Grand Hyatt Bali, Nusa Dua - Dec 2020 - 2 Nights Stay

We spent 2 nights here during for the New Year's Eve Festivities. We took up our friend's Guest of Honor offert for 1st night as he's a Hyatt Globalist, and we were only holding a mere Explorist status. We decided to extend another night with cash paid through the front desk.

On our first night, we were upgraded to the Grand King Suite with the all very generous Globalist benefit, welcome gifts/flowers/fruits/treats, comp breakfast at any selected restaurants (more on this later), and also got to enjoy the evening cocktail service from 5-7pm at the Verdana lounge as a Club Lounge substitue, as it was closed due to Covid protocols.

There was a limited a la carte menu, where we can order as much as we want on the menu, but they can only serve 1 portion at a time. Non alcoholic drinks are free flow - beverages, juice, teas and coffee and selection of house pour wine. We had some generic brand chadonnay and some local tea with our dessert. Nothing too crazy or top shelf stuff. We really enjoyed our time here, the cheese boards set up had selections of some quite pricey cheese such as Brie and Gouda, as well the entire cake station were open for our picking. 

If you've been to Nusa Dua, you would know this is a gated community, so you have to go through security once to enter the area, then security again to enter the resort gates, and lastly another security/temperature and QR code registration station before reaching the lobby. 

Despite the hectic processes, we felt super clam and relaxed upon arriving at the lobby. Large pillars, sprawling ponds with beautiful lily pads and wild life blended in the surrounding. 

We even took sight of a heron grazing nonchalantly in the pond.

We were greeted with welcome drinks, a few hiccups regarding the guest of honor booking, but was shortly wisked away by an ambassador to walk us into our upgraded suite.

The resort was closed for about 8 months since April 2020, due to Covid, and it reopened in December to welcome guests back, mostly for domestic travels during the holiday. The hotel occupancy was healthily filled, close to 70% during our stay. 

Staff were surprisingly motivated, and the hospitality here exceeded beyond our expectations. What really impressed us were the F&B staff, they really powered through massive breakfast service every morning, at times encountering demanding guests, and yet they continue to serve with a smile without complaint.

Grand Suite

We love the the grand suite that we were assigned to, even though that was the entry level suite. It's spacious enough with privacy provided by sliding doors dividing the bedroom from the open concept dining+living area. The railway setup bathroom was an interesting experience. The only downside was the view, as we were located on the third floor, most of the balcony was covered by vegetation and overlooking a pond which didn't smell very pleasant, as it was a home base for a flock of ducks. Bedding was on the firmer side, which we prefer. Shower had minor issues waiting for hot water, like many older resorts that takes longer for the heater to warm up. The other complaint was the lack of a proper work desk, but I guess most resorts in Bali don't have such set ups. Lastly, don't expect any fancy bath amenities here, they provided some generic branded product.

Deluxe Room

On our second night, we extended using our own status to accrue some hyatt nights due to the double elite night promo. After a few back and forth with the front desk, the front desk manager was firm that we cannot stay in the same room, and we forced to "check out" and "check in" again to another room. They gave us an "upgraded" deluxe room, which a level higher than the standard room, on the highest floor and with ocean view on the next building.

The upgrade, or can I say, downgrade, felt harsh. We had to pack up all our belonginings and move on the New Year's Day! On the contrary, we paid an execellent rate for only 1.1mil IDR Nett which totals to about under $80, and it included breakfast! The front desk also gave us a 5pm late out to move, so we did.

We stayed in room 2428, in the East Village (Building 2). Space wise, the room is also fairly huge for our standard, and we finally got the work desk we wanted. We appreciated the divided space between the walkin bath/closet and the bedroom/living space.

The love pretty much just ends here. Multiple lighting features in our room weren't working, the A/C due to old age had a tough time cooling the room down. Our electric kettle was ancient, and had some nasty brown sludge on the inside, we had to get maintainece to come and fix them accordingly. The shower amenities are of another level of cheaper generic brand, even less ideal than the ones provided in the suite. 

The most hated thing was the toilet, it looks like it came out from the movies in the 80s. There's a lingering putrid lavatory smell coming from it. Most hardware in the room is screaming for some update or reburfishing. There wasn't really any ocean view here, due to the placement of the building. We had direct views of the club pool and the garden though.

As it was peak occupancy, breakfast service was available from 6.30am-10.30am and were served at all 3 locations - the club lounge, garden cafe and salasa verde.

We dined at the club lounge on our first day, it was absolute mayhem. Children running around, uncleared tables, picked over hot buffet and etc. It was overcrowded. Luckily the club lounge was an open air restaurant, but the tight proximity of people crowding around the long lines for the hot buffet was quite uncomfortable for us. The variety here was limited, but we had a decent breakfast.

The next morning we tried the Garden Cafe, and they had a bigger variety. Also packed to the brim, but the staff there were more well trained to handle crowd due to the restaurant buffet station layout. Overall, we enjoyed the breakfast here more so than the club lounge.

Lastly, we had an amazing New Year's Day Brunch at Salsa Verde. They ran a BOGO promo for 600k net all you can eat brunch. That's about less than $45 USD for 2 person, which was an incredibly deal judging from the quality of food they were serving!

We ate a disgusting amount of delicious food, course after course, meal after meal. Every sides to entrees that were served tasted freaking amazing! It was actually one of the best quality brunch we ever had in Bali! The staff were overly accommodating too, when we were too stuffed for dessert, they actually encouraged us to order one of each so that they could box it up and we can enjoy them later in the room. Great value, good tasting food, superb atmosphere with a live band playing music watching the ocean breeze – was definitely a great way to start the New Year.

Kudos to the executive chef for doing such an amazing job overseeing the entire F&B operation and quality. Throughout all of our dining experience, we actually saw him, whisking in and out to check everything, making sure the food and his staff was delivering. We manage to catch a picture of him here during the breakfast service at the Garden Cafe. The hotel definitely has a good talent in their hands overseeing the dining aspect of the property.

Location wise, Nusa Dua is too censored and manicured for us in Bali. We enjoy the local experience, the sights and tasting restaurants and cafe outside of a hotel. We also stayed during the pandemic, so the Bali Collection mall was mostly shuttered and desserted. 

The Nusa Dua beach though was a nice place to relax without the hecticness, since it was private entry only.

Overall, this property offers great value if you have Globalist status to enjoy all the complimentary amenities along with suite upgrades. But for anything else, the tired rooms and outdated hardware makes it a tough push to spend that amount here. Rates are consistently around $100usd/night, while compeition is steep during this period all over Bali.

We personally would recommend this place if you hold status, and travel with family or is the type of traveler that stays within a resort that has everything to keep you within. The value of having larger rooms, and the convienience of having all the facilities close by without leaving the property is definitely a plus. Example - having a beach at your door step, multiple pools, and massive resort grounds to explore.

At this point of writing, the resort is temporarily closed again and will be reopening in May 2021. We can definitely see the resort bounce back to its glory days, with such well maintained grounds, all it needs is more face lift in its rooms.

We love the health club facilities here, definitely a plus when they have all the free weights equipment we need - Squat Rack, Olympic Bar bell, Dumbbells up to 40kg. The indoor facilities here are expansive, indoor squash court, Steam Room/Sauna, Indoor Whirlpool and Jacuzzi, and a entire pool for the gym!

There are 5 pools here, and each are a monster on its own. Only the Balinese feature pool was closed at the time of our visit, which was understandable. My pictures definitely does not do the place justice!

The beach here does not have the whitest sand in the world, but this is definitely the brightest sand color beach you can find in Bali itself without having the leave the main island. Most sandy beaches in Bali are Dark Grey to Black. There is plenty to places to lounge around and it's super clam here, because of the grounds strict security. So apart from guests staying within the resorts around the area, you won't get much crowd and have the entire beach to yourself.

At the point of our stay, the spa was closed due to Covid.

Pasar Senggol as well as the Club Lounge were both closed for service during our stay.