One of the best perks of staying at the Park Hyatt Shanghai
is having complimentary access to its 85th floor infinity pool overlooking the Bund. Upon
arrival, guests are greeted by a dedicated pool attendant and are provided with
towels and a complimentary bottle of water.
The pool has a 180 degree view of the Shanghai skyline and
there are numerous lounge chairs laying around the pool for guests to grab
drinks and snacks.
If you’re lucky you’ll see clouds drift by while you swim, making
this pool one of the few places in the world where you can swim above clouds.
Remarkably, during my stay the pool was usually quite empty,
with most of the guests preferring to lounge around and enjoy the view.
Adjacent to the pool area is the gym. The gym was a bit
cramped and had a limited selection of free weights and machines.
There are also a handful of elliptical machines that have a view
of the Bund.
The gym was nothing too grand, but certainly more than
enough to get in a quick workout.
Breakfast In the Sky
Each morning the Park Hyatt Shanghai offers complimentary
breakfast for Hyatt Diamond members at the dining room on the 91st
floor.
There’s plenty of seating with most of the tables having a
view of the Shanghai skyline below.
The selection was food was vast and the buffet area had western,
Japanese, and Chinese dishes.
Many of the hot entrees are served in an open kitchen format,
and I found the food preparers to be particularly warm and friendly.
The primarily egg based entrees were absolutely delightful
and on par with some of the top restaurants I’ve eaten breakfast at, with my
favorite entrée being the eggs benedict.
While the food was excellent, I found the service from the
wait staff to be below typical Park Hyatt standards, with the wait staff
seemingly just going through the motions. I did also witness one incident where
a waiter was picking at his hand calluses with his mouth! Not the prettiest of
sights at a five star hotel.
Shanghai’s Most
Interesting Happy Hour
On the 92nd floor lies the music room. Usually it’s quite
empty, but on Wednesday night the bar has an all you can drink free sparkling
wine event for the ladies from 8:30 PM – 10:30 PM. For the gentlemen, typically
there is a cover charge, but since I was a guest of hotel, the cover was
waived.
I went with a friend and we found ourselves in the middle of
a sea filled with women.
At the main bar at least 50 mostly foreign ladies “lining”
up the local way, while on the dance floor the DJ was pumping out popular tunes
from the 90’s and the 2000’s.
It’s hard to describe such a scene, so imagine a Gatsby
party with 10 ladies for every gentleman; with a mysterious brand of sparkling
wine being poured freely instead of Champagne.
While the ladies were gorging on their free wine, a mixed
drink for the gentleman will run you around 100 RMB, which is the norm for the
expensive Shanghai nightlife.
Afterwards, the crowd moves across the Bund and party the
night away. We later went to Bar Rouge, a rather rowdy establishment with an
amazing view of the Bund filled with drunken tourists, college students, and
professional companions.
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