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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