Second Review--I'm dropping the Waldorf's rating
The Waldorf is the perfect place to stay when the Parade ends and the Holiday Season officially begins. For someone searching for a slice of American nostalgia nothing says Season’s Greetings more than the Rockettes annual Holiday Show, strolling down 5th Avenue, grabbing a bag of chestnuts just roasted by an open fire, or taking a carriage ride through Central Park.
The location of the Waldorf is perfect for all things holiday. Walking at a normal pace will get you to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 2 minutes, Saks 5th Avenue in 3 minutes and Rockefeller Center in 4 minutes. 10 minutes and you will be at FAO Swartz, the Apple Cube or Central Park.
This is my second year at the Waldorf at Thanksgiving. Last year I stayed in a one-bedroom suite in the Waldorf Towers. The room was wonderful. It was exactly what I thought a NYC hotel suite should be. (Review posted 12-30-11)
This year I stayed at the Waldorf Astoria-Park Avenue. I was in Room 1627. This is a Luxury Corner Room with a balcony (yes a balcony) that overlooked the corner of Park and 50th Avenue. As a note, a balcony is a wonderful idea on paper but a ridiculous idea in NYC in last week of November. No matter how nice the weather is…you will freeze. A balcony is unprotected and any wind is relentless. Do not pay for this upgrade. It sounds romantic but it is, in fact, stupid.
There are two things that made this room a good value: 
The first is the bathroom. It doesn’t have a tub…which I think is a plus. I find it more pleasant to step in and out of a shower than a tub. I also find a shower floor less slick than a tub floor. And a stand-alone shower rarely has an awful germ-infested shower curtain that you fight with during your entire shower.
The bathroom is large but not too large. It can easily accommodate two people at the same time and has plenty of shelf space for your items. Our bathroom was on the building side not the hall side of the hotel. This gave us another window in the room.
The second thing which makes this room a good value is the walk-in closet. The walk-in closet is the size of most hotel bathrooms. Not only can you hang all your clothes, store your luggage and still use it as a dressing room…if you have a child under the age of 12 and want to be creative…
…store your luggage somewhere else and use the walk-in closet as an extra bedroom. The hotel will provide a cot. Tell the child they are “hotel camping.” (If the child complains--threaten to put them in the bathroom…the cot will fit in there, also.)
Now for the bad news about this room:
The balcony was sealed off so we couldn’t use it even if we wanted. Next, when we booked the room we booked it based on the following description:
"Spacious and richly appointed, our Luxury Rooms feature a living area with sofa and chair in a traditional decor..." "... provides 370-400 sq. ft. of space."
The actual bedroom (sans bathroom and dressing room) was smaller than most hotel bedrooms I’ve been in. It had one small chair, a tiny desk, an armoire (with the television on it), two very small end tables (with no drawers), and a desk chair. If there was a living area with a chair and sofa both were invisible. But, I’m glad we didn’t have this amenity. The room was so small that neither of us could walk in the same area at the same time. I fear more furniture would have put us outside on the balcony in the cold November air.
If I had to estimate the square feet of the bedroom, meaning the actual room where the bed is located in Room 1627, I would estimate it is probably less than 185 square feet. I think it would be interesting if the hotel took a measurement of the room and let me know how close I am.
I also need to address another issue about the hotel.
Last year I complained about our housekeeper. I said that I wasn’t going to let her poor performance stop me from giving the hotel a five-star rating. I didn’t think it was fair to punish the hotel for one employee’s action. Sometimes you get a bad employee. It happens.
But, doggone if it didn’t happen again.
I have discussed this with the manager and I hope the situation gets resolved. As is my policy, I did not allow the hotel to compensate me for “stress” or “hardship” or anything else. They offered and I declined. I tell you this so readers are clear that my intention is not to slam the hotel but to give an honest review.
The day of Thanksgiving we did not depart our room until 1:30 pm or 1:45 pm. As we left our room we walked by three housekeepers who were in foul moods. We thought they were in a foul mood because they had to work the day after Thanksgiving and could not attend the sales. (This would put me in a foul mood.) We knew they were annoyed because we could hear them talking and the tone of voice indicated obvious irritation.
Around 1:30 am, as we were getting ready for bed, my partner asked for the time. I looked at the hotel clock and noticed that the alarm had been set for 7:00 am.
We know that we didn’t set the alarm on the clock.
How do we know this? Because we checked the alarm Thanksgiving evening before we went to sleep. Why did we check the alarm that evening? Because we didn’t want to be woken up. Was the alarm set? No. Which is why we did not wake up until noon. And why we did not leave our room until 1:30 pm.
It would be easy to say that the housekeeper accidently hit our alarm and turned it on but that is unlikely.
How do I know this?
Because the alarm on Thanksgiving morning had been set for 9:00 am. I know this because I made a comment about it when I made sure the alarm was turned off that evening. This means someone took the time to set the alarm clock for 7:00 am. 
So who set the alarm clock?
To the best of my knowledge, the only people in our room were the housekeeping staff. Last year our housekeeper was unusually annoyed with the hours we kept. When we remembered how annoyed the housekeeping staff was when we left our room the mysteriously set alarm clock made sense.
I discussed this with the housekeeping manager and explained that he has a systemic problem with his staff. Although the hotel advertises 24-hour housekeeping it appears that the staff is not aware of this. Their level of stress when you do not vacate your room by a certain time is abnormal for a hotel that advertises 24-hour housekeeping service.
He explained that the staff will clean your room anytime you want IF you let them know. It appears what I have been doing wrong is not telling anyone that we are late risers and do not require housekeeping until after 2:00 pm. Had we known that we needed to call housekeeping we would have done this and spared the staff two years’ of stress.
So, if you are planning to stay at this hotel and you plan to get a late start please call housekeeping and let them know. They will be happy to accommodate your schedule.
The sophomoric stunt that housekeeping pulled on us was out of line but whatever is causing the staff that much stress needs to be resolved. An unhappy staff will always take it out on customers. Which is why I’m going to ding the Waldorf on housekeeping this time. When a customer has the same issue two times in two years with the same hotel it’s a management issue.