My spouse and I stayed at the Millennium Hilton on a
Saturday night in mid-August 2017. (We stayed at this hotel previously in
August 2016.) We booked our room online using the Hilton website. The Millennium
Hilton is located in the Financial District, directly across the street from the
Oculus/Ground Zero/World Trade Center/September 11 Memorial, so it is easy to reach using public
transportation. The neighborhood
is busier on weekdays than on weekends, when nearby Financial District offices
are closed. Our main reason for staying in this area of the city was to explore
the Oculus “mall”, Battery Park, and Castle Clinton, and the Millennium Hilton
provided an excellent location for our purposes.
Dining and
nightlife options immediately surrounding the hotel are improving but still
lacking, particularly on the weekend; however, many subway lines stop nearby
for easy access to other areas of the city. The Stage Door Deli III (market,
deli, and pizza) is located across Vessey Street from St. Paul’s Chapel and
cemetery, and a 24-hour CVS pharmacy that stocks all kinds of items (including
alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages and snacks) is a block or two away.
The Millennium
Hilton offers more than 470 rooms and 100 suites spread over 55 floors
in the following categories: king junior suites (422 square feet), king
1-bedroom suites with parlor (617 square feet), king 1-bedroom luxury suites
(886 square feet, with two full bathrooms), and 2-bedroom suites (1600 square
feet, located on the top/55th floor), as well as regular king,
queen, and double standard, deluxe, corner, and view rooms (ranging from 300 to
400 square feet). Rooms with
king-size beds face Ground Zero, whereas rooms with queen size beds face away
from Church Street. Some rooms on higher floors offer Hudson River views.
Guests access their rooms using two different elevator banks: one bank (with
three elevators) is used to access the lower floors, and another bank (also
with three elevators) accesses the upper floors. Both banks of elevators stop
at the second and third floors in order to access the hotel restaurant (called
Church and Dey; one table has an amazing view of the Oculus across the street),
the fitness center, the business center, and the 40-foot indoor swimming pool
(with locker rooms and showers). The street-level lobby bar/lounge called
“Liquid Assets” is open from happy hour onward. Our room was not ready when we
checked in around noon, but the hotel sent us a text message when it was
available two hours later. This full-service hotel has a gift shop, concierge
desk, luggage storage, bellmen, and doormen. Adjacent garage parking is
available for an additional fee.
We booked a king junior suite, which was a roomy corner unit
with separate living room and bedroom and what seemed like two walls of windows.
Although there is no door to close between the bedroom and living room, the
floorplan of the room provides sufficient privacy because the bathroom is
positioned between the two rooms off a short hallway. The living room area
contained a small sleeper sofa, coffee table, comfortable chair, desk and
chair, TV, and a piece of furniture that held the coffee service and minibar. (Note
that the minibar is weighted; if you remove or move any items, you will be
charged for their consumption.) The bedroom contained a king-size bed with a
nightstand flanking each side, and a dresser that held the second TV. The
bathroom contained a bathtub/shower unit and one sink, although the vanity counter
was long and could have accommodated two basins. The Hilton supplies Peter
Thomas Roth toiletries, including shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, body wash,
mouthwash, and soaps. In room 3711, we had a great view of the Oculus,
reflecting pools, and St. Paul’s Chapel and graveyard.
As Hilton
HHonors Diamond members, we received coupons for complimentary breakfast at the
hotel restaurant Church and Dey; however, because we had reservations for lunch
at a nearby restaurant, we did not use them because we wanted to eat lightly.
After our stay, when we looked closely at the coupons, we realized that we
could have remitted them for a complimentary continental breakfast from room
service. We should have read the fine print on the coupons that morning!
Most of the hotel staff was brusque and business-like;
however, the woman working in the gift shop showed particular concern when she
noticed that our luggage tags had fallen off our bag, and she rushed to return
it to us. Then she approached us a second time with a length of string that we
could use to re-attach it because the loop had broken. Very thoughtful!
We loved the spaciousness
of our king junior suite! The Millennium Hilton is always a good choice in the
Financial District.
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