Stayed here for a week over Christmas. Used a Diamond electronic upgrade certificate. Asked, on check-in, and in the reservation notes, for a quiet room on a high floor away from elevators/ice machines (have a light sleeping two year old). Was assigned to a suite on the second floor of a three floor building with a room directly opposite the entrance to the health club. There was a ton of noise as people approached and left the health club, and we got to hear a lot of chit-chat about the equipment, the gates, cursing due to keys that didn't work and so on. Also lots of corridor noise, and noise from the floor above us, and the balcony to the suites have easily climbable bars and I have two children who seem to aspire to be monkeys. After three days of disturbed sleep, we asked to move to a quieter room ~ our only option was to move to a regular room in the tower, and pay for a second adjoining room since none of the corner suites were available in the tower. As a 'concession' since I was no longer able to use the suite upgrade, they charged me only 50% of what I was paying for the first room, for the second room. On returning to the new rooms (they moved our stuff since the new rooms were not available until the afternoon) on the 9th floor after a day out at Seaworld, we discovered, late at night, that one of them shared a wall with the elevator - associated shuddering of furniture, and elevator groans and dings audible through the wall. Next day, asked again for a quiet room, as originally requested in the reservation notes and on check-in. Assigned two new rooms on the 19th floor, and assured they were away from the elevator - same deal as before, not available until the afternoon, but they would move our stuff. Off out for a day at the zoo, and returned to discover the new 19th floor rooms were actually opposite the elevator. So no longer sharing a wall, but still hearing all the dings and corridor chat. Too late to move, no more rooms available. The following day, asked for a manager and was finally assigned a quiet corner suite (using the upgrade). So for the last two nights of seven, we finally got that quiet room we'd requested. And it was very nice.

Some other notes. The breakfast staff in the Red Marlin restaurant were quite shameless about insisting, even after being told we were using Diamond certificates and being offered those certificates, on first bringing a check with the amount we would have been spending circled "so you know what the total is" - in other words, so you know what to tip them. We tipped them $10 a day (two adults, two kids under five, breakfast in the region of $60 and I always leave waiters something when using certificates because there is invariably cereal, crumbs etc. under our table) however, I really felt these waiters went above and beyond in extracting their tips - during our seven breakfasts, we heard at least a couple of other tables trying to figure out why their AAA or whatever coupons said "tax and tip included" but the waiters were making it clear they expected a tip on the total.

I thought the quality of the breakfasts was pretty poor - they put the "hot" dishes into Le Creuset cast iron pots, (a) these don't keep the food properly warm, and (b) every breakfast one hapless guest dropped a lid with a loud clang, surprised by how heavy the cast iron was. If you ordered from the menu, the food arrived hot and the quality was much better (scrambled eggs on the buffet always tasted like they were made from egg liquid and were cold & clumpy, eggs benedict from the menu were consistently excellent, hot and perfectly cooked). In the seven days we were there, there were only very minor changes in the buffet ~ on Christmas day they had smoked salmon as a choice, and on other days the hot gooey dish was sometimes French toast, sometimes waffles, sometimes blintzes.

Summary:

Breakfasts: In general, this hotel was on the very low end of Hyatt hotel breakfasts. Mediocre food and pushy waiters. Not a great experience.

Rooms: I thought the suites were a bit dated, and as others have noted, the old metal blinds don't keep the morning sun out. The rooms in the towers have blackout fabric, and so the room darkens properly. I think the bars on the balconies in the suites are an accident waiting to happen for families with kids who climb.

Front desk staff: Unlike the earlier poster, I was charged for parking for the two days we had a car, $20 a day, and was told this was the rate at check-in. The check-in person knew I was Diamond (gave me the breakfast coupons). In general, I found the check-in staff pleasant but unacceptably clueless about what a quiet room was (seriously, FOUR room moves in week?) and not very quick - long lines were the norm and when I checked out, the check-out person disappeared into the back without explanation and didn't come back, making the entire line behind me irritated. Another guest asked the doorman, and he also disappeared. When someone else came out, he said the first person had gone to take a telephone call.

Pools: These were great, the slides were excellent, and the one day we used them, the life guard on duty went above and beyond in signaling me about which slide my elder child was coming down so I could catch her.

Housekeeping: No complaints, as expected. However, we did leave a t-shirt and a shoe behind during the four room changes. Shoe returned, t-shirt not.

Overall: We visit SD regularly - I wouldn't choose to stay here again. There are other good options.