The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel

Outstanding facilities, and rooms. Restaurant Raya customer service was very poor, Need additional restaurants on the property. Front desk service was excellent and the staff from the convenient stores

Visited the hotel for business but the location was so beautiful that it was hard to focus on the business at hand. A great three day stay with great food, great friends, great atmosphere and beautiful beaches and an awesome sunset. Who could ask for anything else.

I love the Ritz Carleton. Some of my best hotel stays have been with this chain. However, the superior service you are supposed to have with this hotel, is not what it used to be. The personalization that you used to get is waning. I think they need to step up their game again or they are just going to be "just another regular hotel" very soon.

Pros: right next to the beach, has beach shuttle and beach butler service; many places to have great views Cons: service was mediocre, rooms a little on the older side (our door slightly broken) Overall, very disappointed in this ritz-carlton property, for charging $500+ for a standard room, you would expect better service and room conditions. In addition, housekeeping entered our room at 8am without allowing us time to get to the door to let them know we were still sleeping. If you are staying here, be sure to be ready to pay. Enjoy the beachside location but don't expect great service or new room conditions.

Valet only - They greet you with complete respect and service immediately. I felt like an idiot rolling up in a Toyota Corolla as my travel agent booked that for us and we pull up to the Ritz and the first car we see there is a Ferrari 488, But the staff treats you no differently. We had LOTS of stuff piece by piece as we had our 3 year old son with us and they were very accomodating to get it all packed on the cart and taken to our room for us. When you walk in to this hotel the smell of the 20 plus boquets of roses and flowers is awesome. When you stay at a Ritz every detail is taken care of and thought of beyond what you can think of and the beauty of the lobby is wonderful. The front desk was very accomodating, i always ask for a free upgrade to see if we can get a better room accomodation or view and they were ready to give us a room of my choice the following day, we decided not to go with it as my wife opened the balcony on our initial room and we have an ocean cliff view and we were satisfied. Would have liked to have a suite that way Parents could have had a romantic room and son could have slept in living room or different room ... but who cares we were back at the Ritz! This hotel/resort is pretty huge (For U.S. non-all inclusive). Restaurant Raya has an unbelieveable view from every table. The Market place is great to pick something up as you go off to the beach or offsite, the food EVERYWHERE is the BEST, just top notch and focused on organic and health concious as possible. Blu180 or whatever its called has an unforgettable view at all times, but at night it is mainly a bar area, so not family friendly at night so much. I would recommend requesting an upgrade and/or a short walk to your room, as we had quite the walk to our room everytime but it was nice to walk through this awesome place. Steak house is beautiful we didnt eat there though as my 3 yr old is high energy. It is a convention facility set up downstairs and its also beautiful and there were 2 while we were there and didnt disrupt us at all. There is an amazing wedding facility on the north side with awesome views, you would have to be an idiot to take a bad pic anywhere on this property. The room is beautiful a few little dings here and there but this is a beach hotel, and you need to understand that ALL beach hotels get affected by the salt water air etc. But its still beautiful. Closet in our room was large, fridge in room with amenities listed in a secret cabinet which made the room even better. You will lack nothing for your trip and needs as you are here, Ritz doesnt want you to be annoyed for anything they provide almost everything as a back up for you. Balcony was nice size. Pool was great, large enough to have your own space and its heated which you dont think you need but we went pretty early one day and it was nice. Service at the pool is just like Ritz top notch. flip a flag up and they take your order, food is great, get the nachos ... Very kid friendly resort staff and amenities. They have pool toys for kids, sunscreen right there, etc. They even offer a 1 hour photo session for your family on premises to see if you want to get some pro pics taken free session and pay for photos. Gym is unreal, real gym not a hotel treadmill and weight machine. There is an adult pool seaparate from the normal one for silence from kids. Multitudes of sitting areas with unreal views. You can call the shuttle for the beach and they will take you to the lower beach butler, not so neccessary on way down BUT you want it on way up! Beach butler is awesome, sunscreen right there, pick what you want, kids toys, boogie board, chairs, umbrella, goggles etc and they set it up for you at the beach in the location you prefer. I have never been so stress free on a beach vacation. 3pm is around low tide and there are tidal pools to check out right on the beach here, you dont need to go anywhere if you dont want to! Top amount of people on this beach was like 200 people on couple mile beach one day! Water is great, especially compared to Jersey shore, we went at optimal temperature dates. lots of waves and surfers, if you have small kids you may want to consider Baby Beach in Dana Point 1 mile south, which is at a beautiful harbor. I cant say enough great things about the hotel, we wanted to watch a movie in room, called front desk they sent me a movie down to my room, anything you call, they send down to you. Fresh bottled water available all the time everywhere. The Kids playground is dismal, very small, but the other facilities are great, tennis, basketball, ping pong. Just took my son to tidal pools instead, way cooler. We did this as a beach vacation so main thing was the beach and views for us, there were a few activities we went out of resort for like Top of the world and the exploring center in Dana Point which were fun, the area is pretty laid back and chilled out. Happy to be at Ritz again and continue to be a lifer lol.