Vacation Video
Hotel Review: Disney's Polynesian Village Resort
My Tween's Review of the Edge on the Disney Fantasy
DCL Port Adventure Review: Tour to Virgin Gorda (TT23)
DCL Port Adventure Review: The Legendary Kon Tiki Sightseeing and Beach Cruise (ST45) in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands
Hotel Review: Hyatt Regency Orlando International Airport--Diamond Benefits and Day Use Room
On our recent Disney Fantasy vacation, we stayed at the Hyatt Regency Orlando International Airport hotel twice. Our inbound flight arrived after 11:00 p.m., and originally I had booked the nearby Hyatt Place for 5000 Hyatt points, which required us to take a free shuttle offsite to the hotel. However, after my stroke of luck in December receiving a complimentary Hyatt Diamond status, I canceled our reservation at the Hyatt Place and instead booked a 1-bedroom suite in the airport hotel for 6000 points + $75 cash + 1 Diamond Suite Upgrade (DSU). Without points and Diamond status, this 1-bedroom suite would have cost around $300.We also booked a day-use room after our cruise for $99 since our flight did not depart until 4:30 p.m. The convenience of this airport hotel cannot be matched!
When our flight arrived at night, I took my two younger kids directly to the Hyatt desk to check-in. It was so nice not to have to go outside and wait for the shuttle for a nearby offsite hotel since my kids were so tired. The hotel is right in the airport lobby. At the desk, I was informed we were upgraded to a VIP suite! I was given the option to choose a free amenity (a few bottles of water and some snacks) or extra points added to my account, and I chose the points. Brian and my Nathan went to collect our luggage, so they arrived at the room a few minutes later. Note: the elevators require key card access, so they also had to stop by the front desk instead of coming directly to our room.
Our room was huge! It had a large dining room/living room area in addition to a bedroom with two queen beds. One of the sofas converted to a bed.
The bedroom:
It was like having our own apartment. Too bad we didn't do much there besides sleep! It was late.
The next morning, we headed to the restaurant for our free diamond benefit breakfast. The dining room was fancier than the one at the nearby Hyatt Place, but the food was about the same.
The restaurant dining room for diamond breakfasts:
We left the hotel mid-morning to catch Disney's Magical Express bus to our next hotel destination, the Polynesian Village Resort.
On the day our cruise returned, we arrived at the airport by 9:00 a.m., but our flight did not depart until 4:30 p.m. Southwest has a rule that you cannot check your luggage until four hours before your flight, so we were looking at a lot of waiting around in the airport. And we've done that before, since the Orlando airport has a nice food court and shopping area. But this time we decided to splurge on a day-use room at the same Hyatt hotel inside the airport.
The room was good from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m., but we had no problem getting into our room at 9 a.m. We were upgraded to a deluxe room (I did not use one of my designated Diamond Suite Upgrade certificates for this stay). The room was still quite large!
It had a king bed, sofa bed, desk and a large bathroom with two showers.
This room is large enough to add a rollaway for a 5th person, which we did back in October 2014 before our previous cruise.
Having this day-use room was such a blessing! My oldest son was able to use the desk to work on school work he missed during our trip. My younger two kids played. We rested in the bed. My husband and I both showered. We had the option of using the rooftop pool, but since the temperatures had dropped that day we decided to stay inside.
Our room was our home base for the day. At various times, one or more of us ventured out to check in our luggage, get boarding passes, and bring back food for lunch. The hotel offered us the free breakfast again, but we declined since we ate breakfast on the ship before arriving at the airport.
We would use this hotel again before or after a Disney vacation if we have a late inbound flight or late-day outbound flight after a cruise. I don't mind spending the extra money for it if it makes our travels go so much smoother.
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