Faced with a 12-hour layover in Miami, I booked a room at the Hyatt Regency Miami, which served as a very suitable crashpad for our long day in town.

Hyatt Regency Miami Review

I used an expiring category 1-4 free night certificate from the World of Hyatt program for my stay since the prevailing rate was $270 (this was in high season…the rate can be half that during the heat of summer). It’s a Category 4 property and while not luxurious, it certainly did the job for our long day in Miami.

I reserved the room for the night before our arrival so that we could gain access to our room as early as 7:00 am when our cruise ship arrived at the Port of Miami. So that I was not marked as a no-show, I checked in on the World of Hyatt app and messaged the hotel the night before that I would not be arriving till morning.

We arrived closer to 10:00 am (via taxi Uber) and the hotel was quite accommodating, proactively granting us a late checkout. That’s not something you can count on, but I was given until 7:00 pm (instead of the standard 4:00 pm checkout for a Globalist member) and we did take advantage of that.

Guest Room

We were assigned room 1030. The rooms are refurbished with new carpeting and furniture, which is a pretty noticeable upgrade from a few years back when the hotel really felt dated. There’s a partition separating the sleeping area from a sink area, which is outside the bathroom.

The balconies are non-functional (they are sealed shut). Decent view from the room, though:

Breakfast @ Riverwalk Café

Augustine was hungry (seven-year-olds are always hungry), so we went down to the Riverwalk Café for breakfast.

Globalist members can order off the menu or take the buffet.

I ordered an omelet and bowl of berries from the a la carte menu while Augustine took the buffet (and polished off quite a bit of food). The buffet included mostly Western breakfast items.

The restaurant service was terrible… I just don’t know how else to say it. The hostess was very nice, but the waiter did do anything at all. We finally had to flag him down and he took our orders, but did not bring over drinks or flatware. Finally, I went up to the bar and helped myself.

Thankfully, he must have gone on break or something because Ingrid came on duty and was excellent. The omelet also wasn’t bad.

18% gratuity was automatically added (though note at the bottom it says “suggested and voluntary”). I left it because Ingrid was lovely and gratuity is included for Globalist members. Had it just been the other guy, I would have removed the gratuity even if it was included…

Market

Next door to the restaurant is a market offering lighter fare, coffee, and snacks.

Pool

A big reason for getting a room here was so that Augustine could swim once more (we have an olympic-size pool at our gym, but it’s not the same as an outdoor hotel pool).

While he swam, I sat under a cabana and worked…and eventually joined him too. He begged me.

Fitness Center

We also worked out in the hotel gym, which was a small gym in the hotel basement next to the pool. The machines were old and had seen better days, but I managed to squeeze in a good workout and Augustine worked out too…he wasn’t allowed to do that on the boat and can’t do that in our own gym in LA (due to his young age), so this was a treat for him.

The Accident

As we were walking out to catch an Uber to Little Havana, a van picking up an American Airlines crew ran into a car right in front of us. The woman driving the van and the man began arguing in Spanish and tempers flared. but it was the woman’s fault…she ran right into him. He was parked!

CONCLUSION

I quite appreciated my stay here and found great value in having use of this hotel for the day. The breakfast was fine, the room was clean, the fitness center was functional, and my son loved the pool. No, this hotel is hardly the lap of luxury, but I was grateful for it.

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