JeffS

dw: Do you mean that the Hongqiao Marriott is new because the Pudong Courtyard has been around for a while.

I am staying at the Pudong Courtyard now. The Executive Lounge was refurbed last year I think. In any event it is much nicer than before. The attendants in the lounge do a great job and are very attentive to service. Full service breakfast in the morning and good happy hour spread every evening. You can order off the room service menu too.

The rooms on floors 21-28 were refurbished. I am on a lower floor but in a suite so I don't mind. Plus the reception desk told me the rooms on those upper floors are smaller.

JeffS

I would say it depends on where you need to be each day. The Hongqiao Marriott is going to be nicer but farther from PVG. Pudong is more of an office/working location although there is shopping within walking distance. Plenty of restaurants nearby too.

SkiAdcock

JeffS, just wanted to mention your responding to questions & comments form a DECADE ago! But thanks for the updates.

Cheers.

pinniped

2011 stay: we planned to stay there for 10 nights, checked out after 5. I thought it was a very disappointing hotel. We moved over to the St. Regis using a C&P award and were much happier. Of course you'd say that a St. Regis *should* be better than a Courtyard, but considering how inexpensive both options were using award points (thanks to attractively low categories) we realized there was no real purpose to staying at the CY.

Tiny room, no upgrades for Plats, lounge closed the entire time we were there, no Wifi on our floor at all, weak Wifi in the lobby, no business center of any kind at all, and generally dark older "tourist class" feel to the hotel were weak points. Breakfast was actually quite good, as was the staff who provided happy hour drinks in the bar, complimentary to Golds/Plats, since they didn't have a lounge. (Nice to hear that it sounds like they've opened a real lounge.)

Personally, after spending 10 days there, I'd probably stay on the other side of the river on our next trip. Every night, we were taking cabs back and forth from Pudong (where there's little in the way of nightlife, restaurants, etc.) to the various other neighborhoods on the other side. Cabs were cheap and plentiful...just felt like we spent a lot of time in them!!

JeffS

Blame it on sleep deprivation Sharon.

JeffS

Pinniped: Re: your comments about the Courtyard.

There is no wifi in the rooms, however you can buy a personal hotspot for about 100 RMB ($15 US) at the electronics place across the street from Union Square about a 10 min walk from the hotel. Then you have your own personal wifi network. This is my solution for hotels that don't have wifi in the rooms.

The lounge is very nice now. Just wish they had some single malts available instead of the blended stuff.

The St. Regis is now the Hongta. Not sure when that changed but probably in the last year.

pinniped

Wow...my stay was in October 2011. We spent quite a bit of time talking to the bartenders and lounge staff at the St. Regis, as well as to the same other guests we kept seeing in the lounge, and nobody seemed to know that this property was about to leave the Starwood system.

General sense on the SPG board was that the hotel didn't quite live up to the full standard of the St. Regis brand. We had a fantastic stay there...not sure how they could have treated us any better than they did!

BKKLEE

Arriving into PVG in the evening.
Have tried to look at taking the Maglev from PVG to Lujiazui Station and then a taxi to the hotel......... (I'd rather not transfer to Subway Line 2 and get off at Peoples Square)
Has anyone used this method?
Any alternatives (I've tried a direct taxi from PVG before but getting from the airport into the CBD can take a long time and the Maglev gets there pretty quick w/o any traffic)??

dw

I've done the taxi/Maglev combination before, but honestly it was only for the novelty of taking the Maglev. Once you add in having to purchase a ticket and waiting for the Maglev (I believe it runs roughly every 15 min?), you probably won't save much time compared to a taxi. The Luoyang Lu Maglev terminus is pretty far into Pudong, so it's likely that any traffic you will hit will be between the Maglev station and the CBD, and not between PVG and the Maglev terminus. It will be slightly cheaper if you are only 1 person, but for 2 people, it'll be almost the same price.

littlevoices

But the maglev avoids taxi scams (or risk of) - personally I think that the novelty of the Maglev is worth it, and it is quicker than a taxi. However, caveat that with my view being based on only two return trips to PVG where 3 of 4 taxis caused problems (one couldn't find the Waldorf and twice I thought, on the balance, the taxi driver had taken us the long route to PVG/Maglev station). The overcharge on the Maglev was ~15CNY, the airport was probably closer to 70CNY. However for more than two the maglev does start to become expensive vs a taxi I guess

(I don't speak Chinese making me an easy target!)

Jiatong

Ok, i am in my 5th night of a 6 night stay at this really great located new Marriott. & its city centre on the Puxi side !

Subway- the intersection of line 2 & 1 is only 100 meters from the hotel, about 1 block away. Exit # 19 at Nanjing road .

By subway to either airport via line 2 is about 45 minutes, one way to PVG is 7 rmb, & SHA is 5 rmb. ( SHA is the HongQiao air or HSR train station, different stops ) A taxi from HongQiao south train exit is 75 rmb.

Taxi's, Some have a problem finding the side street entrance, look for the taller Radison, it's just behind the Radison when on Nanjing Road where the Nanjing Pedestrian street starts.
Also, some taxi's will take you to the JW, which is several blocks away, maybe 5 minutes in traffic....

The EL is huge, with great staff.

ffj

Am heading to Shanghai later this summer. This place has reasonable rates. I believe it has a lounge, so the CYs in Asia appear to be like FS Marriotts in the US. Any insights would be appreciated.

pbenz

Stayed there in 2010. It appeared slightly more upscale than CYs in the US. I was there for business, so I was not in the hotel that much, but it was fine.

hard2please

We were there for several nights in late Sept. of 2011. Very nice hotel, much like a full-service Marriott in the States. They have a nice EL with breakfast, evening drinks and hot and cold food and desserts. Good location too.

allset2travel

CY Shanghai Puxi is better than most MR in US, MHO.
Location is convenient to metro and train station. An airport express bus (#5? recallection only) will drop you off on south side of train station. You can walk to hotel (if luggage allows) or for less than 20 rmb for a taxi.
Executive lounge is very good both in service and offerings.

Director of ops happened to bumped into me one morning in MoMo for breakfast, he personally offered me a table near the windows and brought over cappuccino. Breakfast is above par to most Asian CYs, and you know what I am talking about.