Completed a 4-night stay here. Reading the previous pages, this property has some super fans. I won't be joining their ranks, even though overall, it was a pleasant stay.

I had reserved a "Classic" room on points, which several months prior to the stay started showing as "Classic Oceanview" in the app. The night before, that changed to "Classic Gardenview." At check-in, we received a friendly welcome, but no mention of status. When the agent tried to upsell breakfast, I said, I think I'll just choose that as Diamond amenity. Some quick glances at my profile, and I was thanked for my Dia/Amb membership. The agent then proceeded to tell me that the property was sold out (true per the app), and that they were only able to upgrade me one category. Now, I may be a little dense, but I checked a number of dates for rates, and I don't see "Classic" as a category at all. There is "Cosy" and "Cosy Gardenview" (costing the same), "Classic Gardenview," "Classic Oceanview," "Premium Oceanview" and a couple suite types. So in all likelihood, "Classic Gardenview" is what I reserved, not an upgrade. Now, an important caveat with the IHG/Amb programs is that while the former "no benefits on award stays" rule is gone, the one thing that is NOT guaranteed on points stays is the one-category Amb upgrade. So I was fine with getting no upgrade per the rules, but I'm not a fan of being told that I did.

The rooms are fine, very large, with the same furnishings as the "Classic Oceanview" pictured above. The main difference is the lack of view, and IMO, that's huge, because the view is what sets the property apart. There's a bit of a basement room feel here, you're below grade. Somebody upthread reported being a fan of the garden view because one can climb over the fence and get to the pool easily. That may be an option from some rooms, but from ours it would have required a Bear Gryllsian level of fascination with climbing through shrubbery. The usual large bottles of Bal d' Afrique were in the room, although adorned with a small sign instructing that the stuff is meant for use in the room, not for taking home.

Food-wise, we had room service on the first night, which was mediocre. Breakfast was generally fine -- high quality buffet stuff, tasty fruit, delicious pastries, eggs and pancakes to order, although no daily variation. One day, I found that the bacon and sausages I had grabbed from the buffet were icy cold. I checked and found that the hot dish wasn't working. Alerted the staff, and they simply switched it back on. Now, I may have spent too much time listening to the complaints of my food cart owning friends about onerous health inspections, but what I'd expect here would be to have the cold stuff that's been sitting for sereral hours taken out back, and freshly made stuff brought out. Maybe someone from the kitchen should even be doing the rounds to check temperatures every now and then? Poolside food was also pretty middling -- ok ceviche and a mediocre burger on a stale bun they should have toasted. We had wanted ceviche and a club sandwich (which is available on the room service menu), but poolside, that's not possible, you can only have the club wrap they have on the pool menu.

I was finally able to redeem some of my milestone $20 F&B certs (after nearly a dozen hotels where it wasn't possible), which converted to a fair ~€18.50. What wasn't so great when I checked the bill at checkout was that my €15 Amb credit had been applied to a €6 coke we purchased at the pool on the first day. Apparently, the Amb credit isn't taken off as a flat €15, but rather counts against the very first item that hits your bill. The system does this automatically, and the poor woman at the front desk had no way to manually override it. Not a big deal, of course, but just adds to the slight air of weirdness that we encountered throughout the stay.

The area was lovely, and indeed the hotel had a pleasant and laid-back feeling (despite my concerns stemming from coments above about Cascais being a playground of the rich and famous). Trains didn't bother us at all (perhaps an advantage of the "Gardenview" rooms). We tried some of the restaurants mentioned upthread, but didn't find them amazing. Best of the bunch was perhaps Visconde da Luz. Our best meal in the area was at Entreposto Assados near the casino.

I'm torn about coming back. The "Gardenview" rooms are a letdown, and in high season, the risk of getting stuck there seems significant when making a points booking. So I'm inclined to say, happy to return, but only if an ocean view is guaranteed, which means booking revenue. And rates are steep: Looking at dates in June 2024, I see the "Classic Ocenview" at €463 a night. For the exact dates, I could get a points booking for 32k points a night (with Chase 4th night free). So certainly huge "buy points" arbitrage opportunity here (32k points = $160 when buying at the current 100% bonus points sale).