longtimereader firstimeposter

Brosson

genotonda

Only continental? That sucks. I was just there over Memorial Day weekend, and they gave all the PLT & Titaniums, full breakfast buffet. They set it up in a special spot down in the ballroom. I assume as to not overcrowd the restaurant area. It was a great breakfast.

JBKettle

I was there two weeks ago for three weekday mornings. Two mornings they charged me the upgrade price, the other morning they marked it out.

The ballroom setup sounds like a holiday weekend/overflow setup. The main restaurant can get very crowded during holidays and even regular summer weekends. (When I was there, they mentioned they had 200 leisure rooms sold during that week, but were expecting 800 for July 4 week.)

The best way to rent cabanas is at https://jwsanantonio.ipoolside.com/. They are expensive, but the guaranteed place to land and attentive wait staff lessens the sting ever-so-slightly. Cabanas for summer weekends usually go quick, but summer weekdays remain available close-in, and sometimes even day of.

dcchi

Brosson

dag16

we go there regularly with the kids. in early spring and october it's definitely a bit cold for swimming. we do it, but we are generally some of the only ones.
as for the breakfast, the buffet is amazing, well worth paying the upgrade from the free continental breakfast. we generally eat a huge breakfast and bring snacks from the buffet (bagels, bananas, cereal, etc) to last us the day. the omelette guy, david, makes the best omelette i have ever had..

prncess674

It is time for my annual review of this hotel. I am Titanium in Bonvoy.

They have remodeled the room since the last time we were there and the beds have been upgraded to queens, up from two doubles. We arrived about noon on Sunday during the summer and to say it was bananas crazy was an understatement. The line to just drop off our stuff was back to the resort parkway entrance. We sat for a good 15 minutes when I decided to jump out and check in while the rest waited in the car. They had a ropes system set up for check in so it was orderly and there was someone directing the line. it was quick to check in and the rooms were not ready but they gave us our waterpark bracelets and a card so we could charge to the room. They took a phone number to text when the room was ready. they mentioned that they had over 700 check outs/ins happening that day. The port a cochere was a sea of people and luggage carts so we decided to bail out of line and leave the bags in the cars. Knowing that the rooms likely weren't going to be ready we had packed beach bags and with what we would need for the day at the pool. If you are in the situation, the bathrooms to the right of the Crooked Branch bar on the first floor are way nicer than the ones by the pool for changing.

The pool area was hopping but we still managed to find some shady spots by the shady sandy bottom pool. Waiter service was good and kept my glass full. We received a text around 4pm that rooms were ready. I hadn't asked about an upgrade knowing it was busy but did ask for connecting rooms. We headed back in about 5:30 and collected room keys and fetched the car where they unloaded all our stuff to bring to the room. Valet is like $40 a day but self-parking is still free. They have guys with golf carts patrolling the lots which will ferry you back and forth to your car if you are far.

Much to my surprise, we were upgraded to a giant suite. A welcome amenity was dropped off around 6pm which included a full size bottle of red wine, chips & salsa, nuts and a bag of cookies. I think it helped that we checked in on a Monday verse a weekend. The big room had a huge kitchen, 8 person table and plenty of outdoor space. it was on the same level as the lobby which made it nice as we only had to go down one level to get to the pool so we avoided elevator madness. There was a king-size murphy bed, which was very comfortable. The connecting room was just a standard Q/Q room. My only gripe was the big room did not have a sofa bed. The standard king rooms include a sofa bed. I had listed 4 people in each room and they didn't ask if less bedding was okay. We actually only had six people but did need an extra bed. We called for a rollaway before 7pm and it wasn't till after multiple calls did it finally get delivered at 10:30pm. I was not pleased to have two 8-year-olds up that late. The amenity had the card of the room operations manager so the next morning I sent him an email and he said he would remove the rollaway charge. I didn't think I would be charged in the first place but let it go.

We have a tradition of ordering room service the first night and they were prompt and delivered a nice spread. We opted for the upgraded full breakfast at Cibolo Moon. It is a serious spread of food that will definitely keep you full for the day. We had to wait about 20-25 minutes for a table but it was well worth it. It is $9 to upgrade from the complimentary elite continental to the full breakfast. We had dinner one night at High Velocity which has your typical bar food and they have a kid's buffet with all the typical kid items for $10 including a candy buffet dessert.

They had several kid activities which were either free or were a small charge. They smores every night for all ages, which are free. There is a small arcade which is crazy and overpriced. I recommend using one of your free drink coupons at Crooked Branch before entering with kids. There is a claw machine with rubber duckies and it doesn't say so but it is play till you wi, which is good for little kids. It doesn't say it is play till you win but it is. The waterpark is great. We never had a problem getting a pool float and lines for the slides were never that long.

We will be back.

prncess674

neuro0

Anyone stay there during Thanksgiving before? Any special activity for kids? Pool is probably too cold.

Hipplewm

Any recent experiences here?

JBKettle

Ask me in a couple of weeks.

When are you going (or looking to go?) Looking at their 'what to expect' page, it appears that things are pretty limited during the week right now, but open up somewhat on the weekends. That should change as we draw closer to Memorial Day. They simply can't sustain the current schedule with a normal summer occupancy load. The place would be gridlocked very quickly.

Unless things have changed, Marriott operates this property directly, so the customer service and guest experience efforts are usually top-notch.

ALARISstl

And, can they hire enough staff to handle the increase in guest?

Hipplewm

26-31 July are the tentative dates we are looking at

JBKettle

We’re here now. I was going to post a full synopsis at the end, but things are a bit different than I was expecting from the hotel’s What to expectpage, so I figured I’d go ahead and post an interim update. I may or may not post something else, just depending on what happens while we’re here.

First and foremost, use this page for current conditions at the hotel: HOME - jwsatinfo

It’s quite a bit different than the WTE page.

Things seem fairly normal compared to pre-COVID. Staff is wearing masks, but hardly any guests are, indoors or out. Electronic menus for restaurants and the rooms have the appearance that they are still deep cleaning, like condoms for the TV remotes and no daily housekeeping.

I did learn -perhaps- why I had previously been ‘upgraded’ but never truly been upgraded. Perhaps it was just a customer service technique, but the very nice FDC said that if you book a Q/Q room with 4 people, they won’t automatically do it because none of their larger rooms have a Q/Q, they are all Kings with secondary beds. When we said that we would take the secondary bed option, they very quickly put us in an Executive suite with a pullout couch. Next time I may press my luck and ask if they would do something with a connecting room. Or, of course, I could book two rooms.

Staffing is at least adequate. They claim to have 300 rooms booked this week, but it doesn’t feel quite that busy. Customer service is on point as always. I asked via chat for some room supplies last night and they were quickly and cheerfully delivered. As usual, all staff is polite and accommodating. I don’t know how they do it, but they should share their tips with the rest of the MI network.