I booked this hotel via Priceline - looking for a decent hotel around downtown where I dont have to pay an extra $20 for parking. The Sheraton came up with 3 1/2 stars, so my expectations were not high. When you enter the hotel, you have to take the elevator up to the 12th floor to get to the reception ( there is plenty of street parking around the hotel - just make sure you dont park there during the days of street cleaning). But Oh Boy, this hotel was awesome. My room was at the 24th floor witha an amazing view towards the Balboa Park and the airport and it was a suite with living room, full bath with shower and tub and a king size bed. I felt home !!!!!

We stayed at this hotel for the day after our Panama Canal cruise with Celebrity. Disembarkation was horrendous, and we ended up paying for a taxi ($13) to get us to the hotel as we were told the transfer wouldn’t be there for two hours. In the end, our taxi pulled up behind the transfer coach for which we’d prepaid – and we waited for a taxi for 30 minutes... As I said, horrendous.

The hotel lobby is on the 12th floor, which means you always need to take two lifts, unless you’re in a room on the lobby floor. For some reason, we didn’t get a preferred guest room, so had a bog standard suite, which comprised of a small living room with desk, sofa, tv, microwave and coffee making facilities. The bedroom was big enough, but I can see that Americans may think it was quite small. Then there was the bathroom – the sliding door took some working out to close!

When trying to check in for our flight online, the computers weren’t working properly, and when we asked someone at reception to help, he was quite rude, asking “what’s wrong with them”? If we’d have known, we wouldn’t have asked. He reset them, but didn’t wait to see that everything was working and was quite annoyed when we needed more help. Not a great experience.

There are two entrances, one through the concert hall/office area (you still need to come out at the 12th floor, then walk through the bar/restaurant area to get to the lobby), or the one at the front, where the cars pull up. Going through the concert hall saves you a bit of a walk up a hill and comes out around 4th Avenue in the Gaslamp district (5th Avenue is nicer and just a block away).

As we were only there for a few hours, we simply had a look around the Gaslamp area, with its historic buildings dating back to the late 1890s, which is quite funny for Europeans, but let’s not forget that it’s on the other side of the US, so history started much later! We had time for some lunch (finding a lovely Thai restaurant on 4th Avenue) and a mooch around. Some other cruise passengers found time to visit the USS Midway, just a short taxi ride away, near to the cruise terminal – apparently the zoo is well worth a visit, too, if you have the time.

San Diego is a sprawling metropolis, so the hotel is good for the Gaslamp area, but on the way to the airport, we passed through Little Italy, which looked worth a visit, but is not in walking distance.

I had come to have high expectations of Sheraton hotels through the years, even though I have yet to stay at a Sheraton Suites. The first impression from SS SD was that it had seen better days. The carpet showed a fair bit of wear, as we're the wallpaper. Service was decent, given the crowd from a major convention.

Breakfast was a buffet with a limited spread, not that I minded as this was a business trip. The fitness center was just a small room with limited equipment unfortunately. But a small heated pool made up for it.

My stay wasn't for leisure- business travel was my reason- so perhaps my points of contention seem petty; I would offer that anyone of this mindset, however, hasn't had to play road-warrior for extended periods, and likely has little appreciation for amenities needed to conduct business on the road.

Through my week at the Sheraton, the staff was very courteous and always helpful- perhaps more of a rarity these days than you might think- but never caused me any problems in my stay. The location and parking can potentially both present their own unique challenges, but these were not a problem for me. Great breakfasts, bar, and all the common amenities.

My issue comes into play in the form of their internet, TV, and room maintenance services. In regards to their internet/TV services- I simply have to be candid that they may be the worst I've ever had to tolerate. The internet was unreliable to an amazing extreme; I was the only one from my group that could get any kind of connection at all, and even then it was completely unreliable. Speeds throttle from 0kb/s through 400kb/s and seem to constantly be fighting for bandwidth. Simply put- this is a necessity for business, as I have no way to do any work or phone-home to the office with such a completely unreliable internet connection. I could overlook this if not for the fact that there is a $11+ bill per day of internet use. Totally unacceptable. Far as I'm concerned, that whole situation boarders on fraud.

Beyond this, the room was generally very nice, with a jarring exception here or there. For example, the door to the fridge in my room was a constant annoyance; the mini-fridge was simply too big for the cabinet it was housed in, and required forcing and maneuvering to guide the door (just inches too large) by the lip of the cabinet door that it was just slightly too big for.

I realize these seem petty, but for someone traveling on business you simply don't want to deal with these issues. I suppose I really could overlook everything else if not for the loss of productivity the crippled internet access provided. Overpriced and almost totally useless- the latter fact is one you don't learn until you come to whatever terms with the first. Fix your network or warn your guests. Anything else is lying to them.