Things we loved about the Mira:
* Incredibly welcoming service
* Beautiful, hip space
* Very cool decor (downstairs and in rooms)
* When we complained about having been woken in the middle of the night by a fire alarm, they offered us a free breakfast to make up for it
* Rooms were beautiful and very cool
* The breakfast buffet was really nice: breads and cereals, all kinds of muffins and such (incl. gluten-free in case you need it), an "egg station" and "noodle station," fresh fruits and juices, etc -- standard but very nicely done
* Great location - fun to explore local shops and restaurants, and if you are one of those who needs to eat in expat-friendly places, you can head down Kimberly and up the stairs to Knutsford Terrace, where there's all kinds of restaurants (Italian, Thai, Mediterranean etc) -- too sterile for our tastes but awfully convenient for tourists!
* Also close to tons of shopping, Miramar Centre, the craziness of Nathan Road, not too far from Star Ferry and the lovely walk along the seawall, etc -- very good location for shoppers!
Things that could be improved:
* Bathroom is very poorly designed:
**Faucet bumps into vanity tray, making it impossible to turn to cold water;
**rain setting was great but didn't allow the water to drain
**Lights cannot be turned on without waking the other person, as the light leaks between the venetian blinds;
** It takes awhile to find the switch for the venetians, without which you woudl watch each other use the toilet;
** The hand towel rack is bizarrely low;
** I never did figure out how to turn off the "vanity light" in the bathroom -- seems to stay on at all times when other lights are on
Others:
* TV channel selection was pretty pathetic - maybe 8 or 10 channels in English, no schedule available, and most was BBC or Discovery
* Tons of pay-per-view movies, but pretty expensive at $98 HKD > $12 USD
* There are a lot of crazy light switches, mood switches, etc., but not a lot of straight up "On" or "Off" switches -- in fact none -- this led to some experimentation and confusion.
* It turns out the fire alarm was set off by someone smoking heavily in his room without the A/C on. It seems logical to predict that this will happen again as long as they allow smoking in hotel rooms. It was also kind of gross to get in the elevator with someone who had clearly just had a cigarette. It seems totally barbaric in the year 2009 to still allow smoking in hotels -- why would a hotel trying to style itself as hip and modern cave in to this 1960's motel concession of "smoking rooms?"
* Very disappointed about the pool not being open (My fault entirely, should have checked, it's not like they claimed it was open!)
Overall:
* We would definitely stay here again (though would wait till mid-Nov when the pool opens)
* We were really impressed by the service
* We think they need to build a "show suite" and have some people stay in it before they open all of the suites!
