AndyandRana Barclay

Review of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Laguna ...

Stayed there last month, struggled with whether or...

Stayed there last month, struggled with whether or not to post because it feels a bit bratty to complain about a Ritz- here are my thoughts:
1) Service: feels super-corporate and actually the people are overall not helpful. (Exception: the cleaning woman who zipped my dress because my husband could not)
2) The Facility: feels dated and a bit cheap. Views are gorgeous, but leads down to a public beach. (Again, this is a Ritz...so just expected more).
3) Food: some bright spots, but mostly felt like generic catering food.
4) The Spa: BY FAR THE LEAST POSITIVE EXPERIENCE FOR ME.
*The Staff:
-Only positive was the friendly, handsome guy with dreads in the fitness room who answered questions and helped me out.
-My Therapist was sweet, but the service was super-meh (please see below)
-My friend and I were doing yoga on the LARGE lawn behind the building, (I am a certified instructor), the hotel's instructor came over to me and asked if I was "with the hotel". (Um, my husband's company was sponsoring a long weekend there...so you bet I was a guest lady). She asked me to move because apparently my doing yoga with yf friend was "distracting". (She was working with literally two people and they were at least 100 feet away). Additionally, We were also told that we could practice there by other staff members. My friend was gobsmacked.
-I decided to brush off the yoga incident as I relaxed in the waiting room where the therapist for my service was supposed to pick me up. There were two other Women in the waiting room, as well.

A therapist came up to me and said "I'll bet your you is Aisha!". Ummmm...it is not, I am brown and guess what color the other two Women were. (Note: some caucasians have "exotic" names, as well).

*The Service:
-The Laguna experience was a complete RIP OFF. Just a bunch of oils slathered on, only one was effective, a barely there massage and a collagen mask that I could have purchased at CVS. The Facial did NOT INCLUDE EXTRACTIONS- really, for $500+ dollars?

BTW, I casually mentioned the Yoga and Aisha incidents to an assistant manager there who was nice who said that she would give me an "add on". Turns out, it was the limp, 30 second hot stone running down my legs that had zero effect at all.

This Spa also does not carry some of the same excellent merchandise as other, MUCH better Ritz spas.

Never returning.