First let me say that I'm a single mom traveling with teenage boys, and my mother. We travel on a budget and don't have 5 star hotel experiences to compare this to.
We only ask two things of a hotel/motel. 1) It's clean. No bugs, rodents or creepy crawlers in the room. 2) It's safe and secure. We can lay our heads down on our pillows and not feel like we have to sleep with one eye open.
We bring our own pillows from home and always bring a safety door look no matter where we are traveling.
I thought the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel was just fine. It suited our needs. We booked The Rails to the Rim package through AAA.
Like everything in life it had good and not so good things.
The good: The room was clean and large enough to fit two adults and two teenage boys comfortably. There was a coffee maker in the room. The shower had good strong water pressure and there was plenty of hot water available. The shower had a built in shampoo and body soap dispenser.
The not so good: You could hear the trains at all hours of the night. I sleep with ear plugs and could still hear them. The beds were so-so, pretty typical of a motel. Not bad, not great. Thin pillows, but like I said we always bring ours from home. There wasn't enough light in the room. There was no lid on the toilet, I was afraid of knocking or dropping something in it.
Beware of the vending machines: My son tried twice to get a Coke and both times the machine dispensed a Diet-Coke. My youngest son lost a total of $1.50 in two different vending machines.
The front desk help is friendly. They are experts at moving people. We had no problems with check-in or check-out. Due to taking the train to the Grand Canyon you must check out upon departure and check back in when you get back. This was done very well and efficiently. At no time did we feel inconvenienced by this.
You do have to handle your own luggage. There is no bell person to do it for you. However, there are plenty of luggage carts around to use. We had no trouble moving our own luggage back and forth from the lobby to our room. When you return from the Grand Canyon your luggage has been placed in your room for you. This is a plus.
Wi-fi is available but spotty at best. We had no reception in our room, but had no trouble getting the Internet in the lobby.
Max and Thelmas: I'm afraid I have to agree with the bad reviews of the food at Max and Thelmas. The macaroni and cheese was bland and mushy, likewise the corn. The scalloped potatoes tasted like they came from a box. The chicken on a stick was fatty and tough. However, my youngest son did like the roast beef, and the ham was very good.
The desserts were quite tasty. I especially liked the bread pudding and the cobblers were delicious.
Breakfast was better then dinner. I really liked the blueberry pancakes.
The train ride and back was o.k. We rode in the dome car. Beware the dome car isn't how it appears on the web-site, but nonetheless was a nice car to be in. However if I were to do this again I wouldn't book the dome car. The seats in the other cars had more leg room and a fold out table to put food and drinks on. The dome car does have an age limit, so if you'd rather not ride with LOTS of kids roaming around it is the car for you. They provide some entertainment on the train. We had a banjo player on the ride out and a guitar player coming back. Plus on the return trip the train is "robbed". Complementary snacks and drinks are provided both ways.
All in all our experience with the AAA Rails to the Rim package was pleasant.
