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Overall Review

  1. Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress has a great location, beautiful surroundings, and friendly service. You can even see Disney fireworks from the property. One night costs 15,000 points. During my spring break stay, the cash rate was over $400 per night, and 6 nights would have cost more than $3,000. Redeeming points here offers excellent value.
  2. Breakfast is excellent, but it is not cheap. However, Hyatt top-tier elites (Globalist) can get breakfast covered for up to 4 people.
  3. The hotel has great on-site facilities, such as a beach, boat rentals, a pool, and mini golf, making it a good fit for a family vacation.

At the end of this article, I’ll also explain what Globalist status is and how to earn enough Hyatt points through credit cards to book award nights.

If you’re interested in Disney planning and hotel choices, you can also check out my previous article:

About Hyatt Regency

If you’ve seen Stephen Chow’s From Beijing with Love, you may remember the Regent Hotel scene when his character first arrives in Hong Kong. Hyatt Regency sounds a bit like Regent, but the Regent Hotel in that movie is actually part of IHG. That said, the driveway scenery there really does resemble Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress, and the lobby also has no shortage of glamorous international guests.

As mentioned earlier, I booked this four-star hotel for two main reasons. First, it’s very close to the Disney parks, about a 10-12 minute drive, and it’s also convenient for Legoland, about 40-50 minutes by car. Second, I have Hyatt’s top-tier Globalist status, which gives free breakfast that can cover 2 adults and 2 children ($29 per adult, with kids charged by age, for example $8 for an 8-year-old), free parking ($27/day), and waived resort fees on award nights ($45/day). There are also other benefits I didn’t use, such as early check-in (9:00 am), late check-out (4:00 pm), and complimentary suite upgrades.

Check-in

Not long after we started driving that morning, I received a text from the hotel (shown in the image on the left below). I asked to make sure we would be able to see the Disney fireworks, and that small request was granted. Yes, you really can see the fireworks from both Epcot and Magic Kingdom in the distance at night from this hotel. If you just want to see the fireworks photos, scroll to the end.

  • The hotel’s welcome text and the hotel night view. In the distance, Epcot is on the left and Magic Kingdom is on the right.

We drove straight through the Orlando toll roads without stopping to pay. Another reason we didn’t pay right away is that the toll system there is a bit unusual. You don’t pay at the entrance or the exit, but instead at a roadside bypass area, kind of like a rest station on the Interstate, where you handle payment yourself. Since no one stopped us, we just kept going and figured we’d wait for the bill to come later.

Before arriving at the hotel, we stopped at Orlando’s Lotte supermarket to buy some fruit and prepared food. The Korean melon was especially good. We didn’t get to the hotel until 9:30 pm. The hotel has a gated entrance staffed 24 hours a day, which felt very secure, although we later noticed that Uber Eats and pizza delivery drivers could drive right in without being stopped by security at all.

We first unloaded our luggage at the entrance. Then my wife took my driver’s license and our half-asleep child to check in while I went to self-park. As a Globalist, valet parking is actually free. But our kid had made the car such a mess that I was too embarrassed to use valet parking. Self-parking is a little farther away. You basically drive along the outer edge of the hotel and into the parking area, and after about 2-3 turns you’ll see the lot. The meter at the entrance says parking is free for up to 10 minutes. I took a ticket, parked the car, walked through the lower level of the hotel, which is where the conference rooms are, and then took an escalator up to the lobby. Later I found out there’s also a small path along the outside of the hotel that leads to the lobby.

Once I got to the lobby, I met up with my wife and child. My wife said that after the front desk verified my stay, the self-parking ticket could be thrown away, and after that we could just use the room key to enter and exit the parking lot. She also picked up 6 breakfast vouchers.

Next, a hotel staff member pushed our luggage cart and brought us up to the 10th floor. He warmly introduced the hotel and the view along the way. He said that 2 U.S. presidents had stayed at the hotel and that making sure guests are satisfied is required there. He kept up the conversation the entire way, and that friendliness really boosted our impression of the hotel. By the time we got to the room, we had already missed the Disney fireworks, but the night view was still nice, so I took some photos looking down and into the distance (the image on the right above).

Basic Hotel Overview

As soon as you enter the lobby, it feels very grand. Here are 2 photos, one looking up and one looking down. There are 5 elevators total: 3 facing the lobby and 2 facing outward. I really like this kind of glass elevator because it gives you a nice visual experience while going up and down, but my wife gets a bit of motion sickness and felt uneasy watching the outside move.

  • The left photo looks upward from the middle of the lobby, and the right photo looks down from the 10th floor. The 3 black vertical lines running through the center are actually the glass elevators.

One fun touch is that the hotel lobby has a resident parrot named Merlot, which has become a popular photo spot.

  • Resident parrot Merlo

This hotel seems pretty popular. The conference rooms on the lower level were either hosting meetings or weddings. On Thursday night, a huge number of cars suddenly flooded in and the parking lot was nearly full. Later, when I walked by the conference rooms, I realized it was an Indian wedding.

Room Overview

We booked a king bed room. It wasn’t much different from other Hyatt king rooms I’ve stayed in, and it was still quite comfortable. There was a sofa bed and a fairly narrow table. The work desk was next to the TV. One modern touch was the abundance of USB ports, such as on the lamp base and power outlets. There was also a fairly large LED TV, probably around 65 inches, and it seemed like it could connect to Chromecast, though unfortunately I hadn’t brought one. There was a mini fridge in the room. On floors 5 through 10, near the corner of the hallway by the lobby side, there was also a small room with an ice machine and microwave. As for housekeeping, we didn’t request daily cleaning because of COVID concerns. Every morning we took our dirty towels out and then picked up fresh towels or toilet paper from the housekeeping cart.

The bathroom was quite spacious. Our child especially liked the rainfall shower. The bathroom also had large bottles of bath products (shown below), and they were locked in place, so no one could add anything to them. It’s also environmentally friendly. The yellow Johnson’s body wash bottle was the one we brought for our child.

Food and Drinks at the Hotel

We had breakfast at the hotel’s Lake House buffet. You can also call Lake House to order food. Pickup is free, while delivery costs $10. We ordered once, but found that the portions were smaller than what we got from the buffet. We often brought food into the parks with us, so we mainly stuck with the buffet. Let’s talk about the buffet next.

Lake House is effectively on level -1, one floor below the lobby. It sits along the river and has very nice views. Walk down the spiral staircase to the reception table, give them your room number, and at that point you do not need to pull out your breakfast voucher. A waiter or waitress will then lead you to a table and ask what you would like to drink, usually coffee and orange juice. If you want alcohol, of course you can order that too, though it is not ideal if you need to drive later. After that, you can go pick up your own buffet breakfast. There was a wide selection, the fruit was quite fresh, and I especially liked their mini croissants and sunflower seeds. With the Russia-Ukraine war raging at the time, and Ukraine being a major global exporter of sunflower seeds, I figured sunflower seeds would probably get more expensive, so I loaded up my oatmeal with them at every meal. If every day were the end of the world, I would rather go down with a full stomach. Calories did not seem worth worrying about here anyway, since walking 20,000 steps a day was more than enough to burn them off.

We also figured out how to take some breakfast to go. The trick was to put a cash tip somewhere visible on the table first, then put the food we wanted to take in a plate and directly ask the server whether we could have a box. The server would usually act a little conflicted and say that policy did not allow it and it would not look good if the manager saw. Then, after glancing at the tip, the tone would suddenly change: they would say they could give us a paper bag instead, so other people would not notice. On the first day the server still talked about policy a bit. On the second day, as soon as they saw us piling a plate full of food, they just said, no need to explain, I know, and brought us a paper bag right away, which was very thoughtful. We tried this with different servers and it worked every time. So it really felt like there was a lot of flexibility here depending on how guests and staff interacted.

As for pricing, adults over age 12 were $29 each, and children were charged by age, for example $3 for a 3-year-old and $4 for a 4-year-old. The bill automatically included an 18% service charge, though I was not sure whether that counted as the tip. In any case, we tipped whenever we took food to go. Since we were Globalist members, the bill would get a stamp saying “Breakfast included.” We just needed to attach the breakfast voucher from check-in. One breakfast voucher could cover two adults and two children. Sometimes our friends would come by to head out with us, and we would also cover breakfast for their kids. The image below shows the breakfast bill for our group of four.

There was also a bar in the lobby, and it got very lively every night. Only after I got home did I realize that I had missed one hotel perk: the hotel offered complimentary drinks and snacks in the evening. This was mentioned in the Note section of the email confirmation, shown below. Unfortunately I completely overlooked it, and I am not sure whether it was a Globalist benefit or not. But by the time we got back to the hotel each day, we were exhausted, and with a family in tow, we did not really have the energy to hang out at the bar for happy hour anyway.

Things to Do at the Hotel

As mentioned earlier, the hotel had a $45/day resort fee, though after Hyatt’s recent category changes it became $40/day. If you book with points or a free night certificate, this resort fee is waived. The resort fee actually covered many fun amenities at the hotel, including a free shuttle bus to Disney, Universal Studio, and Disney Springs; 2 bottles of water per day; boating; bike rentals; mini golf; tennis courts; rock climbing; the gym; the beach; and the swimming pools with a hot tub. The image below shows the hotel amenities listed on the official website.

One reason I booked this hotel was those shuttle buses, since using them could have saved us parking fees at Disney. But that little plan was firmly vetoed by my spouse. My spouse is more aggressive about park strategy and wanted to arrive at Disney as early as possible and come back as late as possible, so the hotel shuttle’s fixed schedule was not appealing. In the end, we did not use any of the hotel’s shuttle buses at all.

We set aside one full day just to enjoy the hotel, and we spent most of that time on the boat rental and at the pools. Anyone with preschool-age kids will understand how much children love beach sand and water slides. The hotel had 3 pools. The innermost one, located by the large umbrella to the left of the red-roofed building in the left photo below, was shadier and relatively cooler. The outer pool got plenty of sun. Between the inner and outer pools there was an artificial rock area with the hot tub, restrooms, and gym.

  • The blue pool in the foreground; the lake in the distance has a beach and boat rentals. The pool has a water slide, and there is a hot tub inside the artificial rock area.

According to my spouse, the gym was very good, with equipment newer than what you usually find at a standard chain gym, and it even had Peloton bikes. Working out is not really my thing. I preferred lying on a lounge chair by the pool and soaking up the sun. In Orlando, we often walked more than 20,000 steps a day, so taking a rest day at the hotel in the middle of the trip was actually quite nice. In the afternoon, a rainstorm rolled in, and the hotel cleared everyone out of the pool area to avoid lightning risk. By the time the rain stopped, mini golf was already closed, so we did not get to try it, which was a small regret. Farther into the hotel grounds there was also a very large area with tennis courts, basketball courts, and a grass volleyball court. My spouse took the kids to play some tennis and volleyball. In mid-March, the lack of mosquitoes made it especially pleasant.

How I Got Globalist and How to Earn Hyatt Points for Hotel Bookings

Normally, Hyatt’s top-tier Globalist status requires 60 nights per year. My Globalist status, however, was acquired in a somewhat watered-down way. In 2021, because of the pandemic, the elite night requirement for all tiers was cut in half, so Globalist required only 30 nights. That also meant my somewhat watered-down Globalist did not come with the My Hyatt Concierge service that is unique to 60 nights. Then, from January 1 to February 28 at the end of 2021, Hyatt ran a Double Elite Nights promotion, where each night stayed counted as 2 elite nights. Since the credit card itself provided 5 elite nights, I only needed to actually stay (30-5)/2 = 12.5 nights, which meant 13 nights. At the time, the Hyatt credit card also offered 25% of points back on award stays. I completed this through a mattress run. Specifically, I found a cat 1 hotel that cost 5,000 points/night and stayed for 13 nights straight. In the end, the cost was 13x5000*75% = 48,750 points for Globalist, and the Globalist status lasted through February 28, 2023.

One benefit of booking with points is that there is no tax and no resort fee. The next important question, then, is how to earn enough points. First, you can earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points (UR pts) and then transfer them to Hyatt. For example:

  • Chase Sapphire Preferred (abbreviated CSP; my referral link is https://www.referyourchasecard.com/6p/9UCQPK56ML) currently has an 80,000-point welcome bonus ($95 annual fee, and applying in branch may waive the first year’s annual fee). When I applied, the offer was 100,000 points, which was enough to cover this 6-night stay costing 90,000 UR pts. Besides point transfers and a 1.25c per point redemption value, CSP is also useful because online grocery shopping earns 3x UR pts. For example, Freshgogo, a popular grocery delivery app among Chinese users, earns 3x.

Another fast way to earn points is through the Freedom family of cards, such as

  •  Chase Freedom Flex (CFF) (my referral link: https://www.referyourchasecard.com/18a/DJRLNR0ELX) offers quarterly 5x. You can earn 7,500 UR pts each quarter, and if you max it out every quarter, that’s 30,000 points a year. The CFF also earns 3x at drugstores and restaurants, has no annual fee, and is honestly an amazing card. A household can have 2-4 Freedom-family cards, so it’s actually much faster for earning points than the CSP. The only downside is that the CFF does not have transfer-partner functionality, so you need to pair it with the CSP.

Another card that can earn Hyatt points is

  • Chase World of Hyatt credit card (my application link: https://www.referyourchasecard.com/205f/IEW1NQOEJH). The welcome bonus can be as high as 60,000 points, the annual fee is $95, and every year it also comes with one Cat 1-4 free night certificate. That free night certificate alone can easily be worth the annual fee. For example, on this trip I was able to redeem that Cat 1-4 free night certificate at Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress. Also, I actually think this credit card is underrated. I often receive spending promotions and stay promotions. For example, in both Q1 and Q2 this year, I received a 5x promotion at grocery store, up to $1,500. If you fully take advantage of both promotions, you can earn 15,000 Hyatt points over those 2 quarters. Stay promotions can include things like 1,000 points back per night or a 25% points bonus. So both my partner and I used valuable Chase 5/24 slots to apply for a Chase World of Hyatt credit card, and we plan to keep it long term.

By the way, starting on March 22, 2022, Hyatt changed award categories. Hyatt Place Orlando/Lake Buena Vista became Cat 2, while Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress became Cat 4. That means the peak time rate became 9,500 vs 18,000 pts/night. If I go to Disney again in the future and do not have Globalist status to rely on, I will probably choose Hyatt Place Orlando/Lake Buena Vista for the free breakfast.

Lastly, here are the Disney fireworks as seen from the hotel at night.

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