Mattress Run - 21 Hotels in 22 Days

Yesterday I mentioned that I was going to have to do a mileage run to renew my MVP status with Alaska Airlines. Well last summer we were running behind on our requalifying for Hyatt Diamond status. It was time for the hotel equivalent of a mileage run - the mattress run. Combining the need for Hyatt stays with the fact that they were running their Faster Free Nights promotion (One free night for every two stays) we decided to just make one long run to get ourselves back on pace. It wasn't our best plan. Here's what it looked like:

Hyatt Regency Scottsdale

Hyatt Place Las Vegas
Hyatt Place Phoenix North
Hyatt Place Phoenix Airport
Hyatt Place Phoenix North
Hyatt Place Phoenix Airport
Hyatt Regency Scottsdale
Hyatt Place Phoenix Airport
Hyatt Place Phoenix North
Hyatt Place Las Vegas
Hyatt Regency Vancouver
Coast Hotel Delta
Hyatt Regency Bellevue
Hyatt Regency Orange County
Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach

Park Hyatt Aviara

Park Hyatt Aviara (2 nights)
Hyatt Regency Mission Bay
Grand Hyatt Manchester
Hyatt Regency Orange County
Hyatt Regency Irvine
Hyatt Regency Orange County
Hyatt Regency Irvine


Believe it or not, I'm still married, and my kids still talk to me. It was touch and go there for a little bit though. It actually wasn't as bad as I make it sound (and it's nowhere near as bad as my wife makes it sound), but I can't say it's on the top of my "To do again" list. There were some highlights:

• We took the kids to see Blue Man Group in Vegas, and got to sit in the front row.

• We hosted some friends at the Hyatt Regency Scottsdale for a day, and had a great time enjoying their pool complex.
• We got to spend Canada Day in Vancouver and July 4th in Carlsbad to compare the fireworks (It's not even close. Those Americans sure like blowing things up!).
• We went camping at the San Diego Zoo
• We got to spend two nights at the Park Hyatt Aviara, which is absolutely beautiful.

And of course, there were some lowlights:

• After the first seven or eight nights, we realized that we were going to need a system to remember what room we were in. If you're looking for a room on the 37th floor of a Hyatt Place, odds are you're a tiny bit confused.
• Having 15 room deposits held at the same time WILL get you a call from your credit card company, and it will cause said credit card company to laugh at you as well.
• Activities from later in the trip were met with a little more skepticism than earlier events. The MLB All-Star Fanfest in particular, may have been the victim of one of my kiddies needing a little more down time.

I know what you're wondering though. You want to know what the heck we were doing at the Coast Hotel in Delta in the middle of all those Hyatts? We had to come back to Canada for a couple of days to attend a cousin's wedding, and there's just not a whole lot of Hyatts in Canada, so we sacrificed and stayed at the host hotel of the wedding. Lori and I dealt with it fine, but we had a great time laughing at our children who were wandering up and down the halls looking for the Regency Club.

Regency Club - I wonder what the look is for?

Some final random points:

• Hotel hopping is easiest at Hyatt Places as every one of them looks the same. There was no need to figure out sleeping arrangements, as it was the same night to night. On the other hand, staying in identical hotels and getting a new room number each night, makes for some really confusing moments. If you go to check out, and you have to make them look up which room you're in, you get some very funny looks.
• If the world could settle on a universal channel lineup, I would be eternally grateful. Phoenix was pretty uniform, but after that the Disney Channel was in a different spot each night.
• Packing up in the morning isn't too hard if you didn't unpack the night before. 
• Amazingly, we didn't leave anything behind. Unless you count the toiletries that we could have been collecting. I do however, have an enormous collection of Hyatt pens.
• Every one of these hotels (except the Delta) included a free breakfast of some sort. You should have seen the looks of disbelief on my kids faces when, on our first day back at home, Mom didn't get up and make a breakfast buffet.
• The most expensive hotel of the run was the Grand Hyatt Manchester in San Diego which, ironically, we didn't even stay in. Our luggage, however, had a fantastic view!

It was an experience, but I don't think it's one of those "Oh those were the days" type of experiences. Probably more of a "Do you remember when Dad made us...." kind of thing. It did serve a purpose however. My wife is now well versed in the details of the Hyatt Diamond qualification rules, and now knows that we can qualify by staying 50 nights total at Hyatts - we don't have to make 25 individual stays. She mentioned something about qualifying next year by moving to the Park Hyatt in Paris for the summer. It should at least be a very yummy breakfast buffet.