Just completed a one night weekend stay with my wife. We would call the experience mediocre at best. We certainly don't feel the shoebox we spent the night in would be worth the $600 per night member rate. For perspective, my wife and I are 63 and 59 respectively and we reside in a southern California beach community, so we realize some of the allure of the location and view is lost on us, and we're probably not their target demographic. At the Edge Bar we chatted with another couple in our age range that live nearby in Dana Point, and they too were underwhelmed.
Marriott Bonvoy: Lifetime Titanium
Payment: 85k Certificate
Room Booked: Guest Room, 1 King
Night Upgrade Award: Denied
Room Received: Guest Room, 1 King
Resort Fee: $50 per night -- Worthless.
Valet Parking: $60 per night -- Valet is the only onsite option, but as others have mentioned there is ample safe street parking available.
Late Check-Out Request: Asked for 4pm. Noted but couldn't promise. Told to call back in the morning to check status. Next morning was given until 3pm which I was happy with.
Check-In: Asked if there were any upgrades available. They looked and there weren't, but the hotel was at or near capacity so not surprising. The front desk person was very kind and apologetic about the lack of an upgrade and I told them it wasn't a problem and I expected as much. They did however forget to offer me a welcome gift (1000 points or $24x2 towards breakfast) which I didn't realize until the next morning. Yes I'm aware of the MB Guarantee $100 compensation, but it was an honest mistake made while someone was trying to help me. When I called down the next morning to check on the Late Check-Out I also mentioned the lack of a welcome gift and was quickly offered the two standard choices. I chose the $48 breakfast credit and picked up the vouchers when I stopped by the front desk to get our keys rekeyed for 3pm.
The Room: All 280sqft of it, felt very small, but everything inside was clean and in good working order. We ended up with a partial ocean view overlooking a small pool and dirt lot directly below, and a golf course between them and the marina. It was nice to watch a large regatta of dinghies race for Newport Harbor. Brought back memories of the many Newport to Ensenada Yacht Races I sailed in. Good times. Overall the room felt fresh and modern. I will say that every time we exited the room into an outside walkway it broke the luxury spell. It's just the least attractive area of the property, although I'm not sure what they could do to beautify it.
The Pool/ Edge Bar: We didn't use the pool itself, but we did spend several hours at the bar facing the pool and people watching. Our first observation was there were no children, which was a pleasant surprise. The crowd skews younger, I'd say under 40, but all ages were represented. There was music playing but the overall noise level seemed just about right for the environment, meaning you knew there was a party going on but you could still hold a conversation with someone sitting a couple of stools over. The bartenders were fantastic, and one in particular was fun to watch interact with guests. He was quick to politely tell people that they may want to rethink their choice when they would choose certain specialty drinks from the menu. On our departure day we walked onto the terrace overlooking the pool just to see how busy it was and at 10:30am on a Sunday all of the front row loungers were taken, but there were plenty of loungers still available.
Reveal Bar: Went in to have a cocktail while waiting for a table at The View Restaurant. It's a very nice space, the service was great as were the cocktails.
The View Restaurant: This was a tale of two meals, one quite good, dinner, and one that was awful, breakfast. My wife and I had a big late lunch so we decided to go with the Wagyu Skewers appetizer and the Sunset "View" Sushi Roll and Crunchy Sushi Roll as our main course. All of it was delicious, and the service was great. As for Breakfast, I ordered the French Toast and a side of Bacon and my wife ordered the Fried Chicken & Waffles. The French toast comes with two very sweet toppings already on it, so I wasn't expecting the bread itself to be completely covered in a layer of sugar. I tried just a corner bite of the bread alone and it was so sweet I seriously had to take a second after swallowing to make sure it didn't come back up. The bacon was cooked perfectly. When ordering my wife asked if the fried chicken pieces were the traditional thighs and wings and was told yes. What came out were two small breasts cooked to the consistency and juiciness of a hockey puck. They were accompanied by half a waffle broken into quarters. She took one bite of the chicken just to be sure and that was it for her as well. She never tried the waffles. I will say the coffee was good. Our server noticed that we weren't eating our food and inquired as to why and wondered if we needed boxes. We told him it just wasn't our cup of tea and we'd take the bill. The server brought back the bill, I filled it out and added the $48 voucher against a $72 bill with tip. When the server came to collect the bill they said they just realized that "It's not our cup of tea" means we didn't like it and it was policy not to charge the customer in such cases. I told them that wasn't necessary but they insisted, so after some back and forth I got them to accept a cash tip because it wasn't their fault, they're working, and everyone needs to pay bills. All in all the food was a mixed bag but the service was great.
Anyway, that's my two cents. I wrote this in the hopes of giving back to the community for all the great advice I've gotten over the years. I'm in no way disagreeing with anyone else's experience, all I'm saying is that for my wife and I, at this point in our lives, VEA is not a good fit for us. YMMV!