Christmas dinner in hotels

Myself and the OH went away to a hotel last year, mainly because I was 8 months pregnant so it would be our last xmas with just the 2 of us and there was no way I would be in any fit state to cook. We booked into a hotel for 2 nights, arriving on the xmas eve and checking out on st stephens day. I must say, it was a different experience but we both thoroughly enjoyed it. As far as the dinner went, it was a mass catering affair with around 150 people all herded into a big function room. It was served late enough, the plan was to be seated at 7pm but there was a delay and everyone was left standing outside the room for about half an hour waiting. There was an option to also have xmas lunch earlier in the day but they were charging a ridiculous price for it on top of the 2 nights with dinner package that we had booked so we just stacked up on munchies instead The food was alright, nothing overly special like you would normally expect from a restaurant but they put on a good spread, turkey and ham with all the trimmings etc. It was similar to the sort of meal you would get at any large xmas function. The only hitch was the hotel messed up a number of dinner reservations, ours included, even though I had originally booked the deal in July and had been ridiculously anal about confirming the details 4 or 5 times with them in the interim. This meant that we had an extra delay and were sent up to the bar for a free drink (just a fanta for me ) until they could prepare a table for us. It was inconvenient but to be fair, I complained afterwards to the hotel manager and he was very apologetic and dealt with the situation brilliantly. So that was our experience If you are just planning on going out for the meal and not staying overnight, I'm not sure if it would be worth the hassle. The food won't be anything spectacular and the sense of intimacy is gone from the meal as you are totally surrounded by strangers but I reckon if you have a good enough group with you, it wouldn't be so bad.

Went away for Christmas years ago and it just isn't the same...