After our Andaz San Diego hotel stay, we moved over to the Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego. While I had no preconceived notions of Andaz, the Manchester Grand Hyatt is a place I know by reputation after the bitter California Proposition 8 anti-gay marriage legislation passed in November 2008, which ruled gay marriage unconstitutional. One of the financial backers of California Proposition 8 was San Diego real estate developer Doug Manchester for whom the Grand Hyatt hotel is named. The LGBT led boycott of the Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego hotel was a major issue in 2009 and 2010. Doug Manchester sold the Manchester Grand Hyatt in 2011 for $570 million.
Manchester Grand Hyatt is the second largest hotel in California at 1,625 rooms in the older 1992 Harbor Tower (40 floors and 875 rooms) and newer 2003 Seaport Tower (34 floors and 750 rooms). Hilton San Francisco is the only hotel in California with more rooms.
Harbor Tower at 497 feet is the tallest building on the waterfront in California and the third tallest building in San Diego. Seaport Tower is 446 feet.
Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel Reservation
Christmas week was one of the lowest rates of the year for the hotel. I booked a standard room at $111.20 using Hyatt’s ‘My Elite Rate’ for a 20% discount on the low $139 regular Hyatt rate. ‘My Elite Rate’ was a promotional Hyatt offer for 20% off BAR for Hyatt Gold Passport Platinum and Diamond members. Nearly every reservation I made with Hyatt in 2014 used this promotional rate. The rate has been discontinued for 2015.
Then I used a Diamond Suite Upgrade certificate for the stay and received a confirmed Conference Suite which had a $122 upgrade value based on the eStandby Upgrade offers after I booked the initial reservation.
Parking is $30 per day for self-parking with in and out privileges.
There was plenty of space in the conference suite for my family to visit and enjoy the room space and view.
The 8th floor seemed low in the 40 floor building until we went to the 33rd floor Grand Club lounge and decided the pool view was better from my room than the upper floors.
Pool deck on 4th floor connects the two towers of Manchester Grand Hyatt.
The Grand Hyatt Conference Suite offered an additional bathroom and pantry with refrigerator and sink. The bathrooms were the one area for improvement. They are the original small size standard bathrooms with shower in tub.
The bedroom was standard with two Queen beds.
Both rooms had large 46-inch TVs.
One of my favorite features of the room was a San Diego map print with different streets and sections of the city marked out in words.
The expansive suite view provided hours of entertainment for me looking at the big city and San Diego Bay at night.
Seaport Village by night and USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier by day.
Manchester Grand Hyatt Public Spaces
Manchester Grand Hyatt is a grand hotel. The place was filled with navy midshipmen in town for the Navy-San Diego State bowl game. Navy won in a 17-16 final. My floor was one of the party central locations in the hotel.
Large wall paintings of pastoral country settings were a calm contrast to the energy in the hotel.
There are two sets of elevators for the Harbor Tower with one set for floors 1-28 and a second set for higher floors. This meant we had to go down from the 8th floor to the other set of elevators to reach the Grand Hyatt Lounge on Floor 33. There is also Top of the Hyatt on Floor 40, voted the best bar in San Diego for its views.
The lounge was open all day for drinks and food. The usual foods for breakfast including smoked salmon and a cappuccino machine. In the evening there were scallops wrapped in bacon and other items. Honor bar beer at $3 is one of the lower priced lounges I have seen. Main complaint about the lounge were the number of children and toddlers present. My photos were shot at 7am. At 9:30am and 6pm there was hardly a seat to be found. Occupancy limit is 180+ if I recall the sign correctly.
The height of the Grand Club Lounge on Floor 33 is nearly the height of the 34 floor Seaport tower.
Swimming Pools
The pool area is a standout feature of Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego. All elevators go to Floor 4 for the elevated rooftop pool deck between the two hotel room towers.
The pool had pool hours, however, the pool deck did not seem to be closed down as evidenced by a large group of Navy football game victory revelers hitting the pool deck at 2am. There were still swimmers in the pool after 9pm at night and the hot tubs were in use by 6am.
There is an adults-only pool on Floor 3 of Harbor Tower, however the floor was being remodeled during our stay.
View of Coronado and Point Loma from the pool deck are the kind of desirable views that let you know San Diego is a seaport city. Hot tubs flanked both sides of the fire pit. Surfboard seat backs are a nice SoCal touch to the décor. Rock music was playing low on the pool sound system before 7am.
Everything about the Manchester Grand Hyatt seemed California beach bum laid back in a formal luxury hotel resort setting.
The location of Manchester Grand Hyatt on the San Diego Bay waterfront is near several main tourist attractions like Seaport Village, San Diego Convention Center, Gaslamp Quarter, San Diego harbor cruises and the USS Midway museum for places within walking distance. Andaz San Diego is about one mile away into the city with no water views. Both Andaz and Manchester Grand Hyatt are Hyatt Gold Passport category 5 hotels at 20,000 points per night. Hyatt Regency Mission Bay San Diego is category 4, however, Mission Bay is several miles from downtown San Diego and a completely different experience in my opinion. I like the Mission Bay and Pacific Beach area of San Diego near SeaWorld and it is probably more family-friendly in terms of activities with children. Downtown San Diego is a heavy party scene.
The location of the Grand Hyatt on the waterfront makes it a preferable location to Andaz San Diego in my opinion. You can walk to the Gaslamp area around PETCO Stadium via the embarcadero marina waterfront, past the Marriott Marquis and San Diego Convention Center to the Hilton Bayfront where there is a pedestrian bridge across the light rail tracks to PETCO and Gaslamp.
The views are good from both sides of the Manchester Grand Hyatt.
You can even see to Mexico from some room locations or the Harbor Tower 33rd floor Grand Lounge.
Loyalty Traveler related posts:
Hotel Review Andaz San Diego (Dec 28, 2014)
Cool San Diego in Warm December (Dec 26, 2014)
Old Town San Diego for history and food (Dec 30, 2013)
Coronado Beach in a Dry December (Dec 27, 2013) San Diego area beaches.
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