John H.
Yelp
First, shame on us for making a reservation bookended by two local events. We arrived the day before Fat Tuesday, not realizing the parade ended next to the hotel. We departed during a weekend of running events at the hotel/park (last weekend of February). That probably contributed to our inability to get the room we reserved when we made our reservation 10 months prior to our arrival date.
The room:
We booked a King Park View Room. The rooms on the first floor facing the road/park appear to be a combination of King Rooms, suites, and King with 2 Bunk Bed rooms. When we received our check-in email it showed one room for us to 'pick' from, and it was a bunk bed room. I called Hilton reservations and after an 11 minute call, I was told that was the only available room. When checking in, we asked again, and were told it was the only room. When we were texted by the hotel (or bot) and gave them a 6/10 rating because of the room switch, they followed up with a message about what they could do better, and I said we still weren't happy with the room, there was no response.
The room was a bit problematic as there is only one chair and table, so for a 5-night stay, it was challenging to sit in the room and relax without sitting on the bed. The King rooms have an additional chair and possibly another table from looking at the pictures. The one chair, with orange webbing (like the 70's lawn chairs, but without any give) was uncomfortable.
The room is serviced every 4 days, so as we were staying 5 days, they came in the day before we left and swapped towels and glasses. You can ask for towel swaps, etc. in-between as necessary. They were short of towels one day we were there as some rooms were waiting for laundry to get new towels.
Room was generally clean and pretty well kept. The bathroom outlet is in a small area very near the sink, and there is a lighted mirror, but you'd have to drape the cord behind the sink, or maneuver it into that spot to use it.
HVAC worked well and is very quiet, so don't expect it to drown out outside noises. We could hear through walls, but people were quiet overall during our stay in adjoining rooms.
The Hotel:
Overall a nice setting, but 'Park View' is a bit generous, as you can see the roadside part of the park, and easily walk to it, but to get to the relaxing and pretty part of the park, you'll need to go in 2-3 miles from the hotel. There are free bikes you can use if you download the app. We also had a car, but you'd realistically need to use a bike or car to get to the very nice parts of the park.
The patio area and pool were nice. Lots of chairs and a few tables and chairs in the shade. There is a walkway over the dunes to the very soft sand beach. For a fee you can rent umbrellas and chairs, though for the price I'd just go buy them and leave them behind if I was going to spend 2 days or more on the beach.
Parking is well documented in reviews - it was 1/4 mile from the middle of the lot to our room door. Not a problem for us, but quite a hike for some.
Despite being a non-smoking property, there are cigarette butts around the public patios, so some people are smoking out there. I believe it is also not pet friendly but we did see a couple of dogs in the lobby - maybe just 'visiting'?
They are building an outdoor bar area, but for now there is the restaurant and a very small coffee/wine bar.
Our hallway was cleaned with a machine each day that left the carpet wet for quite a while. Because of the location it is tough to get things to dry out - towels in the room, etc. take a good day to dry.
There are 9 'public' balconies with chairs and tables for those of us in steerage class. They were VERY nice, and not used a lot as most rooms have their own balcony.
Internet:
Free wi-fi had speeds of 3-4.5 Mbps. Never faster.
Service:
I previously mentioned they did not return a message after my comment about the room. We also called the restaurant to make a reservation as the online form wouldn't work on my iPhone. They did not return the call either.
The workout room was closed on Fat Tuesday to paint the floor in the area outside the room. That meant you would need to head to the park to run/walk. There were thousands of people and hundreds of cars in the park, so that timing was not great. There is a large overhead door in the workout room that would be accessible as well, but it is on the front of the hotel and presumably they didn't want semi-public access to it as parade goers parked all over the grounds of the hotel.
The Park:
Very nice once you get away from walking alongside very busy roads and highways. The first couple of miles you'll be ingesting some exhaust.
Dining:
We ate at the restaurant in the hotel for lunch one day and it was very good. We also did finally get through on the reservation site and there was a $30 cancellation charge if you didn't cancel 2-days prior to your reserved time. We also ate at the restaurant in the park that they will s