I’ve looked out of a lot of hotel room windows over the years but until a recent trip to Canada I’d never seen anything like the baseball field view rooms at the Toronto Marriott City Centre Hotel before.
When I was planning a trip for a conference at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre I’ll confess baseball wasn’t on my mind. I was more interested in how far I’d have to walk to get there (only 500m, excellent!) but then when I looked at the room categories I realised I had a chance to stay in a room like no other.
You see the Toronto Marriott City Centre Hotel is built into the Rogers Centre, home of the Toronto Blue Jays, and has a range of rooms that look right down onto the baseball field.
The Blue Jays stadium hotel rooms
The only hotel in North America to be found in a major league sports and entertainment venue, the Toronto Marriott City Centre has 348 pet-friendly guest rooms, including 68 that look right out into the stadium.
All of the rooms in the hotel have plush bedding, marble bathrooms, complimentary Wi-Fi, coffee maker, mini fridge, along with workspaces with ergonomic seating for when you need to work and 55” HD TVs with cable, satellite and movie channels for when you want to chill.
But the baseball view rooms really hit a home run with the wow factor when you walk in.
There are four different kinds of baseball stadium view rooms at the Toronto Marriott City Centre (more if you count different bedding configurations). All of the rooms have floor to ceiling windows and range from the 41sqm (450sqft) king guest room to the 77sqm (850sqft) bi-level suites where have your bedroom upstairs and your own personal skybox downstairs.
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As much as being out amongst the crowd can be fun, I’d definitely rather be in my own space with my own nice clean bathroom and to be able to simply pick up the phone and have room service delivered rather than queue for a hotdog (and speaking of hotdogs, this hotel has a pretty impressive one, but more on that shortly).
While it might be tempting to invite all of your Blue Jays friends over, the rooms do have a limit on the amount of guests who can join you. Right next to the evacuation diagram on the door in my Larger Guest Room I found the ‘maximum occupancy eight persons’ sign, and viewing capacity varies depending on your room from five to 12 people at a time, with only four allowed to sleep over.
At the time of writing, baseball fieldview rooms at the Marriott City Centre start at $389 CDN a night when there’s a game on, and $289 CDN on those non-game days when it’s all dark and quiet on the field.
Can you watch Rogers Centre concerts from the stadium view rooms?
If you’re not into baseball but love some of the bands who play at the Rogers Centre you may be asking yourself the same question I was – can I watch the show from one of the stadium view rooms?
Sadly the answer to this one is you can’t see it. But you’ll definitely hear it. Just not as clearly as you might like.
As the hotel is in the backstage area of a concert all of the stadium view rooms are blacked out so you can’t see what’s happening behind those scenes. The curtains also stop your hotel room lights interfering with the production.
Unfortunately those curtains are also used for soundproofing so the audio isn’t the best. So if you miss out on tickets and think you can activate a back up plan to order room service and listen to a live concert in real time you’ll most likely be disappointed. And considering bands that are still to play the Rogers Centre this year include Lady Gaga, Motley Crue, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Elton John those would have been some pretty sweet shows to hear live.
What it’s like to sleep in a baseball view room
As soon as I saw the baseball rooms existed I jumped online to see if the Blue Jays were playing when I was in town. Turns out they were the day I flew in but sadly the game would be over by the time I got in from Australia, and of course the fans had long ago snapped up the baseball view rooms.
But as I was in town for almost a week I decided it was the perfect chance to try both kinds of rooms and after starting out with city views I moved on over to the baseball ones for my last two nights in Toronto.
And this is what it was like to walk into my new room…
There may not have been any action on the field below but I seriously couldn’t get enough of looking out my window.
My Larger Guest Room with a baseball stadium view was 54sqm (600sqft) and came with a king bed in the main part of the room and another sofa bed in the elevated living area. There were TVs in both sections and while my bed was the cosiest place to watch tele and had the biggest screen, I’m sure they both get to share the action from the field on game day.
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Because the roof stays closed when the stadium is empty it was quite dark, and it felt strange to not be able to tell if the sun had come up or set. But as the stadium lights were on it was also too bright to sleep with the curtains open as the lights lined up with the pillows on the bed.
Thanks to black out curtains there was no problem getting the room nice and dark to go to sleep and then I started the day with a laugh when I saw my view when I opened them up in the morning.
I also loved the way I could open a window. My city view room on the other side of the hotel didn’t have any way to let fresh air in, so I kept the window open the whole time I was in my baseball view room.
Even though nothing was happening on the field, I still had fun inviting a friend around for a few drinks to sit back and look out at the crazy view. As my friend is Canadian and knows his baseball, he was also able to point out that when we looked down from my window we could see the warm up area for the players, which is one of those things you can’t see on TV.
As it was so dark with the roof closed I think two nights in the baseball view rooms is ideal when you’re booking a stay at the Toronto Marriott City Centre. One night wouldn’t have been enough for me as it was just too much fun to come home to, but if you’re staying for more than two nights I’d suggest doing what I did and mixing up your Rogers Centre views with your city views.
How to get a table with a Blue Jays view
As those Blue Jays fans are pretty quick to grab these special baseball rooms, you can also have a great baseball day out by booking a table at the Sportsnet Grill.
Located inside the Toronto Marriott City Centre Hotel the Sportsnet Grill has more of those floor to ceiling windows overlooking centre field at Rogers Centre, and if you book ahead and pay an extra fee you can get a seat with a view.
Window tables are $10pp for regular games and $20pp for premium games, as well as a $50pp minimum spend, or $25 for children under 12.
And you can also watch batting practice for free (no booking fees, no minimum spend). You just have to be out of that seat 15 minutes before the start of the game so the paying folks can get comfy and get their first orders in.
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At the Sportsgrill the menu is broken down into Pre Game Warmup, with tacos, wings and baby nachos among the options, Aim For the Green for your salad options, and The Main Event, which is an eclectic mix with Thai seafood green curry, butter chicken and a teriyaki bowl rubbing menu shoulders with chicken fingers and steak frites.
As this is a baseball restaurant, there’s also a Hotdog Summer section, which includes the Sportsnet Grill 24″ Slugger. That’s 60cm of hotdog for those of us on the metric system, topped with bacon crumble, their signature bacon jam, Swiss cheese, smoked jalapeño mayo and a sprinkle of spring onions.
While I wasn’t brave enough to take on the slugger I did share a whole lot of wings over a few drinks with a friend and will be ordering those delicious house-made dry rub ones again when I make it back to this sports bar with a view.
Work and play at the Toronto Marriott City Centre Hotel
Of course there’s more to this Marriott than rooms with an unusual view.
There’s a large indoor heated pool and whirlpool, and a 24-hour on site fitness room with cardio equipment, elliptical machines, exercise bikes, free weights and a yoga zone.
If you’re in town for meetings they have five event rooms for groups of up to 250 people. And if you want to have more of a fun get together with work colleagues or friends you can also book one of four luxury skybox suites that look out over the stadium for groups of up to 30 people.
There’s also a private dining room called the Legends Lounge in the Sportsnet Grill for groups of up to 60 people or you can get those Sportsnet meals delivered to your room if you want a really private dining experience.
And if you’re playing tourist in Toronto the Marriott City Centre Hotel is right next to the CN Tower in the heart of the city’s entertainment and theatre districts.
I found both the city and baseball view rooms comfortable and spacious. Unfortunately like so many North American hotels some super simple sustainable things are overlooked when it comes to single use plastic.
As well as single use amenities rather than providing cups or glasses for water or coffee it was disposable cups wrapped in plastic. I travel with a Keep Cup so used that until real glasses arrived with room service, which I then saved so I could use something that both feels better to drink out of and is better for the environment.
But apart from that all too common hotel frustration of mine I loved my stay at the Marriott City Centre Hotel and know I’ll be talking about this one for years to come.
If you’ve missed out on a room at the Marriott City Centre and are coming to town for a Blue Jays game or for a concert including the last of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour we also have a guide to the ten closest hotels to Rogers Centre all within a ten minute walk here.
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