We have just stayed 6 nights at this property, our 2nd visit in a year. This time we booked into the Fairway Suite and were very disappointed. This suite is in the main section of the hotel, and it is in desperate need of a refurbishment + a redesign of the room. We travelled as 2 adults + 1 child. Our daughter slept in a rollaway in the sitting area of the suite. The main bedroom had doors, but for our daughter having to sleep in the sitting area, it was hard not to disturb her. The bathroomns in this room are in severe need of a major refurbishment. They are dinghy & the lighting is very poor. I could hardly put my make up on with the poor lighting each morning! The shower curtain is disgusting. They couldn't even put a nice pretty curtain in the bathroom, which was terrible, being in a suite. The suite is badly designed, with only 1 bathtub, and no door closing off the bathroom area for privacy (if others are in the sitting room). The 2nd bathroom has only a sink and toilet (no shower or bath), which we found useless. There is too much open space in the suite, and not enough wardrobe/drawer space for clothes. No luggage racks to put suitcases on. We looked at 2 adjoining rooms in the 'new' tower section, but this would have been more expensive, and we weren't really that impressed with the new rooms either.
One night we were woken up at 3am with a sound like a jack hammer outside our room! When I called the front desk I was told it was the pipes in the hotel, and that they would have to call the maintenance guy out. It was a very annoying sound. In addition our bed sheets were filthy & stained on arrival, and after 3 nights I finally had to put a card on our bed to ask housekeeping to change them. The pilot light wasn't working either on arrival for our fireplace, and lots of things were not in our room, such as teaspoons for tea, tea bags, etc. We had to keep asking for things to be brought to the room.
Starbucks coffee in the hotel: why can't Americans make a good coffee? Having lived in Sydney for the past 14 years, I find the coffee absolutely disgusting in the US, and this includes all the coffee at the hotel. The drip coffee should just be thrown out, and the hotel restaurants should have proper expresso machines, and actually train the staff on how to make a perfect coffee. There is an art to it you know! I couldn't get a decent coffee at the hotel, including Starbucks. I tried ordering a soy cappucino, but the girl frothed up the milk so much that I just had a blob of foam on top of my coffee.I actually had to bring my coffee back to her, and ask her to remake it. The beans aren't right either. The key to good coffee is to buy the right beans, and whip the milk so that it is silky, NOT foamy! If the hotel could get this right, they would have people standing in a line. If Starbucks can't find the right beans, then kick them out and find the good beans first. Have grown up in Texas, and visiting family in Austin, we just couldn't get a good cup of coffee anywhere, including the resort! btw, the drip coffee is putrid. It tastes like dirty dish water!!
Having said the above, the hotel staff was very nice and accommodating. The hotel is always beautifully decorated at Christmas time, and the ice skating rink is fun too. The only gripe about ice skating is that we paid $5 for a smores kit, and were only given 4 marshmallows for our kids to roast. That was a rip off! How hard is it to put a small bag of mashmallows in this kit? Surely it wouldn't cost the resort that much money.
They gym was very nice too. Didn't have time unfortunately to try the spa.
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