US Immigration and the Hyatt Regency O’Hare – Long Way Home
In this adventure:
- I’ve got to stop looking at odd routings and thinking they’re good ideas
- Sleep? What’s that concept? Off to Heathrow T3
- Lounging around Heathrow T3
- AA99 London Heathrow to Chicago O’Hare
- The Hyatt Regency O’Hare
- The Nutella Cafe
- Fooding Around Chicago
- The Canon 100D – Good for aviation photography?
- Camera shift – from EOS 6D to EOS R
- Back to O’Hare, Air France Lounge
- AY10 Chicago to Helsinki Vantaa… with Air Italy?
- Two hours and 20 in Helsinki Vantaa
- AY1335 Helsinki Vantaa to London Heathrow
- Bussing back home
- Long Way Home or short way back?
US Immigration
With the plane coming in at Gate M11, there was a short delay at disembarkation – mainly as US Immigration was conducting passport spot-checks as people were disembarking. With that hurdle passed, it was time to run the risk of the Automated Passport Clearance machines.
It won’t surprise you that I got the X of naughtiness after trying to spend 3 minutes getting my fingerprints in.
I was cleared manually into the USA and sent to belt one to pick up my baggage. There was a short delay, but bags started arriving on the belt – with my two bags spitting out after a 5-minute wait.
Tum tee tum.
After going to Customs and declaring I was bringing chocolate into the country- I was allowed into the USA
Annnd… Out.
20 minutes for O’Hare Immigration and Customs can be filed under “Painless” in my book. I’ll take that any day of the week.
A phone call or two was done in the terminal, and with that – I headed to the out to the taxi rank and into the wonderful loving arms of a Chicago Taxi Driver.
And yes, by that – a grumpy person who moaned at me that I should had taken a shuttle bus, and not deem him a short fare to the Hyatt.
Queue here when you can’t be bothered to take an Uber.
Gotta love taxi drivers like that.
A short ride later, and I was soon deposited at the only hotel I would stay for this trip – the Hyatt Regency O’Hare.
Hyatt Regency O’Hare
My bags were unloaded by the front door staff and taken upstairs. I followed them too to check-in.
The glass staircase and the Tentacle Monster thing.
There was a short wait but I was seen to by the reception staff with welcoming arm.
Reception Desks
My rate was confirmed, and I used my Curve Card to pay for incidentals as well as other things.
With the room confirmed (high floor, facing the city), I head upstairs – with my luggage following me.
Hello tentacle monster.
It’s nice not to tote my crap around. I’ll give this hotel that.
So the room. If you’ve been on this blog for… well… since 2009 or so, the following won’t surprise you at all. The rooms have been refurbished with new carpets, additional charge points., and a light that makes an awful buzzy sound.
But the beds are still as comfortable as ever. As is the floor.
Because after unpacking and checking stuff out… that’s where I ended up. I guess even in a Dreamliner with space in it – sometimes sprawling out on the floor without being able to do anything is a good thing to do.
Coffee, Tea and desk.
I couldn’t even make it to the chair, let alone the bed.
Bedside charging points, phone and earplugs. Not for the planes, but for me.
There is one thing about these refurbished rooms which isn’t too hot – and that’s the lack of chairs. In the previous configuration, there were two chairs at the work table, rather than one currently is. This makes life a bit difficult if you want to do face-to-face chats… or move a wheelie chair onto the balcony.
Oh yes. There’s a balcony here. This is why you stay in the main block in the double rooms in this Hyatt.
It looks good with a Chicago sunrise…
And with planes arriving into O’Hare.
The bathroom itself was clean and well stocked with amenities – which is always welcome to see.
Meanwhile, there was additional work going on in the hotel – or lack of it – with two of the lifts out of order at one point (going down to one). Whilst in the middle of the night, this doesn’t matter – during peak hours it turns going up and down (without any stairs options) more interesting than it has to be.
I dined at the bar one night, and utilised the overpriced coffee shop once too… mainly because I was 1) lazy and 2) needed something resembling caffeine.
On check-out day, all numbers were correct and the bill settled correctly after the hotel charged the wrong account for the room initially. With everything sorted out, I stored my bags for the day before heading out.
Overall
The Hyatt Regency O’Hare remains a solid choice in the area in terms of rooms and facilities , even though there are again – little things that let the side down (be it out of order lifts, or more worryingly – the amount of times this place has got a hotel bill wrong).
Is it my go-to place in the Chicago area still? Yes. Because when at conventions, the last thing you want to do is grab a taxi onto another hotel late at night…
Next: Fooding Around Chicago: The Nutella Cafe.
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