We had a family vacation here for a month, recently. Our kid gets a short 6 week summer vacation, and this was our pick for a relaxing stay. Other than when I’m swimming, or in my room, I’m in an electric wheelchair. This property is pretty wheelchair friendly, with a handicap restroom, and their swimming pool has excellent railing and steps to enter for those with mobility issues.


Anna from Open

Staff were mostly great. A few hiccups when ordering food in Open, but once we figured out who the problem was with, it got fixed.

We’ve been coming here for 10 years. A few staff have been there that long, especially our longtime favorite, Anna, as shown above. We first met Anna at the Grand Hyatt about a dozen years ago. Always gets your orders right, and is happy to see you.

Now coming during the summer holiday can have some negatives, as the place can be packed. Only having two passenger elevators for the rooms is a recipe for disaster. Even worse, when one elevator breaks down! I actually had to ride the freight elevators a couple of times during the month. Oh, how I wish they had put in three passenger elevators.

I love the pool here. You get some kids acting pretty rowdy, but mostly it’s pretty good. There is a lot of new staff at Open and the pool area. We bought a turtle pool float, and after my kid jumping on it for the 50th time, a leg came off and it deflated. Since they have the big Flamingo floaties, I figured they might have patches. The pool desk guy was happy to help, and we later had a reinvigorated turtle. First rate service as normal.

They are continuing to have a 25% discount on restaurant, and pool food for Gold/Diamond members.

It’s difficult for me to go places in Jakarta in my wheelchair outside the hotel, as most places have no ramps. I love to see movies, but hadn’t seen one in over a year. There is a 21 Metropole theater next door, with the original art deco theater over 90 years old. You’d never notice, as it’s thoroughly updated, and has a newer building with Premiere theaters with leather power recliners.

My wife contacted the manager to see which theater might be handicap friendly. They have one ramp on their main theater building, but I’m not sure if my wide wheelchair would fit. He did say their Premiere theaters have a rear ramp area that you could drive to the exit door, that you could have opened. I saw two movies here, Inside Out 2, and Twisters. Very comfortable seats. We just needed to let them know we wanted to come in advance. I was able to walk the 15 feet from my car to my seat in the theater.

Cost was about $6.50 Mon-Thur, and double that on weekends. It looks like you could actually walk through the parking lot from the parking garage at the Doubletree to the Metropole.

The Open restaurant was very helpful with items for breakfast. I tend to get very bored with the same items all the time. While they rotate items frequently, 30+ days in a row can get old pretty quickly. While at the hotel, I got a hankering for one of my favorites, onion rings. Now the hotel has pretty good thick cut fries, but never seen onion rings. Lots of foreign fast food companies come to Jakarta, but 75% don’t seem to last more than a few years. I remember Pollo Campero even being in town 20 years ago.

I found out Popeyes was in town, and got some of their onion rings, which are ok. My wife asked the staff if they knew any good onion rings in town. The next day, they had a big basket of good onion rings for me. That kind of thing just really pleases me. So, you never know until you ask.


Special onion rings

We ate one dinner at the Sea Grain restaurant. If you order the big Tomahawk steak, it’s now like a performance show. The carving specialist comes out in an orange jumpsuit, and hockey mask. A Jason or Freddy type. Kind of different. They have reduced the sides included with the package now. One less sauce, and one less side.


Tomahawk carving show

Jakarta has lots of things for kids and families to do. In the Ancol area there are amusement parks, Dufan, a Seaworld aquarium and a number of other things. Most malls here have a lot of entertainment options. Pottery, crafts, Kidzania and other things.


Seaworld aquarium