Hey MG-
From #58 above. "Had dinner at the Crown Plaza which was connected to the Sheraton (apparently same owner). "

Yes it's the same owner (Niagara Falls Tourism Authority), they own about 5 hotels in the Niagara Falls area.

I knew the parking garage was between the 2 hotels, but didn't realize it was the same owner. Next question, which hotel has the better restaurant to use up the $40 credit?

In terms of the card, I believe you can only use it as the Fallsview Rainbow Room Restaurant (Crowne Plaza). Fallsview Restaurant (Sheraton) is considered a different restauraunt, their offer is Kids Eat Free.

Also note that some of the other restauraunts like the Rainforest Cafe, while also owned by the Tourism Authority won't be able to be billed to your room. Just in case you were wondering if you could earn SPG points there.

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At the property now. Was upgraded to the corner "Presidential" suite oft-described above - oustanding views, faux fireplace, jacuzzi, etc.

No complaints at all here!

Very friendly service so far including bellhop.

We might try the $40 coupon at one of the two restaurants tonight.

Updates on our stay here:

1) The Fallsview restaurant at Crowne Plaza was good with the $40 coupon. Considering my low expectations for hotel food and restaurants with great views, the food was pretty good. Very hard to go wrong after the $40 discount.

2) I was denied 4pm checkout. I was offered noon. I pushed and they gave me 1pm.

The suites are great, beware when its busy!
 

Had an overall great family stay Dec 27-28. Booked a suite with points and a deluxe room (119 cdn). Arrived and there was a massive line at the front desk. Took advantage of the platinum line which was empty. Lots of dirty looks! However loved this benefit of being platinum. Saved a lot of time. The lineup for checkin was at least 20 families deep.

At checkin they gave us two standard rooms. The front desk person was not helpful. Said they were full and that these were the rooms indicated on the reservation. Yikes. I had booked using the plat concierge and paid what I thought were extra points for a corner suite with panoramic view. Travelling with the family, I made extra sure that we would have a great room and so did not take any chances when booking -- I did not check in hoping for nor expecting an upgrade, I made certain that I had booked the suite in advance. I received email confirmation of the room types, and arrived with the reasonable expectation that I would get the rooms that I thought had been booked.

After a fruitless discussion, we trudged up to our rooms and I called guest services. They said that this was the room I had booked. I said that I have an email confirmation of the room types booked and would be happy to show the email to the manager. The email confirmation explicitly noted a king suite with panoramic views. and a deluxe room.

After being put on hold for a few minutes they said that a suite would be ready for me in 20 minutes. We moved to room 1073 and it was indeed panoramic and awesome. Very large room with two sitting areas, balcony, jacuzzi, and fireplace. We really took advantage of the space and our friends, who were in the other room, joined us in the suite for a pizza party and we were very comfortable! Four adults and five young children and we had plenty of room to chill on a very cold evening! We were satisfied and our friends stayed in the standard room, which had two queens and served its purpose just fine.

We were going to the attached indoor waterpark the next day. Hotel guests get to enter the waterpark at 9am, rather than 10am, which was awesome. We had breakfast at the 13th floor restaurant. It is a buffet and it was okay. Kids ate free. We then took advantage of the early entry at the waterpark and had a blast. Hardly any lineups for the first couple of hours!!!! :D

I had asked for a late checkout and they were only able to provide a 2pm checkout in the standard room. Oh well. By 1 pm the lineups for the waterslides were huge and all of our children (under 10 years of age) had had enough anyways so we were able to check out and head out to see the falls and the nearby butterfly conservatory. It was a great day!

Frankly I am not sure what to make of the miscommunication around my reservation. I do reccomend this hotel over the others in Niagara Falls, but I do feel disconcerted about the process of reserving via plat concierge, receiving confirmation via email re room type, and then receiving different rooms at check in. I guess I will just chalk it up to a very busy time of year for this hotel! However I will take steps next time to ensure there are no surprises upon arrival, particularly on a family trip, by communicating with the hotel manager directly.

Stayed at the hotel with the family dec 24 to 27 and have to say that generally we found the staff to be very helpful and friendly. The front desk staff was generally helpful but different staff had different and inconsistent information about the room type we reserved, late checkout, etc.

The kids had a great time at the attached water park. Since it was cold outside, we really enjoyed the fact that there are so many things to do in the complex without having to step a foot outside.

We had a deluxe fallsview room with a fireplace, pull out couch and a spectacular view of the falls.
They hotel was very busy and by the time we decided we wanted to try out the restaurant for dinner, they had no room for us.

I found that the lobby did not offer enough sitting spots and parking was very expensive, but otherwise would recommend the hotel and will probably stay there again next time I am in Niagara Falls.

Confusing names
 

Confusingly, there will soon be a Sheraton ON the Falls in Canada, and a Sheraton AT the Falls across the river in New York, once the Crowne Plaza converts.

You'd think they'd have picked names that weren't almost identical. It makes Sheraton on the Falls and the outgoing Sheraton Fallsview seem positively easy to tell apart. Zoinks.

Reminds me of Shanghai, where they have the new Sheraton Hong Kou, and then just renamed another nearby hotel the Sheraton Hongqiao. Apparently those two are pronounced quite differently in Chinese, but they look nearly identical to an American and the second hotel had a perfectly good name before that was easy to tell apart.

I would think being in two different countries would somewhat mitigate any confusion.

Just completed a stay at the SOTF, by the way. Busy time of year with all the school breaks, but aside from some longer waits for elevators, all was fine. Good Platinum recognation and excellent service throughout.

Cheers,

Is there a resort fee at this hotel?

No. As with any hotel, just make a dummy booking and you'll see all taxes and fees.

Any recent reports? Is there still no club lounge?

Front desk told me because they are a Resort, they are not required too have a Lounge.