First look: Taco Bell's pop-up hotel is here, complete with specialty food and hot sauce packet floaties

The hot sauce packet floaties are here.

And so are a slew of other Taco Bell-themed treats, accessories and activities that visitors from 21 different states will get to enjoy at the Taco Bell Hotel, which opened Thursday in Palm Springs, California, reports The Desert Sun, which is part of the USA TODAY Network.

But if first-night guests thought they would get a chance to experience everything, they were wrong. The hotel is only serving a partial menu including fish tacos, popcorn chicken, a plate of raw vegetables, a Caesar salad and a veggie wrap. (The popcorn chicken was OK.)

At about 3 p.m. Thursday, no one had yet to venture into the pool to use the floaties. It was, after all, flamin' hot outside. (The bicycles patterned with sauce packets were also left untouched in the heat.)

The hotel rooms were decked out with temporary Taco Bell murals and stocked with Taco Bell-flavored chips – Diablo, Fire and Mild. A single sauce-packet pillow rested in the center of the bed, 1990s-style. "Palm Springs, The Bell" was emblazoned on standard hotel robes and the bed runner.  

Not many people were lined up to check in during the early hours of the opening (during which guests received free sauce packet beach towels), but there were at least a few social media influencers on the grounds. 

A ribbon-cutting ceremony introduced the pop-up experience at the V Palm Springs hotel on Thursday morning. 

Palm Springs dignitaries won't be the only special guests throughout the day though. One couple will be spending their honeymoon at the hotel after tying the knot at the Taco Bell Cantina in Las Vegas on July 19. 

The hotel takeover continues through Monday. Bookings for the pop-up experience sold out in just two minutes. 

Guests will experience a full-immersion Taco Bell experience. Let's taco 'bout what it will include:

• Hot sauce packet floaties in the Fire! Pool while watching dive-in movies that mention Taco Bell. Movie-watchers can snack on chipotle butter popcorn dusted with verde seasoning. 
• Specialty cocktails including the Strawberry Sangria Baja Blast Pop served in Champagne flutes
• Music performances throughout the weekend by Wallows, FLETCHER, Whethan and Tate Tucker
• An on-site salon offering Cinnamon Twist Braids, Baja Manicures and Fire Fades.

“The moment you arrive at the hotel, we’re going to be handing you over a stock packet room key and then we just take it from there,” Jennifer Arnoldt, Taco Bell’s senior director of retail engagement and experience, said in June.

V hotel employees and management are handling the hotel experience while Taco Bell is running everything else. Local Taco Bell franchise owners and their teams have been brought in to help with menu items — which will include classic Taco Bell favorites and new items unique to the pop-up.

“This is bigger than anything we’ve done to date,” Arnoldt said.

Contributing: Sherry Barkas of The Desert Sun