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The Fairmont Waterfront
2 Reviews | 0% Recommended My wife and I booked a one night stay via Amex FHR over the Family Day long weekend to get a change of scenery and to use my annual travel credit which was expiring. We decided to try the Fairmont Waterfront since it had view rooms for quite a bit cheaper than the Pacific Rim, and we didn't have much experience with it before. The stay was ... fine. There were some issues, which didn't ruin the stay by any means, but I also can't recommend this to anyone for the price point.
Check In
I had phoned just after noon to see if the early check in that came with the FHR rate was available; after a few minutes they confirmed that a room was ready for us so we headed down. There was no wait at the front desk. We were offered an upgrade to a corner view room, but were advised that it wouldn't be ready until around 17:00 because the current stay had a late check-out. They also mentioned that it is not a huge jump in the view, so in their opinion it wasn't worth waiting 4.5 hours for it.
I was provided with a letter detailing the benefits for the FHR rate, and they noticed I had my ALL silver card and entered that into the system. They also asked if I would be using the late check-out option, and I said that we would.
Later that evening I realized we never received drink vouchers at check-in, but I was able to grab them from the front desk the next morning.
As an aside, I went for a walk was in the lobby around check-in time and it was an absolute zoo, maybe a dozen people waiting in line, and the lobby packed with people and their bags. It was a holiday weekend, so YMMV, but worth mentioning.
Room
The room itself was nice, decorated in a fairly contemporary manner. One quibble is there were only power outlets on one side of the bed; this is a surprise for a hotel that was renovated relatively recently.
Something I noticed that I haven't seen since the pandemic started: the mini-bar was fully stocked, with a QR code directing to the price list:
https://www.fairmont.com/waterfront-...t-centre-menu/
There was a card, and some truffles waiting as a welcome gift.
The website describes this category as having bathtubs, but the room only had a large walk in shower with a rainfall head. Not an issue for me, the water pressure was great, but just a discrepancy.
The bed and furniture were all quite comfortable, but the location of the room was loud-across the hall from the ice machine and just a few rooms away from the elevators. I mentioned this at check-out, and they apologized noting that the layout of the building means that the view rooms are near the elevators.
That said the view was really quite good! It also happened to be FanExpo so there were a lot of interesting people out.
There were a few minor maintenance issues though: one light bulb had died and started flickering in the middle of the night which was annoying, but easy to miss; and for hours after I took a shower it would perioidcally push some water through which made noise in the large tiled shower. I ended up putting down a hand towel so I could fall asleep.
Dining
We ordered three room service meals: lunch, dinner and breakfast. They were all quite good. I neglected to take any photos but it was standard Fairmont above-average room service fare.
The big issue I had was that with breakfast I was told 30 minutes and it took 75 which is unacceptable. I got an apology from the person who brought breakfast and the front desk apologized when I mentioned it at check-out, but I would have preferred an update. Breakfast was included with the FHR rate, so not much could be done beyond an apology.
Later that afternoon we popped into Arc, the restaurant/bar to use the free drink vouchers, which were good for any single item on the menu. Since it was a Sunday, this included the (very popular from the loosk of it) mimosa flight. While not my favourite, if you are a fan of mimosas it would be a treat.
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Overall
Overall the stay was fine. The worst thing to me was the heavily delayed breakfast, Since we had a late check-out it wasn't a huge issue, but I would have been furious if my food arrived moments before checkout, or if I had a flight to catch.
The noise also was not great for the price point. Again, I get that the fault is with the architects and designers, but charging a premium for such a loud room isn't great. Ultimately I can't recommend this above other options in the city.
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