Hotel Captain Cook

The property is beautiful and is a very nice, historic hotel. We were unimpressed with checkin. The front desk told me to find a bellhop but none were available and I didn’t know where to even wait. There weren’t any options to get a cart to transport all of our bags without a bellhop, so we had to struggle with our bags and 2 kids. It’s a very large hotel and we didn’t know where to go to get to our room. When I asked the front desk, I got a short, incorrect, response. My husband got the same. No one was going out of their way to help us. At that point I’d have rather been at a 3 star hotel where they set it up so you can help yourselves more conveniently. We also weren’t prepared for such a large parking fee - even without valet we’d be paying 30-50 dollars a night. And if you forego the valet, then you’re left walking in downtown from the parking garage to the hotel. This information wasn’t really available prior to getting there - it wasn’t even super clear where you were supposed to enter the hotel. So it was just confusing and stressful checking in initially. The pool is very small and cold with no hot tub but the locker room was VERY nice with great service. I wish there was more kid friendly dining available, but the food was very good. Overall, it wasn’t any better than a cheaper hotel. We’ll be trying something different next year.

Service was very good but several issues. All of which I had read before, answered online by a manager, and never corrected. 1) the day of checkout at 8 am after one light knock the cleaning crew woke us by opening the door. Seems to be a very common issue. Front desk should come up with a better system for telling the cleaning crew which rooms are already vacant. 8 am barge ins are unreasonable 2)24/7 loud noise heard through earplugs which kept us from properly sleeping. Air duct? Elevator? Again a problem I read about in many prior reviews. Still a problem 3)captain cook is not a historical figure I celebrate as “discovering” lands native populations had loved on thousands of years prior to his arrival. Didn’t bother me enough to not stay here. I was not prepared however for the large murals covering many walls that depict aboriginal and native people in a cartoonish and less than human way. Maybe reproductions from historical books but they have no place in a hotel common area in this day and age. A textbook, museum? As a teaching moment maybe for a dark past? Not in a hotel. It bothered me to the point of anger the first night. We will come, and never return. However I feel for the staff who have to pass these every day. 4) hotel pool specifically listed as family friendly. It’s very clear that it’s only a lap pool. Furthermore they separate boys from girks, including kids who are told to enter on their own on opposite ends of the floor. Luckily a staff member…

Nice hotel, very clean, but EXPENSIVE for such a small room and breakfast not included. I wanted to explore the shops and galleries, but they all closed early. The place is huge, kind of a maze. My kids were excited there was a pool, but when we went down there, it was very clear that this was not a family pool, as it was part of the athletic club and set up for lap swims. Also, I had to go to the pool with my girls even though I wasn't swimming, because the men's and women's locker rooms are on opposite sides of the hotel (and then meet in the middle at the pool), so I couldn't just send them down with my husband, or they would have gotten lost trying to find the women's area by themselves. We were happy with our stay, but not sure the cost was worth it for only one night.