Review: Grand Hyatt Baha Mar on Points
We recently stayed 4 nights at the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar in the Bahamas and it was an incredible stay!
HOW WE BOOKED GRAND HYATT BAHA MAR ON POINTS
The Grand Hyatt Baha Mar is a highly coveted Hyatt property and I was thrilled to have the chance to visit with my family recently. My son has a school break every October and so we wanted to take that time to visit somewhere new to us. In mid April (so 6 months before trip) I was able to find 4 nights in a standard room for just 21K points/night. At the time, they also had a Grand Suite King room (standard suite) available so I was able to add a Hyatt Suite Upgrade Award to this reservation.
Which meant I booked the $700/night suite for just 21K points a night!
I have heard a lot of people say that finding availability here can be tough. I would definitely recommend setting up alerts with MaxMyPoint if you are having trouble. The free account allows you to set up 1 alert. I have the Gold account which allows you to have up to 5 set up.
Our suite was fantastic with lots of space. One thing to note… We hate pull out sofas – they are almost always awful. So we had a rollaway brought and it was $65 for the entire stay (not per night).
HYATT GLOBALIST PERKS
We have Hyatt’s top tier status, Globalist, which was super helpful in saving money on this resort visit.
We received the following benefits…
- Breakfast each morning at the Regatta Buffet OR Cafe Madeline
- 2 drink tickets per day to be used any time of our stay
- Late check out upon request (we only requested 90 minutes later than standard but it was accepted)
Usually with Globalist status you’ll receive a room upgrade if available. The person checking us in said they were so happy we already had a suite because there was absolutely nothing else available. This was funny as there were many options still showing on the Hyatt website 🙂 But we loved our room, so no issue there.
SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE
Wow! I was not expecting so many options for activities!
Sports: They have a full size basketball court, mini golf, tennis courts, bocce ball and croquet – all included with your stay. My son and husband had the basketball court to themselves both times they visited.
Pools: There are SIX pools you can choose from. Dean’s Blue Hole Pool is a favorite with kids because there’s a jumping platform (I did this a bunch and LOVED it too!) and you can swim in a grotto that has a fish tank WITH sharks! Seriously cool. But then there’s a bunch of other pools… one with zero entry, one with a swim up bar, one for adults only, etc.
The Ocean: The water was so calm and so blue
Gambling, shopping, bars, a fantastic gym (my son & husband went every morning), a spa, a game room
BAHA BAY WATER PARK
And… a HUGE draw for families… the Baha Bay water park. SO SO SO fun! Unlimited admission is included with your resort stay. And it’s just a few minutes walk from the resort.
Again, there is something for everyone here. A kiddie section with small slides, a wave pool, big scary slides, normal fun slides, seats 2 slides, seats 6 slides, a flow rider surf simulator, a lazy river with waves (very cool!), food options and some shopping (for items you may have forgot). And the cabanas were super nice. We rented one in there entertainment zone. It came with super comfy chairs, TV, fridge, fan, a bottle of rose, sodas & waters and your own attendant to grab food/drinks/ice etc.
A note about the waterpark… I had read everywhere no outside food & drink were allowed. But then other places made it seem like just no glass containers. First day we brought nothing in with us. Second day we brought snacks and drinks in water bottles. Bags inspected both days. So apparently no issue bringing food/drinks into Baha Bay as long as no glass containers.
How overpriced is food at Baha Bay? 2 mimosas was $52 (prices weren’t posted for that mistake purchase!). Burgers are $20ish with fries $6 – $9ish and then add your 15% service charge & 10% VAT and you’ve got a $35 burger & fry lunch.
We did 1 and a half days at the waterpark. It was seriously so fun. On our full day there we had lunch at Umami Burger – the fries and onion rings were fantastic.
FOOD AT BAHA MAR
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room… the food. I had read it was very expensive. And it was. The biggest way to avoid this is to eat at the more casual restaurants (Pizza Lab, Swimming Pig Gastropub, Stix Noodle bar, etc).
We had 4 nights there and ate at:
Shuang Ba – Upscale Chinese. Good but not great and we didn’t get the hype. At all.
Cleo – Upscale Mediterranean. This was our favorite of our fancy dinners. The 3 of us shared the Cleo Mezze Platter For 2 and it was a TON of food. 2 adults + 2 kids/teens could easily share this.
Marcus – Steakhouse. Hmmm. We had heard SO many good things. Our salmon was overcooked. Trying to cut our medium rare steak made the entire table shake. But we thought the sides were very good.
Pizza Lab – Our pizza was fantastic. And super reasonably priced. But then my husband and son ordered a piece of cake & a scoop of gelato to go and that was almost as much as the pizza!!! (dessert was $27!!!)
Breakfast – So so thrilled these charges were covered (due to Hyatt Globalist status)
Regatta Buffet – It is $44 per person. Before service charges. With those it is $55 per person. Yes, there were so many choices. But not gourmet. Just not a fan.
Cafe Madeline – I will dream about this breakfast. From the quiche to the hash to the French toast. It was absolute perfection. I didn’t realize until too late that they also serve dinner here. I wish we’d had a chance to try it. And it’s the CUTEST cafe!
GETTING TO & FROM BAHA MAR
We pre-booked Cheryl’s Bahamas Taxis. We paid $136 round trip and that included a stop at the super market on the way in. In the future, I would only book a transfer to the hotel (with grocery stop). And then I’d take a regular taxi back to the airport. There were always plenty of nice taxis outside of the Grand Hyatt. It is only a 10 – 15 minute drive from the airport to the resort.
OUR TAKE AWAY
We were there in VERY low season. The waterpark was EMPTY. We never waited more than a few minutes for a ride. The pools were empty. And we LUCKED out with weather. It rained maybe 10 minutes the 1st day. Other than that it was hot & sunny.
We LOVED this vacation. Was the food overpriced? YES! But we could have made better choices. It is a gorgeous hotel and we had incredible service everywhere.
EARNING POINTS TO STAY HERE
When you book a Hyatt with points, resort fees/taxes are waived. So our hotel portion was literally 84K points + $0.
What will surprise you is how we earn our Hyatt points. You could of course earn them by holding the The World of Hyatt Credit Card. And we do earn some that way. But we earn most of our points with Chase and then transfer those points to Hyatt. We do this because it’s much easier to earn MANY Chase Ultimate Reward points.
We personally earn Chase points on these cards and then transfer those Chase points to Hyatt for our Hyatt stays:
How we stay 30+ nights a year in Hyatts using points.
