The Male gets no greater thrill than from finding good deals on hotels all over the world. Sometimes I think we go places all the time not because he likes to travel as much as he likes to play around the Internet trying to score the best deal. The strangest things keep him amused… (but this isn’t about handcuffs, is it?) No, this is about the $60 deal he scored for the Hyatt Regency at Penns Landing in Philly.
We took the train up from DC. The cab fare from the 30th Street Train Station to the Hyatt Regency was around $5, give or take. (Hey, the memory is going with age, ok? Bite me) The hotel lobby is very spacious with plenty of places to gather for chit chat or await whoever, The gal at the desk was very friendly and check in was a very pleasant experience for us. She even put us on the 13th floor at The Male’s request. Many hotels don’t have one of those so of course this thrilled me (yeah the strangest things amuse me too…) The 13th floor here is one of two smoking floors, yet our room had no ashtrays. What’s up with that? This has happened to us a lot recently. We called down and some were brought right up, along with extra shampoo and conditioners. I do mean right up. No slacking here among the staff.
The Hyatt Regency advertises wireless Internet here, but that’s a bit deceiving at the moment. They plan to have it in the future but everything isn’t in place as of this writing. No, right now you can only access the wireless in one small corner of the lobby. The gal didn’t give us a specific time frame on when it would be accessible in the rooms, but I got the impression it would be sooner rather than later. I plugged my laptop into the “high speed port” supplied on the desk in the room to get… nothing. Another call to the front desk sent an engineer up very promptly. I have to say that when he came in I had no hope of him knowing what he was doing at all… I shouldn’t judge so fast. He replaced the cord and up came the Internet. Voila! He knew exactly what he was doing and did it fast. I was now able to hook up to my lifeline for $9.95 per day. The connection was less than stellar, but adequate. Mostly things ran quick, with intermittent major lag-age. Hey, that’s better than no connection at all!
The room itself was pretty nice. I mean the color scheme was a bit bland with pale mustard walls and various shades of sea greens here and there. The large armoire housed the 19″ Panasonic TV, with closets on either side sporting wood hangars. That’s a plus. There were 3 big drawers underneath the TV, but I usually don’t bother to unpack for a one-night stay.
There were two double beds with tons of pillow and extra blankets in the closet. I slept pretty well on this bed. Not too hard, not too soft. The main thing was the view of the Delaware River. During the summer this would have rocked hard. In January what you mainly see is a deserted Camden, NJ and sleet. Cold, obnoxious sleet obscuring the wonderful smog. heh. (Sorry, I really don’t like Philly).
The amenities in the bathroom were of the Portico brand and I have to say that I loved that conditioner! I have very long hair and am quite picky about my conditioners. This one absolutely passed the Doc test. Two bars of soap and a shower cap were also provided.
On the spacious bathroom countertop was the Mr. Coffee 4-cup coffee machine, complete with the previous guest’s left over coffee in the pot. The Male and a used bag of coffee in the thing still. Ok, that’s a minor gripe. Everyone has their off days and based on how clean everything else was and how upbeat and on top the staff seemed to be, I have to conclude that this was just an off day for the maid. It happens. I am not above washing a coffee pot in the sink… they could give ya actual porcelain cups though instead of those silly Starbuck-is cardboard things… and two of them would be nice… *cough*
A real gripe though is the damnable low flow toilet and shower head. Garr Arch! Don’t these people watch King of the Hill? They had a really hilarious episode on this very thing. Low Flow sucks and actually costs you more, ya dolts! Besides, I like a good strong shower, not this drizzling crap. That’s going to cost you a star, Hyatt. Sorry man. The water temp was good and hot though.
They do have a pool and a spa, although I didn’t use either one.
The Male did coax me out of bed to go get breakfast in the hotel by promising me a trip to Atlantic City that day. Bribery works. The restaurant downstairs is non-smoking but the wonderful hostess let us sit in the attached bar area for breakfast so we could smoke. For this gracious effort to please the guest (us) she was berated loudly and in front of me by the waiter (who may have also been the manager on duty based on his actions). I kinda let him have it for letting her have it. Bet he’ll not do that again….
The buffet ran around $14 so that’s what we went with and I advise you to do the same. All the entrees combined with the ridiculous $3 for coffee surpass the buffet price. They had the usual bland scrambled eggs, nice limp bacon (really, that is a good thing), cased sausage, good warm silver dollar pancakes… ok you have to butter them and add your syrup at the buffet, that sucks… there were pastries galore and a bagel toaster, along with lots and lots of fresh fruit. Gripe time: If you are going to put half grapefruits on your buffet, then please cut the sections, or in the very least supply serrated grapefruit spoons. I mean really… trying to cut the sections with a butter knife is just annoying.
Ok, so yeah I did a bit of griping here, but really the Hyatt Regency was much better than I expected it to be. It’s a good location being right on the water and next to a really good restaurant (Moshulu), also the ferry to Camden docks here from April-Nov so that’s handy… I have to ultimately go with 4 stars in spite of my nitpicking. Go ahead and stay here, especially for $60…. don’t stay here for anything over a hundred bucks though.
201 S. Columbus Blvd
Philadelphia, PA 19106
215-928-1234
