Hyatt Regency Orlando Review – Great Location For Universal Studios

Hyatt Regency Orlando Review – Great Location For Universal Studios

My overall Hyatt Regency Orlando review is that it’s “quite good”, on the cusp of “great”. My wife and I recently stayed at this property for 2 nights. We didn’t really know what to expect and hadn’t looked at any pictures before our arrival. We went off of a recommendation, and it was more than we’d expected in many ways. The place is massive, to say the least. My Hyatt Regency Orlando review will cover the property—such as the services and amenities, plus the room, of course—and the service from staff. First, let’s look at how to book and what it costs.

Booking Process

The Hyatt Regency Orlando is a category 3 property. We booked this property for 2 nights using a category 1-4 free night award from my account and 12,000 points from my wife’s account. As I’ve mentioned previously, when staying at a Hyatt brand one of us hasn’t been to before, we make sure to split the reservation to get brand credit for that person. Even though I’m a Globalist and my wife isn’t, it makes sense. She left the hotel with a free night award because of this strategy (her first stay at a Hyatt Regency property).

The cash price for the “member rate” on the nights we stayed was $169 per night. For 12,000 points per night, that’s a value of 1.41 cents per point. That is on par with the average from our valuation of Hyatt points.

We stayed at this hotel from Shawn’s recommendation for a good Hyatt property near Universal Studios, and it was a quality recommendation. You can hear a comparison of Hyatt properties in Orlando in this episode of the MtM podcast.

Hyatt Regency Orlando Review

Now that we’ve booked, what was staying at the hotel like? My Hyatt Regency Orlando review will cover the location, facilities inside & outside, and of course the bedroom.

Location

The Hyatt Regency Orlando is right next to the Orange County Convention Center and is close to Sea World (5min drive) & Universal Studios Orlando (12-15min drive). It’s on the west side of Orlando and is also close to tons of shopping & other activities.

Lobby & Public Areas

To be blunt: the lobby is huge and beautiful. We liked it a lot. It makes a great first impression on arrival, and it felt massive every time we passed through.

Within the hotel itself, there is a ton of space. Everything is big and open. The walkways to the restaurants and continuing on to the convention center were really wide and tall. Everything felt airy. A drawback to this was the fact that the lobby area felt very loud around dinner time, due to the noise coming from the main restaurant.

There are multiple doors from the valet/arrival area into the lobby, which avoids people blocking your path. Ample signage throughout the hotel tells you where things area.

There are shops and a fitness center, though we visited neither of these.

Restaurants

There are multiple restaurants at the property. The main restaurant is to the left of the entrance, past the elevators for Tower 2. It serves Americana and steaks, with an upscale feel.

In Tower 1, on the way to the connection to the convention center, there is a marketplace kind of like a 7-11 and also a diner.

As a Globalist, we received vouchers that we could use at the diner or the marketplace for breakfast.

The first morning, we ate at the B-Line Diner. We looked at the menu options in the marketplace and didn’t see any vegan options, so we went to the diner instead. They had clearly labeled vegan options on the menu, which was nice. I wanted a picture of the menu, but the employee snatched it away too quickly.

My wife and I both ordered the breakfast burrito. It was a good size, but it was “beyond flavorless” to be perfectly honest. It never even encountered 1 salt crystal before coming to our table. We ate out of hunger, but I didn’t enjoy it at all. Zero. It needed a lot of hot sauce and salsa to make it resemble something with flavor.

On the 2nd morning, we had some donuts we bought at Voodoo Doughnuts in Universal City Walk the night before. Since we weren’t worried about food, we went to the marketplace for a coffee and a juice. Surprisingly, the “juice” included bottled juices from the shelf. We took those with us to the park and drank our coffee / ate the donuts in the seating area outside while waiting for our Uber to the park. The marketplace has a good number of options for eating now or taking away. Quality was on par with what you’d expect.

Outdoor Areas

There are 2 main areas I want to highlight here. First, there’s a huge pool area including a giant slide. It was pretty full every time we passed by. We didn’t use it, but it looked great and definitely adds value. After several days at a theme park, a day hanging out by the hotel pool would be awesome for families or even just people with tired feet.

The other area to highlight is the rideshare waiting area. This area has covered benches and is on the sidewalk going to the right from the front doors. Rather than clogging up the front entrance with people trying to find their Uber or Lyft drivers, the pick-up area is off to the side.

There are benches and overhangs to make for a comfortable wait. We thought this was a great feature.

Welcome Letter

At check in, we received a double-sided welcome letter with information about current hotel operations. It covered hours and access policies for the various restaurants, the spa, fitness center, etc. The letter also provides contact information for guests who need assistance, which is handy to have in writing.

Guest Areas

The elevators in Tower 2, where we stayed, were divided by what floors they serviced. I really liked this, because it avoids stopping a zillion times on our way to the 27th floor.

The elevators are spacious; they’re not anything I’d call “beautiful”, but they’re not ugly. The hallways aren’t anything spectacular, but they get the job done. My only critique of the hallways comes from the fact the tension on the doors is really tight. If you don’t hold onto it, the door will SLAM! and we could hear our neighbors’ doors slamming whenever they went in or out.

Guest Room

My Hyatt Regency Orlando guest room review boils down to this: looks simple but is comfortable and has good features.

By the LARGE windows, there’s a small sofa & table. The curtains were a bit tricky, getting stuck when you want to close them but not a big hassle.

One thing I would improve in the room is the fact that the A/C kept turning itself on when we didn’t want it. It seemed to only have one setting: Arctic Blast. Since we couldn’t find a setting that didn’t require a sweatshirt, we turned it off. It came back on later, inexplicably. This happened several times during our stay and was a bit irksome but not worth a call to bring an employee to the room. Just something that could be improved.

Bed

The king-sized bed was comfortable. While the room isn’t overly large, it isn’t completely consumed by the bed. The pillows were good, and we were super happy to have the rare situation of 2 good pillows per person. I only needed one, but a spare is great! Extra points here.

Each side of the bed also has a nightstand with 2 drawers. On top, there’s a lamp and a clock/alarm. This has 3 charging ports, and the side of the lamp has another charging port. Keeping all of your devices charged is pretty easy here.

Views

Even though we were on a high floor, our view wasn’t special at all. It just looked out over the tops of buildings. I had hoped that my Globalist status and receiving a room on a high floor would lead to either a nicer room or a great view. You can’t win them all.

Closet

There’s a small closet in the wall, directly across from the bathroom. Folding doors open to this small-ish closet with hangers, an iron & ironing board, a safe, and a luggage rack.

 

Desk & Drawers

Across from the bed, there is a combination wooden desk-dresser. The dresser has 6 large drawers in it. The chair is OK for getting some work done, but I wouldn’t want to spend all day in this chair. Your butt hurts after a bit.

Above the dresser, there’s a good-sized TV. We didn’t watch anything, but it worked and was easy to figure out.

Bathroom

The bathroom was a good size but had an awkward layout. To the right, there is a sink with a LOT of counter space.

Behind the door is the toilet. You need to either open the door all the way flat against the wall or go partway into the bathroom then close the door to get around it to the toilet and then over to the shower.

The sink area and the shower had their own amenities.

We thought they smelled good and were good quality. Nothing special, but they were good.

Room Amenities

The absolute best feature of this room—the thing that makes it stand out—is the night light. Motion-activated lights under the nightstands and under the cabinet in the sink help you find your way in the dark. It’s not overly bright, and they are along the floor to avoid blinding you when you stumble to the bathroom at 3am. I found this feature amazing. Every other hotel needs this!

The internet worked well without any issues.

There is counter space and a mini bar area near the closet. The coffee and bottled water are free. The fridge is for personal use but doesn’t have anything in it (for free or for sale).

Hyatt Regency Orlando Staff Review

Enough about the hotel property. How were the people who worked there? A nice-looking hotel can be ruined by bad employees.

Prior To Arrival

Before our arrival, I got an email from the hotel manager thanking me for my booking and welcoming me as a Globalist. He mentioned the restaurant hours and that the Regency Club is closed. Thus, he told me we would receive the breakfast vouchers.

I replied to his email saying we were excited to visit and pointed out that my booking was only for 1 night but that my wife had a booking for the 2nd night. I asked if they could notify the reservations team, so we wouldn’t need to check out/check in again during our stay.

That same day, the general manager replied saying it was fixed. He was efficient, and I appreciate that the hotel manager took time to email me himself.

Check In

On arrival, we found the check-in process OK but not great.

There was no separate “elite” check-in area, which is abnormal these days. With 3 employees working the check-in desk, it was slower than expected. I would say the employees were a bit “too friendly”, slowing things down. That’s better than not being friendly, though.

Even though the breakfast vouchers were a benefit of my Globalist status, we received them for the full stay (including the night in my wife’s name). That’s a win!

During The Stay

During our stay, our interactions with staff were limited to breakfast and saying “hello” to bell staff when exiting/returning.

In the diner and the market, we had the same experience. Staff weren’t amazing but also not bad, but they were efficient.

Check Out

On our last day, we checked out early before heading to the park for the day. The check-out process was simple (we had no bill to pay), and we left our bags with bell staff while going to the park for the day.

Where the staff really shined came next: our return to the hotel. We got caught in some crazy rain at Universal Studios. A friendly bellman retrieved our stuff, let us grab just the items we needed, and then put our stuff back in the storage room while taking us to the gym to use the locker room. He could’ve told us to use the bathrooms near the restaurant, etc. but instead delivered great service. We tipped him and also planned to praise him to the hotel manager.

After Leaving

The day after we checked out, I received an email from the hotel manager thanking us for our stay. I replied to his email highlighting 2 things. First, I mentioned that mask & social distance policies were a bit confusing. The signs, info we got, and info on the Hyatt website seemed to say one thing, but what we experienced in the hotel was different. I get that things are changing quickly, but we felt a bit confused.

I also praised the bellman who went above and beyond for us with the wet clothes situation. I wanted to recognize him to the manager for great service.

I got an email that had a rather snappy reply about my mention of the conflicting messages on distancing/masks and then a very pleasant section thanking me for saying good things about the employee / thanking me for saying we liked the hotel and would stay there again. It was very much an email of 2 extremes.

When the stay posted to my wife’s account, it said “0 nights earned”. I emailed the manager again a few days later, asking if someone from his team could resolve it. The front desk manager replied 2 hours later saying it was fixed. Great service, efficient, and definitely quicker than my expectations. I was impressed here.

Final Thoughts

The Hyatt Regency Orlando is massive. It has a ton of space, good amenities for the business traveler coming to the nearby convention center, and it’s also a good spot for people visiting Universal Studios. We enjoyed the 2 nights we spent here and wouldn’t hesitate to stay here if visiting Universal again. The negatives weren’t overwhelming and didn’t offset the many positives. The best elements are the location, wide range of services offered, and comfortable rooms. Small adjustments in a few areas could make the hotel experience even better.