July 8-11, 2023

The Hotel Del Coronado is truly an icon of the west coast of the USA. It’s victorian architecture and bright red roof are unmistakable. In fact, the Grand Floridian hotel at Walt Disney World is based on the Hotel Del! While the Del has undergone some massive-scale remodeling in its common areas, as well as adding entirely new buildings to the property, they still have a lot of work to do, and I believe they are shutting down the Victorian building to guests starting in December for, what I hope, is a massive overhaul of the rooms in that building.

Location

The Del is situated on one of the most beautiful beaches in California, and is right next to one of the cutest shopping districts as well. It’s location is absolutely prime, and you are going to pay for it. In the summer, there was no room available under $650 per night, and that doesn’t include taxes, resort fees, and the $15 per night historic preservation fee. All in, the cheapest room is going to be at least $700 per night during the high season.

Amenities

The resort itself is absolutely lovely, and the grounds are painstakingly taken care of, and you can tell that most of the folks who work here are really proud of what they do. The pool underwent a recent rehab, and it’s really lovely to hang out here. There is no view of the beach from the pool, which I thought was strange at first, until I realized how windy it was. The sunken area of the pool is definitely sheltered from the winds coming off the Pacific, and this was definitely done on purpose.

The service at the pool is amazing – way better than at a lot of places I’ve been to, and I want to give a special shout out to Chayne and Josh for taking care of us while we were at the pool. You can rent cabanas at the pool. There are no lifeguards here, so if you’re with your kiddos, which I would say at least 75% of the folks here were, you will have to keep a close eye. The pool gets really packed on the weekends, so you’ll have to reserve your spot early.

There are a ton of bars and restaurants to choose from here, all with amazing food, impeccable service, and varying views. I really enjoyed having some bar bites at Babcock and Story, the classic bar where you can watch the sunset over the beach. There are food trucks all the way to fancy sit down seafood restaurants at the property.

The workout facilities here are excellent and we definitely took advantage. They have a ton of machines and weight lifting equipment, and they also offer complimentary yoga on the beach. They also have additional classes you can pay for like spinning, personal training, and surfing lessons.

Vibe

There are lots of really cool, and sometimes creepy elements all around the hotel as well. The long hallways of the Victorian Building do give a bit of a horror movie vibe especially at night, with the striped walls and old-timey sconces lighting the hallways, as well as the low-ish ceilings and the slanted floors and walls. I really wish we could’ve gone on the haunted hotel ghost tour, which they offer most nights, but it conflicted with some of our dinner plans.

The lobby is classic and beautiful with dark stained wood and lots of stained glass. The elevator is also glass and is open to the lobby and the floors above. There are some side elevators around the rest of the building which kind of remind me of the elevators in the “Tower of Terror” ride at Disney World – being a dark brass color, having air vent holes all around, and a generally creepy vibe.

The Room

I will do a full overview of our room in another post, but I have to start by saying that the front desk staff was probably the worst I’ve experienced at a hotel. I had booked a two-queen junior suite in the main victorian building. Our room was ready earlier than check-in time, which was nice, but when we got there, it had a really pungent smell of dog urine. It was so bad, that even opening the windows didn’t help, and I started to get a headache just sitting there. We knew it was going to be impossible to stay in the room, so I called the front desk to ask to change the room. They stated that they didn’t have any other rooms in our category available so if we wanted to change, I would have to pay several hundred dollars a night for an upgrade! This was very upsetting and very very unacceptable, considering they provided us with an uninhabitable room. Eventually, a manager did provide us with a new room, which was certainly upgraded, free of charge, however we had to wait several more hours for the room to be ready.

We changed and spent the afternoon at the pool, however the front desk staff was failing at communicating with us as to when the room would be ready. Check in time was at 4pm, and around 4:30pm, I began to use the texting service that they recommended we use to get an update. Earlier in the day, the text responses flowed freely and quickly, but at 4:30 it was radio silence. Around 5pm, we packed up from the pool and walked back to the front desk where there was a long line. A young woman at the concierge tried to help us, but she was completely useless. Finally, around 5:30, we got to the front of the line and they told us our room was ready.

They had upgraded us to a King room junior suite overlooking the beach, which was QUITE the view. The room was large and open, and had a pull out couch. We also got a rollaway so all four of us could sleep comfortably. The room was definitely gorgeous, and definitely an upgrade, and they definitely shampooed the carpets before we got in there, which, I’m guessing, is the reason why we had to wait so long for the room.

The room saga ended up working itself out, and I appreciate the management for stepping up and correcting the situation. I was honestly pretty surprised though that it was such a struggle to, in fact, correct the situation, and the lack of communication from the front desk staff definitely detracted from our stay.

That said, every single other staff member we encountered at the Hotel Del were beyond amazing. There was the lovely gentleman by the rear entrance of the hotel who showed us where the fitness center was and gave us a little tour. There were Chayne and Josh at the pool, who were totally attentive and awesome. There was our server at the Babcock & Story Bar, who was jovial and kind.

Recommendation

In the end, we really did enjoy our three night stay here at the Hotel Del. The snafus of the first day were eventually forgotten, as we enjoyed the rest of the resort’s services and the lovely town of Coronado. Is it worth the sky high price? Maybe once the rooms in the Victorian Building are refurbished.