In 2014, I (hesitantly) wrote a post called, Almost Don’t Want To Tell You About This Place But I Will –One of Hyatt’s Best Kept Secrets.

Over the last few years we have enjoyed going to this hotel many times more and enjoyed a great value along with fantastic family-friendly amenities. Until now….

I Wish I Wouldn’t Have Told You About This Place…

In fairness, we usually go to the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort & Spa after the holidays. Since the Caribbean is in pretty bad shape due to the recent Hurricanes, we decided to go ‘tried and true’ to the Coconut Point Hyatt.

We were greeted as usual with champagne. I love that they let you self-park! Everything seemed really normal. We checked into 2 adjoining rooms on the 18th floor that we booked on points, of course. There were no available suites for Globalist upgrade due to it being the holidays (which is why we went for 2 rooms.) Not unreasonable. We checked in early (around 1pm) which was also great!

Our rooms had a decent view of the new pool! Wow, we were excited to visit it. See, since our last visit, the Hyatt Coconut Point added a lazy river pool with a huge, tall slide.

New pool to the north of existing pools

Existing pools (picture from 2014.)

The Issue

What happened next blew my mind. We got our bathing suits on and headed down to the pool super excited for a week of relaxation in our secret paradise. Oh were we wrong!

We went to get our towels and then started hunting for chairs….first pool, nothing, adult pool; no good we have 2 kids. The new pool, not a single chair in sight. What?!

Finally, after circling all the pools with the kids, we plopped our stack of towels down on the grass and let the kids jump in.

To be fair (again) to a property that we have loved, it was late in the day (around 2pm as we had just checked in.) But, still not one open chair on this vast layout of pools?

I was able to grab 2 chairs finally from a family who was leaving the pool. (Think aggressive hunt for a parking spot on Black Friday.) The next day we knew to come early to the pool. But, here’s where I’m so confused. Obviously the word is out on this place. And quite obviously the holidays are a popular time to go to Florida. Great, I get all that.

Story on Pool Bands

Prior to our arrival, the hotel sent us an email letting us know the following:

I Ask The Front Desk What’s Up

I quickly realized that there were way too many people at the pool. I mean, literally every single chair was taken at 4 pools? So, I asked the World of Hyatt Agent at the front desk. “Are you selling access to these pools?” She says no. “Are you allowing the Hyatt Vacation Club people to use the pool?” She says, “no, they are blocked during this peak time.” I say, “well something is up because I notice that there are no chairs at the pool for us (registered guests)….” She only admits that sometimes people “put more then the allowed 4 people into a room and that it is hard to control.” Huh?

Well, I’ll tell you that this hotel has to get a hold of this and fast!

The next day, I was able to capture the same thing happening to more people as they arrived at the pool…this time with their luggage and not a free chair in sight for them.

Bottom Line

So, the word is definitely out on this property and it was extremely over-crowded (at the pool) but, that may not be the only thing going on here. (It’s not your fault!)

Here are some more issues:

• No one was clearing towels when people left the pool or held their chairs for over 4 hours (per the rules.) I never saw it once.
• There are definitely visitors at the pool (I overheard the people next to us having their local family visit them despite the rules.)
• There are definitely people coming from somewhere else to use the pools. Maybe the Hyatt vacation club, I’m not sure. But, our family was given black bands (as pictured) and I didn’t see too many people with those black bands at the pool. Lack of enforcement or oversight on purpose, again I’m not sure.
• And I did see huge parties at breakfast of people (so maybe there was something to the Hyatt agents assertion that people were packing more then 4 people to a room.) I can’t be certain about that either.

Perhaps the Hyatt Coconut Point thinks that their new pool will bring in big bucks at the pool bar and hence their lack of enforcement. I noticed new rules about “no coolers,” posted but, of course no enforcement as I saw plenty of coolers at the pool. I also saw plenty of people bringing in Panera and Moe’s in big bags to the pool for lunch. So, perhaps their plan to not enforce any rules is backfiring?

Bottom Bottom Line

All I know is that this experience at the Hyatt Coconut Point was way different from what we have come to know and love. It was a big turn off for our family, including our 5 year old who asked us “why we weren’t going to a nice hotel?” Yikes!