I completed a one-night stay here last weekend; I was originally booked for two nights on points (paid rates were way high, around $799/nt) and the hotel did have a 2 night minimum length of stay, but when we decided to spend an extra night with friends in San Diego the Globalist desk was able to shorten to 1 night and return 20,000 points.
The hotel showed sold out but we did get an upgrade to a “King Queen Premium” which is an oversized room with One King, One Queen and a view over the grounds to the beach and ocean. The room was oversized with a very large walk in closet and a large bathroom; otherwise the room just sort of had a lot of extra space, no particular use for it. There was a furnished balcony with seating for two. One note is the room was exterior entry, there was more noise from the outside walkway than I would have liked but it died down.
I loved the hotel features and had a great stay, I certainly wished we had more time. The slide area has three slides, one of which for toddlers, and the largest of which was fun even for adults and fairly speedy. I used the “grotto” hot tubs after my son went to bed, three large, adults only hot tubs that were nice and hot. We also used the main pool which was warm and not overcrowded. The slides closed at 5 or 6 but the main pool was open til 10. Although the pools were crowded (with the hotel sold out I wasn’t surprised) we had no trouble getting seats. Just like Squaw Valley, at which we spent the prior weekend, the main pool had music playing underwater which was an endless source of amusement for my son; I think the pool was salt water as well, but I could be wrong. We didn’t order anything, but there seemed to be plenty of servers supporting drink and food orders and the food that was coming out looked pretty decent.
Per my Apple Watch it was a .9 mile walk to “downtown” Huntington Beach. We had dinner at the Pacific City mall which had several choices. Breakfast at the hotel was really good and it was the most normal breakfast I’ve had since COVID started.. full buffet/menu available, full regular service on plates, etc. There were a lot of interesting options on the menu, I had the burrata bowl which was really nice. My wife enjoyed the avocado toast and my son the buffet.
We were glad we decided to spend an extra night in San Diego with our friends, but only having one night at this hotel was way too short. I could easily do 3-4 days here and they seem to have kids or family activities most evenings. For example, on Saturday there was a live 90s band giving a concert that was fun for all ages. Other evenings were advertised as "cosmic slide night", smores nights, etc.. seems a full slate of activities has resumed and again it felt like the most "normal" hotel situation I've experienced since COVID started.
It was around a 65 minute drive to LAX on Sunday morning.
View from the balcony
Sunset from the beach over the PCH bridge
Hotel grounds in the evening
Burrata bowl