Residence Inn San Francisco Airport/Oyster Point Waterfront - Review

http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/sfori-residence-inn-san-francisco-airport-oyster-point-waterfront/

I recently returned from a 2 day stay at this hotel and don’t have enough nice things to say about it.  My husband and I flew into San Francisco, stayed there for a few days in a different hotel, drove to Pasadena/Arcadia for a 5 night stay, and then drove back to San Francisco for a few more days…so we had a bit of an exhausting trip! I was extremely excited about this hotel when I booked it.  Unfortunately it did not live up to my expectations.  Upon arriving at the hotel, we walked into the lobby and the woman at the check in was too busy chatting with someone else about what she was ordering for lunch to even glance at us and say hello.  It wasn’t until the other person nodded her head at us that the woman decided she should do her job and take care of us.  When she looked to us, my husband handed her his credit card so she could check us in.  Up until that moment, she was very disinterested in assisting us.  As soon as she looked up our reservation and saw we were platinum, her whole attitude changed and she “upgraded” us to a room with a view.  Whenever we stay at a hotel we always have a room on the top floor, but we did not have a room on the 4^th floor this time…we were on the 3^rd. We went out to the car and then lugged our suitcases to the only elevator in the hotel and then took the longest walk to our room that I can remember.  Finally, we get to our room only to be met with disappointment.

I guess I should start with the good parts of this hotel before I get carried away with the bad.  The location is excellent.  Outside the hotel is a beautiful walking path with beautiful water views.  The hotel appears to be kept clean.  The pool looked beautiful and even had a pool with disabled access, which was nice to see.  There was adequate parking, which is always good.

The hotel was close access to the airport.  So with our early morning flight, it was easy to get there.

The bad parts of the hotel…The first thing I noticed when I opened the door was a loud jet engine sound.  I assumed it was from an airplane (since the airport isn’t far) but the sound continued for far too long.  We later found out it was the air conditioner.  Honestly, this air conditioner was SO loud it woke us up many times and did not allow us to get a good night’s sleep.  If we were here longer than 2 nights, I would definitely have requested a different room.

The kitchen is severely lacking.  There are 2 burners on the stove top (no oven) and one knob on ours was broken.  There were no spatulas to cook with.  When we called to ask for one, they said they didn’t have any and would have to go to the store later to buy one.  We never did get that spatula.

With all the great places to stay in this area, I do not think I would recommend this place.  The service we received was not to the Marriott standard, the room was loud, the kitchen in the room was useless and I have definitely had more comfortable accommodations. There is a Courtyard next door…if I was back in this area and did not wish to stay in the city; I would certainly try that before returning to this Residence Inn.

Residence Inn Pasadena Arcadia - Review

http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/bwrar-residence-inn-pasadena-arcadia/

I recently returned from a 5 day stay at this hotel and don’t have enough nice things to say about it.  My husband and I flew into San Francisco, stayed there for a few days, drove to Arcadia for a 5 night stay, and then drove back to San Francisco for a few more days…so we had a bit of an exhausting trip!

Upon arriving at the hotel, we were met by a very friendly woman at the check in counter (I believe her name was Cindy) who quickly checked us into our room, explained the amenities and showed us where our room was on a map.  Within minutes we were at our room.  This Residence Inn is like many of the other Residence Inns I’ve stayed at; rooms are laid out well and are kept very clean.  

I slept extremely well at this hotel, it is very quiet and the rooms are well insulated from your neighbors.  We were able to get a room on the top floor, so I cannot speak to how it is if there is someone directly above you, but I have no complaints with the sound proofing from people next door.  

The kitchen is well appointed.  Coffee maker, dish washer, refrigerator, toaster, pots, pans, cooking utensils and all the plates, glasses, and silverware you would need!

There were a few items that I feel could be improved upon, but nothing that would prevent me from staying here again or recommending it to a friend.  First, the internet was so slow it was unusable.  For most of the trip, I found myself using my cell phone or iPad instead of my laptop. Second, when the air conditioner turned on, it was louder than I am used to from a Residence Inn.  However, after staying at our next Residence Inn – Oyster Point in San Francisco…I no longer think this air conditioner was loud!  It wasn’t so loud it disrupted sleep, but like I said, it was still louder than I am used to.

Parking wasn’t an issue except on one occasion where we returned pretty late and had to circle the parking lot twice waiting for someone else to leave.  Every other time we had no issues with parking.

I am unable to comment on food because we either prepared meals in the room or went out to eat.  We also did not use the pool, but there were people using it and it appeared to be extremely clean.  Also, there were barbeques available for guests use.  

Overall, I was extremely pleased with this hotel, the staff and the room and would recommend it to anyone!

Disney Magic Canada & New England Cruises

My husband and I left from NYC on the Disney Magic, September 7 returning September 12. From the moment we stepped on board until we left it was wonderful. Because of the week we chose, there weren't very many school aged children on board, some little ones. However it doesn't really matter because there do have adult only spaces and activities;and they enforce the rules which is important.
Our dining experience was great. 

Our stateroom was in an excellent location, clean and tidy. I do feel the staterooms could use a face lift, we had problems with air conditioning, the shower head wasn't working properly, and our refrigerator wasn't cold. All we needed to do was ask the stateroom attendant and they were fixed. The service is superior.
I would recommend this cruise line to anyone., with or without kids. 

Canada was wonderful, and the 5 days were just enough.                                

Marriott Residence Inn II Sunnyvale, CA Review

Location: 7/10 If you have ever been to the Silicon Valley area you will know first hand how hard it is to find a decent hotel. You would think with how "state of the art" the area is that the hotels would be on the same level. Sadly, that is not the case in this area, specifically the Sunnyvale/Cupertino/Palo Alto area. The majority of hotels in these areas are not the greatest nor the greatest hotels you are going to find. There are a few Hiltons around but even they are very limited and their availability is even worse. The location of this hotel is literally directly off the 101 in Sunnyvale and is directly across from the AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) US base for operations. There is another Residence Inn not far some this same location called Sunnyvale 1. The problem with the Sunnyvale 1 location is that its directly across from the 101 highway and is extremely noisy. Other reviews say they recommend that you request a room away from the highway. This location is not nearly as close to the highway as the Sunnyvale 1 location so any room should be acceptable. The location of the hotel provides easy access to all major companies in the surrounding areas (too many too list!).

The Hotel Itself: 7/10 The hotel itself is a typical Silicon Valley hotel although this location has recently been "refreshed" and is on the same level of the Marriott standard. The rooms all have full kitchens, fresh paint and refreshed decor and new furniture in the rooms. The hotel campus itself is in very good condition and is kept in good condition. The hotel staff are very responsive to requests and the check-in and check-out process was smooth with no delays. The only thing I recommend is asking for a room that is on the second floor since the rooms are stacked on top of each other the bottom rooms are going to be very noisy. I even noticed quite a bit of noise from the rooms adjoining me but not anything horrible. At night the rooms are dead quiet and you will get a great nights rest from these rooms. The only thing that could be better is the beds themselves, I found them to be slightly worn and in need of replacement, which I did mention to the front desk staff upon checkout.

There is a nice pool and outdoor tennis/basketball court that appeared to not be used very much. Even during my 2 week stay I never saw anyone use the pool facilities, but I did check it out and confirmed that it was always clean and ready for use. Sadly this location does NOT have a hot tub just a pool. I didnt have to use the on site laundry but be aware that each load of laundry is $1.50 and each dryer session is also $1.50, so bring some money with you if you plan on doing your laundry on an extended stay!

Breakfast/Coffee/Internet Access: 4/10 Part of me thinks that this should probably be even lower then a "4". The Breakfast at Residence Inn's are usually one Marriott's higher quality breakfasts, toted as the complete hot breakfast with complete buffet style options for selection. The problem? The food stinks. Plain and simple we are talking about some of the worst food you can find in a hotel, seriously I have had better food at Fairfield Inns then this Residence Inn. Very upsetting and not what I expected at all considering this is one of the highly toted features of staying at a Residence Inn. The good side of the coin, you have a full kitchen and you can go to the food store and make almost anything in the room which is much better then eating the breakfast in the hotel.

Coffee: Again…. Marriott…..Please….. its time to DUMP BARISTA Bold or whatever its called. Its just junk, its horrible, un-drinkable sad excuse for coffee. Every review I say this and maybe some day someone at Marriott Int't will listen and start getting something better. It doesnt have to be Starbucks (which isnt that great anyway) just something better then Barista Bold junk!

Internet Access: Fail. So let me explain about how the internet works at the Residence Inn and others that set up similarly to this one. Since the facility is completely outside campus they dont have access points that cover the property. Instead there are mini access points in each room, similar to your home wireless setup in each room. Located under each desk is a mini wireless router/dsl modem combo unit. At first your probably thinking, wow this is great, I get my own dedicated internet circuit and dont have to share with anyone else, sadly this is not the case. The internet speeds are horrible we are talking maybe a 1MB/256K DSL speed on a good day. Even after rebooting the system (pulling the power and plugging back in) the system was no better. I even took the liberty to call the "support" number that routes you to a center call center in India where the support person requests your MAC address and remote access webex session to test the speeds and your computer setup. Again, this is a huge FAIL. I used my Mifi device the entire time I was staying here, which by the way, the AT&T service in this area is absolutely horrible in.

Final Words: 7/10
The hotel itself isn't horrible but its not amazing either. I will definitely stay here again but not maybe not in the near future without trying another location first. There are a lot of pro's about this hotel, mostly the fact that you can cook your own meals in the hotel and not have to eat out all of the time, which really does save money in the long run. I would strongly recommend asking for a top floor and definitely a room away from the road if possible, although not a super requirement for this location. Considering the area and its options this may the best and only bet. One word of caution, this hotel is usually booked a month or MORE out, so if you have a trip planned you must book ahead of time of you are not getting a room. I booked a month out and barely got a room and the entire time I was there (2 weeks) the hotel was sold out 100% of the time.

Fairfield Marriott Chelsea Manhattan Hotel Review

Location: 8/10 Let's face it basically anywhere you stay in Manhattan is going to be in a decent location for attractions. You can pick up the subway at almost every street corner and there are taxis everywhere. This specific location is literally a five mini walk from Penn Plaza which is the home of Madison Square Garden. To put it mildly, it doesn't get much better then this, you are smack dab in the middle of the fashion district with Fashion Ave a block to the left. With this location comes some typical NYC cautions. After dark outside the street the hotel is on can be dark and uninviting from a security standpoint, however this is NYC. There are always people out walking around and there are tons of apartments in the area over looking the street, so it's not horrible. Take caution after concerts, games or entertainment functions occurring at the Garden, it can get very "festive" depending on the event being held.


The Hotel Itself: 6/10 I am always a tough person to please, mostly because I stay at so many hotels in a few weeks time. The hotel itself was built in late 2010 and opened in early 2011, so everything is relatively new. The hotel was built during the big hotel boom occurring in lower NYC, which includes a competitive and equally sized Hilton Garden Inn adjacent to the Fairfield. The entrance to the hotel is nice, small but functional. Towards the back is the breakfast area along with the Internet Cafe machines. See my review below for words on the breakfast, etc.

On to the room, I had the "City View" package which puts you in the front of the hotel for two weeks in a row. Killer view of the Empire State Building, the higher the room floor the better the view. No complaints with this, however it gets noisy. The front rooms have dual shades that includes a shade plus a noise canceling insulated shade on the outter side which does help substantially but not enough. If you need quiet ask for a room in the back of the hotel, if this doesn't work, bring some noise canceling headphones or even better stay in New Jersey.

The showers are full glass with fake marble printed tiles and nicely designed sink area, albeit on a small and tight scale, this is NYC which is to be expected. No more then 2 midsized people in the bathroom at a time. The shower is actually quite large, almost half the size of the bathroom itself which begs to question the design choice. The toliet is always in the way with a tiny sink and huge shower. Not sure what the designers were thinking on that one, again, I am being very particular about this!

I had two different rooms on each of my week stays at this hotel. The first hotel had a bathroom door that seemed to have been forgetton about during the assemble stage. You have be behind the toliet and angled in a certain position to close the door or it will whack you in the face, knees or legs. Better yet, we are talking about maybe an inch between the door closing and the toliet, make sure no one tries opening the door while you are doing your business or you going for a ride with a few choice words on the way down. A pocket door would have solved this completely, and there even seemed to be plenty of room for on in the wall. Be careful on the nightly runs to toliet too, it gets worse in the dark!

The second stay I was on the opposite side of the hotel with a slightly different layout with a much more functional door and bathroom layout, but still had a huge shower with a rain shower head, nice, but still odd design choice and questionable functionality.

The Staff/Checkin-Checkout Process: 5/10 The arkielles heal for this hotel is its front desk staff. It's not that they aren't helpful, they are too busy. At some points there was only one person working the counter for a hotel with 200 rooms in downtown Manhattan? Unacceptable. They need two people working at all times at the front desk, especially during the morning and afternoon hours when guests are checking in.

The checkout process was fine for me each time, basically handing my key card to the person and walking out. This included stepping in front of a line of four people checking in. The needs for a faster checkin/out process can't be stressed more. Another issue is the elevators are directly in front of the front desk. This makes it challenging when people are lined up at the front desk, getting it of the elevator with luggage and maneuvering around people with their own luggage is not fun. On the other side of the coin, placing the evelvator on the other side, exiting in the breakfast area poses another problem, a very narrow corridor to bring bags through to the front. So I guess this a typical design challenge when you have very little room to work with in NYC. You will always have an issue or problem  somewhere design choices have to be made. It works, just not well!!

Breakfast/Coffee/Internet Access 4/10 Yes that's a four! I was very disappointed in the breakfast layout at this hotel. I have stayed in many Fairfield Hotels and they usually do a good job with the continental breakfast. The problem with this location was specifically the layout! Items are all over the place in the breakfast room with what looks to be last minute shelving installed and questionable placement of every single item. Zero flow in this area, when I am up at 6AM and want a nice NYC bagel it shouldn't take me 10 minutes to walk around the room to find a knife, then the cream cheese. If you want a coffee that's at another location in a small tiny corner, one person at a time in this area to get coffee, yes, I said one person. Wait until 8AM when ten people want coffee, failed design choice on this. The food was fine and typical Fairfield items served, nothing to knock your socks off and the coffee was drinkable "Cheap" Starbucks.

Internet- Blatent FAIL. I actually reported this directly to Marriott corporate. If you have a hotel in the busiest city in the world, with the utmost best location, the LAST thing you skip on is the Internet access. Speed tests were horrible, 1.5MB/1MB up in the morning with hardly cracking dial up speeds in the evening. Come on Marriott, this is NYC you HAVE NO EXCUSE not to have the best or at least a corporate connection for the location. If you have work to do take a walk down to Panera Bread a half block away, they have Fios 20/10 line that smokes.

Final Words: 6/10 I am going to admit, I was especially hard on this review. I am sure many other long term customers may not find my issues nearly as bad. This was straight from a weekly traveler that has had his fair share of noise dives in NYC. I think overall, even with a 6, this hotel is great. Why? It's location saves it from complete failure. No, not its location in terms of placement but because its IN NYC and many other hotels are just ten times worse unless you pay big bucks. With that said, the place is still new, and I really think with some corporate changes such as faster Internet, more personel at the front desk (STOP PUTTING ME ON HOLD!!!), a redesign on the breakfast layout and finally, please, for the love of all will someone at Marriott corporate get rid of the Starbucks coffee?! Have you ever heard of Green Mountain???

Bottom Line: Nice hotel, couple issues that can be resolved by management or corporate. RFID key cards which are super cool. Great beds and clean rooms. Noisy in the front, as expected. Will stay here again and see if they improve with (one) persons honest review. Oh and get better coffee. Safe travels all.

Springhill Suites by Marriott at Portland Airport

 

http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/pdxsh-springhill-suites-portland-airport/

 

Location: 7/10

 

The hotel is located approximately a mile from the Portland Airport and is a straight shot right down Airport Blvd. if your driving fast you are going to miss it, so keep your eyes open!! There are multiple areas to eat in the immediate area, however if you prefer more the chain style restaurants there is an area towards the airport called Cascade Station. This is where I ate most of the time, it is relatively new shopping area that is very clean and easy to access. There are many places to eat such as Panda Express, Buffalo Wild Wings, Famous Dave's (awesome BBQ!!!) and many others. 

 

Service: 8/10

The service at this hotel was fine and I had zero issues. The room was always cleaned well and breakfast in the morning was always ready. Speaking of the breakfast, the hotel provides a nice selection of breakfast items, from cereals, coffees, juices, fresh waffles, etc. All of the Fairfield/Springhill hotels that I have been at have done a great job with providing a good breakfast for the price you pay.

 

Facilities: 7/10

 

The facilities onsite are very clean, organized and seem well maintained. The swimming pool and hot tub area are very nice and were always working. The gym is nice, although small, was always clean and smelled fresh and well taken care of. The negative was an extremely SLOW elevator. There is only a single elevator in the hotel that services five floors. The designers/builder should have places two elevators at this property if they planned to use slow units. The steps, which I use frequently, are inaccessible from the first floor lobby area. I don't know if this is a Oregon fire standard or what, but the stairs lead straight from the above floors to the outside, so you cant take the stairs up to your room, very odd!!!

 

Final Words: 6/10

The hotel wireless Internet is brutally slow and for a business traveler it was unacceptable. Thankfully I travel with a hotspot that I used instead, if you don't have one, prepare for slow internet access. Secondly, the noise from the airport is rough too. Granted, any of the hotels in the area (surround by Hilton, Holiday Inn, Fairfield Inn, Courtyard) are going to suffer the same fate. The jets literally fly directly over the path of the hotels at a few thousand or less feet. All hotels have windows and the noise penetrates right through, not much you can do in these circumstances. From the time of 5:00AM until 10:00PM you will be on an aircraft carrier. If this bothers you I strongly recommend staying out of the airport area and more near the city, but if you want a short commute to and from the airport than this is the place to stay ( or other hotels in the area). Not a bad place, will probably stay at the Courtyard next time, hoping for better Internet access and maybe some better sound proofing from the airport noises!!

Townplace Suites Marriott - Tucson, Arizona - 5 Night - Review

Location: 8/10

The Hotel is located close to the Tucson airport, not more then a mile to the front door. It is definitely a walkable distance if you are not taking a rental car or if a shuttle is not available. The only problem about the location is there is limited signage on the main road coming from the airport. The hotel is stuck way back in the corner by itself, which in a way is nice. There are quite a few restaurants near by, mostly fast food, for a decent sit down meal you will need to drive about 25 minutes out of the area. The same goes for a local food store, requiring a short drive across town you will find a newer shopping area that has a new Food City supermarket.

Service: 7/10

The overall service provided at the hotel was very good during my stay. However, one small annoyance that I have been experiencing at many other Marriotts is the lack of attentive front desk staff when checking out. I don't know what it is, all of the front desks have access to a camera that monitors the desk from the back room, yet three time in a row, at separate hotels in totally different geographic areas I needed to wait 10 minutes for a staff member. Two of those times required me sticking my head around the corner and this time required a hotel maid to enter the back room area and get the person to check me out. A big deal? Not really because I had plenty of time, however it is becoming an annoyance. Some of the hotels offer an express checkout by using your tv to check out, although nice, it frequently does not work reliably and requires a visit to the front desk.

Facilities: 6/10

The entire hotel surroundings are very clean and newer looking. I didn't find garbage anywhere and the pool was clean, working and had functioning waterfall. There was also a nice grill located near the pool, although it was too cool outside while I was there to cook out, I checked to confirm the grill worked and lit. Definitely a nice area to cook outside, the next time I am at this location I am going to pick up some steaks and make them on the grill outside, definitely worth it!!

Since these are "suites" or mini apartments they contain a full kitchen, however I would call it more along the lines of a "mini" kitchen. The stove is electric and small, no oven, just a microwave and large refrigerator with freezer. The counter tops are a nice marble-stylistic material, they provide some cooking pots and pans, but don't get your hopes up for any Wolfgang Puck style cooking pans, these are straight up metal pans. If you plan on cooking, make sure you pick up some Pam!!

The bathroom was very well done, full marble-stylistic counter tops and screen printed tile (not the real stuff but the made to look real stuff) which appeared to be installed in a professional manner. The flooring was clean and there was no dirt or debris around the room. There was a large stain on the carpet near the bathroom, looked like a bleach type spill or some sort of cleaning liquid that was attempted to be fixed.

Overall: 7.5/10

Not bad. That's what I could give this hotel. I will be back in a week staying again for five nights so I will do another review on the facilities and hopefully use the grill. I did have some oddities in my room that were corrected quickly, one was missing batteries in the TV remote and a missing light bulb in of the lights in the room. Yes....two odd missing items, however they were both fixed quickly and two pieces of chocolate and a "fixed" card were left behind, nice touch!

I am looking forward to my next stay here as the location is prime from the airport, and as with anything in Tucson, it's a drive to find what you need or want, but it's not horrible either.