Just stayed here on Sunday night on the $109 Starpicks rate. Thought I should post here to give them credit for a fantastic upgrade.

We had two rooms booked. They upgraded one to a very large suite that connected to the other room on the 26th floor. The net result was the feel of a large 3-bathroom 2-bedroom condo that wrapped around three sides of the floor. :-:

That means my two best upgrades in my lifetime as an SPG Plat have both been in Minneapolis. (The other was the large suite at the LM...not quite as large but they gave it to us for a 4-night holiday weekend stay.)

Breakfast was indeed the pastries in Manny's. To be honest, that was one minor weak point for this hotel...a stale bagel, a box of Frosted Flakes, a banana, and a bottle of juice. I asked if we could use credit towards a hot breakfast and was told no. Even the presentation of this was a little haphazard...just scattered on the bar next to a bunch of newspapers and such.

I'd definitely stay there again...I'd just take the 500 points. Breakfast in the restaurant had items such as eggs benedict for $11 or a steak omelette for $13, so it might not be a bad place for a big breakfast eater. Plus there are plenty of places to get coffee/bagels in the area.

Do you mean breakfast in Manny's dining room or in Hell's Kitchen?

The cold stuff on the bar seems to be the same presentation as before the Plat breakfast option was implemented by Starwood. They've always had the quick self service or grab-and-go choice. IIRC they always also had free coffee in the living room in the morning and one could take stuff from the bar into the living room to eat.

It was in the bar area. Red & white checker tablecloths...

No, I was asking about the "restaurant" breakfast that you want to try next time. Clearly the Plat breakfast is in the bar, just as earlier the bar had the quick cold stuff to grab.

i have stayed at this W for the last 5 weeks... scheduled there for the rest of the year.
I love the property, however one problem i have with them is water pressure in the shower. 2 of the stays I had decent water pressure and 3 weeks it sucked..
Any trick on which rooms are better vs. the others? I have complained and they just told me "it's an old building".

In many hotels, higher floors can have bad water pressure, especially at rush hour. In other properties, I suspect that it may be location on the plumbing network relative to the hotel's laundry, commercial dishwashers, etc. that matters.

I stayed here on the $109 starpicks rate about a month ago. It was another pre-gold stay. I asked for a high floor, and was given (IIRC) the 19th floor. The room was the farthest from the elevators (+), but also the smallest on the floor according to the fire escape map in the room. It was TINY.

I definitely experienced water pressure issues, even later in the morning. The shower had almost NO pressure. Water fell straight down to the floor from the jets... very disappointing. I mentioned this to the clerk when we checked out, and without missing a beat she apologized and offered to add 500 starpoints to my account for the inconvenience.

I am SPG Gold now, anyone else with Gold status have any experience getting upgrades here?

According to SPG program rules, Golds aren't entitled to upgrades, just to enhanced rooms in the category that was booked.

Thank you for reiterating the program rules.

As most know, rules and practices aren't always the same thing.

I am most certainly aware that I am not entitled to any upgrades, but I am also aware that certain properties are inclined to upgrade SPG Gold members. Which is why I asked if any GOLD members had experience being upgraded here.

Just left after my 2nd stay in 2 weeks as Gold:
First stay Sunday overnight, booked basic wonderful received cool corner. Very nice room, the 'corner' part was in the bathroom which made it very large with great views of downtown.

2nd stay last night. Booked basic wonderful again $97 prepaid rate, pre-upgraded to cool corner again and then got upgraded AGAIn to the WOW Suite. Absolutely amazing! Phenomial room, great views, located on the 26th floor, only 3 rooms on the entire floor. Staff was amazing, very nice, upon getting to my room i found a nice note thanking me for being a fan of the hotel on facebook :) A six pack of Vanilla coke and a couple cans of pellagrishio(sp?) and a bowl of spiced trail mix from the steakhouse attached to the hotel.

WOW Suite Pros:
-so much space, very well designed for entertaining.
-multiple bars, 2 mini bars (one in living room, one in the bedroom) and a bar server/DJ style stand in the corner of the living room wrapped in black fur (very cool).
-Great bathroom, huge soaking tub with 3 corner wrap around windows giving a great view of downtown. Walk in rain forest shower thats just the best thing ever. Also has a 2nd regular bathroom off the main entrance in the little dining table area.
-Ice machine located in the room :)
-Staff were great, i had only been here once before and they emailed me a few days before i checked in this weekend welcoming me back and asking if there was anything they could do, i mentioned i liked vanilla coke and if it was possible to get some in the room, and they did! nicely setup before i even arrived. When i awoke this morning while lounging in the living room i got an email from Lisa the concierge who i had talked to before asking me if i enjoyed the room she had picked for me and saying they hoped id come back soon.

Now i hate to post cons (looking a gift horse in the mouth and all.....) but there were a few things that stood out that i didnt like
Cons:
-No sound system. 2 TVs with access to the hotel music library...for a cost. Little bedside radio in the bedroom. But for a huge room obviously made to entertain people in, the lack of any sorta media center in the main rooms was a bit strange. I've been to the W Boston and in their rooms were Bang and Olufsen sound systems.....
-Lots of broken drawers. While trying to see if there was any sound systems i was opening various places and opened a drawer in the desk which then fell off. Put it back on but was a bit off putting. Then the same in the bathroom, drawer under the sink was only half attached.
-Strange hole above TV. The TV in the living room was mounted on a entertainment center and about 6" above it was a 3'x3" rectangular hole in the wood. It looked like maybe a sound bar or speaker of some sort was supposed to be there but it wasnt? So it was just a big emtpy thing above the tv.
-Proximity to the Bar. The 27-28th floors of the hotel are the bar 'prohibition'. from around 3-4pm there was a constant series of bangs and thuds coming from it as i assume they were setting up tables and chairs and getting ready to open for the evening. Once that stopped the bar isnt very noisy and you couldnt hear anything the rest of the night.

Any recent changes to the plat amenity bfast option? It sounds like points might be the better option here.

Recently completed a stay here: Awesome upgrade to a Fantastic Suite, 4pm checkout, and the talent were all great. I ended up picking the continental plat amenity option. I think there was one pastry left when we arrived, close to the end of service. A waiter made us a nice to go bag with a bunch of pastries and cups of fresh fruit. ^ A great stay all around, my only regret was not having enough time to check out Prohibition.

Just checked in for a one-night stay. Have stayed here maybe a half-dozen times and like the hotel. Had some nice upgrades before as a Plat, but no luck the last couple of times. SPG.com shows all room types available for sale, including Cool Corners, Fantastic Suites, and Marvelous Suites. Asked if a suite was available (6:30 pm) and desk clerk said no, all sold out. I said they were available online and asked what would happen if I booked one and he just kind of laughed and said, "I don't know". Found me a cool corner room on a low floor - room is OK, nothing special, and a very strong food odor in the halls and room from the ventilation from the restaurant.

Minneapolis has so many SPG options - I think I'm done with the W.

My first stay was great always friendly staff and nice upgrade to fantastic suite. My last two stays I got the usual no upgrades available even though they showed up online, only staying for two nights so didn't want to push the issue.. I believe they hold back Plat suite upgrades unless the issue is really pushed..

Particularly in the case of DFWFlier, I would have no problem calling the Platinum Concierge to intervene. DFWF checked in at 6:30 PM and all rooms should be clean. The issue is murkier before check-in time when the hotel can claim the rooms aren't ready yet.