I'll do a more formal report later, but greetings from the Amsterdam Marriott Exec Lounge.

Here for the IBC trade show & the Mariott, like all other hotels in town, have jacked up their rates by $150 (grrrr) to $395. But that aside...

The health club has been revamped & is quite nice now. Two treadmills, two ellip trainers, 4 bikes, Life Fitness weight equip, showers, sauna, etc. Plus you can get facials, massages, etc. Think it's open 24hrs but not sure.

Exec lounge is nice; it's comprised of 2 rooms (no doors inbtwn) - in the smaller room is where they have the munchies/drink. In the morning cereal, cheese, salmon, juices, fresh fruit, yogurt. In the eve, cheese, salmon, dif hot meal (yest chicken wings), nuts, some snacks like olives, tortilla chips & salsa, etc. Beer & wine & soft drinks free. Charge for hard liquor. 3 sets of ceiling/floor windows w/ views overlooking the square. USA Today, Intl Herald Tribune, and local newspapers in the lounge.

There's free internet in the exec lounge from 6am to midnight, which is much faster than the baud rate from the hotel room. They do have fast internet connection for 19.95 Euros (includes tax). I think that's a bit high personally.

They renamed the one restaurant they have to Quoy. Haven't looked to see what kind of food. They have Characters Bar & Grill. For the Americans reading this, reminds me of the "Cheers" bar. Plus there's a Pizza Hut on-site.

I'm in rm 223 this year. You definitely want the rooms ending in *23, as they're very very big & overlook the Leidesplain square. Wish I was a bit higher up, but I'm not going to complain.

I knew I wanted the big room but couldn't remember what they #s were, & they looked up my stays here for the past sev years & figured it out, and said they'd update my hotel room request profile at their property so I'd get it next year. I thought that was nice/cool.

If you're on the exec level, there isn't a phone charge to the room (so I've been told) for local, 800, etc. Otherwise there is, and the rate ranges from .50Euro to 2.00Euro/minute, depending on what you're calling.

2 small bottles of still water for free in the exec rooms; munchies & booze in mini-bar for a fee. Their choice of wine, both in the exec lounge & in the mini-bars, has gone down (Copper Ridge & Gallo respectively - ick).

There's a gift shop on the first floor that has all the papers, plus stuff you can buy. Just noticed near it by the elevators, they had a big water thing w/ cups & towels - maybe for folk who go running outside?

There's a biz center onsite.

Quite a few tv channels in English, as well as Dutch, Arabic, etc.

Think room service is 24/7, but haven't tried it yet this trip.

More later.

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Sharon

[This message has been edited by SkiAdcock (edited 09-11-2003).]

[This message has been edited by SkiAdcock (edited 09-15-2003).]