The location of the Seabird and its partner hotel, Mission Pacific, are top notch. Right next to the ocean, beach, downtown, lots of great and diverse restaurant options. The hotel lobby has a great interior, with lots of sitting places, unique artwork, and statues. Like a slightly modern but homey beach cottage feel. And that’s about where the delight stops and the “meh” sets in.
We travelled during the Christmas Holiday and had a good previous experience at Mission Pacific. So we thought we’d give the Seabird a go. Behind the beach theme with pelicans, surfing, and boating decor, the stay itself just felt awkward. First thing I noticed is the stay never connected to my World of Hyatt app. I was told during check in that it would take about an hour, but it never came to fruition. All the things I like about the app connection; room service, digital keys, easy checkout - all missing. In fact checkout was a bad experience in itself where none of the checkout links worked and so I finally resigned to checkout at the front desk of which I clearly wasn’t the only one having issues because we had to wait 15 minutes just to get through the line. Doesn’t help that their computers were slow, lots of distractions, and maybe a little too chatty.
Upon checkin we were offered sparkling water. But don’t get used to it, another sparkling water the next day was $9 plus fees from room service only. They were happy to place the order for me, but the whole interaction left me puzzled.
For early morning risers, you can do coffee from the Nespresso in your room, but if the family is sleeping and you happen to wander to the lobby, don’t expect any creature comfort. Piper doesn’t open until 7am and a cappuccino will set you back $9. I originally went to work in the library one morning but it was locked. So I sat in the lobby and at 6am decided to walk up the street to another coffee place. All in all it would have just been nice to get a cup of Joe a bit earlier while I caught up on some work and read a little.
Next awkward piece was using any of the Fine Hotels & Resorts credit amenities. Breakfast was $40/person credit but only available at Piper (where uninspiring breakfast buffet costs $55 and includes coffee and juice which is something I guess, but charges full fee for any other coffee drink) they have a $40 continental buffet on the third floor, but credit doesn’t work there. Nor does it work at their sister property restaurant, The Hi/Low. Oh and you need reservations (which is easy enough to do on Open Table) but would have been nice to know before we got stuck with a 30 minute wait or the option to eat the lesser continental buffet in the third floor. We waited as that’s where the credit applied. Food was ok - would give it a B-/C. They have an omelette bar, about a dozen hot items (some well executed like the scrambled eggs, and some not so much like the dry potatoes), some pastries, salad, fruit, cedar plank salmon (overcooked), a lox bar (I guess for use with the the dry salmon, as there was only capers, red onion, and cucumber). All good for going once and enough to make you feel like you don’t need to come back. Unless of course your staying multiple days and it’s your only included option. Next day we ordered off the menu - my lobster omelette I could swear had crab meat or something else beside lobster in it - earns a C. My wife went for the buffet a second time because nothing else on the à la carte menu looked great and we had a kid to feed as well (for which they get the buffet free under 5 yo but an adult has to purchase the buffet). Needless to say the “meh” had hit and the 3rd day we ditched the breakfast credit and ventured elsewhere for breakfast.
Last awkward experience aside from the slow elevator rides (only one of two working the whole stay) as it bounced from lobby to 3rd where most of the resort amenities are, to other floors to 3rd and back to lobby, was the valet. The second morning I came down to run some errands and had texted my code to the valet. Said high to staff in the lobby, and then went to find my car - not there. About a total of 10 minutes went by since the text, and finally, one of the staff members I had just seen chatting in the lobby popped out the valet door. He asked if I needed anything and I mentioned calling the car. He then took the device out of his pocket and to his surprise, he had a car to get! So I waited another 8 or so minutes and he finally pulled around. Nice enough, but clearly too busy chatting, rather than focusing on patrons.
The whole experience here was puzzling and awkward. Large resort fees, up charges or lack of simple amenities, restrictions, so-so food. Maybe it was holiday staffing challenges, maybe it was the weather, and possibly just me. But I’ll gladly stay somewhere else in the future. This hotel is not what I’ve experienced at other Hyatt properties, nor bookings through Amex. About the only thing that went right in the end was hitting the next loyalty level with Hyatt which did register in the app 24 hours after checking out. Go figure.
