Mr Kevincm returns to Washington – The Marriott Marquis
In this… well.. mess:
- How far can you go for a £1 (+Tax)?
- Off to Manchester Airport, Manchester Airport and the BA Terraces Lounge
- AA735 Manchester Airport to Philadelphia
- A long Philadelphia layover featuring the US Customs and the TSA at their best.
- AA4545 Philadelphia to Washington Reagan
- Holiday Inn Washington Reagan
- The Marriott Marquis, Washington DC
- The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum – National Mall
- The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum – The Udvar Hazey Building
- Back to Dulles, British Airways Dulles Lounge
- BA216 Washington Dulles to Heathrow with the Airbus A380
- Heathrow Transfer, North Lounge
- BA1530 London Heathrow to Manchester
- The joy of coaches, and CrossCountry trains from Manchester to Birmingham
- Short and Sweet
I had my first experience of Lyft at this point for the trip between Arlington and DC.. and whilst the Lyft driver was excellent, the handling of the payment was less than great. I tied my Lyft account to Apple Pay – and it promptly rejected my payment.
Why, I do not know – but It was clearly annoying that I had to tie it to my PayPal account to carry out the transactions.
Suffice to say, I switched back to Uber for a lot of the journeys in the DC Area. Whilst I’m happy to pay for ridesharing rides I take, I’m not keen on systems that kick me out of them without any reason or rhyme.
None the less, I arrived at something was a nice hotel – and didn’t resemble a Marriott much at all.
The Marriott Marquis, Washington DC
Back to night-time hotel photos. It’s better that way isn’t it?
Ok – I should come clean here – It’s been a long time since I’ve been near a Marriott of any kind (the joy of aligning with Intercontinental Hotels Group and Hyatt is that these are pretty much my first choices when travelling.
And the impression of the brand I have are dowdy old properties.
This property of course isn’t like that in the least.
Atrium
Check-in Area
And a Panorama too.
Check in was handled swiftly, with a room assigned for me. Included in my rate was access to the M Lounge too – which was a nicety. Well – more of an essential in the end.
With that, it was time to play hunt the lift.
One of those buttons I think
You are here.
Exiting the lift, it was time to locate the correct corridor – and soon I was at my room.
Finding my way to the room, I was presented with a big open airy environment.
The Room
The bed.
TV with connected services – very nice (Shame I didn’t have much time to use them – although the TV had Cartoon Network on it. It helps when travelling).
Armchair.
Coffee and Tea making facilities.
View from the room
The bed itself was just the right firmness to be comfortable, and the room kept a stable temperature. Let’s look at the massive space that’s the bathroom
Sink and Toilet area
Some rather nice smellies there.
The one minus point – no bathtub – just a shower.
There was a turn-down service too – a nice touch.
As my rate had lounge access, I explored the lounge. Again – a large space that’s light and airy, with plenty of little spaces to hide and talk in.
Daytime catering was limited to coffee, drinks and light nibble.
Nibbles
Seating
As my rate included lounge access, it also included breakfast… which was a reasonable selection.
Pastries and Fruit.
Hot items
Althoght the bacon was comical
Scrambled eggs
Evil lactose containing stuff
’
Coffee station
Checkout was handled effectively and quickly, with no fuss – and the agent happy to take a part cash, part credit card payment.
Overall: A very nice and well organised property that can handle the conference crowd as well as international visitors with ease. Comfortable beds and restful environments too, which make a big difference. If only a lot more Marriott Hotels were like this…
Next: A trip to the National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall.
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