We went to Orange County briefly over the weekend to escape the summer heatwave. This 90 F degree heatwave has been going on for over a month. OC was so fresh! Even Anaheim, where our hotel was located, was a very comfortable 85F with strong winds. Crystal Cove was 75F. You wouldn’t know that we were in the midst of a heatwave there.
Traveling with my MIL is logistically a bit tricky, as we need two rooms and she doesn’t enjoy as much her time in the room (but doesn’t like going out much either). And coordinating time is tricky as well. The best is when the whole family stays together in an airbnb.
Originally we wanted to go to OC for a Trevor Noah standup show that was happening on July 30. After looking at the pricing of some of the tickets that became available, we ended up not going to the show. (Most were taken by scalpers but there were some tickets popping up temporarily a few days) We still decided to go on our trip. Our first preference would have been Hyatt Regency Newport Beach, but it went up from Cat4 to Cat5 and it was not ideal for our budget. (We had multiple Cat4 certs this year). I was weighing between Hyatt Regency Newport Beach West and Hyatt Regency Irvine, when I learned that Hyatt Regency Orange County (in Anaheim) has two-bedroom suites. Their suites are a bit old and relatively affordable.
I booked two nights in the hotel using 15k points per night, plus a Suite Upgrade Award, to get us a 1 King Bedroom Suite. And then when their guest experience manager contacted us, I requested a free upgrade to the Two-Bedroom Suite. They weighed at our globalist status, and gave us the upgrade while noting that it was a “one time exception” as they are not expected to provide upgrades to their premium suites. They gave us a third floor Family VIP Suite, which is not ideal as the second bedroom is a bunk bed. We showed up at the hotel to ask if they had any other 2-bedroom suites or Suite+adjacent 1 King Room, but they had nothing else. On the upside, this was the one of the very few North Tower suites that had been renovated. (The other suites are super old. Like you can smell the carpet across the screen.)
The suite was overall pretty dark with only one window on the main bedroom. The couch in the living room area was pretty small and not very comfortable (almost like a Hyatt Place couch), but we made do and watched some TV from it.
