Embassy Suites San Diego Bay - Great Hotel W/O
Written: May 04 '03
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Location! High "Bang for buck." Free breakfast. Large rooms for price. Great service!
Cons: Slightly dated rooms and furnishings.
The Bottom Line: Incredible value in an unbeatable location. Slightly dated (being updated now), but excellent for business or family travel. Superb staff and service!
|
|
|
| pilotpat's Full Review: Embassy Suites Hotel San Diego Bay-Downt |
INTRO
This is the second of two hotels I stayed in during a recent trip to San Diego - please click here to read my review on the Manchester Grand Hyatt, just across Harbor Blvd from the Embassy Suites.
LOCATION
The hotel is just across the street from the entrance to Seaport Villiage, a charming group of shops, restaurants, and cafes on the waterfront and marina (not beach). San Diego Lindberg Airport is visiblefrom the hotel, about 3 miles (but about 10 minutes) away. The hotel offers complimentary hourly shuttle service to/from the airport starting at 5 am, as well as to the Convention Center, a mile down the road.
Coronado beach and Navy North Island are but a short drive across the bridge. You can see both from the window if you have a bay view,including the docked navy ships.
PARKING/ARRIVAL/CHECK IN
We had arrived earlier than scheduled check-in, but the valets were helpful in offering getting a bellhop to carry bags to the Luggage hold room. Valet parking runs $14/day plus tips, self-parking is $18. Both come with unlimited in/out privileges. A call to the front valet always ensured that my car was waiting at the door when I arrived.
The lobby is standard Embassy Suites - Check-in is quick and efficient, especially because our arrival had been pre-coordinated with management. The center lobby has a series of fish ponds with goldfish and turtles. Food to feed both is available for $0.25 a handful, which is popular with the kids.
Four elevators are available to take you to your room on one of 12-floors. Sometimes they seemed a bit slow, but not painfully so.
ROOM
These are somewhat smaller than newer Embassy Suites Rooms, but similar in design. The entry room serves as a living room and has a small round table with four upholstered chairs, a sofa bed, and an overstuffed lounge chair (which unlike some ES properties does not convert into a bed). An end table holds a lamp and two-line phone with dataport and speakerphone features. In one corner was a LinkSys wireless Internet terminal. If your computer is not equipped with wireless capability (mine is not), a USB plug-in terminal is free for a $25 deposit. Use of the wireless Internet is $10/day. A 27" TV is provided with cable and PPV.
Next to the door to the bedroom area is a sink with coffee maker, complimentary coffee supplies, and a small refrigerator (unstocked) and microwave.
Beds are comfortable, with clean but old linens and bedclothes. The carpet is clean but dated and worn. A large armoir conceals a relatively small TV with the same programming as the living room's. It also supplies a large amount of drawer space and ample hanging space for a week's worth of suits/clothing for two. An iron and ironing board are provided.
The bathroom is clean if dated. The floor is tiled, as is the shower/tub. Even on the 10th floor, pressure and heat were good. Standard soap/shampoo/lotion/conditioner freebies, plus a shower kit and small mending kit. No shoeshine cloth was provided, just like the Hyatt next door (a San Diego peculiarity?). Towels were clean, and in good condition. Free necessities (shaving cream, razor, toothbrush/paste, etc.) are available at the front desk.
The cooling/heating is controlled through a sliding-style thermostat and very quiet.
The bedroom has a large sliding glass door that opens to a very small deck. Mine overlooked the bay and gave a wonderous unobstructed view of the sunset over the Carriers at Navy North Island, as well as naval ships travelling to the shipyards further down the bay. With the door closed and shades pulled, noise from the street was minimal.
SERVICE
I arrived on a weekend with a difficult mission - arrange almost 30 rooms in a nice hotel at a reasonable rate in downtown San Diego with only a couple days notice. The weekend duty manager was very helpful, and though the hotel was showing as fully booked, within an hour I had a return phone call by the group sales representative who had released their reserve rooms in order to fill my request, even throwing in one of their Presidential Suites (essentially two suites next to each other) for the same very reasonable rate ($119).
All of the management and staff were superbly polite and professional throughout our stay, and took pains to greet us by name whether passing by or doing business with us.
Room service menu is quite extensive, with a lot of the selections from the seafood restauraunt downstairs. Actually, the menu looked even more extensive because three copies were posted back-to-back in the guest information binder! Prices are similar to the restaurant, plus $3 delivery charge and 18% gratuity.
Speaking of this, the best kept secret for San Diego visitors wishing for room service is Dining In, a restaurant delivery service that will bring an order to your room from some of the best downtown restaurants in about 30-60 minutes for a $5 delivery charge plus gratuity. You can either call your order in (619) 297-2222, or fax to (619) 297-2240. Menu prices are the same as eating in the restaurant. Note that if you use a credit card, they charge a 3% fee.
The concierge was also helpful, and offered to help put together welcome packets for each room with local sights and activities. Her book of menus, etc. was complete and throughout our stay she made great recommendations for restaurants.
Housekeeping was polite and efficient.
FITNESS/POOL
The indoor pool is a bit small for lap swims, but enjoyable. On weekends it can be crowded with families (but since I ended up flying my family out later in the week, that wasn't bad at all). A medium-sized hot tub/jaccuzzi is next to the pool, and is semi-covered but walled to keep out the sea breezes, which is nice.
The fitness center is much like other hotels in this price range, but nothing special. It includes a stair stepper, two treadmills, and a bike, all of excellent quality but sharing a relatively cramped space with the multi-function weight machine. However, the concierge arranged a good deal with 24-hour Fitness just down the road.
A path that goes along the harbor area is excellent for running, and the local FD can be found most mornings parked at water's edge while the company engages in morning Physical Fitness training.
MEETING/BUSINESS FACILITIES
The hotel has a few good sized meeting rooms on the Mezz level and will arrange catering and setups. The business center is open from about 7-5, but the front desk can open it other hours. It features two computers with Internet, a laser printer, copier, and mail/FedEx/UPS service for reasonable fees. A fax is available at the front desk.
RESTAURANTS
Breakfast
Like all other Embassy Suites properties, a complimentary hot breakfast buffet and cook-to-order breakfast is included with your rate. Since HHonors Silver and above members' families stay free, this is about a $40 value in the San Diego area for a family of 4. The staff at breakfast were cheerful and helpful.
Pacific Fish Company
The in-hotel restaurant serves a very nice and reasonably priced menu, with a concentration on seafood. The Cajun Mahi sandwich was my personal favorite, though other entrees I enjoyed - salmon-topped chef salad and another of mussels and clams over linguini - were quite good as well. The bar portion of the restaurant features an excellent sushi bar.
Seaport Village
Though not part of the hotel, it's just out the door. You can find some nice options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner with A pleasant atmosphere and reasonable tab.
Gaslight District
Just a 10-minute walk from the hotel (or a quick pedicab ride from the local bicyclists). Pedicabs usually expect $3-6/person for their effort, and are a fun way to scoot around especially if your cyclist is friendly.
OVERALL
This hotel needs some updating (and it is in the process of getting such a facelift - one of the floors was being redone during my stay, and I assume the rest of the hotel is being done as well), but the bang-for-your-buck is unmatched in this top-shelf location. The facilities are 3-stars, but the superb service makes it easy for me to rate the hotel 4-stars overall.
PARTICIPATE IN THE GREAT HOTEL WRITE-OFF!
http://www.angelfire.com/moon/lyagushka/index.html
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
pilotpat
|
 - Top 500 |
|
Member: Pat
Location: World Traveler
Reviews written: 96
Trusted by: 41 members
About Me:
"Never tell your neighbors to wait until tomorrow if you can help them now."
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.