Originally Posted by jpdx

I, too, had several dozen stays here pre-Covid, and saw many of the ups and downs of the lounge, from an abundance of terrible, low-quality food, to an effort to improve things with small plates of high quality delicacies, not to mention the lounge closure and replacement with the main buffet (and even premium spirits at the hotpot place for a while). Similarly, I've had many good and some incredible upgrades, including giant high roller suites on the top floor. After 3 1/2 years of abstinence caused by Covid, I just had a chance to return. What a letdown it was!

As had been my MO in the past, I booked a midweek-stay. First signs that something might be amiss were noticeable when I rolled up at Shun Tak Center around 11:30am and Cotaijet tickets were unavailable until 14:00. Walked around, tried the scalpers, to no avail, so I finally bought a ticket for a 12:30 departure on Turbojet Premier Grand class. Now, mind you, this is the scam of the century, because the seat will be almost identical to economy on Cotaijet, but you'll be served some godawful spaghetti and wine in a paper cup. Ferry frequencies were cut significantly from pre-Covid days, with no sailings from Kowloon and only hourly sailings from Shun Tak at midday. So pre-buying tickets rather than walking up is advisable, even mid-week. Outer Harbor wasn't busy at all -- in fact, many of the piers have been removed, and when we arrived, we were the only ship berthed there. The shuttle bus setup is unchanged from pre-Covid. Note that now you'll be going to "The Londoner" rather than "Cotai Central."

The "Londoner" theme is evident as you arrive at the hotel -- Big Ben greets you, double decker buses, the queen makes an appearance. Gaudy and terrible as one might expect, but to be fair, the Cotai Cantral development suffered from a lamentable lack of a theme. Driving up always gave me the sense of arriving at a weird, failing tribal casino in WA State. The ground floor and mall has been thoroughly re-done, Londonized if you will. There's a check-in area for Bonvoy elites off the main lobby (listing all levels from Gold to Amb), immediately to the left when exiting the bus. As in the past, I ignored it and went straight up to the lounge of the 4th floor. Here, Londonization hadn't taken hold, the area having maintained its oversized Peppermill charm.

At the lounge, I was told that the hotel was completely sold out and that no upgrade would be forthcoming. Shocking for mid-week, but apparently, the place is quite bustling. Now, I recall two times I had less than a very nice high-floor Sky Tower suite here -- once, it was a smallish suite in the Earth Tower, and the other time it was a club room. When I checked in for the latter (this must have been in 2019), staff were almost embarrassingly apologetic, told me that they had made sure that I had a room with a great Eiffel tower view, and that indeed the hotel could move me to a suite on the second day of my stay. This time, there were no such theatrics. I found my way to the elevators for low floors and went up. It turned out that not only was I in a base room, I was in the worst base room on the floor, directly next to the elevator:



Now, if you're familiar with the hotel, you will know that the further you are from the protrusion in the building, the better your view will be (because you can look in both directions). In this case, the view toward Cotai Strip is of a wall rather than the Eiffel Tower or Big Ben. Not to mention that proximity to the elevators is not a good thing in a hotel where you have noisy gamblers returning to their rooms at literally all hours of the night.

The room was in terrible state of repair. When the Cotai Central development went up, it certainly was built in haste; Macau experienced explosive growth and rooms and gaming floors were needed asap. For a few years, the furnishings (which were middling) fared fine, at least in the suites. I'll refrain from posting pictures of dinged up furniture and grime in the shower, and instead will let this picture of the carpet do the talking:


I mean, look up "threadbare" in the dictionary, and that's the image you'll see used to illustrate it. Now, in a sold out hotel, I don't expect any spectacular upgrades. In Macau, anyone who gambles even at a low stake will be worth far more to the hotel than a Bonvoy Tit who plans on being out and about all day to explore the city. Still, it's hard to stomach being given such a room at a hotel where one had many great stays in the past.

I wish I could say this was the extent of my gripes, but not so. I was given a handout listing club hours. Breakfast was shown as lasting from 7am to 2pm. In fact, I was required to choose a time slot. Apparently, the hotel is so busy, this is the only way to handle the onslaught. I was lucky to check in mid-afternoon; I can only imagine how great it must be for the late arrivals who are told their breakfast slot is at 7am. Note that although this a Sheraton, where hypothetically one should have the option of choosing restaurant breakfast in lieu of the 1000 welcome points, such a choice is not offered.



Food quality was middling, but not a huge drop from the period immediately prior to Covid. They are serving huge amounts of food, and it's evidently pre-made and just gets brought out when needed. Nothing fancy, and several items were dried out or lukewarm (dumplings and rice). Pastries have gone way downhill from pre-Covid, and some of the high quality European stuff (from Bene) has disappeared. Interestingly, Covid hasn't caused a change in the hygiene behaviors of some of the, umm, main customer base -- still see plenty of people coughing directly onto the buffet without covering their mouths while piling their plates high with food.

Evening happy hour has also seen a bit of a drop, certainly from the era where they had hired the (Portuguese?) club manager who was intent on improving quality. Still, you have a lot of decent options and it's easy to make a meal here. There's no longer a bartender, but you now pour your own drinks. For some reason, evening happy hour was unrestricted and indeed pretty slow, with lots of open tables. I guess people gamble at that time rather than going to the happy hour.

Overall, I'm obviously not rushing back. I'm now based in Europe anyway, and getting to actual Portugal is far easier than getting to Macau. I had made my reservation pretty far out, and at just under MOP 1000 a night, it's still a decent deal. Far more than those MOP 600 BRGs of yesteryear, of course, but still reasonable compared to rates we now commonly see (and in fact, as my trip dates approached, rates just about doubled, and for some upcoming dates, I see rates well in excess of MOP 2000). In hindsight, I wish I'd stayed at the Grand Hyatt (at about MOP 1350), but who knows, that might have been a letdown, as well.