Hyatt Regency Orange County (Anaheim) CA REVIEW - MASTER THREAD
 

Hi,

We're going to Disneyland and got the Hyatt Regency Orange County for $27 /nt via priceline. Haven't been able to find any reviews for this property?

We canceled our stay at the Hilton, where I am gold, because the Hyatt was so much cheaper.

Thanks.

If you mean the Hyatt in Contra Costa, I don't care for this property. It is the only kind of atrium-style hotel I have seen where the rooms face inward instead of to the outside, so that not only is your view of the lobby but all the lobby noise reverberates upward, so it is a very noisy hotel.

If you mean the Irvine hotel, the renovated rooms are beautiful, with original art and comfortable furnishings.

To clarify and expand upon Snorkdoc's post:

1. About half of this hotel's rooms do indeed face an interior atrium, but they are pretty well soundproofed, so unless there is a party of some sort in the atrium, you won't be disturbed.

2. Half of the hotel is brand new; it was formerly an office tower that was gutted and turned into additional rooms. Those rooms are all new, though rather sterile.

3. Contra Costa is a county in Northern CA. I think he/she meant to say Garden Grove, which is the city where this hotel is located.

For $27 (plus about $10/night parking), you have an excellent deal in a very nice hotel. Enjoy.

We've stayed there several times. Very nice rooms, especially the family suites. We didn't notice any noise. Shuttle to Disneyland runs every 30 minutes. You'll be happy, especially with the rate you got.

Make sure you request the North Tower (the renovated one). For $35 you can upgrade to a king suite or for $25 to a kids suite (king room with an adjoining bunkbed room). They gave me the 1500 bonus GP on two Priceline stays.

We faced the atrium when we upgraded to the suite and didn't hear any noise even the hotel was full. If you'll be needing a room with two queens, there is only one on each floor of the North Tower. These all have a nice exterior view of the pool.

BTW, my son visited the South Tower (where the gym is) and said it is a pit. Too funny, I signed up for GP after I got the first $27 PL stay and now have an FFN aftr the second. However, the only place I'll be going before April that has a Hyatt is this one so my FFN is only worth $27.

Also, if you are bringing kids, I hope the TV doesn't freak out like it did last time we were there. I was surfing during commercials and came across low rent porn. I rushed over to the kids room but luckily they were already sleeping.

I stayed there two nights over thanksgiving day weekend, using one paid night and one FFN night. We flew a red-eye to LAX late Thursday night.

When we arrived at 7AM they found one room for us. It was a suite in the older tower. Nothing to write home about, but the fact that they accomodated us when the hotel was full at that hour was great.

Their shuttle is not as good as the city-run shuttles that serve the Hilton or the Marriott. (The Hilton has also switched to the city-run shuttle, shared with the Marriott and another hotel on the way to the Marriott.) They Hyatt shuttle was a big intercity-style bus and takes forever to load and unload, and stops in the areas where the taxis load/unload at d-land. While the Hyatt is the first stop on the shuttle, and you can usually get on it there, getting on it for the trip back to the hotel can be challenging.

While I would stay there again, the Marriott and Hilton are a bit better for the use of the shuttle. Obviously, I felt that I had great service at this property (especially having room service bring me a coffee from the starbucks downstairs while Sarah was napping Friday afternoon.)

-David


[This message has been edited by LIH Prem (edited 01-14-2003).]

I just returned from my trip to Disneyland and our stay at the Hyatt Orange County (Garden Grove).

As I said in my first post, we stayed on a $27 / nt priceline bid for 3 nights. A few friends from San Francisco were also staying there for $99 / nt booked off the hyatt web site.

We were assigned room 803 in the south tower. I had requested a room in the north tower, but the front desk clerk said that there were no non-smoking rooms available. Our assigned room faced the interior atrium and the furniture was a bit run down. We didn't spend much time in the room since we were out sightseeing during the day, so the quality wasn't a big concern.

In comparison to the renovated North Tower, our room was not nearly as nice. We really liked the large windows in our friends suite.

I just read on this forum, that I could have been comped Diamond status due to my Hilton Gold. I think that would have made a difference when I had requested a room in the north tower. I also usually enjoy having breakfast in the hotel while vacationing, so it would have saved us a bit of money if we didn't have to go out each morning.

We found it difficult to find parking at some of the local restaurants for dinner and the wait times were about an hour. The hotel restaurant was almost always empty.

Our total came to about $130, which includes the room rate and parking for 3 days.

[This message has been edited by Tummy (edited 01-27-2003).]

Being a diamond gets you no where at this hotel. I had two stays through priceline in the past two weeks. My first stay I called the hotel directly. I asked them to add my Diamond number to the reservation and made a request for a kids suite in the North tower. I was told they were unable to add anything to "internet" reservations. Upon check in, I got the kids suite but had to pay $25 for the upgrade. I was also told that I was not entitled to an amenity or the breakfast certificates because they couldn't add my Diamond number to the account. When we got to our room, I called the Diamond line and was told that the hotel was wrong and all Diamond members were entitled to their benefits regardless of the rate. I was also told that they've had a lot of trouble with this property and the GM there. They appologised and said they would make a call. Later in the evening, we received a voicemail saying that they would allow us to get our amenity but not the breakfast certs.

A week later we had a stay at this hotel again. This time I called the diamond line and they added my number right away. I also called 1800CHECKIN and requested a kids suite in the North Tower. They got me the room at no additional charge and were very nice about it. Upon check in, I encountered the same thing about no Diamond priviledges. This time the front desk clerk said they were told specifically by the GM that they were not allowed to give out amenity cards and breakfast certs. on "internet" rates. So once again I called Gold Passport and a different CS agent tell me the same thing. They had numerous complaints about this property and there was not much he could do, but if I wanted to, I could call the supervisor back the next day.

I didn't bother because it wasn't that big of a deal to me. I guess it was irritating based on principal. I've never encountered any problems at other properties when I've decided to use priceine. Honestly, the only purpose of the trip was to take my 4 year old to Disneyland. We were rained out 3 days in a row and had to come back a 2 weeks later. If it wasn't for that reason, I probably wouldn't have gone back to this property ever.

I also had problems with inflexibility at this property. You didn't miss much by not getting the breakfast certificates. They entitle you to a buffet breakfast only and it's not much of a buffet. I wanted to apply the value of the vertificate -or even just $10- towards something off the regular menu. Absolutely positively not. Wrote to the GM there about the issue and never even received a reply. SO, we now stay at the Marriott. Their breakfast plan includes a buffet also, but it's quite a buffet and they offered to give me anything on the regular menu without any charge.

I have had terrible experiences as a diamond (only in the past few weeks) and will no longer go to this hotel. I have NEVER heard of a hotel not applying the value of the coupon towards a menu item. No amenities, no points for incidentals, not even a simple thank you. I have let my feelings known to the Hyatt G.P. so if it is not corrected now it will never be as long as Peter Sears continues to work as the manager there.

When I called Gold Passport the first time they told me they were having problems with the GM. I think they told me his name was Dave Sears? Well, whatever his name is, they said that Gold Passport was "negotiating" with him on the issue.

What is there to negotiate? I was always under the impression that our Diamond benefits were supposed to be honored at all Hyatts. I can understand the difference in services, amenity choices,RCs, etc but to deny all the benefits is ridiculous. Also, if they've had so many complaints about the GM and it's obvious he has no interest in doing anything about it..why is he still there?

They also don't give points for incidentals? Well I guess that explains why I haven't gotten credit for my stays yet.

Had a really bad stay there on Monday.

First of all there was a huge convention group checking in ( Home Depot ) with a line at Check In about 150 ft. long and I am not kidding.Bypassed the line to ask at the Concierge desk, if there is any line for GPP or GPP Diamond members.Obviously a stupid question answered with a short NO !!
At least the question was answered very efficiently, the movement of the line did actually not represent anything being handled efficiently...

Surprisinly after 10 minutes the concierge waved me over which resulted in some strange views from the Home Depot line.Some kind of check in supervisor checked me in and gave me Room 1117, unfortunately in the old tower. To my excuse, I was obviously not smart enough to study this thread before.....
Chose the cheese plate and two sodas as the Diamond amenity.They were delivered shortly before 10 p.m after checking in at about 8 p.m
Requested delivery time noted on that sheet was 9 p.m. , but the delay was more than ok and the plate with some imported cheeses, grapes and crackers was nice and more than enough for two people at this late hour.

But the room was disgusting, after a really bad stay two days ago at the SFO Airport Hyatt this was my second bad Hyatt room in a row.I am really not kidding, but any halfway decent AAA 2 Diamond Hotel has a nicer and bigger bathroom minus the Hyatt portico products, which are certainly superior.
Beside that the room was simply old and small, the carpet had so much stains, way too much to count them and I am not exaggerating by guessing that 50 % of the carpet was simply full of stains...

At Check In they promised to deliver the AAA Full Breakfast certificates, unfortunately only one certificate for the cont. Breakfast made it up to my room, which resulted in another wait of 10 minutes to get the coupons the next morning, because from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m only one manager was on duty to help customers checking out....

Breakfast was solid, the scrambled eggs and potatoes were cold, but the fresh fruit made up for that.

After another wait of 15 minutes trying to check out , the same manager who gave me the breakfast coupons some hours ago asked, if everyting was allright which resulted in a major complain from my side, actually the first complain at any hotel in a very long time...

He handed me a complimentary upgrade certificate and promised to forward my complain to the GM with a good chance of getting a free night certificate on top of that....

So my advise would be to go for the new tower or simply stay away.The old tower is a disgrace for the Hyatt chain( would actually be a disgrace for any quality hotel chain ) and should renovated immediately.

Ha Ha Ha

You MAY be given the business floor of the "south tower." (No more free bunk-bed rooms) Sometimes they give amenities and coupons but recently they have not. Parking is always over $10 for everyone when all the neighboring hotels have free parking. Save your reciept since your GP number may just mysteriously disappear from the reservation at check out or even after you leave.

Good Luck

I stayed there last week, for the first time in their "new" wing. It is an acceptable Hyatt, nothing special. No RC, but they have almost always upgraded me to a suite.

I think Irvine is a better property, but it depends on why you are there to begin with. We use it to take the kids to Disneyland, and they have a free shuttle every 30 minutes. This saves about 40 minutes roundtrip, as if you park at Disneyland, you have to take a tram to and from the park anyway (and pay $8 for that pleasure.)

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United UGS, MM
Hyatt Lifetime Diamond
Starwood Platimun