Funny, I guess perceptions differ.

I've never been on a cruise but did stay a week in the Ren Barcelona recently. My experience at breakfast didn't involve any swarming It certainly wasn't a typical suburban US breakfast. Rather, it was a quiet restaurant on the second story at the corner of the hotel with numerous window side tables overlooking the street. I don't remember any Asian dishes though. There were however, typical Spanish breakfast foods of a variety of pastries and torrijas. In addition to those, there were a wide variety of meats and cheeses, including 4-5 different Spanish cheeses, and different preparations of jambon (Spanish ham). They also had a mix of UK and US traditional breakfast foods and few random things probably intended to cater toward picky eaters. Also, several varieties of yogurt. I don't, however, remember any churros. Perhaps they could be ordered off the menu but I didn't check. I thought the coffee was good, although I tend to prefer local coffees to Illy/Starbucks. I know there was a family that sat next to me a couple of days and the kids really seemed to like the Spanish hot chocolate they brought out. For comparison, I stayed at the SLS BH (a SPG Luxury Collection) recently. They had a decent light breakfast (I enjoyed the melon agua fresca and yogurt) but the breakfast at the Ren BCN was far superior to the SLS BH in terms of high end meats, cheeses, and pastries.

As for the exterior, Barcelona has a mix of excellent architecture and ordinary buildings. I agree the exterior was ordinary. Ren interiors tend to vary but I'll also agree there was nothing wow about the interior. I'll confess that I appreciate the CH interior but don't find most hotel interiors to "wow" me. In terms of the past two months, I've stayed at Westins, W's, RC's, Luxury Collection, Autographs, Tribute Portfolio, Marriott's, Renn's, and Courtyards. On a scale of 1-10, I'd be hardpressed to give any of them more than a 5 (OK -- the CY was definitely a 3!). Also, I think the Mandarin Oriental in Barcelona (which have way better lobbies generally than SPG or Marriott's) was around the corner from the Renn also had a pretty non-descript exterior. Perhaps, I'm not discerning enough on aesthetics.

I didn't get a super upgrade at the Renn in BCN -- it's always hard to get an upgrade for a week. Then again, over the past two months, I didn't get an upgrade on 1 or 2 day stays at the Westins, the Luxury Collection, or the Tribute. I did get suite upgrades at the W's, the Autograph, the Renn's and the Courtyard, as well as for one of my Marriott stays. In terms of the last two months, my suite upgrade rate at legacy Marriott properties is far higher than at legacy SPG properties.

All that being said, I'll check out the L-M next time in Barcelona. Although, if they have a setting of churros and chocolate ...I'll have to do a lot of walking around the ramblas, and probably take a nap