Rhonda Bracey: At Random

I knew I’d be getting into Dallas well before my flight. What to do? Go shopping? Go to the zoo or the aquarium or one of the Dallas sights? (I’d been to Dallas before, so I’d seen the JFK grassy knoll etc.) The biggest problem was my luggage — there was no option for storing it anywhere. So the previous night I’d hit on the idea of seeing if the Grand Hyatt at DFW Airport had an hourly, half day or daily rate. That way, I could drop my car back at Enterprise (BTW, I had a full-size Chevy Impala and it was great!), catch the shuttle to the international terminal, and spend some hours in a room having a shower, repacking, relaxing etc. before Qantas check-in opened at 6 pm.

I checked the Grand Hyatt’s website, but I couldn’t find anything related to a day rate, so I called them. After being put through to a couple of people, someone told me that yes, they did a day rate only, from 9 am to 5 pm. not ideal for when I’d be there, but close. So I checked out of the Hampton Inn in Bryant, AR and was on the road by 9 am.

I stopped in Sulphur Springs, TX for fuel and a light lunch at Chilis, and arrived at the rental car return area by 2 pm. I was in my room at the Grand Hyatt by 3 pm — they let me have the room from 3 pm to 6 pm (check-in time), and also suggested an alternative, which was to pay $30 to use their fitness centre for my shower and to repack my luggage (I wanted to split the one heavy bag into two bags). But I liked the idea of a room so I could write some of my blog posts if I had time.

Well, what a room! I wish I’d elected to stay there instead of the Hyatt Regency when I’d arrived in Dallas two weeks ago — it was RIGHT in the international terminal, with no shuttles to catch. Very very convenient.

And it was a FABULOUS room too. The all-black bathroom was fantastic, with a separate shower recess and perfect water temperature and pressure. Although the room overlooked some of the runways, it was very quiet. It was also all automatic — lights, a/c came on when I entered the room and the blinds went up or down (can’t remember which). There were two sets of these auto blinds — sheer blinds and fully shaded blinds for those needing to sleep during the day. There weren’t any switches — all the controls were pressure sensitive, and everything was adjustable.

Here are some pictures (click on a small picture to view it at a larger size):