WI Milwaukee Hilton City Center

[Senoreit]

Stayed here for the second time on 8/8. Entrance to parking garage is located just south of the hotel on 5th St. Cost is a rather ridiculous $18/day with unlimited in/out, but if you don't want to leave your car on the street, it's certainly the most convenient option as it is connected to the hotel via an interior corridor accessable from level three.

On our previous stay (which we thought was great, btw), we were assigned a corner room on the 7th floor (Room 702), which was very spacious and had views to the north and east. This time, we checked in at 4:15 p.m. with only one person in line ahead of us. I requested a king, non-smoking room, mentioned how much we liked our corner room last time, and said if they had any left it would be great if we could get one (although if not, we'd certainly understand). The clerk was nice, but said that there was a convention at the hotel and that many of the corner rooms had been assigned to VIPs. She said she had a king, non-smoking room that was "a little bit larger" [than an average room], but it was next to the elevators. She said we may hear cables rattling, but that the elevator closest to the room is shut off between 9:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. We decided to take the room, knowing that we could always switch later. As it turned out, I only heard the cables once or twice over the sound of the television.

The room was 1218, and upon seeing it I can't imagine that it was that much larger than the average room, with the exception of a weird, useless alcove in the corner of the room between the wall the windows are in and the wall closest to the elevators. Room seemed clean except for a crumpled tissue on one of the tables, and in pretty good condition despite the "historic" nature of the hotel. The only thing in obvious need of repair was a relatively small section of the bathroom ceiling which was peeling.

As far as room layout, the area of the bathroom containing the sink/countertop/mirror is not separated from the rest of the room by a door. Adjoining that area, through a door, is the room which contains the toilet and shower. (I kind of prefer the set-up where all the bathroom stuff is in one room behind one door, sometimes people want privacy getting ready at the sink/mirror). Size-wise, I thought the bathroom was fine, although I've read other reviews characterizing them as small. One other thing about the setup of the room: The cabinet the television was in was not located on the wall opposite the bed, as one might expect, it was located against the side wall to the left, approximately in line with the foot of the bed. Pretty bad layout if you ask me, but luckily the pull-out shelf the television was on pivoted enough so that the screen could be seen while lying in bed.

Apparently there is only one vending machine room in the whole hotel, located on the 6th floor. Unfortunately all of the drink machines were out of order, and the dollar bill slot was broken on the snack machine. There is a gift shop on the lower level that sells some Coke products and water.

On our last stay we briefly checked out the Paradise Landing indoor water park. Since you must pay admission (I believe $10/day for adults, don't quote me on that, and I don't know how much for children) to use it unless you've booked a special "waterpark rate," we didn't have a chance to fully explore it, but from the glance we got it seemed like the only reason to go there would be if you have kids, which basically how it's advertised from what I can gather...I wouldn't consider it a substitute for a pool that adults could use.

One last thing, the channel selection is truly pathetic. I think we had about 10 channels. We didn't even have the Weather Channel, which I thought came on even the most basic of cable systems. Luckily watching TV is not usually a crucial activity to me while on vacation.

Bottom line, to me the hotel is fine for $45 a night, and I wouldn't be at all upset if I received it on a PL bid again, but I don't think I'd want to pay rack (although truthfully, I wouldn't want to pay rack anywhere). Perhaps the bad channel selection, broken vending machines, and exorbitant parking rate would have been more of an annoyance had we been staying for longer than one night. I would definitely recommend asking for a corner room, as I think the difference between those rooms and the non-corner rooms might be a big enough factor to make a difference in the overall impression of your stay.