Category: QLD

Categories
Mackay QLD

Mackay Needs Better Parent Rooms – Mt Pleasant Woolworths Parents Room

Are you sick and tired of sub standard parent rooms in your area?

Check out these photos from Mt Pleasant Woolworths Parents Room. These photos are courtesy of the Mackay Needs Better Parents Rooms group campaigning for better facilities to look after their children.


Small hallway to the Parent Room. Sadly it’s not wide enough to cater for a twin pram.
The room itself does not offer a toilet. This is pretty bad for mums and dads who might need to use the toilet while they’re out with the kids in the pram.


The breastfeeding couch. Not exactly comfortable or overly practical.


At least the bench with the sinks and microwave were clean. Nice to see two sinks. One for food prep and the other for washing hands after nappy changes. Would be better to have them on separate benches on opposite sides of the room. The music in this room is ridiculously loud. It’s not necessary in a Parents Room to have piped music.


A pretty basic long bench along the wall for nappy changes. A few proper change bays built into the bench would be a nice touch. It’s quite a foul smelling room. Perhaps the nappy bins should be changed a little more often!!


Look at this change bench! Why aren’t the nappy bins underneath the bench? They’re taking up valuable space being placed against the adjacent wall. Maybe the empty cardboard box is also for nappy disposal, as the smell of the room implies the bins aren’t emptied that regularly.

Head to Mackay Needs Better Parents Rooms for more info.
Categories
Main Beach QLD

Palazzo Versace – 94 Seaworld Drive, Main Beach, Gold Coast QLD

Overall: Basic, purely functional and not at all 6 Star!!!!
Good points: Immaculate presentation and incredibly clean; well lit.
Bad Points: Very basic – only the essentials available. Where are the Versace baby wipes, towels, nappies etc etc?? You’d think for such a salubrious establishment, the facilities for babies would be of a much higher standard.

Get your tan on, people!! It’s time to muscle up for the annual ANB Asia Pacifics on the beautiful Gold Coast.
We had the pleasure of being sponsors of the ANB Asia Pacifics 2009, which meant we had a lovely trip to Southport on the Gold Coast for a long weekend.
During a break in proceedings, we set off for Palazzo Versace and Marina Mirage for a bit of lunch and a sticky beak . With baby girl in arms (just under 1yo at the time) we went in search of the Parent Rooms at Versace. Oh my goodness, were we disappointed!!!!!

Palazzo Versace has the most gorgeous lobby I have ever seen. I’d stayed at the hotel in 2008 for work and quite liked it! I thought for a 6star hotel it needed a bit of improvement (nasty big stains on the massive million dollar Medusa rug in the Grand Ballroom). Anyway, on this visit we weren’t doing much more than just wandering about.
So in through the lobby and we went left up a hallway which leads you too the ballroom. On the left wall of this corridor are the bathrooms.  You’re not going to be overly impressed when you see the facilities for your baby. I wouldn’t call it a Parent Room at all. It’s the Disabled Toilet, with the addition of a baby change table and nappy bin. On the plus side, the place was immaculately presented and incredibly clean. But you’re not going to be able to feed your baby, or have a rest in here. This facility is just for getting in, changing bub’s nappy, and getting out again.

There’s only a regular size loo in the room, so your little one may need help getting on and off if they are at the stage of using the toilet. And they’ll probably need a hand reaching the sink too as it’s at regular adult height.
You know, there’s not really any more to say about it. Pretty sad considering the hotel and the fabulous reputation it is meant to have.
At least you’ll know where to go and change your bub’s nappy now the next time you visit Palazzo Versace. I’d recommend heading next door to Marina Mirage and checking out the facilities there instead. Or even better, shell out some $$ and go to Seaworld up the road.

The bodybuilding championships were alot of fun though. Great event!!

Categories
Broadbeach QLD

Oasis Centre – Broadbeach Mall, Victoria Ave Broadbeach QLD (Roomy but basic)

Wow!! This was a while ago, looking back at the photos. January 2009 we had a lovely little family holiday to Broadbeach on the Gold Coast, QLD. We stayed at the Sofitel Broadbeach, which is a nice enough place to stay – just watch out for the sharks who run the Accor Advantage holiday programs. Savage and nasty people. I would highly recommend NOT going along to any of their sessions. We did go. We listened to the offer. We agreed it was a good idea. We said we did not want to shell out thousands of dollars to participate in it. We were told to our faces that we were liars. Charming!
Which reminds me, I still have to send in a massive complaint about that – jerks.


Anyway, apart from that the Oasis Centre on Broadbeach Mall has loads of shops to cater for all your needs while on holiday. From Woolworths for your groceries, through to surf shops so you can buy a new bikini (i forgot to bring mine so had to buy a new one – what a shame ;)).


We tracked down the Parent Room in the shopping centre. Sadly it was not that easy to find. It was not on the ground level, which would have been a good idea. To get to the upper levels, you could either risk life and limb on the escalators with the pram and baby in tow…..or wander around and eventually find the lift to get you to the floor where the Parent Rooms are.


When you do find it, you’ll be content enough. If for no other reason than it took a while to get there and you are happy for moment to sit in peace pretty much anyplace.


It has:

  • fold out change table
  • bottle warmer
  • nappy disposal bin
  • chairs
  • sink
  • low set tables
  • loads of room (great for prams with a big turning circle)
The entry door is the usual self-closing kind which is not easy to use when you are maneuvering a pram. Would be better if the doors were the same as most disabled toilets, where you turn the handle push the door open with a flick of the wrist and it stays that way until you flick it closed. Much easier! Maybe we can get some kind of campaign running to make it happen. 
In the meantime, here are the pictures we took of this facility (me and my little one feature in this pictures – we’ve both changed a bit in a year!).