Hyatt Regency Grand Reserve - Newly Opened With Potential

I stayed here with wife and kids, parents, and brother's family in late December. It was a mostly very good stay, though I could tell that the resort hasn't yet fully hit its stride. There was still some relatively minor work being done to the property during our stay. For example, when we pulled up, the porte cochère was being painted; the spa is still under renovation; a bar near the lobby opened during our stay; a taco truck parked near the beach opened on our last day; and a bunch of the common areas are still being painted as well. Otherwise, the resort looks to be largely finished and the hard product is generally quite nice.

I think that we only got a taste of the full range of activities/amenities that the resort will offer. One example is that on our walk out of the property on the last day I saw a group workout session happening on one of the lawns. That being said, there were some fun activities/amenities of which we were able to partake: a screening of one of The Incredibles movies for the kids one night (replete with popcorn), live music in the evening at the lobby bar, children's activities by the pool, etc.

Apologies for the annoyingly rotated pictures - if someone can explain to me how to rotate them int he review, I will do so.

The resort is at the Northern tip of a peninsula that is part of the Coco Beach (now rebranded as Grand Reserve) master planned community. It's about a 30-minute drive from SJU and 10 minutes off the main road, where there are a couple dining options such as Punto Latino and El Verde BBQ (I recommend the latter).

The entrance to the hotel is beautiful. The common areas are all open air buildings with high ceilings, water with koi on either side of the walkways, nice lighting, new tile flooring, etc.

Altogether we were 6 adults and 4 children under 5. We booked 3 rooms and checked in around 2pm, after arriving via a limo van. I booked my room with points and the two other rooms via Guest of Honor. Two of the rooms were ready at check in (mine was upgraded to an oceanfront room but neither of the GOH bookings was upgraded), and the third one wasn’t ready until approximately 4:30pm. Globalist benefits seem to consist solely of the standard items: waived 18% amenity fee, Regency Club access, free parking on award stays (I had to remind them upon checkout), but no free breakfast in the restaurant.

After checking in, we were taken with our luggage by golf cart to our rooms. The bellmen were polished and friendly.

I had requested cribs in two of the rooms at the time of reservation, then again at check-in. When we got to our rooms there were no cribs. I called the front desk a couple hours later to request the cribs again. They didn’t arrive in the rooms until ~7pm, after I followed up again in the Regency Club. It ended up being fine as our babies didn’t go to sleep until later due to excitement, but it would normally be problematic for my daughter.

The rooms are fairly large (as described on the website) and well-designed, with plugs by the bed, various lighting options, and storage that’s decent but unenclosed. Blackout curtains are on offset tracks, so they overlap where they meet and keep out all light, which is nice for sleeping in or midday naps. All rooms have outdoor space with seating and a small table. The oceanfront rooms have larger outdoor spaces than the garden view rooms, and I found it really nice to sit on the patio overlooking the beach. There is strangely no door handle on the outside of the patio sliders, which makes opening it to get back inside a little difficult. The 2nd floor rooms have vaulted ceilings, which I don’t normally love but for some reason here it works well. Base level rooms have just a rain shower; upgraded rooms have a shower room with freestanding tub, rain shower, and handheld sprayer. None of the bathrooms that I saw had a towel hook or rack. A pretty large oversight that I’d hope will be quickly be rectified. The AC works very well but was extremely loud when blowing (in all our rooms).

F&B on the resort was hit or miss.

Over the course of several lunches and dinners, we tried most everything at Water’s Edge, the casual breakfast, lunch, and, and dinner restaurant closest to the pool. Unfortunately the burger is the best thing on the menu, which isn’t a fantastic option if trying to eat even moderately healthily. The churrasco was pretty good as well. Despite the proximity to the sea, the seafood was a major weak point on the menu.

After settling into our rooms on the first day, we went to Water's Edge and ordered coffees and a variety of sandwiches and salads. Our server at lunch was quite grumpy, but our dinner waitress was very friendly and enthusiastic. Both instances were very slow - coffee at lunch and simple drinks at dinner took 10-15 minutes to arrive after ordering. At our second dinner at Water’s Edge, the waitress (who was very sweet) simply didn’t bring my entree. Again, it ended up fine as I finished what the kids didn’t eat and wasn’t terribly hungry to begin with.

The steakhouse, Prime 787, was closed while we were there, but it’s apparently opening again in a day or two.

We tried to eat at Nori, the Japanese restaurant on the second night but were told it was booked up, so made a reservation for the following night. I frankly went in with low expectations given our experiences at Water's Edge, but I was very pleasantly surprised. Basically everything we ordered was tasty and well-presented. The atmosphere was also significantly better than Water's Edge. Our server, Luis, was excellent - he knew the menu well, he was friendly and engaging, and he took very good care of our kids by making sure that their food came out quickly.

Water's Edge Dinner Menu

Prime 787 Menus

Nori Menus

The pool area is wonderful. It’s expansive, with nice views, lots of comfortable loungers and cabanas (which were free the first 2 days and then started to go for $100/day we were told). There is a swim-up bar, built-in water loungers, and several jacuzzis in the middle of the pool. There are a bunch of pool toys to borrow and also rent - noodles and balls seem to be free while inflatable pool toys seemed to be $10 for the day. There is sunscreen for sale.

There is not only a shallow area for kids on one end of the pool, but also an adjacent gated play area with turf, a little slide, a piece of balance equipment, a big table for art projects (there is a staff member there to help guide the kids), and a bathroom.

The pool shack where you pick up towels and borrow/rent things also has a ping pong table, large Jenga, a dominoes table, and a large Connect Four rack.

The beach is quite a bit nicer than I was expecting given some of the reviews I’d read. There are lots of palm trees, a nice stretch of sand (a little rocky) with plenty of umbrellas and loungers, and the water is very calm as there is a reef about 200 meters out. One of the employees warned that the reef is covered in sea urchins, so careful swimming out to there without decent water shoes.

The Regency Club hosts the Globalist breakfast, which is a weak spread. Some pineapple, cantaloupe, a couple pastries, hard boiled eggs, some cold cuts, bagels, and toast. The "main carb" rotated each day - pancakes, waffles, french toast.

Throughout the day there are some light snacks such as mixed nuts, oatmeal raisin or chocolate chip cookies, granola bars, small boxes of breakfast cereal, and dried fruit. There is also a beer/wine honor bar. Beer is $4, wine is $8. They were policing access to the club, which is good, particularly since the footprint is pretty small.

This is a perfectly good resort to spend a few days by the pool relaxing. You don't come here specifically for the beach, but it's a nice feature to which you have access. At 12,000 points per night, it is absolutely worth it.