bahamas.  How can they have IT people who don’t know what Twitter is?  I was aghast, and literally sitting on the phone with my mouth open.  I told the person, “If you don’t know what it is, I can’t explain it.”

Long story short, I am able to receive incoming email through Outlook, I can log onto Facebook and Twitter but I still cannot send email through Outlook.  To communicate with my husband, I send a direct message through Facebook.  I’ve been communicating with my daughter via Twitter.

Why Is It Important for Me To Use the Internet?

1. International phone calls are very expensive
2. I am a caregiver for my god-sister.  She is 82 years old and has dementia and limited physical abilities.  I NEED a vacation from the stress and emotional drain from caregiving.  My husband stayed at home to take care of Gladys, my oldest daughter flew to Atlanta to help out the first 3 days (bathing and dressing); I hired a caregiver to bathe and dress Gladys for the next 4 days and my youngest daughter will go to the house to get her ready for bed.  But I still needed a way to communicate with them just in case.
3. I live the the Atlanta area that was most affected by the recent floods and a lot of my friends were affected.  I want to keep up with what’s going on.
4. AND It’s just hard for me to disconnect from my computer

All that said, I still can’t receive e-mail and at least one of their IT people still doesn’t know what Twitter is – INcredible.  BTW, the IT people came to my room to try to get my email straightened out – TWO of them.  Still not working.

If you vacation at Atlantis and bring your lap top, I hope you have a back-up plan.