Review of Various Saeco Espresso Coffee Machines: The Aroma, Vienna, and Odea Giro

  I own several espresso machines, as I have put espresso machines in my home, my office, and our summer house.  I’ve used Saeco Aroma, Saeco Vienna, and my newest purchase is this Saeco Odea Giro machine. 

First, all of these machines are capable of making good coffee – far better than any coffee brewed in standard American coffee drip machines.  You will definitely taste the difference between espressos that you make with this machine over standard brews.  Much better.  However, don't expect much from the frother (panarello).  None of these machines will produce the rich, dense latte froth that you will get in the best coffee bars (I don't count Starbucks or Cutter Point to be "the best."). 

Saeco Aroma machines (the least expensive of the three I’ve tried) require you to grind your own beans or to buy an espresso grind.  This is the minimum machine that you want for good home-quality espressos -- which again, will not be as good as the best coffee bars -- but will be damn good.  This requires you to tamp the coffee grinds yourself, to dump the grinds, and rinse the filter holder, but in all other respects, it's as easy as the more expensive Saeco Vienna and Giro machines. 

The Saeco Vienna and Giro are called superautomatica machines, because they do just about all the work for you (supposedly).  The superautomatic machines will grind the beans, tamp them, and then give you a shot of espresso and dump the grinds into a bin.  However, they require almost as much upkeep as the simpler Aroma machines -- the water holder is smaller, the machines are more finicky and require constant cleaning etc.  The quality of the coffee is the same.  What is important is a well-made machine and 15 bars of pressure. 

I like the Saeco Vienna machine very much.  Both it and the Giro require you to keep an eye on the water supply (the holder for the water is a bit small in both machines, so you do have to replenish the water supply fairly frequently), and to regularly clean out the used grounds, and dump excess water.  The Vienna machine works well, produces great coffee, and is not so finicky that I have to constantly fiddle with it.  It works so well, without complaint, that I often forget to refill the water supply or dump the grounds. 

Unfortunately, the Saeco Giro is one of those “new, improved” models that is much worse than the original.  I hear that Saeco got purchased by Philips, the Dutch corporation.  I’ve rarely bought anything made by the Philips brand that worked well, and the Saeco Giro is no exception.  This thing is irritating in the extreme.  The water basket is small, so you have to refill it every two days.  The machine has about six different sensors that will tell the machine that something is wrong; when something is wrong, a red exclamation point will come on, and it is then up to you to peruse the manual to figure out what is wrong.  This goddamn red light turns on just about every single time I make an espresso (I drink about three per day).  The causes of the alarm are as follows: low water level in the water holder, a random amount of water in the water “dump” area; the drip tray or ground tray or bean holder slightly out of place; low level of beans, etc. 

I really wish I had bought a Vienna rather than this machine from hell.  I don’t even think that it makes as good coffee as the Vienna.  Oh, I almost forgot the most frustrating part of this machine – in their wisdom, the designers decided that every time you turn this machine on, it will spurt out hot water before spurting out the espresso.  Therefore you have to put a cup under the spout to collect this used, hot water; then you have to put your espresso cup under the spout to actually get the espresso.  Don’t buy this machine.  Get the Vienna or something else. 

Great Phrases, German and English

This is from Wired magazine.  I found these words humorous, and they describe feelings I've had before but never described to anyone else.  It's great when  you realize that other folks have the same feelings. 

Wort-Verwurstung (Word Sausage-Making)
"For true specificity, you have to go to German, where the grammar allows for seemingly endless compound constructions.  That's what Ben Schott did when compiling his new book, Schottenfreude: German Words for the Human Condition." 

Here are a couple of my favorites:

bostdruck (guest-pressure): The exhausting effort of being a good houseguest. 

Speichelgleichmut (saliva-stoicism): Pretending you haven't been accidentally spat on in conversation. 

Hilton and Hampton Inn, Your Little Things Are Driving Us Crazy

Did I say that the little things about the Hampton Inns will drive me crazy? I recently stayed at  the Hampton Inn at the Gateway Center near the Orlando airport.  This is a brand new building and the room and furnishings were great.  It had nearly none of the problems of the other Hampton Inn near the Convention Center that I stayed at (see previous blog).  The Hampton Inns are a brand of Hilton Hotels.  They are pretty good, but all their rules drove me crazy during my stay.  Here’s the scenario:

You have had a long, tiring day.  It's dark.  You find the hotel.  The parking lot is pretty full.  You just want to park, get your stuff, and collapse in a room that is not stifling hot.   You have a lot of stuff since you are a diver and a photographer.  So parking fairly close to the hotel entrance is important. 

You see a parking space near to the hotel entrance!  Finally, something has gone easy today.  You nose in, only to see the sign: nope, this is a handicapped space.  OK, you are used to that.  

Oh, you see another space near the front of the hotel!  You cruise over there, nose in, only to see another sign: RESERVED FOR HYBRID VEHICLES ONLY.  Arrgh! 

You back out, see yet another space within reasonable walking distance of the hotel entrance, get your car there, enter the space, get out, and then you notice the sign for this space: DIAMOND ELITE PARKING ONLY.”  You scream silently (or if you are in your car, loudly” to no one in particular, but really, at this petty crap designed to fool and irritate you by Hilton’s Hampton Inn executives.  You leave your car in the Diamond Member space, because you’ll be damned if you are going to move again.

One final note, Hampton Inn: If you allow a guest a late checkout, then don’t lock him out of the outer doors after he swims at noon, causing him to wait outside the outer door from the pool, pounding on the door for 15 minutes, and finally making him hike all the way around to the hotel entrance in his bare feet, swimsuit, and towel.  And then when you give him a replacement key, how about making sure that it works so he doesn’t have to walk up to his room in his bare fee, swimsuit, and wet towel, only to find out that he can't get into his room because you programmed the key incorrectly?!  Then he has to go back down to the front desk, still wet, still in his swim suit and towel, and ask for another key to be issued.  All because he went swimming at 12:14pm, your checkout time is 12 noon, but you promised him a late checkout at 2pm.  Then he has to go back up to his room, likely waiting for the elevator for 10 minutes since you've scheduled maintenance on two of the three elevators at the busiest time of the day.   Why cancel his room card when he is at your pool, after you’ve promised him that he can check out at 2pm?  Do you think that this would be somewhat aggravating? 

Be Aware of Hotel Fees and What Resort and Parking Fees Add to the Total Stay Cost

I am a longtime traveler, a former member of the Society of American Travel Writers, and I have stayed in hotels ranging from the ritzy Four Seasons Resort at Hualalai to a Motel 6 in the heart of a dangerous part of Los Angeles.  I don’t believe in spending a lot of money for a night in a hotel, but I also don’t want to stay in motels that are so depressing that I want to hang myself.  I just want hotels that are clean, safe, and comfortable.  I am therefore a big fan of hotels ranging from the Westin and Hampton Inn chains down to La Quinta and Super 8 motels. 

The La Quinta hotels deserve special acclaim because they normally (not all) allow pets with no extra charge.  But beware, some LQ hotels state that they are pet-friendly, but when you arrive, they give you a form stating that only pets under 50 pounds are allowed.  I therefore had to sneak my 100-pound and 70-pound yellow Labrador retrievers into my room for the night and feel like a criminal.  That's BS. 

I almost NEVER pay more than$150 per night for any hotel room.  As an example, I recently stayed at a Westin hotel near Dulles Airport for $68, using nothing except the website booking.com to find this great deal.  I’ve never had a bad experience staying at a Westin property – the rooms are always clean and the furnishings in great shape. 

I generally like Hampton Inns, because you almost always get a clean room, clean sheets, a good firm bed, and friendly, professional service at the front desk at a decent price.  However, I’ve now stayed at three different Hampton Inns in Orlando in the past few months, and I have one piece of advice regarding this chain now -- look on TripAdvisor and booking.com for recent reviews, and only choose a Hampton Inn that is newer.  The older ones generally show their age and don't have things like working air conditioners and ice machines.

 

Hampton Inn at Gateway Village near the Orlando Airport is an example of a newly-built hotel.  The furnishings and quality of a newly-built Hampton Inn rivals that of a Westin, and you can generally stay at a Hampton Inn for far less than staying at a Westin. 

You don’t get dinged for things like resort fees, parking fees, and wifi internet fees at Hampton Inns; when you stay at a Hilton or Westin, be prepared to pay a lot more than the quoted rate for these fees.  As an example, I recently priced a Friday night stay at a Hilton, Westin, and Hampton Inn in Orlando.  All hotels were very close to the Orlando Convention Center. 

The Hilton Orlando Convention Center had a rate that was $94 on booking.com, my favorite site for finding hotels (it has a terrific map feature that shows all hotels and the rate).  On closer inspection, however, I discovered that I would have to pay a $20 resort fee and another $16 to $23 to pay for parking.  The resort fee includes use of the pool and wifi internet access.  The total would have been $130 plus tax ( I would have self-parked rather than paying the higher price for a valet). 

The Westin Orlando had a rate of $109 for the same night.  I would have to bring my own internet service or pay $14.95 to use the hotel’s wifi internet.  Parking at the hotel would cost another $15 to $23.  Total price for me, since I would have used my own internet hotspot (using a free FreedomPop wifi modem), would have been $124 plus tax. 

The Hampton Inn on Universal Blvd, which is a bit farther away from the Convention Center than the above two hotels, had a rate of $92 for the same night.  For that rate, using the pool, the wifi internet, and parking was all included at no charge.  Now, the Hampton is just a bit too far away from the Convention Center to comfortably walk (it is 0.7 miles away) without arriving in a sweat.  This was more than a little hassle.  You could wait for the iridetrolley, which is an evil pain in the butt that charges $2 (it does pick up passengers near the Hampton every 30 minutes but it makes you wait until you give up, then drives past just as you start walking back to your hotel); or take a taxi to the convention center for $8.  I could have parked at the Hilton for $16 or paid to park at a nearby garage (but I could not find any parking garages!).  I just drove to one of the hotels across from the convention center and parked there, risking my car getting towed.  

Summary: 

Hilton, advertised price on booking.com was $94, total price would be $130 plus taxes.  

Westin, advertised price was $109, total price would have been $124 plus taxes.  

Hampton Inn, advertised price was $92, total price would have been $92 plus taxes.  

 

The End of Civilized Society

Signs from a United Club lounge.  Is it now necessary to have signs telling people not to do uncivilized things?  I guess so. 

It's the Little Things That Will Make Me Stop Traveling

I am a longtime traveler.  I don't travel lightly.  I usually have at least three cases plus three carryons of photographic gear and computer stuff.  Here's a typical hotel stay that any other longtime traveler can understand. 

 I generally like Hampton Inns, because you almost always get a clean room, clean sheets, a good firm bed, and friendly, professional service at the front desk at a decent price.  But the older the property, the more problems; and Hilton, who owns Hampton Inns, is hellbent on making life harder for all travelers other than their elite travelers.  

So, first night at the first Hampton Inn in Orlando.  Here's the scenario: 

You’re tired.  You’ve had a long flight with a screaming baby in the seat behind you.  The baby not only screams, but his brother is directly behind you, kicking your seat the entire trip.  He is impervious to glares and entreaties to the harassed mother does not solve the problem.

You take multiple shuttle buses, wrestling your three giant cases of photo gear and books on each bus, to finally get a rental car.  You make your way to the hotel.  You are very, very tired and do not look forward to wrestling all your gear from the car through the parking lot to the hotel and then to your room.  The room is old, and the air conditioning doesn't work well.  I try all night to sleep in a room that is about 76 degrees and humid.   After a bad night of sleep due to the ill-functioning air conditioning in my top-floor room, I asked to change to a room that had a better air conditioner.  The hotel clerk changed me to another room on the third floor.  

The new room, on the third floor, did not reek of cigarette smoke like my other room, but I soon encountered problems. The room was hot when I arrived.  The air conditioning unit had a sign with large letters that said “THIS UNIT IS CONTROLLED BY WALL THERMOSTAT  I searched and searched for a wall thermostat with no luck.  I finally asked a hotel staff person passing by to show me where the thermostat was.  He instantly reached for the controls underneath the sign to turn the air conditioning down to a lower temperature.  When I asked him why there was a sign on the A/C unit saying "DO NOT TOUCH", he said that some rooms had thermostats, and some did not. 

The ice machine on the third floor did not work.  I tried it several times.  It made nice loud humming engine sounds like it was working, but it never would give up any ice.  I had to trek down the stairs in my bare feet to the second floor, not a huge deal, but kind of nasty when I stepped into the puddle of old soda by the second floor ice machine.  

The TV in my "newer" room was incredibly old, a real relic.  I show a picture of the remote, which is made of metal.  It was so old and overused that the paint had been rubbed off by all the hands that had held it.  The TV was so old that the picture itself would not even fill the entire screen.  Only 50 percent of the TV screen area was filled by the actual TV picture.  I could barely see the picture, and the picture itself was unfocused and unsharp, kind of like watching a small old crappy minature TV from the 1970s.  The sound was so bad as to be unintelligible; I gave up trying to hear the audio.  I attach a photograph of the TV showing how small the picture was in the TV screen; and I attach a photograph of the remote, showing how ancient and worn it was. 

The refrigerator was a pain in the butt.  I put a can of soda in the door, but I discovered that every time I opened the door, the can would come shooting out.  It turns out that the refrigerator door was missing the small bar  that normally holds cans and bottles in place in the door. 

These are all little things.  But it is the little things that drive you crazy when you are traveling.  When you’ve arrived at your hotel after a long flight, you just want a hotel clerk that will check you in quickly; you want a room that is cool enough to sleep in and where you can control the temperature; you want a hotel where the management is thoughtful enough to schedule its elevator maintenance during non-busy hours; and you want a hotel that advertises a swimming pool -- to actually have a  swimming pool that you can use.  I can understand if a swimming pool is undergoing maintenance, but in such a case, give me the correct information so I don’t have to undertake a hike to another hotel only to find that hotel’s pool is closed also!  And making sure that your ice machines work helps also. 

The hotel I chose, the Hampton Inn Orlando Convention Center, was old and creaky, was  full up with large groups of screaming high schoolers and busloads of senior citizens; and its management either does not care or is not careful about things like scheduling elevator and pool maintenance at the best (less busy) times.  I moved to another hotel. 

Did I say that the little things about the Hampton Inns will drive me crazy? I changed hotels to the Hampton Inn at the Gateway Center near the airport.  This is a brand new building and the room and furnishings were great.  It had nearly none of the problems of the other hotel.  But, still, here’s the scenario:

You find the hotel.  You see a parking space near to the hotel entrance!  Finally, something has gone easy today.  You nose in, only to see the sign: nope, this is a handicapped space.  OK, you are used to that.  Oh, you see another space near the front of the hotel!  You cruise over there, nose in, only to see another sign: THIS SPACE RESERVED FOR HYBRID VEHICLES ONLY.  Arrgh!  You back out, see yet another space within reasonable walking distance of the hotel entrance, get your car there, enter the space, get out, and then you notice the sign for this space: THIS SPACE RESERVED FOR HILTON DIAMOND MEMBERS ONLY.”  You scream silently (or if you are in your car, loudly” to no one in particular, but really, at this petty crap designed to fool and irritate you by Hilton’s Hampton Inn executives.  You leave your car in the Diamond Member space, because you’ll be damned if you are going to move again.

One final note, Hampton Inn: If you allow a guest a late checkout, then don’t lock him out of the outer doors after he swims at noon, causing him to wait outside the outer door from the pool, pounding on the door for 15 minutes, and finally making him hike all the way around to the hotel entrance in his bare feet, swimsuit, and towel.  And then when you give him a replacement key, how about making sure that it works so he doesn’t have to walk up to his room in his bare fee, swimsuit, and wet towel, only to find out that he can't get into his room because you programmed the key incorrectly?!  Then he has to go back down to the front desk, still wet, still in his swim suit and towel, and ask for another key to be issued.  All because he went swimming at 12:14pm, your checkout time is 12 noon, but you promised him a late checkout at 2pm.  Then he has to go back up to his room, likely waiting for the elevator for 10 minutes since you've scheduled maintenance on two of the three elevators at the busiest time of the day.   Why cancel his room card when he is at your pool, after you’ve promised him that he can check out at 2pm?  Do you think that this would be somewhat aggravating?