A Delayed Honeymoon: Part 3 – Hyatt Capital Gate, Abu Dhabi

Previous Trip Notes:
A Delayed Honeymoon: Part 2 – EY130 First Class
A Delayed Honeymoon: Part 1 – Baltimore > IAD, & Etihad Lounge

Upon arriving in Abu Dhabi, I opted to bypass the Etihad Arrivals lounge and go straight for a taxi. In hindsight, I should have checked out the lounge. Both to experience my first true “arrivals lounge,” but also to write up a review. In fact, I could have gotten a free shave there. Rookie mistake – I simply wanted to get to the hotel as quickly as possible in order to try and at least explore the city for an hour or two.

I quickly exchanged some U.S. Dollars for Emirati currency and grabbed a taxi right outside. I chose to stay at the Hyatt Capital Gate for two reasons: first, it is a category four hotel, meaning I could use my Hyatt Certificate that comes annually with the Hyatt Credit card (for a $75 annual fee). Second, this hotel is only about a 15 minute taxi ride, about half way between the downtown area of Abu Dhabi and the Airport. As I had a 9:20am flight, I wanted to get at least 6-7 hours of sleep to be refreshed for my full day of traveling to finally get to the Maldives.

As we got closer to the hotel, we drove past The Grand Mosque – an absolutely impressive structure. As is most architecture in the UAE, the hotel was also impressive, with an 18-degree “lean.”

The pictures at night don’t quite do it justice:

Hyatt Capital Gate – Abu Dhabi

Hyatt Capital Gate – Abu Dhabi

Hyatt Capital Gate – Abu Dhabi

The hotel lobby is on the 18th floor. As I checked in, the General Manager was alerted that I was there, and he welcomed me as a Diamond Member. My path to Diamond status was going to pay dividends during this trip. As a Diamond Member, he informed me that they had upgraded my room, breakfast the next morning would be included and I could have a late check-out at 4pm. I was able to take advantage of the first two of those items. The lobby was nice:

Hyatt Capital Gate Lobby – Abu Dhabi

Hyatt Capital Gate Lobby – Abu Dhabi

Hyatt Capital Gate Lobby – Abu Dhabi

Hyatt Capital Gate Entry to Guest Elevators – Abu Dhabi

The room was elegant, and the bathroom extremely nice, with a fantastic rain-shower. I often find the rain-showers to have rather weak water pressure, but this one was great. There was a welcome amenity of a fruit bowl and lots of bottles of water.

Hyatt Capital Gate – Abu Dhabi

Hyatt Capital Gate – Abu Dhabi

Hyatt Capital Gate – Abu Dhabi

Hyatt Capital Gate – Abu Dhabi

Hyatt Capital Gate – Abu Dhabi

It was about 8:30pm, and I wanted to see a little bit of the city. I grabbed a cab to a night souk and walked around for about an hour. The souk was on a river, but was otherwise unimpressive:

Night Souk – Abu Dhabi

I caught a cab back to the hotel and grabbed a meal on the patio of the 18th floor restaurant. While dark, the views were still fairly nice. And the food very good:

Hyatt Capital Gate Dinner – Abu Dhabi

Hyatt Capital Gate Dinner – Abu Dhabi

I was also excited that the restaurant served Almaza beer! I had my first Almaza when I lived in San Diego and a number of my friends were from Syria – and we always joked it was “the Bud Light of the Middle East.”

Almaza!!

After a bowl of pasta and couple Almazas, it was time to hit the bed. I opted for a fairly early wake-up call so that I could enjoy breakfast at the hotel. One issue was that I forgot to charge my devices and sadly there was no business class availability for my four hour flight from Abu Dhabi to the Maldives!

Before this trip, I made two purchases as recommended by Gary at View from the Wing. They were a universal power adapter and compact power outlet. What amazing purchases. While eating breakfast, I was able to use one adapter to charge all of my devices:

Universal Charging Devices

Without a doubt, I’d recommend the purchase of a Kikkerland UL03-A Universal Travel Adapter if traveling abroad. And for any travel, domestic or abroad, I would recommend purchasing a Monster MP OTG400 BK Outlets To Go Power Strip. It’s extremely compact and very light – and provides 4 power outlets. How many times have you been at an airport looking for a power outlet? Imagine asking someone if you could use the plug – and then pull out a power strip that can charge multiple devices for both of you?!

Breakfast was good. There were plenty of choices of breads, cereal, fruits and hot items such as sausage and veal bacon. I had a fairly hearty breakfast, and then took a look at the 18th floor views that I couldn’t see the night before due to it being dark.