Luxury hotel, not
By A Yahoo! Contributor, 12/31/06
We just stayed at this hotel during Christmas and couldn't believe how overrated it is. Yes, the hotel itself is beautiful in a beautiful setting but the rooms are dingy and dirty. The linens are marginal at best. The bed cover was filthy. The windows are so dirty you can barely see out and condensate to the point that they are dripping water. The food in the central dining room is fair-good albeit pricey. The only other place to eat is again dingy, dirty and food is marginal. The carpet looks like it hasn't been vacummed in ages. The real problem is that they need other things to do other than sit by the fireplace and read or go outside and hike. It would be the perfect place for a spa. What better way to relax after a day's hike than a massage. The only thing they offer is a massage therapist (male) that may or may not be on call and you have to reserve him through the concierge and it takes the masseur two hours to get there, etc., etc. Not exactly convenient.
And the "famous" Bracebridge Dinner there that we had to suffer through on Christmas Eve. What a joke that was. Mandate is to be super dressed up (Black Tie) and $350 per person, not including having to pre-order wine and all the bottles sit opened with no corks in them and unchilled at the table. Food was so awful it was barely edible. The so-called Lobster Terrine was so fishy tasting and 99.5% crab it was gross. Tables so close to each other that the servers had trouble getting through. The 4 hour "show" consisted of a Broadway like musical set to an old English Christmas. An absurd waste of money and time. Just a little bit better than Medieval Times in Southern California that we would take dates to when we were in our twenties.
Suffice it to say that if you are used to Westin like hotel stays with clean rooms, superb bedding, great places to eat, and spa services within the hotel, you will surely be disappointed if not insulted by the amount of money that they charge.