Arrived somewhat tired on new years eve. Since I was not sure if our children (early teens) qualify as children I had simply entered 4 adults in the reservation. Highest category, so required 40000 points which wasn't very good value since the room rates had dropped quite significantly. I had chosen this property after looking at the pictures of the rooms at ES Mandalay Beach.

Was given two bottles of water, four cookies and two breakfast certs on arrival. Since this property has no exec rooms, I had tried to use the NOR1 upgrades to get us an oceanview room. However, as the hotel was quite full, we instead got an upgrade to an upper floor corner garden room with a view of the ocean from the balcony. Nice!

It must be said that our room was furnished very neatly (although one of the closet doors was broken). There was an exceptionally good selection of goods in the minibar and some extra toiletries that I have not seen before. No worries here!

Since it was new years eve and the hotel carries the name of a former Hollywood star you might have expected some program or even a lobby pianist or something, but, alas, this was just like probably any winter evening in the hotel: business as usual. This was quite a letdown especially for us as foreigners travelling in a foreign country. We did try out Rodneys restaurant which was pretty good.

The continental breakfast offered was probably the most limited breakfast we had during our stay in California. No cold cuts, no baguettes, no vegetables. Just some cereal, fruit, low quality pastries and toast. But there was some oatmeal, although my wife didn't take any as she thought it might not be included. Combine this with that we had to wait to be seated and the only service we got was that we were poured some coffee. Even though I tried to adhere to at least minimum US tipping standards: no service, no tip!

So for once we got a real free breakfast. Everything else was charged for though. Bicycle rentals (we rented a "tandem" for 25$/hour), self-parking (15$), even $2 per page for printing in the "business corner" (two terminals, but the other one broken).

Overall this is not a bad place to stay and might be really nice in the summer. In the winter this place probably loses its competitive edge. We felt that they tried to treat us well though (with the exception of the breakfast).