Westin O’Hare: Internet from 1999, Rooms from 2020

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Transcript! Welcome to room 1230, a Deluxe 1-Bedroom suite at The Westin O’Hare hotel. As the name would suggest, it’s located about a mile from Chicago O’Hare International Airport in Rosemont, IL.The spacious living room features a sitting area with a couch, two armchairs, and a small dining table with two more seats. On the other side of the room next to the front door is a full wet bar, with coffee and a mini-fridge.The living room is quite sizable with high ceilings, a 55-inch class TV, and plenty of space to spread out.The bedroom has a large king-size bed, flanked by generously proportioned nightstands and pleasant lighting. Another large TV shares the same wall as the one in the living room. The bathroom is large, bright, and well-appointed with a sizable shower and separate water closet (having some bog-standard thin hotel toilet paper). The vanity is also quite large,… Continue reading

SCUBA Highlights – Carlisle Bay Wreck Dive (Bridgetown, Barbados)

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A few highlights from our recent dive in Carlisle Bay with Barbados Blue dive shop. Visibility wasn’t that great, and to make matters worse I didn’t bring my GoPro’s underwater housing or orange filter. (Or my Canon PaS and housing.) Still, with some fixed color grading I was able to get some usable shots. Oh yeah, the Hero 12 is also rated to about 10 meters. At almost exactly that depth the buttons and screen stopped responding, but fortunately I’d already hit record. We were at a max depth of about 15m, so everything below 10m was shot without me being able to see the screen. Glad I shot in Wide. 👍 The GoPro was set for auto exposure/white balance, which means that the recording wasn’t at all consistent as far as RGB balance goes. Not all the shots match up well, and because of the need to keep exposure… Continue reading

Fontainebleau Review: Noble and Executive Suites, Restaurants and The Sphere (Las Vegas)

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In this review I check out the Fontainbleau Las Vegas hotel and casino with Vinny Chenz of the Seven Out Podcast. We tour his strip-view Noble Suite and my mountain-view Executive Suite where there’s a lot of space, nice decor, as well as gurgling toilets and some weird design/fittings choices. We eat some super fancy Japanese Wagyu at Don’s Prime, delicious and fresh food at Mother Wolf, overblown sushi at Komodo, and some good fast food at the food court. Also a brief overview of the Lapis Spa’s common areas. Finally a look at our experience with Director’s Seat VIP tickets at The Sphere. Continue reading

Aman New York – Premier Suite 5th Avenue

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Aman New York, a Fifth Avenue hotel in Manhattan, is a beautiful location, with a calming and sedate Japanese/Western minimalist style. Their “suites” (erm, rooms) are extremely well styled, comfortable, and built to a high standard including some of the best lighting and room automation I’ve seen. Based on our first two visits, however, service is some of the worst amongst high-end luxury hotel properties. Everyone was extremely polite and solicitous on the service, but even basic requests like having ice or milk brought to the room seemed to be impossible. Oh, and it’s often marketed (at least from a PR perspective) as the most expensive hotel in New York, which is probably true on an average-room-rate basis as they have no “cheap” rooms even by 5-star hotel standards. Also, in this hotel review, see how the toilet is unusable for about half the human population. Anyway, hope you enjoy… Continue reading

The Highland Club – Loch Ness Self-Catering Apartments (Fort Augustus, Scotland)

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We stayed four nights in an apartment at The Highland Club in Fort Augustus, Scotland, UK in the Highlands just on the south end of Loch Ness. Both the Club itself and Fort Augustus were lovely, and we had a pleasant and relaxing time. The Highland club offers a variety of activities like swimming (in an indoor pool), tennis, pool/snooker, boules, ping pong, archery and more, all available for free. There’s also a gym, and the on-site Boathouse Restaurant (though there are a bunch of restaurants in Fort Augustus, an easy walk away). The apartments are self-catering, which is basically AirBnb or VRBO-style. Continue reading

The Balmoral – Castle View 1 Bedroom Suite (Edinburgh, Scotland)

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We stayed at The Balmoral hotel in Edinburgh, Scotland for three nights in October 2023. The Castle View Suite is a one bedroom, one bath (plus powder room) suite with views onto Edinburgh Castle, the Scott Monument (my personal favorite), Princes Street, and more. Service at the hotel was beyond reproach, as was cleanliness and functionality. Food at Brasserie Prince was excellent. The Spa was nothing exciting, but more than serviceable with a great indoor pool. This was our first stay at a Rocco Forte property, and based on our experience it won’t be our last. Overall, this is a strong recommendation from me. Continue reading

Equinox Hotel NYC – Premiere One Bed Corner Suite

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We stayed at the Equinox Hotel in Hudson Yards, NYC for a total cost of $3,697 for two nights. The hotel was beautiful and well-managed, as evidenced by the quality service and attention to detail. We’re not fitness people, so even though this is affiliated (or owned by) the Equinox Gym/Club company, we didn’t try the workout facilities. But hopefully this video can give you enough information to figure out if it’s some place that you’d like to lay your head in Manhattan next time you’re in New York. The food from room service was excellent, though we didn’t get a chance to try the Electric Lemon restaurant on this visit, that bodes well. As far as New York neighborhoods go, Hudson Yards is brand spankin’ new. So it doesn’t have much in the way of character, but it has multiple subway lines within walking distance at Penn Station (plus… Continue reading

Gardens Sonesta ES Suites NYC – 1 Bedroom Apartment

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A tour and review of the “One Bedroom Apartment One King” (yes, that’s exactly what they call it) at The Gardens Sonesta Extended Stay Suites New York (and yeah, that whole thing is the full name of the hotel) in the Lenox Hill neighborhood on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. This suite is a true apartment, with a large living room and bedroom, a tiny (yet functional) kitchen, and a small bathroom with a tub. The amount of space and amenities in the room are fantastic, but it was let down a bit by questionable stains on the couch and chair, a bathroom door that didn’t quite work, a shower and sink that were a bit janky, and some unsecured washing fluids. Overall, I like this hotel, but housekeeping and maintenance could use some work. Continue reading

Amtrak Bedroom on Silver Meteor – Brand New Viewliner II 9710 (Very Quick Tour)

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I rode the ‪Amtrak Silver Meteor from New York Penn Station to West Palm Beach Station in Florida on May 31, 2021 and had a great experience. For me, being on a long train journey in a private compartment is like stepping out of time. I don’t mean just the anachronism, but it’s around 24 hours of nothing to do (in a good way). In other words, it’s like a break from the world. (Not that I didn’t use the ol’ internet, but whatever.) This is a super quick look at one of the bedrooms on their new Viewliner II sleeper cars. I figure there are plenty of full reviews out there, but if you just want a quick look, well, this is for you I hope? This was shot in NYP (New York Penn Station) and though there’s not much to hear I left the original audio in for… Continue reading

My Review of the TWA Hotel at JFK Airport – Howard Hughes Suite

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April fools? IDK what I was doing with this video. If you like it, you like it. If you don’t like it… Vidal Sassoon. Anyhow, we went to the TWA hotel at JFK in New York before the “events of 2020” and stayed in the Howard Hughes “suite”. I put suite in quotes there because it’s a large room for sure, and kinda-sorta has a separate bar area (really just the foyer), but really I wouldn’t classify it as a full suite. Despite the sarcastic tone of the video, I really like this hotel. We’re sorta avgeeks, so it’s great from both an historical standpoint and for actual plane spotting. You’ll spot an old scanner radio briefly in the video, and it’s great sitting in the room with the floor-to-ceiling windows while listening to the ground control chatter. We didn’t go in the rooftop pool on this visit, but we… Continue reading

Scooting Around with Aquafari in Willemstad, Curaçao

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We tried the underwater scooting experience in Curacao. I highly recommend it. Good fun, and the people running the operation are awesome! My wife and I are both PADI certified Advance Open Water divers, but I always wanted to try driving an underwater motorcycle-type-thing. We got a bit of flack from other divers, but it’s not like you wouldn’t ride a bike just because you’re good at driving a car, right? Continue reading