This weekend we stayed at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress resort, which is located immediately adjacent to Walt Disney World’s Downtown Disney resort area. This 1,500 acre resort is absolutely spectacular, and we can’t believe we’ve never stayed or visited here before, living so close by in Orlando. While not an official Disneyworld property, it combines luxury accommodations with resort amenities, and just happens to be about as close to Disneyworld as you can get without staying on the official property line. The resort has such a relaxing and tranquil feel, you may not even want to leave the property – we didn’t!
We checked in on Friday evening
and were pleasantly surprised with our Diamond Suite upgrade. We were offered a complimentary glass of champagne at checkin, which we took up to our room. Our suite had a king-sized bed, 
separate living room and work area, fridge, wine cooler, coffee maker, 2 TV’s, second doorway entrance, 2 french-type balconies, but best of all one ENORMOUS walk-out terrace. While it didn’t face the Disneyworld Parks side, we had spectacular views of the Downtown Disney hotels and could see as far as Sea World in the distance. With sofa and lounge chairs, it was a wonderful way to relax in the evening or late at night after dinner.
As this was our first stay at this property, we immediately headed out a bit to explore this vast resort complex. 
We were staying Friday and Saturday nights, while our friends Ben and Tom would be staying over on Saturday night, celebrating Ben’s birthday. 
We stopped first at the Regency Club Lounge and had a quick look out the windows there of the Disney Park side view as well as the pool and beach area, and the acres of resort grounds. We would come back to the lounge several times during our stay, but for now just grabbed a couple bottles of water to go as we headed out for a walk.
The Hyatt Grand Cypress is so meticulously landscaped and pristine, fresh it’s hard to believe this property is 30 years old! It is truly a spectacular resort and it had the feel of a remote Hawaiian-type resort rather than a Disneyworld area resort, which was actually quite preferred by us, even though we love Disney. You didn’t have the hoards of tourists traipsing thru the property going to the theme parks, monorail, restaurants etc, and it felt much more relaxing and upscale than many of the Disney hotels we’ve stayed in. The property trails wind thru palm-tree lined paths, 
gardens, fountains, humongous pools and beach areas, and has many outdoor art pieces making you feel like you were in a far away land. Living nearby in Orlando, we truly felt like we were! 
As we had dinner reservations at 8pm on Friday night at the hotel’s sister property, we headed back to the room to shower up for dinner after only seeing a small portion of the hotel and grounds.
We stopped by the Regency Club for a pre-dinner Cosmo and light snacks before heading over to the Villas at Grand Cypress. The hotel offers a complimentary shuttle between the two properties, 
and we arrived at the other hotel after a quick 5 – 10 minute ride. Our dinner was at the Nine 18 restaurant, and it was truly a wonderful dining experience. 
Many of the top Orlando restaurants have a Magical Dining menu during the months of September and August, which offers a price fix 3 course meal for $33, including appetizer, main and dessert – quite a bargain as they are all quality dining venues.
We started with the Magical Dining menu, 
but added on with two additional appetizers and a shared Caesar salad. Paired with a nice glass of Jordan Chardonnay with the salad and appetizers, and an absolutely delectable bottle of Caymus Special Edition Cabernet Sauvignon 2011, excellent service, and a quiet/semi-elegant atmosphere and we had a wonderful food and wine pairing.
After dinner, we took the shuttle back to the Hyatt and called it a day, already looking forward to Saturday! Continued on to next post . . .