Third time's a curse?
Stayed here on March 31, 2012 as the last leg of a family trip, starting from Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, Legoland, the Carlsbad outlet. Here mainly for SeaWorld. Unfortunately, was impressed with our stay at Hilton Anaheim (see separate review). Along the way, stayed at Hilton Costa Mesa overnight with my sister-in-law and was satisfied with the short experience as we enjoyed shopping and dinner at nearby South Coast Plaza. Now comes the third Hilton but sadly things did not turn out as well. First, the confusion at the front desk. I got 2 rooms, one for my family of four and the other for my sister-in-law. As a Hilton HHonors gold member, we were given upgrades. Funny, but I signed an agreement for a $150 non-smoking fee (none of us smoked, anyway) but when we were ushered to our room, it reeked of tobacco so bad that I started coughing. What do you know, we were given a room in a smoking floor! Immediately, the front desk apologized and sent us one floor higher. Then the problems started coming. The door did not close automatically; you had to pull really hard to make sure the room was securely closed. The toilet flush knob was also hard, you had to exert some effort. Minor hitches, I thought. Then, time to sleep. The centralized cooling system wasn't "cool" enough, we decided to open the balcony sliding door. True enough, the night breeze was comfortably cooler. But then, since the hotel was fairly close to the airport, the planes that passed by in the morning became our wake-up call. Except, that we didn't need any! We were given breakfast coupons and when my sister-in-law ordered coffee, it came with a lipstick mark in the cup! Finally, when my 8-year old twins were to take their bath -- no hot water! As if this were not enough, the ice vending machine did not work. And yes, we had free internet but the connectivity was so low, I could not even finish writing this review and the link would be broken. When it rains, it pours! Maybe, it was purely bad luck; my wife told me we didn't need to bet on the lottery to feel like losers. As a consolation, we still enjoyed SeaWorld; got a good deal for a combo Universal Studios 2 week pass. The following day, we couldn't hurry up enough to get back to L.A. Think I would be back again?