We went on points so can't complain about the price. With my husband's Elite status, they upgraded us to a one bedroom suite without even asking. The suite was beautiful and very spacious. I was pleasantly surprised about the well equipped kitchenette and even a dinette since I did no research on this hotel before we went (my husband booked it). So other than bringing a few snacks and fruit for my son, we didn't bring much else for ourselves which I regretted. It was too out of the way to bother going to pick up any food or drinks to prepare in our room.
We figured we'd just eat at the two restaurants and those were huge disappointments. Our first lunch at Cottages was extremely mediocre. We each ordered a sandwich for $19 each. Mine came with a dumpling soup (got one dumpling in a bowl that contained probably 3 tablespoons worth of soup). I can appreciate that the waitress warned us that she was in training but she completely screwed up both of our orders. I was starving so I was not happy to have to send my meal back. We tried Cottages again for dinner and it was moderately better but still serving size was very small.
The 2nd night we went to Teca and though the atmosphere was very pleasant with the open kitchen, the meal was very poor quality for the price. I had the gnocchi which they claim is a popular choice. I had about 8 pieces of gooey gnocchi in an extremely creamy sauce. Couldn't taste any truffles in the gnocchi. My husband said his hanger steak was ok but we've definitely had better for the price.
I actually do not mind spending a lot of money on restaurants if the food was actually worth it but Marriott restaurants in general have not been to my liking.
We had hoped to go snowmobiling but the trails were closed by the hotel. The first day we went on the cross country/dog sledding trails for an hour or so but were worried that we were annoying the dogs. We picked this hotel because we had hoped to go snowmobiling as a family for an hour or so, then my son and I go back to the hotel and my husband can go off on his own at his own speed. It didn't work out that way and it was too much of a hassle to load and unload the two snowmobiles multiple times in a day so we only went once to Bass Lake where there were better trails.
I gave this a 4 star rating because it truly is a beautiful hotel and the rooms are excellent. We are still hoping to go back in the summer with our boat since we have several friends who have cottages in the Muskokas. But this time we will be better prepared about the meals and just not eat at the hotel. It really is a shame that the restaurants are so poor. And we will do a little more research about the boating.
- Jw Marriott Rosseau
- Jw Marriott Minett
