Originally Posted by
mjrobson
Have you ever stayed in or seen the Glacier suite? Can get a decent price on it.. doesn't seem to book up all that often. My wife loves the idea of a dinner / drinks / relaxing on the balcony after the kids go to sleep.
If you can get a great deal, then that might be nice. But, it's normally a lot more money than the Gold Lakeview Junior Suite. I would go for that. There are some minor inconveniences, but the addition of the balcony would more than make up for it.
I've never stayed in it, but I did ask to see it once upon a time. The big selling point of that suite is the balcony. There are really only two suites facing the lake with decent balconies (plus a semi-decent balcony open summer only down on the 3rd floor), and that's one of them. It's part of Fairmont Gold, so you have lounge access, but need to ride the elevator. The Glacier Suite is on the 8th floor, and then once inside the suite, there's a spiral staircase to get to the bedroom. The living room is downstairs.
I think it needs a renovation. I asked the staff on my last visit, if there are plans to renovate it, and they confirmed there are, although no date set. So, if you book that one, you need to be content with decor that looks like it's from the 1990s!
I'm also not a fan of 2-level suites. I like just having everything in a nice big space on the same level. My favourite suite at the hotel is the Marquis de Lorne, and it's normally priced the same as the Glacier Suite, however, it's missing that really nice balcony.
If you want to visually place the Glacier Suite, you can flip back to the post linked below:
FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise
In that post, I included a floor plan of the 8th floor. The Glacier Suite is #881. The living room is basically the same size as a standard non-gold Junior Suite (which are in rooms X81/X83 on all the floors below the 7th). The bedroom then sits above the living room (call it the '9th floor'?), along with the main bathroom, and the footprint of the bedroom is smaller than the living/dining room below, as the covered balcony area is taken from the same area footprint. The neighbouring Belvedere Suite (#883) is larger in area on the second floor bedroom/balcony (which includes wrap-around corner balcony), because it extends overtop of room #885 as well as #883, while the living room area down on the 8th floor is similar in size to the Glacier Suite.