Is the new IMAX all its cracked up to be? Can you have a 1D cinema? And more importantly, what makes a functional, enjoyable hotel room?
✍🏻 View the transcript for this episode
Is the new IMAX all its cracked up to be? And more importantly, what makes a functional, enjoyable hotel room?
Since we sort of abandoned social media, email us! toastroastpod@gmail.com
Geoff 0:09
And welcome back to another episode of Toast & Roast. I’m your co host, Geoff and as always, I am with my co host, Georgie.
Georgie 0:17
Welcome back indeed. Where are we going? I mean, where are we?
Geoff 0:21
I don’t know.
Georgie 0:21
Where did you go?
Geoff 0:23
We’re going, we’re going to IMAX.
Georgie 0:26
Oh, you went to IMAX?
Geoff 0:28
Hell yeah.
Georgie 0:29
Or you were going to IMAX. So for those who don’t know what IMAX—
Geoff 0:32
Have you—oh yeah, shit. I don’t know if IMAX, is IMAX actually a, like a global thing?
Georgie 0:39
I doubt it. So I’m just gonna say it’s like a 3D to 4D, 5D, 10D, 12D...
Geoff 0:47
Nope. None of those things.
Georgie 0:49
It’s a cinema.
Geoff 0:50
1D.
Georgie 0:50
Oh, shit.
Geoff 0:51
It’s 1D. There’s no more dimensions.
Georgie 0:54
1D, it’s just horizontal. (laughs)
Geoff 0:57
It’s just large.
Georgie 1:00
So...
Geoff 1:00
It is global, it is global. I remember because I looked at like the biggest screens in the world. Like the biggest, big, this one’s like the third biggest, biggest cinema screens. The thing is, for those who don’t know, IMAX is actually existed in Sydney for a long time. And what happened was they actually took it down for renovations, like 10 years ago.
Georgie 1:28
I think more.
Geoff 1:29
No joke. It has been down for at least 10 years. And and they only just rebuilt it opened it and they put a hotel on top of it.
Georgie 1:40
Of course they did, that’s the thing to do these days, put a hotel on top of a casino on top of a hotel.
Geoff 1:47
Honestly, I don’t—(laughs)—imagine that, hotel, casino, hotel.
Georgie 1:52
Wait hang on, isn’t that normal?
Geoff 1:54
You’re building like Sim City, Sim Skyline or something? Sim Tower, have you, have you seen this?
Georgie 2:00
I’m not, I’m actually not really been a big fan of playing like Sim, Sim games.
Geoff 2:05
So we can we can go into this little sidetrack here. So Sim Tower is this game where you’re actually building a tower. You can, you can do lots of thing, different types of room—
Georgie 2:16
Wait is this retro, is this like—
Geoff 2:18
It’s—
Georgie 2:18
2D?
Geoff 2:19
Retro. 2D. Mega retro.
Georgie 2:22
Sidescrolling kind of game. Or so, vertical. Okay.
Geoff 2:27
And basically, you can choose room types. And you can choose hotel rooms, you can choose, you know, apartments, you can have parking lots, you can have cinemas, you can have ballrooms, right. So the idea of the game is—
Georgie 2:42
Let’s put a casino, put a casino and then put a parking lot above the casino.
Geoff 2:45
Exactly. Exactly.
Georgie 2:46
Put the parking lot, like...
Geoff 2:49
Just sandwich everything with a parking lot. But the idea of the game is, of course to make money, right? It’s like any Sim game, The Sims, Sim hotel—not Sim Hote, Sim Hospital, Sim anything. Office offices, you can do offices. And the, the great thing about this game is that you can get to a point where you can put you have to put lifts, and you can see that those red red people there, they’re impatient, they’re the people who are waiting too long for their lift.
Georgie 3:20
Too bad.
Geoff 3:22
It’s very realistic.
Georgie 3:23
Yeah, yeah.
Geoff 3:24
But it’s really funny, because, you, it’s like you kind of try and space things out, of course, because people can complain about noise. So if you put like—
Georgie 3:34
A club.
Geoff 3:34
A lower restaurant level and the club and then you put living on top of it.
Georgie 3:38
Yeah.
Geoff 3:39
People are going to complain that people are not going to rent those locations.
Georgie 3:43
So it is quite realistic, okay.
Geoff 3:45
Yeah, it’s quite interesting. But what’s unrealistic about it is that you can get to this point where you’ve left enough floors in between you’ve like min, maxed, all of your, you know, spaces so that no one complains about anything. But at some point, the game will just have a mass exodus, like people will just leave.
Georgie 4:07
Why? Is that just the nature of like, the game must end?
Geoff 4:10
Yeah, yeah. The, I think the game is just sort of like it has to have some kind of curveball. Again, like, despite all of your efforts, they will have to make the game continue to play. And if you’ve perfected it, what’s the point of playing the game. So anyways, so they put the hotel, they put W Hotel.
Georgie 4:32
Oh, yeah. That’s new as well, right? It’s like kind of fancy ish.
Geoff 4:35
Yeah. It’s owned by the Marriott—
Georgie 4:40
Group.
Geoff 4:40
Conglomerate. And the fun thing about this is I think the W Hotel is considered like six, five, six star?.
Georgie 4:49
Yeah, I think it’s, it’s up there. That’s probably expensive as well.
Geoff 4:54
New luxury. Of course, Marriott would call it awesome. like check in’s at 3, checkout’s at 11. Still no good checkout check in times. General information.
Georgie 5:13
So how’s the IMAX though?
Geoff 5:16
Anyways, I wanted to tell the story because... Oh, it’s five star. Anyway. So we’re walking. The thing is that this place is that there’s this massive hotel and that there’s like two, there’s there’s multiple entrances apparently. So we’re walking, and then we get to the first entrance we saw and it was the entrance to the W Hotel. But I don’t know how many hotels you’ve been been to that does this. But actually, we didn’t make it through the front door. We were wondering where the entrance to the IMAX was. But we didn’t make it through the front door of the hotel before someone stepped out in front of us and introduced themselves with a smile on their face. And then wanted to know how they can help us. And I was just, woah, it’s this kind of five star hotel where the concierge—
Georgie 6:03
Is like right there.
Geoff 6:05
It’s right there, preventing the riffraff. But yeah, it was, to be, to be honest. The first—when was the last time you went to an IMAX. Have you been?
Georgie 6:19
(laughs) I was a kid? Probably like, you know, 18 years ago or something to that effect?
Geoff 6:27
Yeah.
Georgie 6:27
Yeah.
Geoff 6:27
What did you see?
Georgie 6:29
Okay, that’s gonna be a bit more difficult to remember. But since it was probably on a school excursion, it may have been a cartoon. And I think we had 3D—
Geoff 6:40
On IMAX?
Georgie 6:42
Yeah, and I think we had 3D glasses.
Geoff 6:46
IMAX 3D Sydney. Yeah, I wonder if it was actually 3D at some point. But you had, oh you had 3D glasses. That’s better.
Georgie 6:58
That’s what I can remember about IMAX is when I was a kid, it was the, the 3D. I don’t know if it was the original. But I think, do normal do regular ordinary cinemas do this now? I think? They’ve got different kinds of like tickets, different kinds of cinemas. But IMAX was the one that did 3D. And it was like, that’s why you went there.
Geoff 7:18
Right. Because I think these days there are, they, like, they have specific screens for 3D.
Georgie 7:25
Yeah.
Geoff 7:26
And then, if you were circa 20 years ago, whatever.
Georgie 7:29
Yeah.
Geoff 7:30
16 years ago, it’s probably the red, red blue 3D, which doesn’t need—
Georgie 7:35
Yeah, it’s shit.
Geoff 7:35
...a special screen.
Georgie 7:36
(laughs)
Geoff 7:36
Yeah, you don’t need a special screen for that.
Georgie 7:38
It’s shit. Yeah, that’s right. Yeah, you’re right. I think you can watch it, you could watch it without the glasses, and it will look fine. But if you did, you’d have the, you know that’s the thing, right. I don’t think it was like great 3D. And I don’t know what 3D films are like these days. But it was very basic. It was very, like “flat 3D”, if you will.
Geoff 7:56
Yeah. Yeah. 3D these days is all right. We went to, so it’s, when I first, when I watched the first time, when I was a kid. We watched Climbing Mount Everest.
Georgie 8:14
Like a real life fil—
Geoff 8:16
Like a documentary?
Georgie 8:18
That’s such a weird thing to watch in 3D.
Geoff 8:20
It’s not, it wasn’t 3D. Well, it’s very boring.
Georgie 8:25
When you’re a kid, that kind of shit’s probably boring. Like real life stuff. Yeah.
Geoff 8:29
Yeah, we were sat too close.
Georgie 8:32
Oh my god, nup.
Geoff 8:32
Probably like, front row, looking up at this guy’s climbing.
Georgie 8:37
I was once like second row and I was watching, you remember that movie, Troy?
Geoff 8:43
Yeah.
Georgie 8:43
Yeah, that I remember I was straining my neck—
Geoff 8:46
You watched Troy?
Georgie 8:48
I went because my boyfriend at the time, it was his birthday and he wanted to go and see a movie and have—
Geoff 8:54
See some balls.
Georgie 8:56
I don’t even remember if there were balls in that movie. It was just a bunch dudes fighting is what I remember. See, like, is it Brad Pitt? Brad Pitt’s like leg.
Geoff 9:05
Yeah.
Georgie 9:06
It was shit because Because yeah, like I don’t—wait, can you, can you reserve seats? In the cinema these days?
Geoff 9:14
Yeah. So—
Georgie 9:14
Back then it was first come, first serve.
Geoff 9:16
You have to reserve seats. You don’t get you don’t get in without a seat. Yeah, when was the last time you went to watch a movie?
Georgie 9:24
That’s a very good question. Because I think we’ve also talked about on the pod, like I can, I can probably recall every time I’ve been to like the theatre of the cinema, which is probably less than 20 times in my entire life. But the last time I went was probably to watch Star Wars, one of the Star Wars films—
Geoff 9:41
Oh OK.
Georgie 9:42
One of the new ones, 7, 8, 9, with with Nick?
Geoff 9:45
Yeah
Georgie 9:45
Yeah, I didn’t like it and that’s why I don’t go and see films at the cinema.
Geoff 9:51
The IMAX layout is quite interesting. They have, do they have an image here of what it looks like? Okay, well, I guess you can’t really—in any case like, right at the front there are these things called couple seats.
Georgie 10:11
Oh, yeah. Is that the one where there’s no, arm thing in the middle of the two seats?
Geoff 10:21
There—no, actually it’s it’s a, it’s two, wait a second. Let me try find it. Just book a ticket, I can find. Just go to Marvel’s. That’s the trailer, view seats. Here you go. So—
Georgie 10:35
It’s a couch.
Geoff 10:37
It’s not quite. This image is very, very misleading. Because you would assume that it’s kind of like a booth, it look, to people who can’t see, it can’t, it looks like a booth like you would see at a diner, classic diner like a booth. And then there’s large gaps between each one of these booths. And, but in reality is you actually, sit it’s side by side. So there’s a couple seat and then like, right, there’s like a little divider, and then another couple. Was there a divider? There may have been a divider, but essentially the idea here is that you don’t share. Oh, there it is.
Georgie 11:21
Oh, so you still have like a cup holder are in the middle. It’s not like—
Geoff 11:26
It’s just kind of like you don’t have to share an armrest with your neighbour. So you share, you have a seat. You share an armrest with the person that you came with. But you don’t share an armrest with—
Georgie 11:37
Oh, on the outside. Oh, OK. I thought they, I don’t know, have they changed? Because I remember at least not in IMAX but in like events, cinemas or whatever. There would just be actually no arm rest in the middle of the couple seat.
Geoff 11:53
Yeah, yeah. So yeah, the regular Event cinemas? I think they do that. They have no, they have no armrests in between. I don’t know what, I don’t know where these Events cinemas, cinema seats.
Georgie 12:09
Hey, have you ever been to the cinemas where they have like Gold Class? Or the ones that are like... what’s the other one?
Geoff 12:16
No, I haven’t been to the Gold Class one?
Georgie 12:18
Okay, I have been to one we just thought would try it for fun. I don’t know if it was Gold Class, or if it was like some other high class but where you have like, yeah, like that, like, a reclining type chair. And they bring around snacks that are basically overpriced chips or crisps?
Geoff 12:35
Yeah.
Georgie 12:36
And it’s a bit more quote unquote, comfortable, whatever. And there’s—
Geoff 12:41
More food options?
Georgie 12:43
Yeah. And they’re more bouje food options. And the amount of people that fit into one of those theaters is probably like 30 versus I don’t know, 100. So there’s less people and I don’t know, it’s not... If you like, if you like watching stuff, then sure, but it’s also just not really my thing. But at least—
Geoff 13:05
Yeah.
Georgie 13:05
I know what that was like.
Geoff 13:07
So see, have a look at these regular seats. You can see that each seat has two, two armrests and you—
Georgie 13:14
Like its own armrest
Geoff 13:15
And—no, not it’s own armrest, on both sides. You share one armrest. I guess it’s like a plane. Aren’t planes you have to share one armrest with between two people on both sides?
Georgie 13:27
Yes, you do.
Geoff 13:30
Yeah. Plane seats. Yes.
Georgie 13:31
Yes.
Geoff 13:33
It’s horrible. But that’s what the regular cinema’s like. Yeah, yeah, you do.
Georgie 13:42
Just like, when was the last time I was on a plane?
Geoff 13:44
I’m going on one soon, I’m heading down to Melbourne for work.
Georgie 13:49
For work. Yeah, yeah.
Geoff 13:52
So, so, went to IMAX, we got the couple seats. And the problem with the couple seat is that you get to sit in a wonderful location.
Georgie 14:01
Is it right near the front. Is it like in a really crap spot?
Geoff 14:04
It is. It is definitely right near the front. Where is it? Yeah. So this is the front of this cinema and like you’re on the third row, essentially. Third row of the front. And we watched Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in—
Georgie 14:24
Wait there’s a—
Geoff 14:25
Right up front.
Georgie 14:26
There’s a thing for that, there’s a documentary type—
Geoff 14:30
A move, they, no, there’s no documentary type. They actually just recorded her entire, like, concert—
Georgie 14:36
In the US?
Geoff 14:37
And they play it, yeah, I think one of the US—
Georgie 14:40
Cos she’s still doing that tour.
Geoff 14:42
Yeah. L... was it? LA? I can’t remember actually, Taylor...
Georgie 14:47
I feel like all of the like, all of the shows in LA are the ones that end up getting recorded. I think?
Geoff 14:55
Yeah. They, they don’t have details.
Georgie 14:59
Wait so you you basically watched a concert as a film?
Geoff 15:05
Yeah.
Georgie 15:06
I thought this was like against your ethos. You were like, I don’t want to see a comedian in real life because I can watch their thing and now you’re watching a concert.
Geoff 15:15
Oh yeah, well, I don’t have to go to the concert. And I can I can watch the concert from a comfortable seat.
Georgie 15:22
Yeah I guess. Great. I paid money for those tickets, and I haven’t even gone yet.
Geoff 15:28
Oh, really?
Georgie 15:29
Yeah.
Geoff 15:29
When is it coming here?
Georgie 15:30
Ah, February.
Geoff 15:33
Oh shit.
Georgie 15:34
Yeah.
Geoff 15:34
So I’ve watched it before you.
Georgie 15:36
Well, yeah. You’ve watched like whatever the US version like, I guess. I’ll see it in fucking real life though.
Geoff 15:43
They they cut seven songs from the show. So you’ll get to see seven extra songs.
Georgie 15:50
How long was it? Like so you basically the entire concert?
Geoff 15:54
It’s like 169 minutes. Yeah, so that’s what?
Georgie 15:58
Three hours?
Geoff 16:00
Almost three hours.
Georgie 16:01
That’s hectic.
Geoff 16:01
Yes.
Georgie 16:02
I mean—
Geoff 16:02
It is hectic.
Georgie 16:03
Because if I think about like, like concerts I’ve been to, the ones that are at big stadiums, usually the main act performs for like two hours. Maybe, maybe three, you know if it depends on I guess their energy, how big their back catalogue is. But at smaller venues. It’s probably like in like 60 to 90 minutes, an hour to an hour and a half. Because Taylor Swift is huge. Yeah, I’m not surprised that she has concerts that are like hours long.
Geoff 16:34
It’s, yeah. The, each show spans three and a half hours, setlist of 44 It’s, it’s honestly like, it lives up. I think it lives up to the, to the reviews where it’s sort of like if if you’re a Taylor Swift Fan, this is probably the tour to go to, in terms of yeah, the breadth of her breadth of the songs.
Georgie 17:00
Yeah wow. Because I’m not like a big, I don’t know if I’ve ever like disclosed this, like a huge fan. I like maybe two of her albums, including the most recent one, that—
Geoff 17:11
You bought Taylor Swift tickets. Which are exorbitant pricing?
Georgie 17:15
Yeah, but see, here’s the thing. I think we’ve probably, we’ve probably discussed this a little bit as to like, what, like now I’m a bit more like, OK I’m spending—
Geoff 17:24
Tour budgets.
Georgie 17:25
Yeah, a bunch of money. Yeah.
Geoff 17:27
Concert budget.
Georgie 17:28
Concert budget, yeah. It depends on the cost a little bit for me now. So like, I thought about the, you know, The Weeknd.
Geoff 17:29
Yeah.
Georgie 17:32
I missed out on the tickets, but the ones that were left were so expensive that I just didn’t really care at that point. I was like, I don’t want to spend, I think it may have been like 200 plus, like if they were $100 or something then I’d be okay with—so I sort of gauge is it worth going to see this person, like not just based on my how much I liked them but how much like enjoyment I might get out of the concert. So I actually saw Paul McCartney like a couple of weeks back. And I’m, I would say I’m a big Beatles fan. I don’t really listen to Paul McCartney’s like solo stuff, though. But he did perform some Beatles songs. And I think that concert was really quite, quite good. It was quite enjoyable. Probably one of the best I’ve I’ve been to. So like, even though I think even if you’re not like a big Beatles or Paul McCartney fan, and you probably would recognise some of the songs. Actually, sorry, depends on how old or young you are. If you’re 20, you probably don’t, unless your rents are like—(laughs)—I’m gonna stop dissing kids.
Geoff 18:43
But yeah, the, I’m not a big Taylor Swift fan, either. The which is why I went to see the movie instead of paying money to go see the tour.
Georgie 18:56
Instead of spending any amount of effort on trying to get tickets that were highly popular.
Geoff 19:01
Yeah. Yeah. The thing is, so to the, we got the couple’s seats, which was slightly more expensive than regular seats, of course, but it still came to maybe like $42 a seat. Which to be fair, is is really cheap for the for the vantage point, you get in the, in the in the concert, because you essentially get VIP.
Georgie 19:36
But you’re watching a big screen.
Geoff 19:38
And it’s like drone footage that you can’t really see when you’re there.
Georgie 19:43
That’s true.
Geoff 19:43
You get like lots of stuff. Oh, they did some effects that I don’t think is in the actual concept because they don’t think it’s possible for them to do some of these effects.
Georgie 19:54
Like what?
Geoff 19:55
Like they have this snake, like wrap, and wrap the entire stage because the stage is a T shape ish, normally, yeah, it’s a big T shape. They had the, snake like wrapped around the, the T part of the, or the... Yeah.
Georgie 20:16
Okay.
Geoff 20:18
Because the way they did it was that through each year they had a transition. They had like a huge transition, transition, a 3D effect.
Georgie 20:25
Right, and you think that was just the film, not the—
Geoff 20:27
Yeah, I don’t think they could do it on live.
Georgie 20:30
I will let you know. Oh, well, maybe you should just ask someone who’s already been, but...
Geoff 20:33
Maybe. But they do the effects on top of the stage. That makes sense. Because the flat, it’s just basically a screen and you can project on it. But we’re talking about a massive like—
Georgie 20:44
Animated thing?
Geoff 20:44
Like 3D animation that is enveloping the entire stage, which is technically I think not possible without holo projectors.
Georgie 20:53
Could you do it with lighting? I mean, you can obviously do something with lighting. But...
Geoff 20:58
Yeah, so from what I can tell, like most holo projectors are still like they they can project a 2D image in the middle of the air. And you can see it from 3D like, 3D thing, but I don’t think they can, I don’t know. Yeah. Project an entire animation onto the stage. And—
Georgie 21:17
Are you sure? I feel like you can these days, but then again, I have no idea. I just...
Geoff 21:22
Eras Tour movie—
Georgie 21:24
Animations?
Geoff 21:26
But—transition animations. But essentially, every because they cut it down. Like there’s time in between each, I’m assuming there’s time in between each era—
Georgie 21:37
Like costume change?
Geoff 21:37
For her to get changed and stuff like that. But we don’t see that in the movie. It is instant. It’s almost like if you’re watching, yeah you’re watching a movie, and then they’re doing something and then you see the effect. You see the effect just fade across and then all of a sudden she’s back on stage, like, if you just, bang and then—
Georgie 21:57
There’s probably like, oh, yeah, some kind of wait, I don’t know.
Geoff 22:03
In any case, there’s no beginning. I don’t know if she has an opening act? Does she?
Georgie 22:12
I don’t know. I would find out if it was in the tickets or whatever.
Geoff 22:17
Yeah, so stuff like that can be done. But yeah, I think it was a pretty, it was pretty good. If like, if you didn’t manage to get any tickets to the to the real thing and, or—
Georgie 22:31
It would be funny if you were at that concert that it was. That was—
Geoff 22:34
California.
Georgie 22:35
Yeah.
Geoff 22:35
California.
Georgie 22:36
You just wanna watch it.
Geoff 22:37
Sofi Stadium. Yeah. What was the other thing that I was just looking at? Something? Something? But yeah, I think yeah, it’s a really good one to, it was really good at the IMAX. It, you kind of felt like you’re in the audience because of how good the surround sound is. There were some people who were very hyped about it. They were like—
Georgie 23:03
Did they dress up and stuff?
Geoff 23:05
I think some people did do a bit of a dress up. And they were like cheering and trying to get like the whole concert vibe running. It didn’t quite work out for them. But yeah. So yeah. That was pretty good. Yeah, generally, I would just watch at home. But IMAX just opened up. And this was one of the opening movies. What else was on it? I think, I think there was another movie opening.
Georgie 23:41
Probably one I don’t give a shit about and have nothing to say about.
Geoff 23:45
Yeah, anyway, so it’s the third biggest screen in the world, apparently.
Georgie 23:50
Really?
Geoff 23:52
This Wikipedia doesn’t seem to say that say it, but—
Georgie 23:56
It’s wrong, you need to update.
Geoff 24:01
Yeah.
Georgie 24:01
What’s the point of having a huge screen? Your peripheral vision only goes so far.
Geoff 24:06
That’s true. I feel like, I feel like you go there for the audio more than the massive screen.
Georgie 24:14
Right. Yeah.
Geoff 24:16
But like it says, yeah, it closed in 2016. And now it’s open into 2023. So we’re talking seven years, and it used to be the biggest or the now, and then it reopened as the third biggest.
Georgie 24:37
Everywhere else in the world, like up to their hair, progressed so much in the seven years. So whatever bloody planning they were doing during that time.
Geoff 24:48
Yeah. Let’s let’s see how much it is to stay there because I think it’s weird. Right, don’t you, wouldn’t you feel the vibrations, they wouldn’t have to spend a lot of money to isolate the sound and the vibrations from movie, the cinema.
Georgie 25:04
Yeah, but then wouldn’t you say the same about other regular cinemas? Like...
Geoff 25:11
No other regular cinema has a hotel on top of it. I know of.
Georgie 25:16
But what if it’s next to it? Like wouldn’t you get the same—
Geoff 25:20
Next door.
Georgie 25:22
So your concern is that it’s because the hotel’s literally on top of the—
Geoff 25:26
Yeah.
Georgie 25:27
Yeah but the first level of the hotel probably would be a restaurant stuff, right so then maybe it doesn’t matter you’re not sleeping in the in those rooms.
Geoff 25:36
Yeah, that’s was what, that’s the Sim Tower comes to mind. I’m like thinking what, what’s above us? What’s all the—
Georgie 25:42
Hey, I love how it says it’s a new hotel. It’s got, 21 reviews. And it’s only 3.6 stars. I want to know, I want to know the complaints. Can we read the negative reviews?
Geoff 25:53
That’s what we are. We’re the podcast of negative reviews.
Georgie 25:56
Is the best, there, I don’t know I love I love to know how bad a thing can possibly be. But obviously I know take it with a grain of salt. Because people probably complain they just, they just want to complain.
Geoff 26:09
Rich people. 587 Australian dollars a night.
Georgie 26:14
Yeah, that’s pricey.
Geoff 26:15
That’s that’s pretty pricey. What is that in US dollars? 587, 80...
Georgie 26:22
Like 280?
Geoff 26:26
To US dollars? Is...
Georgie 26:30
No it’s 373.
Geoff 26:31
373.
Georgie 26:32
Fuck.
Geoff 26:32
I’m about to buy a phone case in US dollars.
Georgie 26:37
You’re about to buy a phone case?
Geoff 26:39
I dropped my phone and I’m like shit.
Georgie 26:42
Oh my god, your new phone?
Geoff 26:45
My new phone? That’s a story for another time. Let’s see. Let’s see see. Reviews...
Georgie 26:52
Negative reviews. Value for money—
Geoff 26:54
5 awesome—
Georgie 26:55
...down.
Geoff 26:57
Beautiful, but impractical. Beautiful property. amazing views, main issue, cliffhanger pause—tiny room.
Georgie 27:11
“Overcrowded, with unnecessary amenities such as the huge bar in the middle of the room. And tiny closet. Fixtures were not well thought out as we bumped our heads in the low lying lights over the table. I’m sure all of these issues will be addressed as I’m sure we’re not the only ones who feel this way.”
Geoff 27:30
“I’m sure all of these issues will be addressed”. Look, you’re—
Georgie 27:32
Great.
Geoff 27:34
You’re complaining about a hotel room? What are the chances they’re going to renovate the hotel room? Like taking a bar out of a room is like not trivial.
Georgie 27:47
Yeah.
Geoff 27:48
And then extending the wall is also not trivial.
Georgie 27:51
Oh, I saw a Reel on Instagram. It was this guy like a point of view of a guy turning turning off lights. He said your point of view, you’re trying to turn off the lights in a hotel room. And you see, like you see it starting to dim and then he flicks off another switch and some rando light right behind him like turns off.
Geoff 28:10
(laughs)
Georgie 28:10
And then he starts to like get very like visibly frustrated, and he just wants to go to sleep.
Geoff 28:17
“Many thanks for taking time to complete your review. As I can’t cover every touch point in the hotel, your feedback is very important to me. So please allow me to be transparent in my reply. W Sydney offers a very different design concept than traditional hotels and respect that not all aspects of don’t design will be considered practical to all customers. As it depends how the room is used”.
Georgie 28:42
I feel like that‘s a cop out. I feel like that’s a cop out.
Geoff 28:46
Like yeah, we’ve designed differently. So...
Georgie 28:49
So. Uh huhh. No, I think my problem is, right, accessibility, right. If someone just frankly was just like, why is there this bar that’s like taking up space in the room or whatever. And like I hit my head on—
Geoff 29:01
Some people like bars?
Georgie 29:03
I think they probably mean it’s like, not a bar, as in like, a drinks bar? I think it’s probably I—
Geoff 29:09
Is it not?.
Georgie 29:10
They could mean like a piece of furnishing. You know, that’s just stuck on the thing. And it’s just you keep hitting—
Geoff 29:16
The huge, the huge bar. I feel like whenever someone says the bar, they mean not a bar. I mean, but who’s who’s who’s picky about English these days.
Georgie 29:29
But the low lying lights over the table. I mean, if someone like found them annoying, maybe most people would, right, because I don’t think that really has anything to do with your height. It’s to do with how your, head over the table probably. I don’t know.
Geoff 29:46
Although I mean, complaining about a tiny closet. Look—
Georgie 29:49
It’s a hotel though.
Geoff 29:50
Any closet’s huge to me.
Georgie 29:52
What was that?
Geoff 29:53
Any closet’s huge to me.
Georgie 29:54
You don’t own much, and I mean, I mean I wouldn’t take much with actually—do you even put your clothes—
Geoff 30:02
No.
Georgie 30:02
In a hotel? Do you put them in the closet? No.
Geoff 30:05
No., Not at all. Like you, what’s the point you just open your suitcase, wear the things. I mean but these are rich people.
Georgie 30:15
(laughs)
Geoff 30:15
Let’s be real. It’s real, they’re rich people. “I’ll certainly have a look at the room you stayed in to check that the desk has been placed correctly under the ceiling mounted light, appreciate your helpful feedback”.
Georgie 30:28
I need to see more, that was just, that was just three stars, I want to see something, OK here we go. Lavish and chic spelled incorrectly however fell short of expectations Okay. Overnight stay with kids. Hmm.
Geoff 30:42
OK.
Georgie 30:42
Bla bla bla, 12 foot floor views of the CBD. What does that mean? Well pointed USB points everywhere. Oh right, as in like charging points, all right.
Geoff 30:54
Yeah.
Georgie 30:54
Cool. And then what are they complaining about? “Carpet could have cleaned a little bit better, room was good, shower area was gloomy, dark tiled with white bathtub”. Okay, so you’re hating on the design?
Geoff 31:06
Yeah, hating on the design.
Georgie 31:09
Portion size. Okay. So what’s gone—overnight parking price is ridiculous. I mean—
Geoff 31:17
It’s Sydney.
Georgie 31:18
It’s Sydney. Right so they liked it. They just had some points that made it three stars, okay.
Geoff 31:26
Yeah. See these are all really petty.
Georgie 31:28
I need to, load more, load more, Geoff.
Geoff 31:30
These are so petty.
Georgie 31:30
We need the juicy...
Geoff 31:32
Here were go, “overcharged three times seriously would not recommend all of my experience ruin the occasion”. What—
Georgie 31:41
Okay.
Geoff 31:42
What did they mean? They were overcharged three times?
Georgie 31:46
Dunno, but obviously—
Geoff 31:48
Payment systems are payment systems, one star is a bit harsh for payment system flaw.
Georgie 31:53
So that’s just a complaint. Alright what about this one? “Quirky not luxury”. All right.
Geoff 31:58
Escape with...
Georgie 31:59
Bathrooms are dark... bathrooms are dark, this is Geoff’s cup of tea everybody.
Geoff 32:04
I have the same—
Georgie 32:04
(laughs)
Geoff 32:04
I have the same complaint about this hotel in Canberra?
Georgie 32:11
What’s it called? Tribe?
Geoff 32:13
A by Adina I think?
Georgie 32:15
Oh, okay. Oh, you know what, whenever it’s something by something, you know, it’s like some attempt to be like, fucking cool and bouje? Like—
Geoff 32:25
Yeah, so.
Georgie 32:25
That’s why it’s not just Adina, it’s, it’s—
Geoff 32:29
It’s A by Adina.
Georgie 32:30
A, A class.
Geoff 32:32
It’s like a very, it’s boutique is the is the description for it. But it was also fairly dim. It was pretty dimly lit, and we barely could find the lights to turn, like the switches, to turn on the lights. But that’s it. It’s a boutique. It’s, it’s a boutique hotel experience. And you know what, that’s my expectation. Like, if I’m paying crazy amount of money for a very stylish hotel. I’m gonna get some quirky.
Georgie 33:16
Yeah, yeah, I fully expect that. Also you can kind of tell from the pictures. It’s not. It’s not luxury.
Geoff 33:23
It’s not very standard. Yeah.
Georgie 33:25
...comfortable. It’s like weird on purpose.
Geoff 33:27
Yeah, it’s W. It’s a reason why it’s not a Marriott. A is it’s by Marriott. But it’s not a Marriott. So if you’ve been to Marriott Hotels, you’d probably not like this if you’d liked Marriott Hotels.
Georgie 33:44
I’m not.
Geoff 33:45
Yeah.
Georgie 33:46
I’ve not been to one.
Geoff 33:46
I went to one. I went to one in Brisbane, I went to the one in Brisbane for work as well. And my god, it was gaudy. Like—
Georgie 33:54
Was, was it one of the boutique, like was it supposed to be like a boutique—
Geoff 33:56
No, it was, it was the Marriott, it was the main line.
Georgie 34:00
Okay, so it’s like this classic style, but it’s kind of like it’s definitely not your style. It’s very, oldish.
Geoff 34:04
Yeah, it’s old, it’s old, classic luxury type. So we’re talking about like marble bathroom.
Georgie 34:11
Yep.
Geoff 34:12
The vanity is a single piece of marble. It’s curved. And, and you get light fixtures as if you would expect classical light fixtures. And the funny thing I found was that the the there was tissue box holders in, built into this vanity.
Georgie 34:31
Into the, yeah.
Geoff 34:31
There’s a hole there’s a hole in the vanity where the tissue comes out.
Georgie 34:35
Specially for the—
Geoff 34:35
Yeah, yeah. So that kind of that’s the kind of like luxury I now expect from a Marriott but like if you go to the W—
Georgie 34:44
Yeah. Because we, we stayed at the Four Seasons in Singapore, which was also I would say maybe like similarly priced to the some of these boutique hotels, but it’s that same kind of weird gaudy shit that’s not really my thing. But—
Geoff 34:57
Yeah.
Georgie 34:57
It’s got the, what is it, the self opening curtains when you walk in. It’s got like the marble and stuff. It’s like gold, like gold coloured like—
Geoff 35:06
Yeah gold—
Georgie 35:06
Coloured hardware and things. Yeah.
Geoff 35:08
Yeah. It’s yeah, not not my style. Sure.
Georgie 35:13
But it’s more functional than these like, bouti—I can see where people coming from and they probably have a different expectation but I feel like you can really tell from the pictures like all these bright colorus and shit, or whatever, like...
Geoff 35:25
Yeah, okay, so the, “don’t expect W to be a luxury escape with its small rooms that you couldn’t swing a cat in”—
Georgie 35:35
Wait. Swing a cat. Who is swinging a cat in a hotel?!
Geoff 35:40
And why does your measurement of space involves swinging a cat?
Georgie 35:45
(laughs) Alright I’ll tell you next time I stay in a hotel—
Geoff 35:48
Can you swing?
Georgie 35:49
“Hey Geoff, I can swing a cat in this room”.
Geoff 35:52
I’m going to be staying at four different hotels in Japan. I’mma tell you how much I can swing a cat.
Georgie 35:57
Cat swingin’, cat swingin’, what’s the word, like...
Geoff 36:01
Circumference. (laughs)
Georgie 36:02
Ha, yeah. (laughs)
Geoff 36:04
I can swing one and a half cats.
Georgie 36:06
(laughs) What size cat are we talking?
Geoff 36:08
“...to how dark the bathrooms are. God forbid, as my wife said, trying to do makeup to the grotto that was straight out of a brothel to hang your clothes in”.
Georgie 36:23
That’s very descriptive.
Geoff 36:25
Dude. GT, whoever you are.
Georgie 36:29
Gin and Tonic.
Geoff 36:30
What brothels are you going to?
Georgie 36:33
(laughs) Fucking, fucking grilled.
Geoff 36:37
W feels like... my... “W feels like they have just tried to cram as many rooms as possible in the area they that they have”. Which is fair to be honest. Like—
Georgie 36:49
Sometimes they do that, hey.
Geoff 36:50
“Boutique” doesn’t mean... yeah, boutique doesn’t mean you can swing your cat around.
Georgie 36:55
(laughs) I’m seriously going to remember that, like, I’m gonna remember that like forever. When I’m gonna inspect like an apartment or something, like, “hmm, I can’t swing my cat in this...”
Geoff 37:07
“I can’t swing my cat in this”. Or maybe they’ve been to...
Georgie 37:17
We have an episode title.
Geoff 37:18
Yes. Couldn’t swing a cat in this episode? “Not yet a full W Hotel”. Maybe this person has been to other Ws.
Georgie 37:26
Sounds like they have.
Geoff 37:26
“The hotel has opened a third of capacity and is trying hard to deliver”.
Georgie 37:31
So they didn’t open the whole—
Geoff 37:33
Oh, yeah. Okay, breakfast was the standout for me. So that’s two stars, two stars for the breakfast so yeah.
Georgie 37:36
“The pool closes at five, while there’s—”
Geoff 37:45
Oh, boo hoo.
Georgie 37:47
I don’t know, do you care about using a pool at a hotel?
Geoff 37:49
No this, this is why I’d never tried to get hotels or apartments that have pools.
Georgie 37:54
Yeah I don’t really care about them.
Geoff 37:57
Although I don’t get to swim very often so if the hotel just to happen to have a pool, then that might be nice to utilise said pool.
Georgie 38:05
Yeah, like because I’m not super into beaches because of all the fucking sand and shit. Pools like okay, like just to, just to hang out in, not go for a proper swim. But yeah.
Geoff 38:16
So yeah, I think 3.7 is a bit harsh on this, on this hotel.
Georgie 38:21
Yeah. Disappointed someone is. Wow, someone else complained about the pool. These people like their pools.
Geoff 38:28
Waited 45 minutes in our room for luggage to come up. Oh, okay, that a legit—
Georgie 38:33
That’s not great.
Geoff 38:34
That’s legit. I pay a lot of money. I expect some top notch service especially from the guy that stands out in front of the—
Georgie 38:42
Welcoming people who actually want to get into IMAX, hey you should be delivering luggage to your—
Geoff 38:47
Yeah. “Would have been good to have the pool open to at least 9pm”. I guess I don’t know what the point of reference is. I don’t know how other hotels close their pools or how, when they—
Georgie 39:00
Ooh, fire alarm went off two or three times when they went swimming in the morning. Okay, that’s kind of bad, like if you have a faulty fire alarm at a very expensive hotel I think you should be embarrassed.
Geoff 39:11
So apparently the number one reason hotels, fire alarm goes off is because—
Georgie 39:17
Bathroom?
Geoff 39:18
People use microwaves.
Georgie 39:19
Oh, okay. Because when we went to Devcamp like we were up in the Hunter Valley and there was literally a plaque, like a sign like printed on fancy ass like brass with, engraved, on it maybe wasn’t engraved, whatever was printed, next to the bathrooms of almost every room, saying please turn the fan on when you have a shower or shut the door because the fire alarm can like go off. And it actually did during our stay.
Geoff 39:55
Ah. “Dinner in the restaurant wasn’t available wasn’t possible due to no available tables.”
Georgie 39:59
Well, that’s just like normal.
Geoff 40:02
Yeah.
Georgie 40:03
If you can’t get a seat, you can’t get a seat, dude.
Geoff 40:05
[pompous voice] “We had advised it was our anniversary had check in and we’re going to eat at the restaurant. But we were not advised of the restaurant unavailability until going to the restaurant”. What, do you think every—
Georgie 40:19
Entitled?
Geoff 40:19
Tom, Dick and Harry walking through here on their anniversary?
Georgie 40:23
Maybe it was everyone else’s anniversary on the same day, so—
Geoff 40:26
Exactly.
Georgie 40:27
Too bad.
Geoff 40:27
Yeah. Just—
Georgie 40:29
Like—
Geoff 40:29
Too bad, too sad.
Georgie 40:29
Do you ever think about the fact that like, because lots of weddings happen on the weekend? Right? Like, not on a—
Geoff 40:34
Yeah?
Georgie 40:35
Like weekday because that’s when everyone comes to a wedding if you’re gonna have a huge celebration. How many weddings happen on like, a given day, like, and I’m thinking like, I don’t give a shit. But I was like, dude, so many people probably got married on the same day as me probably the same venue and so on. It’s like, your anniversary is not special.
Geoff 40:53
Yeah.
Georgie 40:54
Chances are someone else, like bloody 50 other people in your own, like, city. People to 100 people also got married.
Geoff 41:02
Yes.
Georgie 41:02
And also have the same anniversary.
Geoff 41:03
And this is an expensive hotel. So people splash out to do special events, special occasions. And you know what? How many people have birthdays today? Like—
Georgie 41:16
Yeah, yeah yeah, exactly.
Geoff 41:18
Um.
Georgie 41:18
Teat themselves?
Geoff 41:20
Yeah, exactly. “Housekeeping came and vacuumed the floor at our request”. Oh, because of the biscuit crumbs along the side of the bed and the room was very dusty.
Georgie 41:31
Yeah. I mean they could do a better job—
Geoff 41:32
Unclean on arrival.
Georgie 41:34
...cleaning, to be honest.
Geoff 41:35
Yeah. So yeah, that’s uh, oh, Judd Rabbage?
Georgie 41:40
Is that the name of the person? No they’re different people—
Geoff 41:44
Prabhir, the director of beverage and food. These are the people responding, by the way. Hotel manager?
Georgie 41:52
Okay.
Geoff 41:53
General Manager. Oh, getting pretty serious here.
Georgie 41:56
I want, I want more goss. I wanna, I want to know more like, act, do you ever like read the reviews? And you’re like, I want actual like, like, tell me about, like the thing that I actually look for sometimes, is like, is there a gym in the hotel? Like, tell me if there’s a gym and what it’s like, or the fitness centre or whatever you want to call it. Some of these people I think have just complained about the experience. But sometimes I want valuable information from the reviews. Like tell me a bit more, like was it, what was good and what was bad, and all of that.
Geoff 42:23
I think like these one star is mostly our like, “overall experience don’t meet the standards I expect from the from the hotel of the W hotels brand“. “The service was disorganised”. But one star for disorganised says—
Georgie 42:37
Little bit harsh to me, like—
Geoff 42:39
Yeah, and then you’re like, oh, everything else was convenient. And the food was great. And you’re just like, and just they were disorganised, one star.
Georgie 42:47
Can you imagine if that person goes to like an Ibis or like motel style hotel and is like, “if I can, if I can give this minus one stars, I could”, you ever see that?
Geoff 43:01
It’s, I mean, I was at a hotel in Melbourne where, yeah, the Ibis actually—where I had to go ask for the slippers. I had to go ask for all the amenities that was supposedly, you know, something that you could assume that would just be in the room when you arrive. I hd to go down and ask, and it’s that’s just the way it is, you know?
Georgie 43:21
Yeah, but these people are rich, like you said.
Geoff 43:23
Yeah, rich people.
Georgie 43:25
Rich entitled people.
Geoff 43:26
What else what else is rich is the end of this episode.
Georgie 43:29
Gonna be swinging some cats.
Geoff 43:31
Swinging some cats around my rooms to make sure that it’s all a proper, appropriately sized. (laughs) Are they swinging it vertically or horizontally?
Georgie 43:41
(laughs) I assumed in a circle.
Geoff 43:43
Me too, me too.
Georgie 43:44
Like a fan.
Geoff 43:48
So you can, you can—
Georgie 43:50
Email us.
Geoff 43:51
You can email us because we’ve gone back to the Stone Ages. toast, toastroastpod@gmail.com
Georgie 43:58
And you can find our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen to podcasts and the big theatre screen. Third biggest.
Geoff 44:07
Which I think you could probably swing your cat around.
Georgie 44:11
Oh yeah, yeah.
Geoff 44:11
In the IMAX.
Georgie 44:11
You could swing multiple cats. Ten people—
Geoff 44:13
Everybody could be swinging—
Georgie 44:14
Ten cats each.
Geoff 44:16
Yeah. Ten arms, ten cats, ten swinging. And new episodes every Monday. So see you next week.
Georgie 44:26
Bye.
Geoff 44:26
Bye.