LAKE LOUISE GOLD SEVICE AND A SURPRISE 10, 11/09/2017

On arrival at the iconic Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise Hotel we were less than impressed when we had to wait for a bell-hop and trolley to take our luggage. The prices this place charges one would expect not to have to wait! Chuck fetched a bell-hop for us who whisked our luggage away saying it would be placed in our room.

The entrance and reception area are huge with guests and members of staff rushing around, we identified a check-in area and gave our names to the nice young lady. Imagine our surprise when she informed us we had been up-graded to the Fairmont Gold accommodation package and because of this we could if we wished proceed directly to the 7th floor and continue our registration there.  We were both a bit overwhelmed and asked that lady to continue to book us in anyway. We eventually found the right elevator and proceeded to the 7th floor where we were met by a very pleasant young lady who proceeded to welcome us and explain all the perks of Gold Service. Guests staying on the 7th floor have a dedicated team of staff to cater for their every whim, perks include unlimited hot and cold drinks, canapes served at 5pm, complementary buffet style breakfast and a few other things we didn't take advantage of as we weren't there long enough. As it was nearly 5pm we decided to go straight to our room and quickly sort ourselves out and head back to the lounge for a snack.

Now for the surprise and we will shorted the story slightly to make it more readable.

Roger had a facebook message off Ursula (Gordon's mum) saying that one of his cousins named Charlotte Banks worked in the hotel. We thought it would be nice if we could track her down and bearing in mind there are just over 800 members of staff, our receptionist took it upon herself to track her down. She discovered that Charlotte worked as a server in one of the many restaurants and went there to ask if she was working at that time. Imagine her total surprise when the very first young lady she spoke to turned out to be Charlotte. The receptionist explained the situation and escorted Charlotte to our room, we had a wonderful chat and a quick photo was taken.

We had booked a table for 7.30 in one of the restaurants that had a Swiss theme and featured fondue on the menu. We showered and put our glad rags on and went to the restaurant. The meal was good although not fantastic and hugely overpriced. A group of noisy Americans didn't help matters either. The fondue part of the dinner was delicious and took us back to the seventies when they were all the rage.

We went back to our suite which was much bigger than any hotel room we had ever stayed in. Slept quite well and were up fairly early the next morning as we had booked a ride on the Lake Louise sightseeing Gondola. The complementary breakfast was very good with the chef available to do individual omelettes and fried eggs to order. We caught the free shuttle bus for the short ride to the gondola terminus. The photo opportunities that this 14 minute ride to an elevation of 6850 feet are not to be missed and we hope the next few pictures do justice to the spectacular landscape.