I had a different experience than Scifience as I was at FCLL for a 5-night stay last week with my wife and our two sons (6 and 8). Bottom line: this is a wonderful hotel in a spectacularly beautiful setting, with great service and tons of things for the whole family to do.

A few highlights of the stay:

• I had booked a 1-bedroom suite, and was thrilled to see in the Accor app that we were upgraded to a two bedroom lake view suite. The room we had (359) was wonderful, with both bedrooms and the parlor room with full views of the lake. The suite was comfortable and well-appointed; CanadaDH left a review of this room above, and I don't have much to add to that. The hotel was full while we were there - there was a physics conference, and many of the rooms were blocked as they are under construction. Perhaps the conference filled up the smaller rooms and suites as there weren't many families during our stay, and we were the grateful beneficiaries of the two-bedroom upgrade. Shortly after we got into the room we received an amenity of a bottle of red wine and a 'candy tower' for the kids.
• Service across the board was warm and delightful - from the bellmen to concierge to restaurant staff to housekeeping to activities staff. Everyone was very friendly and kind, engaging with my children, and committed to ensuring that we had a great stay. We had especially good service at breakfast each day in Louiza, at dinner at Walliser Stube, and with the activities staff during a Bavarian curling (!) lesson and game.
• We ate at a number of the dining outlets - Louiza daily for breakfast, Walliser Stube for dinner, and afternoon tea at the Lakeview Lounger. Service and food was uniformly high-quality, and my family and I especially enjoyed the dinner at WS - it's a cozy, wood-paneled room with a fireplace, great fondue, and smart wines. (NB: if you book a suite, breakfast for all registered guests and parking is included. With the four of us for five days, this added up to be a great value.)
• We took advantage of a number of activities and amenities at the hotel. Favorites included:
  • A Bavarian curling class (think bocce on ice) which was fun for grown-ups and kids. Out host, Harrison, provided a good mix of instruction and humor.
  • The mixology class at Fairview Lounge was also a hit. I benefitted from being the only participant, and had a private lesson with the bartender, who led us through crafting the signature drinks of the Banff, Lake Louise, and Jasper Fairmonts. Normally, you're given half of each drink; but given that I was the only participant, and you can't make half a drink... you could do the math. The mixologist shared not only the recipes, but also tips about ingredients and techniques - like when a drink should be shaken versus stirred, etc.
  • We picked up crampons, which are basically devices that strap on your boots to give you traction on ice, at the hotel equipment rental shop and used these to walk out on the lake and lakeside trails. The crampons, which are free for hotel guests., aren't necessary, but were helpful. The lake is the hotel's greatest amenity - it is beautiful, and the grounds staff maintains a large skating area by the hotel, and you could x-country ski, snowshoe, or walk across trails to a frozen waterfall on the other side.
  • We skied at Lake Louise for a couple of days, using the hotel shuttle to get back and forth. The shuttles start at 8:30am, and are available on the hour.

A number of people have asked about the construction. There are a large number of rooms blocked off for renovation, in addition to the work on the wellness center, and you will see construction workers both outside the building and in the hallways. Work started around 8am, but - even though our room was close to an area under construction - it didn't bother us. We were up and about at that point, and the noise was not too loud.

All in all, highly recommend the hotel. Let me know if you have any questions.