The good:

Almost no waiting for anything. Valet, early check-in, coffee at the Starbucks/gift shop. I wondered if I was the only person staying here.

Nice big flat screen TV in the room. Nice desk with ample workspace. King bed was comfortable once I got rid of the big white Abominable Comforter. Room (with the exception of the bathroom) seems recently updated with new carpet, etc.

Courteous service from all staff I met.

Short walk to South Coast Plaza across the bridge.


The mediocre:

The Heavenly Bed is not my idea of heaven, I guess. I'm not crazy about the trend toward the giant comforter. Too heavy and hot. And since the air conditioner seemed to be barely able to get the job done during my stay, the big comforter just ended up on the floor.

There is no Heavenly Bath here. Well, there's a double shower head, but the shower and tub have not otherwise been redone since this place was built. The pink tile around the tub looks just like the stuff in the house I grew up in and is probably from the same era.

The only onsite food I ate was a room service turkey BLT. Really, really underwhelming. Is this coming from the same kitchen as the famous Pinot chain? Pretty poor. Looked like something I could have made myself. The turkey was lunchmeat. Seriously.

Ten bucks a day for internet. If the cheap chains can give it to you for free...

25 bucks for valet parking. A little high, considering the neighborhood.

The bad:

I was there solo, but got charged for having two cars. The front desk straightened it out, but not before calling the valet desk while I waited. I was there alone. I had one car. She should have taken the second car off my bill right there and then and done the follow-up work after I was on my way.

The minibar had some stuff in it with 2005 expiration dates. Ick.

We stayed here for three nights for the Memorial Day weekend. It was a return home for me, as I used to live in OC. The hotel itself has nice public spaces. The room was fairly typical for a Westin, a nice four-star room. Clean, no problems with anything there. The breakfast at Pinot Provence (the only meal we ate there) was very good. Good locale for shoppers, right across from South Coast Plaza.

Now the problems. Our arrival to the hotel was a problem. We were blocked out from the entrance to the hotel adjacent to Scott's Seafood by a cop who wasn't allowing passage there. He gestured to us to go around the block, signaling to go the wrong direction, as we found out when we came upon the adjacent theater, with no outlet, and had to go around the other direction. We did find our way to the right spot ultimately, which was the side entrance to the hotel, where the valets were. Not a smooth approach here either, as the impromptu porte cochere was packed with cars, and we wound up waiting a while to be able to drop the car off and enter the hotel. We then had to walk through a crowd of people at that entrance attending a function in the ballroom. No clear signage to the front desk from this entrance. I never actually figured out what the issue with the main entrance was, but it seemed pretty clear that there was some sort of politician or dignitary at the hotel, as there were several police cars at the main entrance to the hotel, with a number of cops hanging around there doing nothing except blocking the ability for guests to access the hotel from the real entrance. Can't figure out why they otherwise might have been gathered there...didn't see a donut shop in the lobby. I realize that this fiasco really can't be blamed entirely on the hotel. Admittedly I was simply peeved that everyone else has to be shoved aside (paying guests) just because of someone who is considered to be so important that his or her arrival is the only thing that matters. I think that I can speak for the other guests who arrived that evening that I could give a s__t who was there that night, I expect better service than to be shoved aside like that. Nice use of taxpayer money too, a bunch of cops just hanging out because some "VIP" is there.

OK, so what about service otherwise at the hotel? The check-in staff was terrible. I stood at the Starwood Gold check-in line for a while, with the clerks looking over at me and ignoring me until I asked whether there was someone there to check me in. Then one simply grunted that I needed to get into the back of the general line and wait there. I don't need to be pandered to, and I don't have a problem getting into the main line. I just felt that ignoring me and then impolitely telling me to get into the back of the main line only when asked was not a great way to treat a loyal Starwood Gold member. I commented to the clerk when I did finally check in that I thought that the poorly organized approach to the hotel was pretty inconvenient, and she simply ignored my comment. I think that check-in in general here is pretty poor, as I passed the desk during our stay a few times and noted a really long line on more than one occasion. The valets, other than the initial approach, were quite good for the remainder of the stay.

Overall, I'd say that a stay here would really be quite good if your timing is good, arriving when there isn't a VIP there and when there aren't other people checking in.

From the check-in to the neat bridge over to the South Coast Plaza. Spacious, well appointed, fresh room with a great view. Huge new HDTV. Everything about our 2 night stay was exceptional. Hated to leave. We'll be back.

Make no mistake, the Westin South Coast Plaza is the real deal. It is a tremendous hotel with a great location to boot. The hotel itself has a wonderful bar, helpful concierge, an outdoor patio w/ waterfall for cocktails, spacious rooms, a nice gym that overlooks a great outdoor pool, walking distance to the South Coast Plaza Mall & concert halls. The night we stayed they actually had the season opening of the concert hall and we were treated to some tremendous fireworks from our room window. Overall this hotel experience was top notch. I would highly recommend it.