We have stayed at Hilton hotels before and always been impressed with the quality and atmosphere, so were very disappointed with our three night stay here before a cruise.
We arrived too early to check in, so after waiting in line for what seemed like an age, then had to wheel our own luggage to a storage room. It would have been nice if we had been offered some assistance with this as we had two suitcases each.
When we returned we had to queue again to check in - I'm not sure why we couldn't have given all our details on the first occasion! Thankfully the second receptionist was a lot more friendly and offered to have our luggage taken to our room.
The room was spacious and comfortable, but lacked tea and coffee making facilities. When I had booked, I noticed that this was advertised on the website so I rang reception to enquire, and was told that the facility had been withdrawn, but that tea and coffee were available from room service. This was of course true, but at a ridiculous cost, as was the rest of the room service menu. There were no bathrobes or slippers - something I have come to expect in a hotel of this standard so had not brought my own.
During our stay we discovered that apart from a cafe, which is only open during the daytime, there is no restaurant in the hotel. We were very surprised to find a hotel with the reputation enjoyed by the Hilton chain with no proper restaurant.
The hotel was very busy and the public areas always crowded and noisy, with a lot of business people staying for various conventions, which made it impersonal and unwelcoming for holiday travellers. Every time we needed to ask for something we had to wait in line, and we had to queue up for the lifts each time we returned to our room.
The worst aspect was on our final day when all the guests on the cruise were collected by our cruise line and the hotel were charged with collecting the luggage and putting it on the coaches. To say that this was chaotic would be an understatement. At one point about four staff were engaged in bringing down suitcases for the party leaving an hour after ours, while all our suitcases stood in the lobby waiting to be loaded onto coaches. Some guests gave up waiting and loaded their own cases.
I will certainly be writing to the cruise company to recommend that they do not continue to use the Hilton. We payed £300 per night and for this we expect high quality, personal service, which we did not get. It's a shame as the location of this hotel is ideal for exploring the city, being positioned within walking distance of Central Park, Times Square, the Rockefeller Centre, Macy's, Grand Central Station and the Empire State building.
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