Since I'm in Seattle about once a month, with a young child, I know the Silver Clouds there well. I hadn't been to the Lake Union Silver Cloud since 2006, since it's usually more expensive than the others, but we got a decent price on a suite there over U.S. Thanksgiving so went there as it's close to everything I need in Seattle.
The positives:
- It's a short walk to the new Lake Union streetcar, which will take you downtown in 10 minutes for $2.50 each.
- You're within walking distance of the floatplanes, if that's your mode of transportation.
- On the lake side, the views are nice.
- There's a decent, free breakfast, with warm food (make-your-own waffles, eggs, sausage) and cereal, yogurt, etc.
- The internet is free, as is parking.
- Overall, inside, the hotel is fairly nice for a hotel of this class.
- You're near Seattle Center without having to stay in one of the downmarket Seattle Center hotels (Holiday Inn, Best Western, Comfort Inn, etc., all quite old and in a more questionable neighbourhood than the Silver Cloud).
The negatives, which are enough that I cancelled my December reservation at this hotel in favour of another Silver Cloud:
- The hotel is one block from I-5. If you are on the I-5 side of the hotel (and I'm thinking maybe all of their suites are, since I didn't have an option to pay more for a suite on the lake side), you will not sleep well, as you will hear semi trucks downshifting on the interstate all night. You will also hear the garbage trucks at 6:50 a.m. on a Saturday morning, right under your room (even on the 5th floor).
- The suite setup is not great for a family with a kid. Most Silver Cloud suites have a bathroom off the bedroom, not the living room, but in the suites here the bathroom is off the living room. If you have a kid you're putting to bed in the living room, and paid more for a suite so you could close the door and go to bed later than toddler bedtime, forget going to the washroom after your kid goes to sleep, unless your kid is a very sound sleeper. Minor, but Silver Cloud has better setups at other hotels.
- Also, there is currently a lot of road construction around the hotel. With all the one-way streets in the area, it can be nearly impossible to get to the hotel. One night we had to drive through 4 restaurant parking lots to get there, because the streets were all closed off. The next morning, we had to deal with two detours and a massive (and illegal) u-turn to get back to the hotel.
- The heat is not central air -- it's an old hotel setup with an in-wall air conditioning / heat unit. When we arrived, the room was stifling, as they had the heat going full blast. In the midst of winter we had the "cool" setting on most of the two nights we were in the room, and could never get the temperature quite right, while having to listen to the thing throttling on and off all night.
Basically, my main complaint about this hotel is the ability to sleep in their rooms. Between the interstate traffic and the old climate unit in the wall, it's hard to get a good night's sleep. And isn't that mostly what you pay for at a hotel? Other Silver Clouds in Seattle are better.
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