On Monday this week, we checked into the Sheraton Mirage Port Douglas for a 5 night stay.  I had heard other reviews about the hotel needing a renovation but as the only major chain hotel near Port Douglas, we decided if nothing else, this property would be a good home base for SCUBA diving the Great Barrier Reef.

I wouldn’t normally use suite night awards for this hotel but I noticed one of their available rooms for upgrade was a 1636 square foot room called the SPECIALTY SUITE. My upgrade cleared before the trip commenced so I was curious to see how the room would turn out.

Room 2312, the Captain Owen Suite was the most retro room I have ever seen and had a whopping 26 framed paintings, 3 massive jug sculptures and two marble Washington Monuments at the entrance.  The perceived age of the hotel was emphasized by the fact that we spent the previous nights at the recently renovated Park Hyatt Sydney. Here are a few shots from this classical art museum.  Admission was 48000 SPG points for 5 nights and 5 Suite Night Awards.

Washington Monument welcome marble statues

The massive suite had 30+ light switches, none of which were labeled.  Locating and turning off a single light was a 5 minute trail-and-error experiment.  I also loved the world clock that was built-in to the bedside stand.  I was relieved that all these cities currently exist.

After the initial shock of feeling like we were in our grandparents condo, the suite grew on us over the course of our stay. The hotel itself proved a great home base to explore the Great Barrier Reef so we really can’t complain.  Stay tuned for a full hotel review.

Oh, and Australia is an amazing travel destination.