This past Thursday I celebrated an anniversary. Every year I usually book a nice room or suite in Niagara Falls because it's a special city with the beauty of the falls and all the touristy things to see and do. However, this year I thought it might be nice to stay here in the city and play tourist. So, I searched on line to find the perfect hotel for the occasion. I've stayed in Toronto once before at the Harbourfront Radisson and loved it; but of course for this time around I wanted something different to try. I think the prettiest view of this city is from Lake Ontario. The only other nice hotel by the lake is the Toronto Westin Harbour Castle so I went with it as my choice. I booked a non-refundable corner lake view room on hotels.com for $151.54 including tax. On Thursday I showed up at the hotel to check in at around 3:50 pm. I was issued a room on the 12th floor of the north tower. Upon entering the room all appeared to be fine and well. The room was in fact a corner lake view room. However, as I began to inspect the room I quickly discovered how unacceptably unclean and disgusting it was. Now, I'm aware that I'm very particular and anal with certain things, but this room was beyond sucking it up for the night. The bed's white duvet cover had a long black stain down the side. The toilet had a yellow sticky dusty droplet that I had to wash off myself before using it. The bathtub had about four black hairs in it. And finally, the bathroom floor against the wall had a hairy dust pile accumulating. Of course I did two things: video record it all and complain to the hotel staff. I'll show you the videos of this room before sharing what happened next.
First I called Express Service to complain about the room's condition and waited for about 15 min. for someone to arrive so that I could show them exactly what needed to be cleaned. I got impatient and decided to return to the check-in counter to see what they could do for me; I expected to get a better room. I was assisted by a gentleman named Juan who was very nice, understanding, and apologetic. He offered me a new room with an upgrade. This second room was on the 22nd floor in the south tower which had a better view. So, off I went to try out my new room. Once again all seemed fine and dandy upon entering and at first glance. Actually, I did like this room better. It was another corner lake view room with a prettier view. But then I went into the bathroom where it all fell apart once more. Almost as if someone had planted it there in some sick joke on me, sat a short black curly hair on the toilet seat. For a second I thought that I was being punk'd or something. Here are the videos as proof.
I had some time to kill so I decided to return to the front desk again to show them the pretty (*sarcasm) black hair I had sitting on my toilet. The woman actually wanted to see the photo I had of the hair (perhaps she needed evidence to combat her theory that I secretly plant foreign black hairs in my hotel room for free upgrades). The service manager came out and offered her sincere apologies. Apparently they'll be having a meeting and re-training on properly servicing the rooms. Anyway, in lieu of all my issues she gave me free valet parking (valued at $40) and free buffet breakfast for two (valued at $26 per person). I was pretty happy with that since I had no intentions on changing rooms again. I had totally lost faith in the cleanliness of them at this point.
To sum up my experience at the Toronto Westin Harbour Castle Hotel, I would have to say that the staff are very nice and accommodating, the location is good, but the rooms are not up to my standards of decent acceptable cleanliness. Moreover, I would not return to this hotel unless it was free. What can I say? I'm cheap!
Distillery District
I often catch myself saying this about Toronto: just when you think you've seen all it has to offer something new pops up as if it had been hidden from you all this time. To be perfectly honest, I thought the distillery district was the location where Steam Whistle and a few other micro breweries were located. I now know that that is completely incorrect. The distillery district is actually located at Parliament St. and Mill St. (just south of Front St.). Wikipedia defines it as: "The Distillery District is a historic and entertainment precinct located east of Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It contains numerous cafés, restaurants, and shops housed within heritage buildings of the former Gooderham and Worts Distillery. The 13-acre (52,000 sq. m) district comprises more than 40 heritage buildings and 10 streets, and is the largest collection of Victorian-era industrial architecture in North America.
The district was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1988."
I found the area to be very quaint and nicely decorated for Christmas. It appears to be small when you enter but as you investigate each street and building you realize that it's quite a large space to cover. The brick buildings are beautiful, especially inside. You have to enter each building because there's so much to see. Some buildings house various cafes, eateries, and various shops. Other buildings are workshops for artisans who create and sell their work. The most interesting art piece that caught my eye was the most amazing pictures created out of Rubik's Cubes. I also enjoyed the assorted treats sold on site such as salted caramel marshmallows, mini marshmallow chocolate shortbread, and my ultimate favourite fresh roasted Bavarian sugared pecans. They were warm and to die for! The salted caramel marshmallows were also good, but the mini marshmallow chocolate shortbread was a big bust. I ate half of one and gave the bag away. There was in fact a micro brewery on site called Mill St. Brewery. They have beer tasting if you're interested. I'm from NB so of course I was. I tried samples of each of the four beers on tap. It's free! My favourite was the coffee porter. You could actually taste the coffee. I hate Steam Whistle beer and won't even accept it if free; that's how much I dislike it. Mill St. beer, on the other hand, has several beers I would even pay for. Here are the pictures I took at the distillery district.
These pictures below have been created using many Rubik's Cubes. Cool eh?
Here's the food I bought and sampled.
These pecans were pure heaven!
All in all, I would totally encourage others to check out the distillery district. I plan on returning in the summer when I'm sure it'll be a completely different yet equally quaint and lovely experience. It's one of the few things that's actually free and worth paying for.
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