Key West Dining - Fort Lauderdale

Well I've stayed at many lower tier hotels that are way nicer. This ritz is Rundown. I've stayed at several Rits-Carlton's and right when I walked in lobby I immediately was a tad baffled. My room was nothing special. Shelves in my bathroom were all chipped and to top it all off I had no hot water. Had to take barley Luke warm showers. Pretty disappointing. Giving it a 3 because staff was friendly. Otherwise it wound have be 2 stars.

This hotel is beautiful and posh as all RC are. Beds are wonderful. I swear, the Ritz has the most comfortable beds of any hotel chain in its class. The bed and pillows are soft and envelop you as soon as you lay down. The rooms and decor are all updated and USB chargers are integrated on both sides of the bed and at the desk for your charging convenience. Many of the rooms have an ocean view and are beautiful and the lobby restaurant is wonderful. I used the gym while here and found the floor to ceiling windows and waterfront view to be a nice touch. It was spotless, large enough, and well stocked with water and towels with a clean bathroom inside and ear pods to use if you forgot yours. I was part of a large travel group so we used some of the ballroom spaces and the pool space for a welcome and goodbye dinner and staff were excellent and the food was good. Breakfast in the lobby restaurant was some of the best I've ever had in my life! The peach brioche French toast and coffee were AMAZING. Service was also excellent and water views only added to the experience. Their gift shop is stocked with some high quality swimwear, beachwear, sunglasses, shoes, etc. They had Tiffany sunglasses and On Cloud shoes as just a few examples. My husband ordered me flowers and the hotel took great care with that and did a wonderful job. Overall of course the Ritz nailed it. I'd come back to this hotel in a heartbeat while in Ft. Lauderdale and will absolutely come back for that breakfast if I'm in the area even if I'm not staying!

I had a friend in town recently and we decided to get a resort pass day cabana. I do not regret it! For $200 we got a huge cabana, with an umbrella. It came with a bottle of champagne, a fruit platter, and bottled water. The pool side staff was super pleasant and checked in constantly to make sure we were ok. I think for the price, it is worth it. The valet was a bit pricey, about $35 I believe. But if you are trying to do a pool day/staycation, this is a wonderful place to take advantage of it.

Edit. 2024 Platinum Elite members. 20 year customers. Asked twice about an upgrade. We were denied. No offers. We use to be upgraded every year. Since they have had so much turn over customers are not appreciated. Ebony we miss you. Ebony always recognized Bonvoy members. No Bonvoy welcome recognition. It appears they no longer participate. Management seems absent. Only a few staff remain from prior years. The facility needs much investment now. The beds and especially the mattresses have seen their best years. They have added toppers but they are worn out and of little benefit. They hardly fit now. We wrote the general manager last year after a very disappointing staff. He wrote us back, gave us a discount, (long story but it became a project to manage to make it happen). We were hoping his feedback would result in improvements so we decided to try one more time. This year was worse. Staff inattentive, they especially don't know or ignore feedback expressing dissatisfaction. The Beach Place next door has become the beach hood; all upscale retail and restaurants have left and its waves and sketchy local retail today. It's also suffering much from lack of maintenance.

Didn't stay here but I usually pop into the pool. Bar for lunch when I am in town. I get that we are in a crazy inflation period and it is The Ritz Carlton but daaaaaamn the prices are sky high here!!! Way worse than normal. Cheeseburger $27) and beer $10) $3 truffle fries upgrade if you are charging me $27 for a burger the same size as Shake Shack or In N Out its pretty bullshitty to charge more for sprinkling some fake truffle oil on the fries). $50 for a burger and beer!!! That's probably a new high for a 15 minute lunch. They also have a dj set up near the pool BLASTING spring break music ... techno remixes of Sublime, Beastie Boys, etc. I forgot I was at a Ritz Carlton for a minute and thought I was in Panama City circa 1997 ... until I realized I could buy a bottle of Dom back then for what a single lunch cost me today. The other food looked better than my sort of sad looking burger. The shrimp cocktail looked big and fancy ... the salad looked delicious. The fried chicken sandwich looked odd. It was a chicken breast cut down the middle in half. For $28, it looked like half a sandwich. Very odd. The burger itself was kind of like a backyard BBQ burger you'd get at a friend's house. There was nothing wrong with it ... the burger had a mild char-grilled taste. I ordered it medium should be slightly pink inside) and it came well-done. grey inside) It tasted okay ... but I'd expect a damn near $30 burger to be amazing! I also think they forgot to add bacon to mine and the cheese was very skimpy. Overall, between the Jersey Shore style spring break atmosphere and the mediocre food at sky high prices, I don't think I'll be back. I am willing to pay for quality/atmosphere but it seems The Ritz Ft. Lauderdale is sliding in both areas these days ... at the pool bar, anyways.