Hotel Review and Video: The Hudson Balcony Suite at the Hyatt Regency Jersey City

This past weekend was a three-day weekend, as Monday was Martin Luther King’s Birthday. I almost always go away on MLK weekend, last year I went to St. Kitts and stayed at the Park Hyatt St Kitts and the year before, I went to Lisbon, Portugal and stayed at the Sheraton hotel. This year, I’d planned to go to Mexico, but as I mentioned in a prior post, I canceled that trip due to a recent death in my family.

Although I decided to stay home this MLK weekend, that didn’t mean I had to stay at home in my apartment!

Although I decided to stay home this MLK weekend, that didn’t mean I had to stay in my apartment. Rates were fairly low at most of the NYC-area hotels and I chose the Hyatt Regency Jersey City.

Jersey City is super close to NYC (simply a PATH ride or Waterways Ferry ride away), but, when I go there, it still feels like I’ve gotten away from NYC (except for the Manhattan skyline, which is extraordinary – more on that later). I stayed at this hotel in 2016, when it was still a category 4 hotel (and therefore perfect for a Chase annual free night). On that last visit, my room was a fabulous Ellis Suite!

Related: Hyatt Regency Jersey City: Gorgeous Suite & Breathtaking View!

The weather this weekend promised to be atrocious, so we adjusted our expectations accordingly. Saturday, it rained a lot. Sunday, temperatures began in the forties, but as the day progressed, temperatures precipitously decreased and winds increased. Monday, forget it! It was 5 degrees when we woke up. Happily, we had no where we had to go, and chose to make this a weekend of relaxing and staying in or close by the hotel, and that was just fine for us.

We arrived Saturday at 6 p.m. and the hotel was very full, with two weddings and a ballroom dance competition going on over the weekend. We were warmly welcomed at the front desk and I was thanked for being a Globalist member. We were given a King room, as there were no suites available. The room was much larger than a typical NYC hotel room and it had various amenities: among other things, it had a sofa, a desk, a refrigerator (stocked with two bottles of water), in room safe and coffee machine. There were also sufficient electrical outlets throughout.

The bathroom had a tub and Hyatt toiletries.

I liked this mirror/seat  in the hallway, near the elevator:

The second day we were moved to a suite. YAY!!! It’s called the Hudson Suite and it had a balcony. It’s gorgeous. Here’s a video:

This is the living room area:

This is the bedroom:

The bathroom was modern, with top quality fixtures.

I have a few minor gripes with the suite and they are as follows: (1) except for the desk area, there were hardly any electrical outlets anywhere in the suite, (2) the safe was over my head (I’m 5′ 4″) – they should put a step stool in the room or move the safe somewhere lower; and (3) the bathroom was lovely but could use more storage or counter space.

The views from the suite were phenomenal, especially on this Supermoon weekend.

Breakfast was at the VU Restaurant. As it was so busy at the hotel, the buffet was available, but ala carte menu items were not available (unless you asked really nicely, as we learned the second day, when the waiter brought us avocado toast and cappuccinos, in addition to the buffet selection!). The buffet had a good selection of breakfast items and I was happy that each day there was at least one cooked vegetable served. In addition to the buffet, you were able to order one omelette. I chose a mushroom and cheddar omelette that was delicious.

I truly enjoyed my staycation weekend at the Hyatt Regency Jersey City. The personnel, including the  the manager, front desk staff and restaurant employees could not have been more helpful or friendly.

For me, a staycation is even more perfect when the hotel has a great fitness center and I have time to work out there. The fitness center is reviewed in a separate post, but let me say just this: I love it!