The Ritz-Carlton, Fort Lauderdale

I never cease to be amazed by the level of service at the Ritz. In our culture good customer service is dying a horrible death in virtually every industry. Ritz is the calm in the storm. What a welcome departure from the rest of the world

As a platinum member, I expected a nice room to be assigned. They seemed to do the minimum required. Desk clerk would not discuss best qualified rate. Parking price stratospheric. Clueless, although well intentioned, concierge staff. Unable to provide good advice. Would never stay here again. Big disappointment with management of hotel. Stunning property, great location, lovely rooms...just constant service disconnects.

If you like the city vibes with ocean front location, this hotel is for you. Our room was spacious and a bathroom is gigantic with a tab and a huge walk-in shower (seriously a huge one). We chose access to the members lounge, and it was the best decision. The choice of snacks and drinks is extensive and tasty. Ocean is right across the street and a water taxi is within 5 mins walk.

What we expected from a Ritz-Carlton, great service and staff. Although the timing of our stay wasn't perfect (hurricane) our time at the hotel was fantastic and I would return in a heartbeat! The staff did as much as possible to makeup for the lack of beach area during the ongoing recovery efforts.

My wife and I stayed for a week at the end of September 2017. This was a couple weeks after Hurricane Irma went through Florida. The room was Oceanfront -12th floor. I know the Ritz website says these rooms are 300 sq. ft. but that must be the smallest room. The room we had seemed to be about 450 sq. ft. At least comparing it to other Ritz-Carlton resorts. We had a certificate for Club Level used at booking so that may have entitled us to the larger room. The room looked very much like the website photos. Wood floors with carpet only around the bed and marble bathroom with separate tub and shower. The bed was pillow top and very comfortable. The only thing missing was storage. The dresser that the TV sits upon is very small. Not an issue if you are staying only a few nights but if you are there for a week it’s difficult to unpack fully. The view was exactly what you would expect and because the pool is located on the 7th floor it gives you an optical illusion that the beach comes up to the pool from higher up. You can see in the photos. Club Lounge is on the 8th Floor along with the Fitness Center. Spa and Pool are on the 7th Floor. We typically spend beach vacations on the sand. This trip we spent all our time on the pool deck. The beach is public and the Ritz-Carlton has chairs with umbrellas as part of the resort fee. They have an attendant on the beach. The storm interrupted the elevator service to the beach from the pool deck. It looks very handy when in service. The beach was still loud as they were still cleaning up from Irma. They had earth moving equipment filtering the sand and moving it all around all week. Not the hotels fault but impacting. We would have spent time on the beach in normal times. The pool deck has the pool, a play area for Ritz Kids and the Poolside Café. We ate at the Poolside Café 3 days for lunch. The food was good but I wish they had more items on the Menu. The staff on the pool deck was great. We really enjoyed Ashley, Alex, Scott and Richard @ the Poolside Café. For dinner we ate at Burlock Coast the first night. Food was ok. We had ordered oysters but they did not have saltines. Odd for a restaurant that calls itself a raw bar. Based on that experience we ate off property for dinner each night. The Ritz-Carlton provides use of Beach Chairs & Umbrella, Daily Cocktails at Burlock Coast, a Fitness Class, High Speed Internet, Bike Rentals and Daily Water Taxi Pass as part of the resort fee. We had an excellent stay and found this resort very relaxing. We will return.