Stayed at the Sunrise Hotel for one night pre-cruise on 09.28.10. Purchased a king non-smoking room at hotels.com for $79. We arrived about 10 AM due to an early flight from MDW and the dest clerk said our room hadn't been cleaned yet but if we wanted to check in early he had either a king smoking or a double queen we could have. We opted for the king smoking, as it's been our experience in other hotels that it's not been a problem, especially as I used to smoke and the smell doesn't bother me. The desk clerk also commented that they usually charge additional money for early check-in but that he wouldn't charge us this time but he wanted us to be aware that they might not extend this courtesy the next time we stay there..
We were assigned room 127, first floor, with a view of the pool. Opening the door, the overpowering smell of stale cigarrette smoke was obvious. My fault, I know , because I ok'd the room. I just have never smelled such a stench in any hotel I've ever stayed at. We immediately opened the windows and turned on the fan, and several hours later the smell was gone. The room was good sized, king bed, a mini fridge, tv, a couple of chairs, desk with free wi-fi. I noted the stains on the arms of the upholstered chair and on the carpet. Hard to tell if these were permanent stains or if they were just dirty. We also noticed a lot of cobwebs in the corners near the floor. The king bed came with two postage stamp sized fiberfill pillows, which were about as pleasant to sleep on as a bag of potato chips.
The continental breakfast was free, probably because they would have been embarrassed to charge for it. I drank a cup of coffee and then went to the restaurant next door to eat.
My husband noticed his shirt was wrinkled from being in the suitcase and we couldn't find an iron in the room, even though the hotel brochure said they had them, so we decided to follow the time honored practice of steaming it in the shower. The water was extremely hot, and we had a nice steam going in minutes. When we opened the bathroom door to remove the shirt the steam set off the smoke detector. Funny thing, though, no one ever came to our room or called to see why. Good thing there wasn't a fire. . .
Free wifi, and the shuttle to the cruise port was nice, but next time I'll stay elsewhere, probably just out by the airport.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC