This is part of the Around the World 2015 Mega Trip

• Etihad Business and First Class Lounge Washington DC
• Etihad Business Studio – IAD to AUH
• Review: Etihad Arrivals lounge and Etihad Chauffeur experience
• Grand Hyatt Dubai
• Hyatt Capital Gate Abu Dhabi
• Etihad Business and First Class Lounge Abu Dhabi, AUH
• Etihad Pearl Business Class – AUH to JNB
• Intercontinental Johannesburg Sandton Towers
• Blue Train Johannesburg to Cape Town
• Queen Victoria Cape Town
• Chitwa Chitwa Sabi Sands Luxury Game Reserve Kruger National Park
• Royal Chundu Zambezi River Lodge – Victoria Falls
• Intercontinental Johannesburg Airport
• Review: S(h)ongololo Lounge JNB
• Cathay Pacific Business Class – JNB to HKG to HND
• Ritz Carlton Tokyo
• Japan Airlines First Class Lounge Tokyo, NRT
• American Air Flagship First Class – NRT to LAX

 

Review: Abu Dhabi Hyatt Capital Gate

So this hotel was originally going to be the Etihad Towers, then the Emirates Palace, and finally the Hyatt Capital Gate. The story around the Emirates Palace is hilarious in hindsight, but annoying as hell at the time. I’ll do a blog about it later. The itinerary was, before heading to South Africa to an absolutely incredible tour and safari, to do 3 nights in Dubai and 1 night in Abu Dhabi: 3 nights at the Grand Hyatt Dubai ( one paid and the other two with Hyatt CC award nights) and 1 night at the Etihad Towers in a club room( a splurge ).

Well, as we quickly learned, things are quite different in the U.A.E. during Ramadan, and we thought it best to move the flight to Johannesburg up by a day, which meant changing that Etihad Towers room. Well, after quite a lengthy call to American ( Thank God for Skype and free Wifi! ) our flights were moved up.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Ramadan, it is a Holy Month for Muslims where fasting is a requirement from Sun up to Sun down.  It’s a unique experience and quite beautiful seeing the level of commitment that people exhibit during this holy time in the U.A.E. But, for a westerner, it means eating behind a screen, limited availability of restaurants, no loud music or dancing at night, and not drinking anything in public.  That means during the day in the 111ºF heat you can’t drink water by the pool or whilst walking around.

I’d LOVE to go back to the U.A.E.

*when it’s not Ramadan and experience some of the beach resorts and night life. The people were fantastic, the customer service flawless, and wait, this is about the Hyatt Capital Gate.

I’d read A LOT about this hotel on various blogs around the internet and they were overwhelmingly positive. We booked this hotel for 350 UAE Dirham which is roughly $95. This hotel is ridiculous for $95 – RIDICULOUS!!!!! And we flipping booked it an hour before check-in amidst a major mis-understanding ( don’t book a Gulf resident rate unless you’re a Gulf resident) at the Emirates Palace. So we were grateful. I’d also not slept at all the night before. AT ALL – like I’d been up well over 36 hours at this point.

Moral of the story… Jet Lag sucks, never book 6 star hotel after being up 36+ hours, and Hyatt came through.

We arrived at 1030, check-in was swift on the 18th floor, no upgrade, and we were in the room within 10 minutes.

Up to this point the experience was great! BUT OUR ROOM CLEARLY HAD AN INCIDENT AT SOME POINT!

But, again, we were exhausted and couldn’t be bothered trying to change rooms. We headed in and knew we’d be leaving at 6am the next day.

There is this trend developing, that I think is intended to be sexy, but I find to be overwhelmingly annoying: The frosted, sliding glass partition between bathroom and bedroom.

Dave and I aren’t a sexy couple looking to tantalize each other with tempting bath tub sneak peeks and silhouetted outlines, but in fact two straight dudes trying to not to wake each other up snoring. I’ve seen this in multiple hotels and Dave and I had it once in Jaipur at a fabulous luxury collection hotel. The only problem: we both had Delhi Belly. Those are noises that a sliding sexy frosted window do not mute. No, no, they do not.

We were exhausted but needed some food.

 Room service wasn’t outrageous and it hit the spot. Our total bill at check out was $128 including tax and room service. Not shabby. Now some Daylight pics.

There were little, minor glitches that aren’t really even worth mentioning and revolve around language barriers. The style of the hotel isn’t my favorite, but it’s well done and beautiful. I’m a classic guy. But, if you like the avant-garde, modern, chic style, you’d be keen on this hotel.  We were going to stay at the Etihad Towers and spent a couple hours at the Emirates Palace and this hotel was priced nearly 2/5 that of Etihad and 1/6 of the Emirates Palace. The biggest negative of the hotel is the location. There isn’t much of anything to do around it, as it’s located on a peninsula, but for our purposes it worked great. It is a good 30-40 minutes to the airport though, which I was surprised at, given many bloggers’ recommendation as an easy airport hotel. My idea of an airport hotel is its proximity is so close there is usually a free shuttle. This it was not. But for the price and the stay credit ( Ya, Diamond Challenge! ) it was pahfect!  😉