Review: Hyatt Regency Miami – Live and Let’s Fly

July 9, 2024July 9, 2024 Admin

Faced with a 12-hour layover in Miami, I booked a room at the Hyatt Regency Miami, which served as a very suitable crashpad for our long day in town.

Hyatt Regency Miami Review

I used an expiring category 1-4 free night certificate from the World of Hyatt program for my stay since the prevailing rate was $270 (this was in high season…the rate can be half that during the heat of summer). It’s a Category 4 property and while not luxurious, it certainly did the job for our long day in Miami.

I reserved the room for the night before our arrival so that we could gain access to our room as early as 7:00 am when our cruise ship arrived at the Port of Miami. So that I was not marked as a no-show, I checked in on the World of Hyatt app and messaged the hotel the night before that I would not be arriving till morning.

We arrived closer to 10:00 am (via ~~taxi~~ Uber) and the hotel was quite accommodating, proactively granting us a late checkout. That’s not something you can count on, but I was given until 7:00 pm (instead of the standard 4:00 pm checkout for a Globalist member) and we did take advantage of that.

a building with palm trees and a sign

a large building with a sign

a woman sitting on a chair in a building

a room with purple lights and a couch

a lobby with a man standing in front of a reception desk

a room with tables and chairs

a child looking at a piece of art on a wall

a wall with signs on it

a child standing in a large room

a large room with a large staircase and palm trees

a large room with a tall tower and chairs

a room with purple lights and a plant

Guest Room

We were assigned room 1030. The rooms are refurbished with new carpeting and furniture, which is a pretty noticeable upgrade from a few years back when the hotel really felt dated. There’s a partition separating the sleeping area from a sink area, which is outside the bathroom.

a hallway with elevator doors and a chair

a hallway with yellow and grey carpet

a white door with a door knob

a sign on a wall

a room with a bed and a television

two beds in a hotel room

a room with two beds and a table

a desk with a chair and a lamp

a room with a television and a bed

a digital clock on a counter

a power outlet on a marble surface — USB-A + USB-C plugs on the alarm clock and USB-A plugs beside the bed

a bathroom with a sink and mirror

a bottle of mouthwash and lotion on a counter — Body lotion and mouthwash still in travel-size containers, but the bath products were in larger wall-mounted containers

a small closet with a shelf and a shelf with a metal box and a belt

a bathroom with a white shower curtain and bathtub

a shower with white tile walls

a group of soaps on a wall

The balconies are non-functional (they are sealed shut). Decent view from the room, though:

a group of tall buildings with cars on the road

Breakfast @ Riverwalk Café

Augustine was hungry (seven-year-olds are always hungry), so we went down to the Riverwalk Café for breakfast.

a room with a bar and tables and chairs

a river with palm trees and buildings in the background

Globalist members can order off the menu or take the buffet.

a menu of a restaurant

I ordered an omelet and bowl of berries from the a la carte menu while Augustine took the buffet (and polished off quite a bit of food). The buffet included mostly Western breakfast items.

a kitchen with a large counter with food on it

a buffet with different food items in it

a tray of fruit on a counter

a food on a table

a buffet table with food and a crockery

a buffet with food in bowls

a row of bowls of food on a counter

a table with food on it

a buffet table with food items on it

The restaurant service was terrible… I just don’t know how else to say it. The hostess was very nice, but the waiter did do anything at all. We finally had to flag him down and he took our orders, but did not bring over drinks or flatware. Finally, I went up to the bar and helped myself.

Thankfully, he must have gone on break or something because Ingrid came on duty and was excellent. The omelet also wasn’t bad.

a plate of food on a table

a bowl of fruit on a plate

a child sitting at a table with a plate of food

18% gratuity was automatically added (though note at the bottom it says “suggested and voluntary”). I left it because Ingrid was lovely and gratuity is included for Globalist members. Had it just been the other guy, I would have removed the gratuity even if it was included…

a restaurant bill open with receipt

Market

Next door to the restaurant is a market offering lighter fare, coffee, and snacks.

a store with a sign

a store with shelves of food and snacks

Pool

A big reason for getting a room here was so that Augustine could swim once more (we have an olympic-size pool at our gym, but it’s not the same as an outdoor hotel pool).

a pool with chairs and umbrellas

While he swam, I sat under a cabana and worked…and eventually joined him too. He begged me.

a structure with blue and green striped curtains

a chair and umbrella in a room

Fitness Center

We also worked out in the hotel gym, which was a small gym in the hotel basement next to the pool. The machines were old and had seen better days, but I managed to squeeze in a good workout and Augustine worked out too…he wasn’t allowed to do that on the boat and can’t do that in our own gym in LA (due to his young age), so this was a treat for him.

a gym with a door and a trash can

a room with exercise machines

a room with treadmills and exercise machines

a gym with weights and a bench

a screen on a machine

a man taking a selfie with two children in a gym

a vending machine with drinks and snacks — Vending machines on lower level

The Accident

As we were walking out to catch an Uber to Little Havana, a van picking up an American Airlines crew ran into a car right in front of us. The woman driving the van and the man began arguing in Spanish and tempers flared. but it was the woman’s fault…she ran right into him. He was parked!

a white van parked on the side of a road

CONCLUSION

I quite appreciated my stay here and found great value in having use of this hotel for the day. The breakfast was fine, the room was clean, the fitness center was functional, and my son loved the pool. No, this hotel is hardly the lap of luxury, but I was grateful for it.