👎 Aircon noise from neighbouring building; Long queues for breakfast.
Yet another Year of the Covid* 🦠 Staycay tour hotel ... this time at the Grand Hyatt Singapore! We're booked into the Deluxe Room (King Bed), which is a rather strange name as the room is essentially a suite as far as we can tell ... more on that below!
* Hotels in the Staycay tour:
Raffles Hotel | Capella Singapore | Marriott Tang Plaza | The St.Regis Singapore | Grand Hyatt | The Fullerton Bay Hotel | Parkroyal Collection, Marina Bay | Marina Bay Sands.
Although there was a queue (of around 10 groups ahead of us) when we arrived at ~2pm, check in was reasonably efficient and it only took us about 35 minutes to get the keys to our room. One minor amusement was that the front desk systems aren't linked to the breakfast time slot / dining reservations systems, so the receptionist wasn't able to check on the booking. No big deal as we'd already confirmed it via email a couple of days prior.
Speaking of the room: The Grand Hyatt markets this 581-sqft space as a King Deluxe Room, which really is underselling it quite a bit. I mean, there is a separate living area with sofa, television, and desk ... wouldn't this be called a (non-Junior) suite at pretty much any other hotel?
Anyway the desk area houses the in-room safe, LAN ports (wifi is free and fast, though), and universal power sockets. Aside from the table being glass, which might challenge your optical mouse a bit, you shouldn't have any problems getting some work done.
The right hand side wall of the living area houses the minibar, complete with a fancy-looking Japanese-style teapot (fruits not included, we bought them from Isetan next door). Brewing and then serving tea in a teapot feels much more shiok than using just mugs, for some reason.
Beside the entrance is the walk-in wardrobe, which has plenty of space to store away clothes, shoes, suitcases, and other stuff so that they aren't an eyesore in the living & sleeping areas.
Speaking of the sleeping area: Here it is! A King-sized bed, comfortable, with firmer-than-average pillows. There's also a television in this room, but soundproofing is a little non existent between the living & bedroom so it might not be practical for two people to watch two different shows at the same time. As with the living room TV set, there's a complement of Cable TV channels (and a DVD player), but no straightforward way to youtube, netflix, or cast your own content.
It's a good thing then that the soundproofing of the windows was a bit better, as we were unfortunately assigned a room next to Scotts Square's airconditioning (I guess) area. It's got a pretty noticeable hum in the daytime, which was tolerable for us (when we're not staycay'ing we live in a place right next to a major road). If you're more sensitive to sound, the Grand Hyatt has most thoughtfully provided a set of ear plugs for your napping comfort.
The bathroom is big but inefficient, as there's a fair bit of wasted space. Of particular note is the lack of a bathtub: This means that we had to bathe our little one in the shower stall, which was a little cramped but fine for a short 2 night stay. Amenities were complete (except for facial wash, but no hotel supplies that anyway), and strangely enough even included a pack of bath salts to be used in the imaginary tub :).
While we're on the topic of the little one: As there was no bathtub we requested to borrow a baby's tub, which was promptly brought up with a little kids goodie bag. It's perhaps a little early for my 15-mth old to manage crayons and colouring book, but nevertheless these little things always add up to how well a hotel makes you feel valued.
The Grand Hyatt's Deluxe Room overall isn't completely toddler-friendly, particularly to one who's just learned how to run and still trips over on his own feet on occassion: Plenty of sharp edges around where he could knock his head on, and plenty of electronics and other things in easy reach. Of course this isn't in any way a criticism of the hotel. In any case our little one came away from the stay with 0 injuries after some strategic placement of obstacles to ensure he wouldn't run into the most dangerous areas.
The swimming pool (at the Terrace Wing of the hotel which is being used for SHN guests) is a little far away from the Garden Wing - around a 5 minute walk. It's a great pool, though - salted instead of chlorined, and with loads of shallow wading areas around the perimeter for the toddler to walk around and play with water safely. Time slot reservations were done by email a few days prior to the stay.
The hotel also has a pretty sizeable gym / fitness center, although I didn't visit, and so can't quite comment on how good or bad it is.
Breakfast is either at Straits Kitchen or 10 Scotts, and is a general mix of standard Western and Eastern fare. I understand that the menu across both restaurants is more or less identical - if that's the case then I'd recommend choosing 10 Scotts as it's got a more elegant design, is smaller (and therefore less of a zoo), and overlooks the Valley Wing's waterfall.
On our second day the little one overslept and so we missed our early morning breakfast booking at Straits Kitchen. The manager was kind enough to send us up to the Grand Club instead, a far more intimate dining room, with far better service ... at the cost of having less variety (and in my opinion a bit lower quality) of food items.
Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed our stay at the Grand Hyatt Singapore. The Deluxe Room was spacious and well-equipped, and having a separate living area means that the adults can continue to do stuff normally when the little one is napping or asleep. Long queues for breakfast and noisy aircon from the neighbouring building were a minor annoyances, but by no means deal-breaking especially considering the s$250++ per night rate.
