The St. Regis is basically right next door to the Park Hyatt and while I was ideally only planning on spending two nights on Saadiyat Island, I figured it was worth spending an extra night to experience the St. Regis. The St. Regis is a category five Starwood property, and cash & points was available,…
Continue reading: Bling it on: St. Regis Abu Dhabi Saadiyat Island
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Are you sure that was a jacuzzi? It looks more like an ice-cold plunge pool to me. Did you touch the water?
Also, it seems your photo (though its a little tough to judge depth) of the squash court may actually be a racquetball court. The former has a 'shallower' field of play.
@ Antonio -- Didn't touch it, though the guy giving me the tour specifically said it was a jacuzzi. Looked like a plunge pool to me too.
The pics of the breakfast buffet are making me hungry. Did you bring any of the Pecan Rolls home? I'm craving them since I saw them on the buffet. I'm too lazy to go make them from scratch the way my niece does. I drive 2 1/2 hours each way to her house on Thanksgiving and Christmas just to get a pecan roll.
Do they have an IKEA nearby? That's where it looks like they got their interiors...
Lucky, you had it right in the first place . I play squash and that's a textbook squash court.
Not that it matters at all, but google both terms if you don't believe me.
That may be the best comparison ever, as a fan of both the Cheesecake factory and In N Out.
Who is staying in these hotels? Are they actually suppose to make money or are they vanity projects?
Lucky
You should try out the La Meridien Giza when things settle down
There were 3 separate areas with cuisines
Continental, Egyptian and Asian
This ones looks like as many choices
Completely agree. It looks like a cruise ship in the hallways. Hotel exterior looks like a mid-rise apt building. Bleh.
It reminds me of a British Colonial room from many years ago, albeit with modern comforts. They didn't do a good job blending traditional wood paneling and contemporary furniture/colors. It is dark and lacks warmth in the space.
One has to be careful when using wood paneling or they'll make the room feel like a washed out study in a beautiful home or in this case, a 1980's Cruise Ship with a much nicer bathroom.
Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but that's definitely a squash court, which is recognizable by its shorter length and service boxes. Definitely a cool feature.
Also, there is a fairly comparable (though not quite as extensive) spread at the Tambo Del Inka near Machu Picchu in Peru, which is a hotel I would highly recommend taking up sometime. It's a category 4 Luxury Collection property that acts like a St. Regis in many ways.
Lucky, Dan and James are both wrong, that is for sure an "arabian" basketball court
I didn't know about free tea anytime at all st Regis? That's pretty nice, I've been doing mostly hyatt this year. St Regis just seems like a big waste of points. Usually 20K and 8K plus 150 is not too appealing. 22K for hyatt is a lot more appealing.
@ mary e. -- Yes, it was about $50USD with service charge.
@ RomsdeAls -- Yep, standard offering at all St. Regis properties.
Lucky, thanks for the review. You used "the Gulf" in the review, however the correct (in historical sense) name is "the Persian Gulf". I would like to ask to please correct that in your review if you don't mind. I've been hearing "the Gulf" from most of the arab countries but it's simply not accurate.
Jeff, SPG probably was one of the first in the hospitality industry to dedicate someone (StarwoodLurker) to be active with their users online before Facebook or Twitter were part of the mainstream. Now with many companies relying on social media a quick tweet or post on a corporate Facebook website can garner some quick attention. Sadly as I think other SPG Plats will say sometimes hotels are not upfront when it comes to Platinum upgrades. In this case lucky knew the rules and he called the hotel out on it.
Squash court. You can tell by the glass back wall not being connected to the ceiling and the "tin" below the bottom red line.
Cheesecake factory? You eat there? When you're in the U.S., you have to lay off the chains! Get some local food! Haha JK
LOL "though for the sake of reviewing different room types I figured it was worthwhile" (to switch to the suite)
Thanks for taking one for the team, Lucky. What a trooper 😉
@kevin - no, lucky was wrong (as he omitted)... the gave him another upgrade for customer service reasons, not because they were at fault.
i'm miffed that some people still haven't gotten it yet. SNAs and standard suites can pull from different buckets. how many more times do you have to have it explained?
Funny that y'all are already having the discussion - opened up to post that it was a squash court, not a racquetball court!
Lucky-
Sorry just curious, will you being do a full TR from your trip down to Chile and South America? I remember the solo posts on your issues in the W Santiago - but a full TR i'm guessing would be super interesting...
@ morris -- For the time being I've only reviewed the hotels since I was just there for a few nights. I hope to return to South America for longer in February on LAN's 787, and plan on writing a more detailed destination post at that point.