Mom's Vacation Addiction: Staycation Downtown Seattle Part 2

Since we had to cancel our 2 night cabin trip to Snoqualmie, we decided to do a single night staycation in Downtown Seattle instead. It was a pretty last minute scramble to change our plans and decide on a new course of action. What makes things a little harder is that we need a room that will hold the five of us - and straddles the line of being inexpensive yet good quality. I think we met that challenge with our room at Hyatt Place near the Seattle Center!

I found an AAA rate online for our two queen beds room with a pull out sofa that was $162.10. I picked this hotel for a few reasons. It was in close walking distance to the Seattle Center, it could fit all 5 of us with a max of 6 in the room (many hotels have a max of 4 in a room) and it had an indoor pool. As added bonuses, complimentary breakfast is served in the downstairs common area and a free shuttle service is provided for drop offs and pick ups within a 1 mile radius of the hotel. The shuttle is actually a Toyota Sienna van and can hold a max of 6 passengers plus the driver. So if you have more than 6 in your party, you'll have to take turns.

This was our first time at a Hyatt Place. I liked the value service concept. The downstairs front desk agents also serve as the snack bar and incidental shop keepers. There was a small menu of food items available in the room but sadly I neglected to pay much attention to what it said. The front food counter was stocked somewhat like a Starbucks cold display with bottled drinks, pre-packaged salads/sandwiches/wraps, freshly baked cookies, brownie, NY cheesecake, cinnamon scone and a muffin. We ended up having a late night dessert and paid $10.95 for two cookies and a brownie ($$!) and we were offered to have them warmed up - yes please! They were all good though a bit over-laden with chocolate for my tastes. Not a problem for my family of chocoholics! ;)

When arrived early around 12:15 but our room was luckily ready for us! Unfortunately for us, our outdated Hyatt Gold Membership had auto-filled some of our preferences, one of which was "low floor". I hadn't realized this until we arrived at our 2nd floor room and looked out into street traffic whooshing by. I called back down to the front desk and asked about switching rooms, even offering to come back later in the afternoon for one to be available. Not sure what kind of miscommunication I was having with the front desk (maybe they thought I was married to the "low floor" request?) but the only room change they could offer me was 2 doors down on the same floor, still looking at the traffic. I decided we might as well just stay put. Did I mention that they so helpfully provided complimentary bright orange ear plugs on the nightstand?? :)

The view out of our 2nd floor window.

The rest of the room was very spacious and furnished well with comfortable furniture and beds and lots of counter and storage space. The room came with an empty mini fridge, a desk and chair, two sitting chairs next to the window overlooking the traffic, and a vanity sink outside of the bathroom. Everything seemed to be in very good condition with a new looking shower curtain liner and almost new condition towels and bedding. The sofa cushions themselves had a few small stains and had seen better days but considering that most likely there had been other kids (like mine) jumping all over it, that was not unexpected.

The beds were very comfortable and the pillows were almost universally liked. I tucked one up under the edge of the fitted sheet to act as a guard rail so my 5 year old wouldn't fall out of the high bed. This worked! I got the idea from a random Lifehack list online of tucking a pool noodle under the fitted sheet to act as a cheap bed rail.

We made use of their indoor pool for about an hour between 5:30-6:30pm. It was a little crowded when we first showed up with about 10 people in the pool before we got there. The pool is not large - approximately 25 feet long by 12 feet wide. The pool depth ranges from 3 feet 6 inches to about 3 feet 10 inches. My 9 and 11 year olds could easily traverse the entire pool.

In the morning we went downstairs to check out the free breakfast which was included with our stay. It was a decent breakfast spread and more than I was expecting. An iced drink bar offered cold pitchers of milk, orange juice, apple juice and tomato juice. The hot offerings included Belgian waffle quarters, and two separate halves of a breakfast sandwich: one half with bacon and cheese and the other half with egg and tomato on an English muffin. Single serve cereals were stacked on display which was great for the kids. They overindulged in Reeses Puffs cereal, Lucky Charms, Frosted Flakes, Trix, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. A small assortment of pastry included powdered, glazed and plain cake donuts as well as apple and raspberry puff pastry tarts. A toaster and basket of assorted breads along with butter, margarine and jams were situated alongside a big pot of hot oatmeal with raisins on the side. Sliced fresh fruit mix of cantaloupe, honeydew and oranges were in a bowl next to grapefruit slices and baskets of bananas and apples were available. A coffee and tea bar were situated just outside of the breakfast counter with heavy duty plastic mugs and paper to-go cups available.

Overall, this was a good value on a spacious and good quality room. Parking was an additional cost of $22 for our stay - ouch! - but I found this to be a median fee for parking at hotels in the downtown Seattle area. I enjoyed our stay here and recommend it to others. We would come back here again for a future Staycation!