I had the pleasure of taking a week off from work (hah - hah NOT) and attended some Project Management Institute (PMI) courses in Chicago. I decided to make things easier on myself. I made reservations at the same hotel where the classes were to be held. Ugh! What I saved in travel time and money, I spent in just "living".

Reservations
Although PMI said that they had set up a "special rate" with this hotel, I took no chances. I went to expedia and travelocity to check out their deals. I was able to book my hotel easily through expedia at $10 a night cheaper than if I had used the "special rate" through PMI.

Getting There
No gasping from the audience. I had never been to Chicago before. Sure, I had driven around it but I've never stayed there before. I was a little worried about driving there because frankly, I am a girl and I have little sense of direction :). Expedia provided me with a kick*ss map and I had absolutely no problem getting there. It was right off of highway 90. Not too many turns. Of course it was monsoon weather but the most important thing is, I got there in one piece.

Checking In
Valet Parking. Here's where the bend over factor starts. For $33 per day I had the opportunity to have my car parked by a sweaty, pimply man-child male. And no, he did not look like a member of a boy band. Lest you think I am spoiled, it would have cost me still $33 a day just to store the car. Seems to me that if you're staying at a hotel, you shouldn't have to pay for the parking....Anyway, checking in took a whole two minutes. I was queued up and waited on immediately.

My Room
It was located on the 30th floor. Let me tell you. Those elevators just don't move fast enough. Seemed like it took forever before one came. My room was a double but at check in, I was given the opportunity to have a king instead. I, of course, prefer to spread out therefore, I took the king.

Inside my room was my large king size bed topped by a ton of pillows (extra bonus points), a 19 inch television, a mini-bar, a working area with roller chair, an oversized chair and ottoman, and a nice sized bathroom.

Room Service and Food
About a month ago, I had to stay at the Marriott in Philadelphia because my plane was delayed in getting back to Indy. I absolutely fell in love with their food choices. While I sat in a hot bubble bath, bathing my cares of the day away, the Marriott chef was downstairs whipping me up something from his long list (about 20 pages) of choices. I was in heaven. Naturally, because this hotel cost more, I was fer sure that I would be in for the same treat. Nope. I had a one page choice. Not only did the selections cost me an arm and a leg, they were blah. Hint: Stick with the nachos, my friends.

Of course, there are no vending machines so if you want a Coke and a smile (which I need every morning, but in the Diet kind of way), then you have to subject yourself to the overpriced room service OR open up that mini-bar and bend over. It was cheaper to use the mini-bar however, I just about choked on my salivia every time I was reminded that I paid $2.50 for that delightful, tingling, carbonated beverage.

The Shower
I'm sorry, but having a crappy shower can totally break your entire stay. The shower needs to have hot water at all times AND it needs to have the right amount of pressure (ahem) in the sprayer head. I am pleased to report that this was one area where the hotel scored a perfect 10. If you can believe it, there were times when I turned on too much hot water. That never happens in other hotels.

The Bed
Here's another feature that can totally ruin your visit. I have to tell you that these were the softest sheets I have ever encountered - even when matched up against my own. Between that and the pillows, it was difficult to get up every morning and leave to go to some boring ole classes.

Television Selections
I had mixed emotions. When I was in England, I had five stations (two of which were BBC) so when you see a television with 30 stations, you think to yourself, I should count my lucky stars. The problem? Two of them. First, there were no music television stations. As my boys had just released their cd, I was looking forward to hearing updates on how their sales were doing. You just know I could have at least found that out on TRL. Second problem, the pay per view movies were like $10.00 a piece! What happen to the days when they were like $5.95 a piece??? What did I tell you....this place just takes you for all of your money.

Bill Me Baby One More Time
As if paying for entertainment wasn't nauseating, I also had to pay to be hooked up locally. To make a local phone call was $1.05. Stay on longer than 20 minutes and you get charged an additional 10 cents per minute. Now being the workaholic that I am, every free moment, I was logged on to work, trying to get through emails so that when I returned on Monday, I didn't have to stay until midnight getting caught up. Instead, I bent over for the pleasure. At 10 cents a minute, I guess that makes me a cheap date.

The Service - Maids, Guest Services, etc....
I was very pleased with the service. My favorite kind of service is the kind that is seamless. For those who made up my room, they disappeared in and out while I was gone. Those who assisted me with my lunatic type questions, they answered them in a way where I felt half-way intelligent for asking the question.

Meeting Rooms
May I just comment, that this hotel has like 2000 rooms or something like that? I swear, it's a little city unto itself. Anyway, the meeting rooms I was in for my two courses were a) too small for the intended audience b) acoustics sucked for what we were trying to accomplish c) the temperature was at nipple erection point all eight hours (this was a bonus for all of the horny old men in the room) d) the air conditioning made a lot of grumbling noises.

I got lost just trying to find the various rooms. Whoever build this hotel, must not understand that certain things need to be user friendly.

Shopping
Every trip to another city requires a stop at a local mall. This hotel is located a couple of blocks away from a mall that had all sorts of neat shops in it. Heck, I stopped at Virgin Records, and made sure to purchase my boys' new disc. It was important that I get the sale in on the very first day :).

I also dropped a load at Nordstrom's (every thing was on sale hunny) and some makeup place. Had I been able to shop more than one day, I'm afraid of the damage I would have done.

Spa and the Underground
It took me two days before I discovered that beneath the hotel was a tunnel of different things like shops and most importantly, a salon that offered spa services. I signed myself up for both a facial and a massage. The lady who did my facial scared me. She used some electrical wand on my face and I'm positive that she short-circuited some minor body part. The massage chick was extremely attractive and distracting. I'm very ticklish yet not one time did I flinch. I like this woman. The prices were average for spa treatments. I think I paid $50 for my 1 hour facial and $70 for my 1 hour massage.

I found an Edy's Ice Cream shoppe (yay!) and a grocery store where I could buy a diet Coke for a more decent price and then sneak it into my room's mini-bar :).

Check-Out
Check-out was painless. I did it via television. You can press in the Account Code and voila, up comes a minute by minute account of how they've bilked you for hundreds of dollars.

I had to travel to hell and gone to regain my car. At least the nice man (no pimples this time) who fetched it for me was able to point me in the right direction of Highway 90.

The End
Surprizingly, I am just not going to recommend this hotel. At $165 a night (though I paid like $150), I have high expectations and frankly, it didn't meet those expectations. If someone else is paying your way, then by all means, partake however, if you are the one paying the bill, I advise that you look for a cheaper alternative.


Recommended: No