A short drive away from Lynden Pindling International Airport (NAS), you’ll find a lot of things to do at the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar, especially if you’re into water-based activities. Just be aware of the high food expenses here.

View other posts in this series:

• Trip Introduction: Thankful in The Bahamas
• WOW: Delta One Lounge LAX is Incredible
• Review: Delta One 767-300ER LAX-JFK
• Review: Delta One Lounge JFK
• Fun in the Sun: A Review of Grand Hyatt Baha Mar (this post)
• Grand Hyatt Baha Mar – Breakfast Restaurants
• Grand Hyatt Baha Mar – Dinner Restaurants
• Grand Hyatt Baha Mar – Activities
• Grand Hyatt Baha Mar – Pools and Beach
• Wet and Wild Excitement: Baha Bay Water Park
• Grand Hyatt Baha Mar Thanksgiving Activities
• Review: Copa Airlines 737-800 Business Class NAS-PTY
• Review: Copa Club PTY Terminal 2
• Review: Copa Airlines 737-MAX 9 Business Class PTY-LAX

Booking

I ended up booking this stay all the way back in November 2023, a full year in advance. This hotel is a Category 6 hotel in the World of Hyatt program, meaning free nights cost between 21,000 and 29,000 Hyatt points per night. Our five night stay ended up costing us 125,000 Hyatt points. However, I should note that I earned 10% of the points back since I spent $50,000 on my Hyatt business card, which is a nice feature to have. That means the net cost for us on this trip was 112,500 Hyatt points. Note that when using points, you’re not going to pay a resort fee, which is massive at this resort ($68/night).

If paying cash, expect room rates to be about $400-500 before taxes and fees, or upwards of $600/night when including taxes and fees. I feel any use of Hyatt points that gives better than a 2 cents/point redemption is a good one, and I would far prefer to use points here to stay.

Earning World of Hyatt points

Full disclosure: in this section are refer-a-friend links where I may earn some points for referring. There is no requirement to use the below referral links to apply but note your offer may differ when going directly to the card issuer.

Chase has a couple of cards that earn Ultimate Rewards points that can transfer to Hyatt at a 1:1 rate:

• The Chase Sapphire Preferred card (refer-a-friend link) that offers 75,000 points for spending $5,000 in the first three months.
• There is currently a limited-time offer (refer-a-friend link) on the Chase Ink Business Preferred that gives an excellent 100,000 points for spending $8,000 in the first three months.

The Hyatt personal credit card (not an affiliate link) offers a 30,000 point bonus when spending $3,000 in three months. On top of that, you get 2X earnings during the first six months until you reach $15,000 in spend. At most, this is a 45,000 card for spending $15,000–and most certainly not the 60,000 bonus it claims disingenuously claims. But, on the bright side, if that $15,000 spend happens within the same calendar year, you’ll also get six elite night credits and a Category 1-4 free night certificate.

The small business version of the Hyatt credit card (refer-a-friend link) offers a limited-time 80,000 point bonus when spending $10,000 in three months. The main appeal here is the easier path towards earning elite status (5 elite night credit for every $10,000 in spend per calendar year), but it also gives up to $100 back on Hyatt purchases.

Arrival and First Impressions

We arrived in The Bahamas after our connecting Delta flight from JFK to NAS. Immigration into the country took about 20 minutes as there was a steady line of people constantly pouring into the country off flights.

I know some people prefer to have arranged a car service to get to the hotel from the airport. I think it’s unnecessary, but do know that once you leave the airport towards the ground transportation sign, you’re going to be smothered by a number of drivers looking to take you for a ride. However, I recommend passing by those individuals, cross the first crosswalk, and make an immediate left. This is where the taxis are located and you’ll pay a standard fare. For this trip, we had four passengers and two large suitcases (which cost extra), but we paid $50 for the fare. In theory, duffel bags would have been free to bring on board, so if we swapped out a large suitcase for two duffel bags, we would have paid a little less.

It’s a short 15 minute drive from the airport to the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar.

Posted at the bell desk is the standard taxi fares if you want to get from the hotel to another location. For those wondering, Paradise Island is where the rival mega-resort Atlantis is found.

Once inside, we had to wait quite a while to be assisted, at around 1PM. Go figure that the World of Hyatt check-in line was longer than the standard line. When it was our turn, we learned our only options for a room was to take a room on the 7th floor (described as essentially ground floor, though that’s not technically true) or to wait for a better room to open. The kids were antsy to get to a room, but we ultimately decided to wait to give us a chance to explore the hotel and avoid the temptation to fall asleep–a no-no if you’re trying to adapt to a time change.

We received a text message at 2:30PM that our room was ready. On the downside, I wish they would send an email rather than a text since I didn’t want to be forced to take on roaming charges on my phone and emails are free using Wi-Fi (in retrospect, I should have used a Google Voice phone number and forward the text to email). On the bright side, there is a shortened line to return to if you just need your keys activated. The agent confirmed we would be in The Reserve section of the hotel in the East Tower. Our bags were promised to be delivered to our room within five minutes, but it took over an hour for them to show up.

We did take a small tour around the area. Of course, the first thing you’ll notice is the large casino in the middle of the lobby. Thankfully, the place did not smell of cigarettes–this isn’t Vegas–and I’d say the casino was relatively unused. One fun fact I learned here was that Bahamian residents are not allowed to gamble by law.

I’ll dive more into the hotel features and attractions in future posts, but suffice it to say that this is a huge property, spanning three hotels (four, if you count The Reserve separately), a large collection of pools, a beach, and a water park.

The Room

At the end of the hallway just past Stix (a restaurant I’ll review honestly soon), you’ll find the elevator bank leading to The Reserve. The Reserve is the fancy name they give to the top floors of the hotel (starting at Floor 21).

Once on Floor 21, you’ll find quite a bit of red coloring everywhere. This is unlike the rest of the guest floors in the hotel that have more blue coloring.

We made our way over to our room for this stay: Room 2129. One slight downside to this room is it’s next to an employee room where the laundry is stored, so we would hear the employees entering and exiting that room from our room.

Our room had two queen beds and is predominantly white to contrast with the heavy red theme in the hallway and shared spaces.

Directly across from the beds is a fairly small TV and desk. I’m sure you could tell from the picture below that it just felt a bit underwhelming. That said, we didn’t use the TV much at all in our room. I just wish they chose a chair that has arms that fit underneath the desk to make the walkway a little less of a trip hazard. You could actually see some damage on the chairs arms (unfortunately I didn’t take a picture of it) from all the prior guests who tried desperately to fit the chair under the desk.

On top of the desk were four reusable water bottles. Water refill stations can be found on each floor (where the ice machine is located) or out by the pools.

Also available is a Keurig machine, which we didn’t use.

Lastly, a mini-fridge is provided. I understand that this is a relatively new addition to guest rooms and this one certainly doesn’t have any wear and tear visible on it yet. But I feel the need to point out that it’s narrow. It didn’t comfortably fit leftover dinner one evening (the box had to be placed somewhat vertically, which could lead to spills). So this one is best used for drinks or narrow containers.

What this room lacks the most is storage space. That might seem odd given that there are in fact three closets in the room, but there are very few drawers (just three in the entire room if you count the one between the beds) and there is not a convenient place to put your luggage during your stay. I had to stack the large suitcases on top of each other in one closet just to get them out of the way.

The bathroom is nicely decorated, with a small double sink and plenty of bath towels. There’s also a rather voyeuristic soaking tub for the adventurous types, but you can also close off the divide between the bathroom and the rest of the bedroom.

One bit of a warning though about the bathroom. The choice of using polished marble throughout the bathroom, including the floors, created a potentially dangerous combination. If any water drips on that floor, I found it made the floor very slippery. The floor in the shower stall wasn’t a problem, but rather it’s more of a concern once you step outside the shower, especially if you’re not using a bath mat. Be careful.

Also included is a pretty standard shower. The water pressure and temperature were excellent.

Toiletries were by Balmain.

The room does have a sliding glass door if you want fresh air and note that the A/C does turn off if the door is open.

There is a nice view from the balcony of the surrounding area.

At night, you can see (and hear) the water fountain show from your room, though it was hard to capture in pictures from the room. Instead, I took a picture of it from ground level.

We did receive turndown service, however it was very inconsistent. One evening we received by the time we returned from an early dinner. Another night someone stopped by at 9PM to offer it after the kids had already fallen asleep so I had to turn the attendant away.

Globalist Benefits

If you have Globalist status with Hyatt or are going as a Guest of Honor, expect to receive a welcome letter when you check in. The letter detailed what restaurants were allowed for complimentary breakfast along with the total costs that would be waived.

• Eligible restaurants: Café Madeleine, Knosh, Palms Café, Regatta Buffet
• Total allowed charges (including 10% VAT and mandatory 15% service charge):
  • One registered adult: $50
  • Two registered adults: $100
  • Two adults, one child: $122.50
  • Two adults, two children: $145

While it might sound like $145 will go far, it gets eaten up pretty quickly if you go to Regatta Buffet. More on that in the next post…

You can also expect to receive a bunch of free drink vouchers. Each voucher is good for two complimentary drinks at select venues. This includes both alcoholic drinks and mocktails. In my experience, the card was taken and that was it. Though the official terms on the card say only one can be used per day, this didn’t seem to be enforced and no extra charges showed up on our bill.

If you’re lucky, you might get more tickets than nights booked. That’s what happened to my sister-in-law’s room. I’ve also heard some success with asking the front desk for more but I didn’t press my luck.

Evening Service

If you’re staying at The Reserve, you can enjoy a much shorter line for check-in and check-out, along with a special lounge offering continental breakfast from 8AM-10AM and light bites (including complimentary wines) in the evening from 6PM-7PM. With high prices for pretty much any food, it’s nice to be able to have some way to help offset costs. That said, since I have Globalist status with Hyatt, my breakfast was comped at a few restaurants and I never made it over here for breakfast to check what was on offer. And since I wasn’t planning on having access to the evening service, my dinner reservations each night interfered with when evening service happened here, but I was able to catch the tail end of it one night.

If you’re a Globalist, don’t expect an upgrade to The Reserve. I think we ended up lucky to get an upgrade to this section as I haven’t heard of it being a standard expectation.

This lounge is located right by The Reserve elevator bank, next to the dedicated check-in desk.

There are a number of chairs and a TV in this section, in case you wanted to hang out as you enjoyed the bites.

On offer was a variety of cold cuts and a few different appetizers like a medley of cooked vegetables. Unfortunately, there were no labels on the dishes (and I had already eaten dinner by this point), so I can’t comment much on it other than to say this isn’t going to be a meal replacement if you were looking to stretch the budget.

Most desserts were already taken by the time I came here. I did grab some red velvet cake, which was OK though a little on the dry side.

There are coffee stations here if you need them.

I also was approached by an employee to ask what I wanted to drink. It was nice they still offered the free alcohol even at the very end of the service window. I chose a red wine, but white wine and sparkling wine were also available. (The employee simply asked “what do you want?” so I was unable to confirm the specific types or labels of wine).

Recommendation: Generally yes, but it’s not for everyone

Maybe it makes sense to state my primary fears when coming here and how it compared to reality. First, I thought service culture was going to be poor here. I think it’s mixed—we encountered a few employees that didn’t make much of an effort and seemed to just try to survive the day. However, we also did meet quite a few employees who proudly went above and beyond, which was awesome. In particular, Dominic at the bell desk was incredibly helpful, making sure we got a taxi and making sure we weren’t overcharged for the ride.

My other fear coming in was feeling trapped at the resort and subsequently feeling bored. I’ll admit we came close to feeling that here, but was saved a bit by a big Thanksgiving party that occurred our last full day here. If you haven’t been here before and want to check it out, I’d recommend no more than four nights unless you’re looking to venture out and do other things outside the hotel. And don’t expect to walk to anything outside the resort—you’ll need to take a taxi or bus.

The last thing to take note of is the price. Food is expensive (think $30 per entree for lunch before an extra 25% in combination of VAT and service charge) but I’d say it’s not unexpected. You’re on an island where most of the food needs to be imported. Dining off property could save money, but it will instead cost money going into town, so pick your poison.

If the above don’t bother you, I think you’ll have a good time here. The water park (free admission for hotel guests) is a lot of fun, the beach is perfect white sand, and there are a lot of pools to try out. You’ll want to come here as a Globalist or a Guest of Honor to help offset breakfast and drink costs, and I think the stay here becomes a bit more affordable.

Stay tuned for the next installment where I’ll dive into the breakfast options here at the resort…