It’s almost unfathomable to write that we hadn’t traveled anywhere since visiting Miami in December 2019 as a quasi-babymoon. NSPpeanutToo was brought into the world on March 5th, just about a week-and-a-half before complete lock down due to the Coronavirus-19 virus. We had potential plans to return to Miami during NSPpeanut’s spring break, but with the craziness that was going on there during that time, we decided to cancel that trip. NSPpeanut had already packed her bag, and wanted nothing more than to go to Florida by the time we pulled the plug. We looked at different options and the Hyatt Coconut Point resort looked to have rave reviews. We booked a room for 4 nights, and applied a suite upgrade from NSPwife’s Globalist status. We booked flights on Southwest Airlines, utilizing my Companion Pass that was extended through 2021, and were also able to utilize Southwest’s amazing free changes policy to secure 3 round-trip tickets (plus a lap-baby) for just over 26,000 points – a killer deal.

We took an early Sunday-morning flight, at landed around 10:30am.

We grabbed a car quickly from the National Executive aisle. Unfortunately they had very limited larger cars, and we had to squeeze everything in a smaller Dodge Journey. We arrive at he hotel around 11:30am. They told us our room was ready, but the connecting suite would not be ready until later in the day. That was no problem, we were excited to change into swim suits, grab lunch, and hit up the pools. The room was relatively small, with a small balcony:

We grabbed lunch, despite some rain, at they poolside bar, which had one open table undercover.

The lunch menu was relatively small, and prices were what you would expect from a touristy hotel.

Near the end of lunch, a staff member walked around with complimentary freeze pops, which was a big hit with the kids.

By time lunch ended, the sun was out, and we went back to the room to get our swimsuits on. We received a call that the suite portion of our room was available, through the door in the back of our room. Wow. What a suite:

After changing into our swimsuits and exploring the suite, we headed down to the pools. Most chairs were taken, but we found a couple in a corner. We dropped our things and headed to the lazy river, where we promptly found out that NSPpeanutToo did not like the water. It would be a week-long struggle. Before our trip, I had measured NSPpeanut to ensure she would be able to access the water slides. I measured her at just over 48″ before we left; however, the official height stick showed her at only 47.75″, and you had to be at 48″ to access the tandem water slide. They wouldn’t relent despite the closeness (and NSPpeanut trying to fool them on her tippy toes). At first she was devastated, but quickly learned that the water slide she could go on was plenty big, and really fast.

After some good pool time, we headed up to the room to get showered and dressed for dinner. The hotel had recommended a restaurant called Coconut Jack’s, which was about a 10-15 minute drive away, with outside seating along an outlet of Fish Trap Bay. The food was pretty good, and it was a fun evening.

The owner of Coconut Jack’s also owned Sweet Melissa’s Homemade Ice Cream & Key Lime Pies, an ice cream shop right on the way home. Given the advertisements at the table, NSPpeanut was quite insistent, and we stopped by for a great after dinner treat. We headed back to the hotel for some much needed rest. As we were getting some warm milk from the shop in the hotel, NSPwife ran into one of our neighbors who had two boys about NSPpeanut’s age. We had no idea they were going to be there. It was quite fortunate, as we spent a good portion of the next few days hanging out with them, and NSPpeanut had two older boys to race down the water slides with. Day one was great, and we were looking forward to a few more nights at the resort.

Breakfast was pretty good, and everything was self-serve despite COVID. They did require you to put on disposable gloves before entering, however. The only downside was the lack of variety each day. The service, though sometimes slow, was very friendly, and we enjoyed our morning ritual:

We ate at one of the onsite restaurants on the second night: Mangroves. It was pretty good, but again expensive for the quality. For the last two nights, we decided to Doordash food. There isn’t a lot of good Thai food by us, and Muji Thai Country & Sushi was rated highly, so we splurged on a large spread on the third night. It was fantastic, and the giant table in our suite made this so much better than trying to eat on a bed or makeshift table. The kids were completely worn out after the fourth day, and so Chic-Fil-A really hit the spot for all of us.

One afternoon we did venture off property to visit Bonita Beach. We found a nice lunch spot, Doc’s Beach House. The fish tacos definitely hit the spot:

The grounds of the hotel are impressive. While you can’t just throw down towels on the poolside chairs and leave them all day, they don’t mind if you throw them down for a little bit. Each morning before breakfast, we “reserved” poolside chairs with our towels, and on most days we got what we considered the absolute best: Front row where the water slide that NSPpeanut lived on let out.

I was surprised that they didn’t have a reservation system (like Hyatt in Aruba), and that it wasn’t packed with people holding chairs with towels until closer to 9:30am, but it didn’t seem to be a big deal, and we never heard complaints from anyone about not getting a chair.

The pool scene is great. If you have kids. There are screaming kids everywhere, definitely not a romantic getaway. But the lazy river was fairly large, the number of water slides – and their size – impressive. They even had a kiddie slide for NSPpeanutToo. There was Connect Four on the pool deck, ping pong, and multiple waterfalls to jump through or hide behind. The kids had an absolute ball (except NSPpeanutToo, who continued to not like water throughout the trip).

The Hyatt offers a complimentary scheduled boat ride to a beach, although we opted not to take advantage of it. There is a chipping green, large pond with a nice fountain, and multiple fire pits for s’mores. There were a few lounging areas – more for adults – in various areas of the resort. And the building itself is huge, channeling a southern-style plantation.

In normal times, breakfast would not be included at a Hyatt Regency. Instead, you would have access to the lounge, which would typically have a small food offering, but would be available all day. Due to COVID, all Regency Lounges were closed, and free breakfasts were offered. When reading Flyertalk prior to arriving, there were a number of Globalists who mentioned they were also offered a free daily coupon for food and beverage at the Cool Beans Marketplace. It would have been nice if the front desk was proactive in offering this to us, but instead we had to ask if it was a Globalist benefit when checking in. They stated that they were glad we asked, and gave us 4 coupons, one for each night of our stay.

Cool Beans was very expensive, but it’s hard to complain when getting candy for free. Everyday NSPpeanut loved going in and picking out her one or two candy items:

The S’More Kits were also expensive, $25 for just enough for a few S’Mores. But S’Mores are king in our household, and we had to splurge:

Overall it was a very nice stay. I can’t think of a better place to visit for kids who enjoy swimming and water slides. It was a particularly great place to visit for our first trip since the pre-COVID days. Flights were easy, direct from Chicago. We rented a car (luckily before prices skyrocketed) and is an easy 20-minute drive to the property. The suite was probably the best suite upgrade we’ve had in the United States. There are grocery stores and tons of restaurants just a 10-minute ride away, making it easy to pick up anything you might need. We don’t typically return to the same places, but could certainly see us visiting this property again!