Apieinthesky

What is your Priority Club status?
Platinum Royal Ambassador

Were you (or for multi-stayers are you generally) happy with the hotel/stay?
Extremely.

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
Booked 1 King Bed Deluxe Cityside. Received an upgrade to the North Penthouse suite. I called the front desk the day of arrival, and inquired about an upgrade to the Ambassador suite (They originally had me in a superior suite). The lady told me the Amb suite was not available, but offered a penthouse instead. I gladly accepted.

How are the rooms?
The room is fantastic. It's on the 12th (highest) floor of the hotel. Double door entryway with guest bathroom, 8 seat dining table, living room with TV and minibar, pantry with full size fridge that is stocked as a minibar, a library/study (not really a separate room, but a part of the living room), a large bedroom, and a huge master bathroom with two sinks, toilet, bidet, large tub, and rainfall shower. This is the best room in the hotel (or so I was told), even though there is a listing of the Presidential suite on the sign on the door where the rate of the suites are listed.

How is the exec. lounge?
Unimpressive. Decent breakfast selection, decent desserts, but not much else worth mentioning. Staff was often nowhere to be seen. However, I was told at check-in that club lounge access is now given complimentary to all Royal Ambassadors. That is the current policy, at least, and may change. This was nice to hear, as there are varied reports in this thread about club access for RAs at this hotel.

What was your welcome gift?
Fruit and water.

What was good and what was bad?
Good:
-Amazing upgrade. I mentioned to the front desk when I was calling that I was on a weekend getaway kind of thing with my SO. Maybe that was a factor. The lady friend was certainly impressed.
-Front desk staff immediately recognized my status, and I had no trouble getting all benefits honored. By the end of my 2 night stay, they recognized me by name and room number.

Bad:
-For some reason, the sinks in the master bathroom take a long time for the hot water to kick in. It doesn't happen with the tub, shower, or any other sink in the suite, so I'm a bit puzzled here.
-On the second night of my stay, I discovered the smell of marijuana in the bathroom. i immediately called down, and a security officer came up to my room to check it out. He verified that the smell was there, and said he would inform the front desk. After some investigation, it seemed that the most likely cause was someone below me sneaking a smoke in the shower, as the smell seemed to come from the drain. After the security officer left, I realized that I was offered no solution, and was probably not going to be. So I called again, and asked to be transferred to the front desk this time. This is when I was told that the suite I was in was the best in the hotel. And I didn't really want to move, so the agent sent up housekeeping to deodorize. It worked well enough. By this time, the smell was much lighter than it was when I first discovered it. I realize that there's not much the hotel can do about someone having smoked, but their response seemed a little lackluster.

Really, overall the stay was great. Just pointed out the only two things that actually bothered me during the stay.

Value for $ or Priority Club Points? Would you return?
The lowest rate available was a bit pricey, at a little over $200 a night. Still, considering the upgrade, it's still a great value.