saint

Thanks. I read on TripAdvisor the GM said "elites have some benefits". I emailed my concierge but she didn't get back yet. Major bummer the Club Lounge is closed as I heard it was really great with lots of snacks and drinks throughout the day. I don't get there until next week but I got a welcome email from Tavara (Assistant to the GM) welcoming me. I asked her and she wrote, "Also, in addition to daily breakfast at 3 Tides, as our valued Globalists we waive your Resort Fees and you also will receive vouchers to enjoy complimentary drinks at any of our Grand Hyatt Outlets including: Stix Noodle Bar, T2 Cigar Bar, Drift, Out Island, H2O and The Jazz Bar."

I'm not sure how many complimentary drinks you get but I'll post once I get there.

cubs87

I understand the club lounge is closed, but are they allowing globalists into the VIP lounge in the Reserve tower? Anyone have any experience with being upgraded to Reserve tower if booked in standard?

saint

I’ve always wanted to visit Baha Mar in Nassau, Bahamas because of all the great reviews I’ve read on this forum and others.

I will preface this review by saying it’s a major pain in the ... getting there now with COVID testing requirements. You have to apply for a visa (https://travel.gov.bs ) to get to the Bahamas which was $60 per person if you’re staying over 4 days. To apply for the visa you have to upload a negative COVID test. And the test can’t be more than 72 hours before you arrive. We uploaded our tests and it was a bit stressful waiting for the visa to come back. We got it 2 days before we left for the trip but I read on TripAdvisor of many people that didn’t get it until 12 hours or so before their plane took off.

I read in several trip reports that you can go to Baha Mar in a taxi for $36 + tip for a family of 5 but I always like having a driver ready and if possible to stop at a grocery store for some snacks and drinks. I used Sandra’s Transportation - https://sandrastransportationbahamas.com which was great. She charged $100 for a round trip airport transfer for 5 people and charged $15 extra to stop at the grocery store or liquor store. The driver, Jade was awesome and stopped at the store. Food here is REALLY expensive. I just got some drinks (water, sodas, chips, etc) and it was expensive. I didn’t know about the VIP lounge and if I did I wouldn’t have stopped by the store).

We had to immediately take another COVID test before checking into our room. Doctor’s Hospital of Bahamas had set up near the Club Lounge and had many nurses giving tests. They did the nasal swab rapid antigen tests and then someone from the hotel checked us into our room. They didn’t give us the keys yet. They said we could wait in our room until the results came back. Within 30 minutes, I got the email that all tests were negative and someone brought us our room bracelets that served as room keys.

Then we had to get another test on Day 5. And luckily that test worked for our test to get back into the USA as they required one too. But if we stayed another day we would have had to get yet another COVID test.

My Globalist concierge, C.E. is fabulous. I asked her when I booked the room 6 weeks prior if she could request a connecting room as my wife and I (both Globalists) were traveling with our 3 children. We each booked a normal room. She booked a 2 Queen room and I booked a King bed room. People complain about their concierges but we are really lucky as we’ve had great luck with great concierges. Our other one K.W. was also great but retired. (We do Amazon gift cards at Christmas, etc and I think that really helps).

C.E. said since we were both Globalists (and booking separate bookings so we both got credit for the stays) she would request an upgrade. We both had Suite upgrade certificates in our account and were happy to use them for the stay but she proactively contacted the hotel and to our surprise they confirmed with C.E. that they would upgrade us to a 2 bedroom suite which was over 100% more expensive. This is all without having to use our certificates. Of course YMMV.

Our room was FABULOUS! The Reserve East Tower is really nice. The Club Lounge is closed but if you are staying in the Reserve Tower you are allowed access to a private VIP lounge in the back. They had private butlers that would help you. Ours was Vincent and he was AMAZING! Globalists get free unlimited breakfast in the 3 Tides Restaurant. I had a family of 5 and our bill was routinely around $200 or a bit under/over most mornings. Breakfast was from 8 AM to 11 AM.

But the VIP lounge also had an assortment of pastries, coffees, teas in the morning from 8 AM to 10 AM. And during the day you could get unlimited water or sodas. From 6 PM to 7 PM they had wine, champagne and small appetizers. They aren’t supposed to offer alcohol outside of those hours but Vincent was awesome. He is really the best! I tipped him every day although he never requested it and the first day he didn’t accept it until my son said he had to take it. The VIP lounge was a great score.

There was VAT taxes and tip included on all bills in the restaurants so things add up quick. I really wish they would just list the all in price on all the menus because when you see the actual bill it always felt like a bait and switch. Haha.

In some of the restaurants, they didn’t offer tap water and bottled water with the various fees was like $17 per bottle! Vincent would tell us to stop in the VIP lounge before dinner and he would give us all bottled waters to bring to dinner. The tap water there which I’m told is safe to drink tastes horrible so we didn’t drink it at all.

We got rooms #2446 and #2448 in the Reserve East Tower. The Reserve Tower is where the high rollers mostly stay. It was cool that one day while my wife was going to pick up lunch for the kids on the beach she went to go get some drinks in the VIP Lounge and she heard all this commotion and Rob Gronkowski was checking in. He was staying in the Reserve Tower and we ran into him and his entourage several times in the hotel and next to us on the beach.

The Club Lounge wasn’t open anyway and having access to the VIP Lounge was great. Plus you could take a shortcut to the pool by going to the 7th floor and then walking down the side stairs which took you to the pool area if you didn’t want to walk through the casino.

At check-in they said they didn’t offer daily maid service unless you requested it so we did request it and they cleaned our room daily. Our room was amazing. View was incredible, shower pressure was probably the best of any Hyatt we’ve been in. Bathroom products were Balmain Paris in the Reserve Tower. Our room had a living room and bedroom had a King bed and our kids room which had a separate entrance off the main entrance had 2 queen beds.

The only thing that I didn’t like was the bathroom door had see through glass in the toilet which is ok if you’re traveling just with your partner/spouse but not if you’re also traveling with kids.

We requested a fridge and microwave but we never used the microwave oven at all. We ate out for every meal. And let me tell you food here is really expensive. At least the maid left 8 bottles of water daily between the 2 rooms but we also used several more from the VIP Lounge daily.

As a Globalist, they also give you a voucher for 2 free alcohol drinks each night of your stay since the Club Lounge is closed. These were worth around $50 per day with various taxes/tips.
The hotel was fairly dead at the beginning of our stay. They said occupancy was around 25% but it looked empty. We had no problem at all with pool chairs or chairs on the beach. Employees ranged from really great to really bad.

I think COVID just has a bunch of employees depressed as there were a bunch that didn’t seem that friendly and since the 15% tax is automatically built in to EVERY bill, not many of the employees seem to offer great service. Vincent told me all the tips are pooled together and they share it. But one waiter actually asked us to put more as he said they didn’t get any of that. Vincent said that isn’t true.

I’d highly recommend going on the main website for the hotel - https://bahamar.com/culinary/ and making reservations ahead of time. It lists all the restaurants currently open. Many are closed and we didn’t know this before we arrived but many aren’t open every day. Plus add to the fact that many people from outside hotels come to eat here and it creates a situation where if you don’t book ahead of time, you probably won’t get in. Luckily we booked all our meals ahead of time. Better to book it and you can always cancel up until arrival time vs. not being able to get in.

We ate at Katsuya, Cleo, Swimming Pig, Filia, Pizza Lab, Stix, and some of the food trucks and also by the pool. The food outside by the pool I thought was HORRIBLE. Expensive and the quality of food was pretty bad. You’d see a bunch of tables with tons of left over food. Plus it took forever to get. We did that the first day and then never ordered outside again. I didn’t think the food trucks were good either. Instead we went into Stix or Pizza Lab and put in an order to go and brought it out by the pool. Much better quality.

Several of the restaurants had kids menus which helped save a bit but portions were fairly small. (And my kids eat adult sized portions). Katsuya, Cleo, Swimming Pig, Filia all had kids menus. The food in Katsuya, Filia and Cleo were great. The pizza at Pizza Lab I thought was good too. The same company owns Pizza Lab and Swimming Pig. Swimming Pig was easier to get into vs. the others as it was bigger.

They have some smoothie places outside but again things are expensive. I think 2 smoothies for my kids was around $38 with the various fees. But on the plus side, a pro-tip is to walk over to the Rosewood from 3:30 PM to 4:30 PM they have free ice cream served in a mobile ice cream truck by the pool. They typically had 2 flavors. I’m not sure if this is an offered service for all members of the Bahamar. We saw people with wristbands at all 3 hotels (Rosewood, Grand Hyatt and SLS) all walking over.
There is a gate by the sidewalk and there is a sign that says pool area is for Rosewood guests only. No one ever hassled us but one day a guard standing at the gate saw our wristbands and asked if we were going over to the pool area. We said we were only going for the ice cream. She said we could go for ice cream but we had to walk around the lobby. Huh?? We said no thanks and just walked down from the beach and walked over there as the beach is open. That’s what I mean, some employees just seemed to be in a bad mood.

Another tip is to use your drink certificates at night. We used ours each night in the Jazz Bar. They have really fabulous live jazz music playing starting at 8 PM each night. Sometimes they were late and start at 8:30. They don’t take reservations and first come first served. Cheryl there was fabulous and always got us a good table each night. Typically after dinner we’d walk over a bit before they started and she would save a table for us. Then we’d go play billiards at the SLS lobby with the kids and then walk back over. No problem with kids sitting at the tables in the bar here and tons of little kids dancing to the music.

The beach area was FABULOUS. Cable Beach has pristine clear blue water and gentle waves due to the artificial reef area set up which break up the waves. We travel a LOT (typically 100+ days per year) and the kids said this was their favorite beach of all time. They had a bunch of free activities like paddle boarding, canoeing and floating little mini pools set up on the ocean.

They also had several pools including Dean’s Blue Hole where kids could jump off a cliff into the pool. Our kids really loved it. They don’t advertise it but they will give you sunscreen (Sun Bum 30 SPF) in little disposable plastic cups. The only place they really seemed to have it is at the main towel hut. So ask in the morning as by the afternoon they would run out. A bottle of sunscreen in the hotel was $30.

Our kids wanted to go to Atlantis. They aren’t selling passes for non-hotel guests so we actually had to get rooms at the Atlantis to access the park. I’m a Caesers Diamond member and a great perk that I’ve never taken advantage of and almost forgot was they give you up to 4 nights of “free” nights at Atlantis each year. You just pay the room taxes + hotel cleaning fee which came to $69.30 per night.

I have 3 kids. My youngest is 5 and when I called they said she would need a bracelet too and you could only have a maximum of 4 people per room. So I had to book 2 rooms and they don’t allow 1 night bookings. They have a minimum of 2 nights they said. So I booked 2 rooms for 2 nights to access the park. If you’re a Caeser’s Diamond member definitely take advantage of this. The # to call is 1-800-752-9711 to set up the booking.
We never stayed in the rooms at all. The park has some slides closed on alternating days so we went back 2 days to the park and the kids loved it. And it turns out if your kid is less than 48’ they don’t need a bracelet anyway so I ended up booking an extra room for 2 nights for nothing. We all could have accessed the park on 1 room.

Out of curiosity I asked several locals how they get by as food is so expensive. Several told me the minimum wage is only $5 / hour there. They said usually they pool money together with their families and buy food at Costco in Miami and ship it over.

We had a fabulous time and other than the hassles of having to get so many COVID tests and food/drink costs being so expensive, we’d go back. Globalist recognition was fabulous and I’d love to stay in the Reserve Tower again.
Although I think I prefer other places like Mexico where service is great, employees are friendlier and you don’t feel like you got raped on food costs. And amazing food at a bargain. I thought food was just ok quality here.

The only thing that was really cheap was the jitney (bus) that runs into town. You can take the #1 bus that runs every 15 minutes or so. It’s only $1 per person. We only did that one day but took taxis to Atlantis which were pricey around $40 each way.

saint

Good timing. I just posted a review and just got back. Yes, the Club Lounge is closed. You get breakfast each morning in 3 Tides. But they aren't letting anyone into the VIP lounge except if you're staying in the Reserve Tower and they ask for your room # to make sure. I did however get upgraded to the Reserve Tower. The place was dead so I don't think you'd have a problem as a Globalist getting upgraded if you ask. I booked two normal rooms and they proactively ahead of time upgraded us into a 2 bedroom Reserve Tower Suite without burning upgrade certificates. Although YMMV.

As a Globalist you also get 2 free drinks each night stay. They give you certificates that you can use in various bars or by the pool.

Peatisback

We stayed April 1-9, booked via Privé, in the West tower 2BR Residence. Overall it was a much needed, very good stay, with a handful of hiccups.
The positives:
- The hard product is great. With an infant and three kids under the age of 5 it was great having a full kitchen, washer and dryer, and plenty of space.
- The grounds are beautiful and it was nice having a variety of pools and beach for the kids to explore.
- The resort was kind enough to upgrade the two additional reservations for our nanny and family traveling with us beyond what the suite upgrade standard suite. They each received a 1 BR Residence; one ocean view, one fountain view. I was told that if the rack rate for a residence is less than that of the standard suite they will do the upgrade without a charge, and potentially allow a paid upgrade to a higher level category if the difference in rates is paid.
- I believe all, if not close to all, restaurants reopened in some capacity during the time we were there. Our favorites are Costa and Cleo and we made several visits to both and the food was great.
- The casino is nonsmoking now which we really appreciated.
- We knew the Grand Club had been converted to a covid testing site so we proactively asked if the resort would stock our suite with bottled water, club soda, etc.. This partially happened- we had more bottled water than anyone would need for a month, and a handful of cans of Coke.

The negatives:
- Booking airport transfers pre-arrival was an issue. I tried to contact my casino host to set this up but never got an answer. Tried through the concierge and it was poorly handled- a week prior to arrival thought it had been booked, the morning of arrival received an e-mail that it was unavailable, then while in-flight got an e-mail that it was confirmed, but on arrival the Baha Mar desk at the airport had no record of it and was unhelpful. Ended up with a taxi
- Routinely the Guest Services line was rarely answered without a 5 minute hold, and as is typical for this resort simple requests (eg baby shampoo) required several calls (and requests in the hyatt app).
- The resort tried to pass off the Globalist drink certificates provided to all Globalists as the Privé F&B amenity.
- I asked pre-arrival if I could use the Reserve lounge to get coffee in the morning since the Grand Club was closed and for sanitary reasons/personal preference we didn't want to use the Keurig machine in room- never received a response. We had the foresight to bring a french press, request a kettle, and at breakfast our server sent us with a pint of half and half (only powdered creamer in the room).
- Pool F&B was not very good quality and we had service issues. We tried to order champagne that was listed on the menu as available by the glass or full bottle. Our server came back and said the menu was wrong and it was only available but the bottle, but indicated we could use two of the drink vouchers to purchase the bottle. We verified this twice and he said he confirmed with his manager. When we received the bill we were told this was not the case. It took significant time and back and forth with his manager to resolve this issue. So just be careful to double check if you want to use the drink chits.

By and large the positives outweigh the negatives and we'll keep this resort in our rotation of places to visit each year. Hopefully as they improve their staffing fewer things will fall through the cracks and they'll be able to offer more polished service.

RedSun

The Grand Club is a huge benefit for the stay. Big loss without it.

Morpheus4356

I loved your review of Baha Mar, it was very thorough and one of best I've read. With that being said, even though you seemed to enjoy your trip and tried to put a positive spin on it, it sounded absolutely miserable to be there. You spent your entire vacation shuttling your family back and forth from one Globalist freebie to the next in an effort to avoid overpaying for mediocre resort food. You paid $17 for a bottle of water at dinner? $38 for two smoothies? It's the Bahamas, not the freaking Maldives, there is no reason for that kind of pricing. The resort food was such a rip off that you ordered off of the children's menu in order to save money. I'm surprised you didn't suggest packing an electric kettle and a suitcase filled with ramen noodles given how expensive the food at this place sounds.

This does not sound like my idea of a vacation at all. While I do have globalist status and guaranteed suite upgrades that would help with some of the expenses, when I go on vacation I want to relax and not worry about how much money I'm spending on every meal / drink. I'm sure the resort is lovely, but if I'm going to spend that kind of money on food, I'd rather go somewhere a bit more exotic rather than some generic beach resort in the Caribbean.

seawolf

Time value of money.

It’s aim at those who don’t want to spend too much time flying and deal with time zone changes.

The higher pricing also helps limit certain crowds by encouraging them to go to cheaper destinations in Florida and elsewhere in the Caribbean.

Morpheus4356

It seems like quite the opposite. The rooms are priced cheaply, but the sticker shock comes as a surprise after you arrive at the resort. There is no way I would have known that a bottle of water at a sit down restaurant costs $17 if I had not read the review written here. I knew the food was somewhat expensive, but I had no idea it was that obscene. If you wanted to attract a more "well-moneyed" crowd you would price the rooms higher to begin with and not have to make up the difference by overcharging for food.

It seems like Saint (the person who wrote the review) was also caught off-guard by the high prices so he spent his entire trip adapting to minimizing his costs while he was there. Stuffing himself with the free unlimited globalist breakfast, stocking up on snacks at the VIP lounge, sampling free ice cream every day at 3:30 - 4:00pm, and bringing his own bottled water to dinner. Can you imagine being on vacation and bringing your own bottled water to dinner? Sigh....

seawolf

I think you are looking at pandemic pricing. Base rooms are usually $400-600 a night peak season before COVID.

Morpheus4356

Hyatt Aruba goes for $600 - $1000 during peak season, but you don't see them charging $17 for a bottle of water...

Base rooms were never that high at Hyatt Baha Mar (I've considered staying at the property a few times) and pretty much every blogger who has reviewed Baha Mar, has commented on the low cash rates during their stay. You can also check on TripAdvisor as well, most people commented that their room rate was fairly low during peak season before added taxes. Hyatt BM was regularly running free night promotions (4th night free) to try and lure people in. Even pre-Covid during Christmas week, I'm pretty sure base rates were only around $300 a night. Baha Mar is a mega resort. The Hyatt section of Baha Mar alone has 1,800 rooms! They definitely aren't filling that many rooms by selling them at $600 a pop. Their entire revenue model revolves around using cheap rooms to lure people, have them play in the casino, and overcharge them for food / beverages, and spa services, much like Las Vegas.

Even if by some chance Baha Mar did cost $500 a night, that doesn't mean a couple staying at Baha Mar would also feel comfortable with spending $125 on breakfast, $150 on lunch, $50 on snacks / coffee, $300 on dinner, and $200 a day on various drinks on top of that amount. Most people would expect to be able to get by on a budget of $400 a day for food, not over $800. The amounts start adding up rather quickly when you add on all of the mandatory service charges, tips, and vat to the already high prices.

There's a good reason why Hyatt Baha Mar was never a success even before Covid hit. Wealthy travelers for the most part are used the finer things in life and are willing to pay lots of money for a very high quality product. Middle class travelers working within a budget, often don't mind paying for a mediocre product if it is cost effective. . Unfortunately, the Hyatt Baha Mar charges a lot of money for a very mediocre product.

.

seawolf

I guess to each their own. I went there two years ago, enjoyed it and planning another trip again. More convenient than going to Cancun/Aruba/Hawaii and not a big fan of Miami/St. Pete.

You mention of it not being a success is exactly why I go; less people. Here’s to it keeping it that way.

​

yelldawg

Okay group, help me form a strategy...

I've been to GH Baha Mar twice before, once with family and once without. I will be returning without family for a scuba trip. Overall I have always enjoyed it very much, but I tend to think of it as a Las Vegas strip hotel in the Caribbean.

When I traveled with family, I applied a suite upgrade and was given a one bedroom residence. Amazing stay. When I traveled without, I did not apply an upgrade, and was given a globalist upgrade to a standard king suite, which severely disappointed. The standard suite was poorly positioned with views of parking lots as much as the ocean, and the room itself wasn't really any nicer than the standard rooms (basically just had a bigger foyer area with a very small sitting area).

I'd love to see an upgrade again to the reserve / one bedroom residence. But I dont want a general suite otherwise. My concierge has never been of use to me (I drew a short straw). Do I use the upgrade and hope that better positions me for a residence upgrade? Anyone else with data points to fill in the success rate of globalists getting the reserve? I'm sure it all comes down to capacity and optimizing the house. Thoughts?

RedSun

With my limited experience staying there, the front desk folks are not the friendliest bunch I've seen. So I do not have my hope high, with or without upgrade certificate. It is more of a luck thing at the check-in.

saint

Thanks for taking the time to comment. I'm glad you enjoyed the review. No, I didn't shuttle family back and forth. Remember we were in the East Tower so we went down anyway each morning and would go back to the Reserve Lounge before dinner. We weren't really going out of the way except to pick up lunch inside as the food was horrible by the pool. I'm not trying to put a positive spin on it. I make no bones about the food and drink costs being very high for what you get. And YES, by all means I thought the food overall was mediocre. A few good meals at Katsuya and Cleo that I thought were tasty but for that price it should be. We ordered off the kids menu because my kids are 12, 11 and 5. To be clear, my wife and I weren't ordering off the kid menu. My 5 year old and 11 year old were. My older child didn't.

As I mentioned, we didn't even use the microwave although we requested one and had one put in the room. Funny about the ramen. I just wanted to emphasize in my review how expensive the place is and I agree it's uncalled for as it's not the Maldives or Bora Bora as you mentioned but priced like it is. We still had a good time but I wouldn't rush back and that's only due to the feeling of getting ripped off on just about everything (taxi prices, food costs, etc).

But my kids really loved the trip. We travel all over the world. Some places are expensive. Some places are cheap. I'm sure I'll be back but this isn't one of those places that I'd feel the need to rush back to every year.