Where The Presidents Stay
Written: Jul 28 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Historic setting, clean rooms, friendly staff
Cons: Parking, finding your way around,very slow hotel elevators.
The Bottom Line: If you're looking for history, and you have a lot of money, this is for you. If you're setting up a reunion, there are other hotels that would work better.
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| lmsam's Full Review: U. S. Grant |
I have just attended my 20th class reunion in San Diego, California.
The reunion was held at the historic U.S.Grant Hotel located in the Gas Lamp Quarters of downtown San Diego.
The U.S. Grant is where many of our U.S Presidents stay while in San Diego, and in the giant lobby there is a wall with pictures of those Presidents.
The ballroom where our reunion was held was beautiful, huge, and we were properly directed to where we wanted to be.
Because we planed to do some drinking, we reserved one of the rooms set aside for our class. We also were given a discount rate because of the reunion, which gave us a rate of $149 plus taxes, energy surcharges, and $19 for parking.
We opted for self parking, but finding a space was a nightmare. I would recommend taking your compact car, because after getting to the top without finding a parking spot, you will need to turn around, or back out.
Because we had checked in before parking, I started for the room while my boyfriend waited for a space.
Be sure to take the parking elevator to the lobby floor to enter the hotel. Our room was on the third floor, so I hit 3 in the elevator and there was and entrance to the hotel, so I went in, and I got lost. There were no rooms here, so I went for the hotel elevator which showed me that I was actually on the second floor of the hotel, which turns out to be one of their event floors, and that entrance was not
meant for patrons. (but these doors are not alarmed or locked, so if you self parked try to park on parking level 3, then when you are leaving, take the hotel elevator to level 2 and if there is nothing going on on this floor it makes taking your bags out easy. This is also good for going to your car in the middle of the night without having to go through the lobby) Anyway, after finding our assigned room, I used the key to open the door and to my surprise, somebody's things were in the room (I'm just glad that somebody's body was not in the room). Thank God that I met up with my boyfriend at the elevators before he used his key.
At the front desk we were given a different room, but we also learned that the same problem had just happened on the 7th floor, which made us wonder about security.
After finally getting to our room, we found a very clean, air conditioned room, with a phone by the bed, one on the desk, and one in the bathroom. The bathroom also had a tub/shower option, but the plug for the tub was broken. There was a hair dryer, iron & ironing board provided, as well as the standard soap, shampoo and cream rinse. There was also a wet bar with a price list (not cheap). Unfortunately because the mini refrigerator was full, there is no room to keep anything you may have brought yourself so you should bring an ice chest.
Because the hotel elevators are so slow, we decided to use the stairs, which took us from the third floor, past the second, and down to an alarmed fire escape. It would have been nice if the door was marked 'Fire Escape' instead of 'Stairs'. Because our room was right next to this door, we heard several others try this shortcut.
The price list for room service was very high ($8.95 for just a burger), but there are plenty of options outside the hotel (I recommend the meatball sandwich at New York Pizza on 5th Street).
All in all we are glad that we reserved a room. The room was high class, the bed was very comfortable, and getting lost in the hotel made things interesting. I just hope that for our 30th reunion, we get a hotel that is less expensive that a DUI.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
lmsam
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Location: Fieldbrook, CA
Reviews written: 5
Trusted by: 2 members
About Me:
Been There, Done That.
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