Bathing in milk and cookies at The Plaza Hotel

The opulent and famous The Plaza Hotel reopened in New York City on Saturday after a two-year long, pricey renovation. If you have $1,000 dollars to drop, you can stay here for a night. One person who is up on what justifies hotel costs said that the value of The Plaza is the experience. The time spent sleeping must be secondary then, otherwise I'd want the best dreams possible. If I were spending $1,000 a night (I wouldn't, but let's assume) I would check in at the first second I could check in, and check out at the last second before another charge kicked in. I don't think I would sleep--seems like a waste of money to me.

And think about the monetary breakdown. Considering that most hotels don't give a guest 24-hours in a room, even if you spent 20 hours in your room, that's $50 per hour. That is cheaper than the hourly rate for most massages or a trip to many general practitioner physicians in the U.S. Still, that would mean you paid for twenty hour-long massages or visited a little less than twenty doctors in order to equal $1,000.

I would be so determined to make my $50 an hour stay worth it that I'd be flustered about what to do to maximize my optimum experience. Hang out in the lobby to be noticed? Walk the halls seeing who else can afford $1,000 a night? Swim? Work out? Can you swim and work out? I couldn't find a pool listed on the Web site. What can one do at The Plaza without spending another dime? Can you bring in outside snacks and sandwiches? Perhaps, you could buy a knish or a hot dog from a street vendor hanging out near Central Park just before check-in to help with the budget.

According to the news about The Plaza, every guest can take a bubble bath with milk and cookies. At first when I read that detail, I pictured someone taking a bath in milk and cookies. Can't you picture floating Oreos? There's something that seems a bit gross and disgusting about the idea, though, since somewhere in Central Park that the hotel overlooks, homeless people are hanging out. But on the other hand, if you could drink the milk and eat the cookies while you are bathing in the tub with its 24-karat gold faucets, this type of bath would save you some money. You could have your bath for breakfast. I wonder if you just get one bath per visit, or could you slip in a few extra? [via AP]

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