The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
How was your hotel?
jamsyarbots
Wilmington, DERegistered User regular
Wilmington, DERegistered User regular
in PAX West
Sorry if there's already a thread for this.
In the metagame that is Pax planning, one can never start too soon. In the name of early planning, and general curiosity, how was your hotel? Would you stay there again next year or will you try something else?
In the metagame that is Pax planning, one can never start too soon. In the name of early planning, and general curiosity, how was your hotel? Would you stay there again next year or will you try something else?
0
Posts
<+Ravenger> you are talking to me
<@heels> oh god, what am i doing
Bonus... 5:30-6:30 is free beer time in the lobby. So it was nice to wander in after the exhibit hall closed each day and have a free drink.
Great service though, and the one day I did eat in their restaurant it was delicious. Room was.... normal double size, I guess. Not too big, not too small.
PS: The beds are King Size.
Next year I might try the Sheraton though since I might be only rooming with one person instead of three.
Attended: PAX Prime 2014
Considering: PAX Prime 2015
This post is equal parts informative and public service announcement.
Everything was clean and the service was prompt with getting our rooms serviced when we needed. Not too big to fit the amount of people we had in our room, but not tiny either.
PAX Prime 2014 [X]
PAX Prime 2015 [X]
The only downside I experienced, all you get on TV are local channels, something like 10 cable channels, and Showtime. No guide at all, you gotta guess what's gonna be on TV, and use the card to figure out what channel is what - it was like watching TV 20 years ago!
Didn't experience any issues with service, it was 5 minutes after I arrived until I was in my room, calling the front desk to check out took all of 1 minute; I never had to deal with their service aside from that.
The front desk staff was always super courteous and friendly, made checking in a breeze.
Was pleasantly surprised to be given a wifi code as part of the OnPeak booking, though as a rewards member I would have gotten it anyway.
Room was clean and super spacious, the mini-fridge was a good size for drinks but not good for storing any leftover food. On the note of leftover food having a microwave in room would have been nice but is a luxury wish. lol
Having 2 queen beds and plenty of floor space was perfect for my group as everyone got their own space.
Even the restaurant in the hotel was top notch.
Overall a fantastic stay, definitely my top hotel choice for next year!
Attendee: Prime 12,13,14 East 13
This year I went for the bigger of the suites. If I was to nitpick:
The thermostat not consistently turning on the AC unit (usually changing the setting by a few degrees would wake it up)
Wifi signal was really strange (the USB dongle I had wouldn't pick it up in the bedroom but would in the front room)
Housekeeping would put any and all used cups/dishes in the dishwasher. Seemed wasteful to wash a coffee cup that was used for less than a half hour.
Sink was slow to drain
Venting in the bathroom wasn't the best (still beat the crap out of what I had in the Hilton in '12)
Good:
Free, but slow, wifi access
Free breakfast. Uninspired and somewhat bland at times, sure, but free with the option to get more.
The 800 sq ft suites had two entrances to the bathroom, a sliding door to the bedroom and a normal door from the front room. This was great as my traveling companion didn't have to try to sneak through the bedroom if I was sleeping and he had to use the bathroom. The 500 sq ft suites had only one door into the bathroom, and it was from the bedroom.
For ease of access to the convention centre, it was a pretty quick jaunt as it was right across the street from the south (I think?) entrance to freeway park.
I can't really recommend the Regatta Grill in the hotel though. Pricey (as you'd expect) but mediocre food and pretty weak service. The waitress did give us free cookies since one of our party's order was screwed up so there's that?
This, the Westin or the Sheraton for sure!
Attended: PAX Prime 2014
Considering: PAX Prime 2015
- The shower head was really weird, like a wand that had little to no pressure and the holder was placed slightly above waist high. Little to no pressure seems pretty common since its a hotel and at any point in time there maybe a ton of people showering / using the faucets etc so that was most likely what caused the pressure to be lower than usual.
- The elevators seemed quite slow & I believe at one point one of the elevators stopped working. Being on the 9th floor I made the trek with the stairs once but since I am not an athlete it was pretty tiring going up that many flights of stairs.
- The toilet in the washroom was really weird sometimes you would have to flush multiple times even if it was a #1 in there
- The service was first class from check in, to guest services, great service!
- Loved that while the Sheraton is closer to PAX Motif / Red Lion is closer to everything else (bus stops, other venues etc)
- Free Wifi, although slow, can't complain about free wifi
As for restaurants I truthfully can't recommend the Elephant & Castle Pub. Went there twice, the first time was at night on a whim and had pretty below average service (had to call the waiter over to ask for refills after they had walked by at least 3 - 4 times and it wasn't busy either). I had the jalapeno mac n cheese & my buddy had the poutine, both dishes left a bit to be desired.
The second time was around 3 - 330pm and it was slightly busier, however, it was the same thing in that it seemed that we didn't get refills or anything until we called a waiter over and asked. I had a deluxe burger (I believe) and thought that was decent, my buddy had the yorkie pudding with roast beef and while the yorkie + beef was decent the mash had little to no flavour at all.
Apologies to anyone who works there we might have just had the odd bad service / dishes but after having that twice I will definitely not frequent them if I can land badges for 2015
Oh my Dayum
Oh my goodness
They goin' Ham
Regarding room size, it seemed spacious to me, but I'm old and crotchety and don't room with more than one other person.
3DS Friend Code: 2707-1614-5576
PAX Prime 2014 Buttoneering!
PAX Prime / PAX Dev 2014
PAX Prime 2013
PAX Prime 2009
Attended: PAX Prime 2010/'11/'12/'13/'14
Bathroom was gorgeous. Marble tile everywhere. Immaculately clean. Free hairbrush, makeup remover, woolite, stuff like that delivered to you if you need. Glass shower. Hi tech faucets.
The room itself: Clean, didn't smell. Had a small flat screen tv. Bed, desk and an extra chair. No refrigerator in my room.
Wifi was $19/day. Did not get wifi.
Chose a single King bed from onpeak. When I checked in, all that was available were two double beds. I could choose to wait awhile for the King but didnt want to wait.
$220 or something per night. They charge you the total cost for the hotel when you check in plus $50 per night damages fee in case you trash the room. They refund the damage fee at the end of your stay if you dont trash the room. So be prepared for the total to come out of your funds when you check in.
The convenience of being across the street from PAX is nice.
Funny you both mention not getting the free wifi. They gave us a code to enter for free wifi. She wrote it on our keycard sleeves.
@Vianeth I'm surprised that you didn't have a fridge since they claimed all rooms have a fridge now. Heard differently on the phone, so perhaps they were misinformed.
pinnypals.com/pals/Zombicus
So far my top tier list is still Sheraton for the location and Hyatt for the bathrooms that you can park a car inside. of.
Trade me pins! - https://pinnypals.com/pals/TheAggroCraig
Westin was good for me. Same shower issues (apparently if you turn it to scolding hot, the water pressure increases ... ?). I called ahead after reading about the minibars in reviews. At checkin, I just asked them to deliver a fridge to my room. It's only a $5 surcharge (one-time, entire stay). I was able to put drinks and stuff in there (don't touch the minibar or the strange canned Snickers...).
I think the walls are thick (noone complained about us being loud at 2am and couldn't hear anyone else in adjacent rooms). Elevators were always empty or nearly empty (besides one time, I think the convention hall had just closed). Nearby McDonalds when you're up at 10/11pm and wondering why nothing is open late at night (from Vegas, not used to everything closing).
[X] Order Badges [X] Hotel [ X ] Flight [ X ] Time Off [ X ] Bobcat [ . ] Office Set [ . ] Challenge Coin [ . ] Sanity
That's standard for overnight parking near downtown. If you really don't want to pay the parking, you can park at a park and ride and bus in from there. Most, if not all, of the parking lots in downtown that aren't attached to a hotel aren't 24-hours and the ones that are area also around the same price.
I stay at the Grand Hyatt for all the Seattle conventions I go to and this is the first year I haven't gotten free wifi for any of them. I asked if there was free WiFi and they didn't give us the code... They just told us the pricing.. They did give us free redbull though.... But I would've preferred WiFi haha.
Interesting. We checking in Thursday mid day and I didn't even ask. She just wrote the code on my cards. She only offered me the free redbull after the lady checking someone in next to her offered one to the person they were working with. I didn't see her offer any to the person before us, but I also didn't hear of the person refused it.
So yeah, totally fine place but not my style at all. I wouldn't actively avoid it or recommend against it but if I can try another place next year I will.
If you want your hotel's lobby to feel like something out of a spy movie then you should stay here though.
This year was a vast improvement- super friendly staff, much cleaner space. The rooms are fairly small- especially the bathrooms- but not so much that you can't get comfy in them. There was a minifridge and free wifi- although the wifi was abit of a pain because you had to reenter the code every time you took the device out of the hotel. (Annoying wifi is better than none, though!) The pillows were actually good- I'm picky about pillows since sleeping on a bad one can trigger a migraine for me- it was nice to not deal with that. My favorite part- silly as it is- FULL SIZE SHAMPOO. My hair is a couple feet long and curly, and those lil' hotel bottles aren't enough for one shampoo, let alone a weekend. I was so, SO happy to see something I could use for once!
The only kind-of bad thing... I really don't think they planned their staffing right. We came early on Fri (6am) to use the luggage storage before check-in. There was only one guy handling that and the parking... which was fine, I doubt 6am is a busy time at most hotels. But when we checked out? There was still only one guy! This meant a line of people waiting to stow bags/get cars. I've been to enough WSCC conventions to know 10-noon on the last day is a big time for checkouts and such... I'm kinda surprised they weren't better prepared for that.
I'd totally stay again though- for the pillows and the shampoo. Funny the details you get hung up on, huh?
They started providing citrus water drinks and 10% off dining coupons in the lobby too, which was also nice!