Land-of-Miles

Or you can sit outside, see the sea and people watch.

Breakfast is good if a tad pricey. The bar breakfast is pretty poor and the whole area like a zoo.

KENNECTED

I generally eat very early so it's still dark out or right at sunrise. LOL

I've never done that breakfast bar, I just eat in the restaurant.

PTahCha

Just completed a 3 night stay earlier this week.

As a platinum, was pre-blocked into a 1-bedroom residential condo. My colleague, who's a Delta Crossover, did not get an upgrade until she complained. She ended up in a Spectacular room.

Did the Keyless registration, and was able to register and sign up for Make a Green Choice. However, there were no cell phone signal in the hotel lobby, so I had to get a key anyways. Check in was easy and straight forward, with the front desk clerk impressed by the fact that all of the registration information was in the system. Also tested keyless later, and it did not work for the elevators.

Valet parking was super efficient, and the car was delivered within 10 minutes everytime. Valet was $35/day.

The 1-bedroom condo had a full kitchen with Kitchen Aid appliances, along with an apartment sized washer and dryer. They even provided laundry detergent and dryer sheets. However, while there were cooking utensil and pots and pans, there were no oil or condiments (common issue with extended stay properties). There is also a dining table for 6 dividing the space between the kitchen and living room area.

The open bathroom has a tub in addition to the shower stall. The toilet is in a separate area with frosted door. The bathroom also has an additional storage closet - in this case, the interior and shelves were painted pink.

Typical W bed with Tivoli alarm clock. No pillow menu, however.

Maybe because it's a condo unit, there was no minibar, and the room service menu listed only the food, no beverages. there is no directory of services either.

The room has a small balcony with 1 seat, no tables. The view was of the inner harbor, with a distant view of the ocean.



By the way, you can see the hotel pool on the lower right hand corner.

Had drinks one night on the patio bar on the 4th floor. I am assuming because it was turtle season, the entire outside area was dark, along with the unlit fire pit. Also, drinks are pricey. My colleague ordered a double cranberry and vodka, and she ended up with a $26 highball drink.

The steak restaurant was nice. The easiest way to get a table is book through Opentable. Even though the restaurant was half full, they still ask you whether you had a reservation. It was restaurant month, so they had a 3 course prix fixe deal for $35. The regular menu was a pretty straight forward steakhouse fare.

Free coffee in the morning at the W Cafe. There were a bunch of grab and go options as well. Some of the pricing can be confusing. For example, an egg burrito was $6, but a ham and cheese croissant (which was more like a ham and cheese sandwich in a croissant) was $9.

A minor complaint: Ask for a computer mouse because the left mouse button on my laptop stopped working. Called Whatever/Whenever, and it showed up 45 minutes later. That took longer than expected.

Overall, it was a nice stay, and would pick this property again.

seawolf

Sounds like you got a pretty good plat upgrade compared to my stay earlier this year.

mlad1101

I believe that may be a pool for the condos, as the main hotel pool is on the ocean side, not intracoastal as in the picture.

Land-of-Miles

Guests can use both pools the back one is nicer and quieter but really quute cold.

KENNECTED

And smaller and generally has no or little service in comparison to the Main (larger) pool.

Songer5

Seems like we'll be there during Art Basel in Miami. Hope it doesn't affect service levels at W FLL.

Songer5

We had our 4 night stay a few weeks ago and were happy to be upgraded to a 2 bedroom residential suite in the Tower. Same view as the poster above, but higher up on the 22nd floor.

Service levels were great from the experienced staff members, but they did seem to be training a few new people, so had to be a bit more patient with them.

The Platinum breakfast amenity is $25 daily credit at the W Cafe, which goes pretty far if you choose your items wisely. Ham/Cheese croissants were $8. Egg burrito was $6. Regular coffee was free, but premium (espresso, etc) wasn't.

Much more kid-friendly than other W's I've been to. They still had the weekend nightlife scene downstairs, but it didn't cramp our style. My 4 year old daughter was treated like a princess by all the staff, including a wonderful team staffed at the W Cafe who went out of their way to send up cookies & milk (and a huge stuffed alligator) to her on our final night. W FLL is our new go-to hotel whenever we're down in South Florida.

mgarrett96

Currently staying here for a few nights. Checked in and as a gold was given a complimentary upgrade to an ocean view room, but asked for a paid upgrade to a 2 BR suite. They offered it for 150/night, which I accepted. Walked up to the room and found it was a one BR with a "den" with two sofas that were pushed together to become a queen. Called Whatever/Whenever and was told, verbatim, "why is it our fault if you booked the wrong room, I can't help you. I don't know what you want us to do since you booked the wrong room." Never been treated that poorly at any hotel I've stayed at, much less a W. Went down to the desk and was told that she misunderstood, and to get a real 2BR suite it would cost 200/night. Needless to say I wasn't happy. Ended up talking to the manager, who was great. He agreed to put us in the "real" 2BR suite I originally wanted for the 150/night I originally agreed to, and sent us a gift to apologize. In short, the management seems great, but the front-line staff is a little rough. Not too thrilled about the idea of returning after that whole fiasco, but I did appreciate the manager's help.

worldspan

Gave up on this hotel several years ago when they wanted to charge me $25.00 to remove the try of snacks/candy from the bureau. Finally did after being on hold for 20 minutes and much arguing back and forth.

Needless to say, I have never returned to this hotel!

TravelinSperry

Interesting. I am staying here in March and was thinking of using my SNAs for an upgrade but was told by my Ambassador that there are no upgradeable rooms with 2 queens or twins. Just king beds. From your post it appears there are suites with two beds. Anyone else can confirm?

KENNECTED

I don't think there are any suites in the hotel tower that consist of two queen beds. Every suite I've been in at this property has been a King bed suite.

Perhaps in the condo building, this type of room exists?

ihdihd

Tower 1 doesn't have suites with 2 queen beds (as far as Ican recall from staying in every room type). Technically tower 1 only has a couple of suites that even have a door separating a bedroom/bath from living room- those are wow and extreme wow on floors 23 and 24.

The rest are spectacular, fantastic and oasis suites, where you could have a door, but the door separates the bedroom from the bathroom and living room.

In tower 2, the condo tower, you have the 1 BR and 2 BR full apartments that always have a kitchen and living room. As you noticed, there are the x09 units which have 2 true and full king bedrooms/bathrooms. One has a soaking tub omus shower, the other just a shower. Then you have the x11 units- I believe those are the semi ones you originally encountered (still 2 bathrooms, kitchen, living room, but the second bedroom is the one with the weird ckuch bed combo you saw).

I recall that there are also smaller true one bedroom units that are just one room plus living room, kitchen bath.

I don't know the upgrade policies these days for others, but I often book regular rooms and get either ocean front rooms/suites, or the apartments (which are ocean facing to the side, but not ocean front ).

Whatever you go with tower or room size wise, go for a south facing room in a high floor (18+) in either building. These are magnificent rooms that tower over everything and have a view of the ocean, intercoastal , almost all the way down to Miami (it seems). Trust me a regular south facing room on floor 18+ in tower 1 is always better than a low room/suite of any variety, especially when you consider that you'll never have extra bedding in the suites.

The second best category are the oasis suites. These are fantastic suites in high floors (20+ maybe?). Because of the nature of the hotel tapered design, each suite is ocean front, has a huge ooen air balcony with nothing above it (no ceiling). The downside is that oasis suites in winter months end up being windy most of the time (unusable) and unless you're on FL23 or 24 in the 2 penthouse suites, you'll almost always have a neighbor right next to your balcony looking right over a Low glass barrier.

In my opinion the suxkers bet roons are fantastic suites on kow floor north east corners. These are usually accessible suites (low shower heads, water everywhere). They overlook the noisy street ocean side, and the Hilton hotel on the north side (true of all birth facing rooms- the Hilton is almost as tall as W). You will have the curtains drawn the entire time and not have a great time.

If you're looking for a good family stay (a big cozier) due to small rooms. The westin beach next door to the W isn't bad. They are much more kid friendly with a kids club, etc. They also have plenty of ocean front room with sojble beds, but don't count on suites- there aren't many. Lastly, stay in the north tower unless you like walking.

I hope this advice helps.

TravelinSperry

Thanks, this is all good to know.

btw, I notice check in time is 4pm here and checkout time is 11am!! Seems absurd to me. Is this a resort property? Or am I guaranteed 4pm late check out? I may request Your24 with checkin/out times like this.