I agree with everyone else - I've had two stays there in the past 2 years (no status) and I doubt the suites are worth extra money as the standard rooms are great. Definitely put a top-level floor request in your reservation and try to get a room in the main building or the building on the left when you're facing the river. Jonathan Wigley is the GM there & the e-mail address is
[email protected] (I had to contact them when I was there in November since I had some special requests - I just held onto the e-mail addy) - he doesn't answer it personally, but his secretary does & she made sure our rooms met our special requests.
Airport transfer isn't expensive at all, but if you take your own cab from the airport, make sure you print out a copy of the property page from Marriott.com - some cabbies think only of the JW Marriott when you tell them Marriott resort - by showing them the printout with the road name on it, they'll know where to go.
In the shopping plaza accross from the front entrance of the Marriott, you can get a pretty decent massage for just a few bucks - not the "spa" experience necessarily, but the foot rub will put you sleep. Also, there's a tailor called Alex's Fashion's across the street too - I recommend going there if you want a suit made while in BKK - it only takes about 2 days - go as soon as you check in to get measured. If you want, you can bring a magazine cut-out & they'll make the suite based off the picture.
As for the dinner cruise - not sure what the total cost is per person because I've never done it, yet I completely regeret not doing it since everyone who has been on it has had a great time.