lautaro

Is the Executive Suite the standard DSU on this property or how did you get it?
Thank you!

thucanhho

It is not. It was mistakenly offered before opening. They tried to cancel it after opening but I persisted with the understanding that it was not the standard dsu suite

zoomgirl

Spent 5 nights the Hyatt PDC last week. I was traveling with 4 of my girlfriends looking to get away from partners and kids for a bit. This hotel was pretty much perfect for that.

We had 3 rooms -- two swim up queens and one plunge pool suite. The suite cost me $50/night + tax + a DSU, but it was well worth it. The water in the plunge pool was warm and we hung out there every night given PDC was having a bit of a "cold" snap (ie, 70's instead of 80's during the day) while we were there.

Overall impression: the hotel design is beautiful, and if I was looking to impress friends with my Diamond status, I succeeded. We arrived at 8pm or so and were whisked to the club lounge, served drinks and were able to eat a bit while they figured out our rooms. (Our 3rd room was initially a regular queen but they upgraded us to another swim up room) My friend exclaimed (after some champagne and tequila) "Zoomgirl, this is amazing, is this how you always travel?" To that I of course responded: "Yes, yes I do."

Club lounge: Really loved this lounge, especially for our purposes. Having the full bar at night was really a treat for a relaxing "girls" trip. The breakfast pastries were amazing and so varied. And having breakfast until 11am was nice for moms of toddlers that are finally getting to sleep in. The evening food was enough for dinner for us -- which we did a few times. The restaurants in PDC are great but often we just got caught up in drinking and talking and didn't make it out. Service wasn't as attentive as some Hyatts in Asia, but still really great. We were given Club access for all 3 rooms, which I had enquired about before I arrived. Technically one of the rooms shouldn't have had access (the room that wasn't mine or a Guest of Honor room), but each room had a max of 3 adults so I am assuming we could have gotten club access for 6 if we wanted.

Rooms: Beautiful, though a bit on the "lots of glass with little soundproofing" inside each room for friends staying together. For good friends, it wasn't an issue. Super comfy beds, but on the softer side. Plunge pool room with beach view was awesome, even though I was on the "Beach Club" side -- music is pumping from 11am-7pm, but we really didn't mind it that much. It was quiet at night when it counted. Plunge pool suite would be perfect for people with two kids, as there is a pull out couch in the living room as well as a non-pull out couch that the smaller kid could sleep on. And a door for the parents in the bedroom!

Beach: Didn't really have much of the seaweed issues others have complained about, except a little on the last day. Water was an amazing color and we could always find lounge chairs on the beach.

Pool: Lounge chair situation a bit more crowded, but generally the pools were beautiful. We were really digging the design of the whole hotel, and the pools were definitely part of it.

La Cocina: This is the only restaurant we ate at in the hotel, because the food was really good! No crappy hotel food here. Fish tacos, salmon tacos, grouper salad, all great. And a nice view too. We ate there 3 or 4 times for lunch.

Spa: The spa is amazing and relaxing -- single sex hot and cold plunge pools, co-ed "cenote" pool in the center of the spa, a lap pool and great service. Two friends that got a message said it was the best message of their lives.

We decided to try and make this type of trip a yearly or every other year thing, and were brainstorming other places to visit (Andaz Papagayo, HR Coconut Point and the Hyatt on Key West all came up as possibilities) during the whole trip. The last day we all sort of said, "hmm, maybe we should just come back HERE!" Who knows if we will, but it was really a great hotel for us.

ILuvParis

I was about to do the same thing - checked out yesterday after a week.

We arrived mid-afternoon. The room wasn't ready, but they told us to sit along the paseo (a long, long walk - steps or ramps - from the main entrance down to the pools - it has to be more than 200 meters long) and gave us each a glass of bubbly to drink while we waited.

The property is gorgeous. I recently read that it has recently won a design award, but it kid of reminds me of a Frank Lloyd Wright building in that it is stunning, but impractical. It definitely could use some sound proofing and when it rains, there are drainage issues. Employees are everywhere squeegeeing roofs and common areas.

The rooms are nice, but they could use some rugs - to at least wipe your feet when you enter the rooms, especially when things are wet outside. The bathrooms are large and very nice - with three types of showers.

I agree that the food at La Cocina (which seems to cater everything on the property - room service, pool, etc.) is pretty good. However, the food at The Grill is excellent - we ate there twice. And all the food is extremely reasonably priced, as are the drinks, everywhere on the property. By the way, you can eat anything and drink anything safely here. I ate all kinds of fresh vegetables, drank water and had lots of ice. No issues. The Margaritas are great at all the bars, especially those made by Yesenia at the bar by La Cocina and Irving at the bar on El Paseo (on the walk from the main entrance down to the pool). The piña coladas were boring (huge, but boring - couldn't taste any rum), but the Margaritas were so good, there was no reason to drink anything else.

One thing that surprised me is that the pools - all three are infinity pools and beautiful - are varying degrees of refreshing to COLD, and closer to the latter. I also find it weird that the Coralina Daylight Club is within the confines of the hotel. I assumed that maybe Hyatt was unable to buy them out and built around them - I just don't know, but I saw billboards on the highway from Cancun advertising that they were at the Grand Hyatt. Perhaps it was because it was President's Day week, but there were quite a few children (I know some states have a winter break). So, the choice was the main pool with screeching children (I'm not kidding - yes, they're kids having fun, but constant high pitched screams become a bit much) or the adult pool, which is great in the a.m., with no music at the daylight club and in the early afternoon, when the music starts very softly (and is actually pretty pleasant), but gets very loud later in the afternoon. The sound at the pool reminded me of back in the day when you got to the club at 10:00 and you were the first ones there and the music is booming and echoing throughout. And I had not heard the disco version of Pharrell Williams' Because I'm Happy boom, boom boom boom boom!

We saw no seaweed anywhere and the sand on the beach was beautiful. I echo the thoughts above about the beautiful water.

The discovery of the week, was an absolutely great restaurant about a 15 minute walk away. It seems to be the talk of the town. We told everyone we came in contact with about it and several people we ran into again told us how great it was also. La Brocherie - roast chicken to die for and amazing desserts. We also went there twice. The owner is French and a delight.

I'd go back here in a New York minute.

Reisen

Just wanted to say thanks for the recent, detailed reviews and recommendations. I know those take a long time to write, but they are much appreciated by other travelers preparing to visit the hotel.

dogloverjb

I agree! I am headed there tomorrow and really appreciate all the details.

New to FF

That surprises me. I'm only Plat and got free parking. Did they read through the list of bene's when you checked in?

When I checked out they did have a parking charge on my bill, but I reminded them about the free parking and they took it off.

ILman

Does the Plunge Pool suite have the same great ocean views as the standard suite? Also does every room have its own plunge pool?

Currently booked in the standard suite, wondering if it is worthy to push for the Plunge Pool suite.

One more question, how does this property compare to the Hyatt Zilara / Ziva?

Dsnow0819

I used a DSU for a Grand Suite last winter and was upgraded to a plunge pool at check in. As I understand it, the rooms are exactly the same, just with the pool. To be honest, we didn't use the pool once. It's more like the size of a hot tub and the water was a little chilly. The view was great though, direct ocean view.

I've stayed at the Ziva PV and the GH is much nicer. Its a little smaller, but much newer. I liked the location much better, and enjoyed eating off property instead of at the Ziva every meal. The club is nice and definitely a step or two above any domestic club.

ILman

Thanks! So it is basically the same thing just with a tiny private pool. In that case I guess I will go with whatever has a better view and is closer south to avoid the Beach Club music.

How is the Executive Suite King? Is that something much nicer to go after?

ILuvParis

For the most part, the better unobstructed views are going to be closer to the water and closer to the beach club, though granted, the wing to the right (as you face the water) is further away from it and you'll just hear it without the vibrations.

The red in the pic is the beach club - surrounded by the hotel.

Dcislander

Hotel now offers transport that can be billed to your room. Wiki updated.

Dcislander

Traveling with a family of 4. Hotel transport is $300 Rt from CUN, Cancun Express is $122 RT. Anyone think that it's worth $178 to go with the hotel transport vs 3rd party? Any bad experiences with Cancun Express to report?

Dsnow0819

I've used Cancun Airport Transfers three or four times and never had an issue.

ILuvParis

It's not worth it. There are five or six companies that are highly rated on Travel Advisor, Yelp, etc. and you probably won't go wrong with any of them. My preference is USA Transfers (operated by the Entertainment Plus people).

http://www.usa-transfers.com/