Okay, time for my full report! Overall, what a wonderful time!

First off, the location is...interesting. Eastern Wharf is basically nothing right now except for a partially finished apartment building, the Thompson, and what look to be some single-family townhomes. The apartment building has retail and restaurant space for lease, so I can imagine that this will be a cool area in a few years. It does look like the space between the Thompson and the river will be a park at some point (now, it's just a muddy area), so the river views should persist. There are only two ways to walk into the Historic District - either along a busy street with sidewalks on alternating sides (meaning you have to cross said street multiple times) or along the river, which forces you to cross a patch of grass (albeit, a small patch) to go across the patio area of the Marriott Riverfront. The river path is definitely more efficient, and I am hoping that the sidewalks are connected over the grass at some point. Truthfully, the location didn't bother me that much as I like walking anyway and the distance wasn't THAT far, but it's important to call out that other properties have more central locations.

The staff was all incredibly friendly and eager to please. Check-in was friendly and efficient, the concierge was very nice when I went down to thank her for the plate of cookies, and the manager at Bar Julian this morning was very nice. She was from Corporate as she mentioned being on a "task force" and staying in the hotel itself, and we talked about our shared excitement for the Thompson Central Park (she said she would be working there).

As I mentioned before, no suites are available for sale or upgrades, but I was automatically upgraded to a Riverfront Corner King. My room was on the 4th of 12 floors (not including the rooftop level with Bar Julian) and was very attractive. The view would have been better had I been on a higher floor (to see over the apartment building), but it was still nice to watch the huge container ships pass by (a detail that is explicitly called out on the hotel website). The decor is very Thompson, but I actually felt like the details in the room were better than some of the other Thompsons. The patterns in the wood flooring and bathroom tiling, along with the latticed shower door all made the room's design stand out. The bathroom did have a window, but the lower pane was frosted - the only purpose was to provide natural light. The shower was very large, and the water pressure itself was passable - really, the shower head just needed to be wider or something to cover more surface area. The bedroom had more attractive furniture and art along with a comfortable lounger near the window. The bed was a highlight - the mattress was firm like Thompson mattresses are, but the linens and pillows were so amazingly soft. I had a very hard time convincing myself to get out of bed this morning.

The room was very warm when I checked in, and the AC did take a while to cool down originally. I called down for Engineering, who came up and felt that the AC was working but that they needed to tweak the programming a bit to have the rooms cooler before check-ins. After the initial cool-down, the AC (despite being a motion sensor system) had no problem keeping the room at a comfortable temperature.

As the ground-floor restaurant isn't open yet, breakfast is served in Bar Julian on the roof. Having breakfast with the shutters open and a beautiful view of the city was definitely a highlight. The service had a relaxed pace but was very friendly. I had bacon, eggs, and a blueberry Dutch Baby (a very interesting form of pancake), and everything was delicious. The coffee with sugar cubes was another fun highlight (and tasted better than the complimentary coffee downstairs in the lobby).

Overall, this has been an amazing stay. Thompson really keeps hitting it out of the park.