Pan Pacific Hotel at Canada Place

Many of you are considering a Alaska cruise. Most cruises leave from Canada Place.

One of the questions I get often where is the best place to stay prior to my cruise. I have often pointed people towards the Pan Pacific at Canada Place or the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel due to their location.

During the last 2 years I have taken advantage of specials and tried to stay at some of the hotels downtown as a weekend away. I live about 1 hour from downtown Vancouver and it can make a nice get away for a weekend. So far I have stayed at the Hyatt and the Marriott Pinnacle.

Last week the Pan Pacific had a 20th anniversary special for BC residents. The offer was $86 per night and food in the restaurants was back to 1986 pricing. I only heard about it a two days before I decided to stay there. Pan Pacific has been rated 5 stars by AAA for most of it's 20 years. I am told it has been 5 stars for the last 15.
I arrived with Sandra last Thursday January 12 at about 5 PM and decided to valet park the car. The doorman came over right away and took the keys and luggage and we were told the luggage would be delivered to our room once we checked in. Upstairs we went to check-in. This was a painless process and Pan pacific tried to move us up from the 8th floor but there were no non smoking rooms with a king bed. We elected to stay with our room.
We went upstairs to the bellman was already there with our luggage. After a small problem with trying our keys we were able to get into the room. The bellman turned on several lights and showed and set out our luggage and asked if we wanted the ice bucket filled. he then asked if we had reservations to eat and I said no. (I had tried to make reservations when I booked but was told all was reserved.) The bellman took down our room number and asked us for a time (7:00)and said consider it done. We decided to eat in the Cafe Pacifica.
We went out for a quick walk over to the mall across the street and a snack before dinner.
We arrived back in the room about 630 and I wanted to shave before dinner. This was made difficult because the lack of hot water. As most know this is rather annoying when trying to shave. After waiting a bit I was forced to shave with luke warm water.
While dressing I sat on the couch and noticed these bits of broken plastic on the floor and the table that had not been cleaned up.
Sandra also need to iron her slacks and pulled the iron out with the ironing board. The plug was by the bar. After Sandra was finished I went to unplug the iron and move it out of the way. I put my hand on the bar and noticed something sticky all over the bar. I now wasn't happy. I went to the bathroom to clean my hand and get a wet cloth to clean up the mess.
We left the room at about 710 for our trip downstairs because we had waited for hot water. Upon arrival at the Cafe Pacifica we had to wait further while the Host was on the phone for a good 5 minutes. When he got off the phone we were informed that our reservation was no longer valid as it was only held for only 30 minutes. It was pointed out that our 30 minutes was not up. We were then told to wait while a table was prepared for us. We sat down at about 720.
The waitress came over and took our drink orders and dinner orders. Drinks arrived rather quickly. I had ordered a drink which was deliver from the bar and Sandra's came from the back area. When Sandra's came she noticed when she went to drink from it that there was a green line around the inside of the glass about 1/2 inch wide. She took her straw and checked it out and it appeared to be like algae. After waiting about 10 minutes for a server to appear the drink was sent back and a new one returned. About 20 minutes goes by and our soup and salad arrives at the table.
The soup and salad were presented very nicely and tasted fine.
I was looking for a refill of our drinks and began to look for a waitress and she was no where to be found. We began to notice that there were no other servers on the floor. This went on about 30 minutes. We soon noticed others were looking for their servers. There were 2 ladies at a table across from us trying to pay their bill with no luck. The lady finally got up and went into the kitchen to find someone. The Manager came out and dealt with them. Sandra and talked and decided that it had almost been 2 hours since we arrived and needed to get going as we had plans for the evening. Dinner was no where in site. There was a table for 4 also on one side of us and they were wondering what was going on.
When the Manager finished with the ladies I called her over and asked what was going on. Why was service non existent? I said we have been waiting almost 2 hours for our food why was there such a wait? She had no idea why other than the dinning room was running at capacity. I further asked why I couldn't get a drink for the last 30 minutes and she again had no idea.
Sandra at this point felt we were not getting any where with her and told her that we were going to leave and cut our losses. The manager said she would like us to stay on her. After some discussion we decided to try it. The Manager got our drinks filled again and checked on our food which arrived about 15 minutes later. I had ordered the New York sirloin steak and Sandra the Rigatoni with Chorizo sausage. I can say the steak was like leather (even though ordered med rare) and Sandra's pasta had no taste and her sausage was like leather as well.
I ate mine while Sandra picked at hers and finally gave up.
Ahh let's try the cheesecake after dinner we thought. Another disappointment.
We bailed on this place very quickly rather than put up with any more pain.

Off we went for the evening to return about midnight to our room. I went to the bar to get 2 glasses for something to drink for the both of us. Picked up the first glass to find it cracked right down one side. The 2nd glass was without incident.

This is one of the first times I have filled out the comment card for a hotel.

When I checked out I handed in the comment card and they opened it. To say the Front Desk clerk was not happy with what I was saying was a under statement. She was not happy to see the remark about the plastic or the cracked glass or the spilled drink or the lack of hot water. Then to see the mess in the restaurant really sent her into a tail spin. At that point she said all I was going to pay was for the parking and that was only because that was a city parking lot. I was further told I would get a call from the Manager next week.
We further discussed what was expected at a 5 star hotel and they admitted that nothing should go wrong. They said normally things are very detail orientated. To find the plastic, broken glass and the mess on the bar was unacceptable.

Yes it was a cheap weekend away but at this point would I recommend this hotel. The answer is no, if I were paying what one pays during cruise ship season. I found that the 2 tables near us at dinner had as many problems as we did and thus it could not be considered a isolated incident. No telling what other rooms were like. What are the chances of having problems with drinking glasses twice in one night in a place that bills itself as detailed orientated. I don't think we were being picky at all. The front desk clerk asked why we didn't ask for another room when we started to find the plastic and the sticky bar. I said were trying to get to dinner and didn't have time to deal with this. We were trying to roll with this rather than let it spoil our weekend.
As Sandra and I have discussed we have had better service at 3 star places than we did tonight. This is a very nice location but not worth the money at this point.

I will update things if we get the call from the Manager.

Phil
Seacruise