Hotel Review: Cambridge Suites Toronto

Last weekend, I went to Toronto and stayed at the Cambridge Suites Toronto Here's a review.

Sitting Room


The room was a standard suite at Cambridge Suites. When you walk in, you are put in the sitting area/kitchenette area.



Standard fare here, with a couch which apparently folds out (I never checked), a flat screen TV with some HD content, a chair and a coffee table.




From there, you can head to the left, where you find a communal closet to store your coats and other outside wear (as seen by my fantastic photography skillz).



To the right is an entrance to the one washroom in the suite.


Another fantastic photo.

Bathroom

The bathroom is a very good size, with standard amenities. The bathtub/shower combo:



The showerhead was a bit finicky. I had to work a little bit to find my preferred pressure but once I did, all was fine. The temperature was no problem.



Standard low rider toilet. No problem with flushing or anything.




One sink in the washroom, which was no problem for me, but might be a problem for a couple or a family who need to get ready for a night out.

The bedroom

Separating the bedroom from the sitting area are a set of french doors:


When you enter, you find the bed:



The bed seemed comfortable enough, but I wasn't able to get a truly good night's sleep. I would get half an hour then wake up. This repeated for every night. I don't know if it was because of the bed, the room, or my sleeping pattern, but one way or another I couldn't get a good night's sleep.



The alarm clock. No docking station for an iPod and a bit confusing to figure out at first. Once I did figure it out, there was no problem at all, and it worked without problem.



Flatscreen TV in the room. Same as the one in the sitting area.



The closest in the bedroom. In it is a luggage rack, iron and ironing board.

Other items

Notably missing from the room was a safe to store your valuables. I don't know if the hotel has a safety deposit available, but I think the lack of safe was a downside.

The room does have a microwave and a mini fridge to use for storing food. As well, it comes with more glassware than normal. 6 drinking glasses were available. It also has a desk you can sit and work at. As well, there's a continental breakfast in the restaurant in the morning. If it's included in your room, it is a nice bonus. If you have to pay to add it, I would not recommend it. It is very basic.

(It's also worth noting that coffee and water is available free throughout the day.)

Finally, the view from the room:



Overall thoughts:

Overall, I did not mind my room. It served my purposes well. I would definitely return for the right price, though if I look to stay downtown Toronto in the future, I would likley lookat another hotel first. It probably has most value for more than one person than a single traveller.

The contradiction that is Rob Ford

Compare and contrast:

• Peter Worthington, Sunday: By presenting himself as a blunt-talking, straight-arrow, tell-it-like-it-is guy who radiates honesty, Ford leapt into the lead among Torontonians fed up to the gills with the spending and self-justifying nonsense of our present mayor and many in council.


• Toronto Sun Editorial, Friday: Rob Ford's honesty in question

Oddly enough, this is one of those rare times when the Toronto Sun Editorial Board gets one right. Ford can be the biggest straight shooter in terms of what the city needs. The problem is, his actions whenever faced with a possibly negative story is to deny first, then admit guilt when faced with evidence proving his guilt? An honest man would own up to his transgressions when first given the opportunity, not deny and hope that it is not followed up on. This is even more troublesome when you are running a campaign with a basis on trust.

Worthington acknowledges that there's an issue with Ford's honesty, but waves it away by saying "There’s a difference in not being blatantly honest about embarrassing incidents in your own life, and looting the public till and not being honest with taxpayers’ money." This doesn't deal with the pattern that Ford is setting, nor does it acknowledge that Ford is actually willing to spend cash that city council identified as a savings.

(In a related note, how bad are things when the city's conservative newspaper calls out the front-running conservative mayor candidate?)

I also have to wonder about Ford's move to not officially comment about anything to the Toronto Star. Aren't you just opening yourself up to even more one-sided reporting due to not giving a response to any story brought by the newspaper?

Rob Ford's ideas might be what the city of Toronto needs. I'm not sure that his other actions are needed though.

Coming to put fear in Toronto...

Fearless Fred!

Yes, a new radio personality is set to join 102.1 The Edge. It's just unclear as to what shift he's taking. Toronto Mike thinks he will take the afternoon drive shift, with Dave Bookman moving to the evening shift. As much as that sucks, it does seem to make sense.

So what should we expect from Fearless Fred? Poking around his website, you can get a sense of what he's going to bring to the table. First, he seems to be a bit of a nerd. He's dressed up as the comic version of Doctor Doom in some of his pictures. His links includes a section for nerd links (and also includes a link to Home Star Runner.)

On his show page over at the Bear, he lets us now that, among other things:

• He can read, and he reads books without pictures


• He can beat Mega Man 2 in 2 men (more about that nerd/geek thing)


• He has season tickets to the Edmonton Opera


• He thinks that Voltaire is smarter than you...probably

So we're dealing with somebody who might be a bit more intelligent than we think.

But what about the radio? Well, we have some hints to this as well. He was the first winner of the Steve Young Broadcaster Award for best up and coming Canadian broadcaster under the age of 30 (which was presented at Canadian Music Week):

Then, there's the clips on his website. On there you find a a lot of comedic clips with him interacting with callers. But hidden amongst them are some good items, such as U-S-A and Hello Dearest Sir.

Based on those clips, he's better than Dean Blundell, which is admittedly setting the bar low. I'm willing to give him a chance - he could develop into a fun radio announcer. If he doesn't, then I'm sure I'll end up complaining here (or stop listening to CFNY.)