On Saturday morning, I took an Uber to National Car Rental at San Diego Airport and picked out a small SUV from the Executive aisle for our trip up the coast. I drove back to the Manchester Grand Hyatt and picked up my wife and our luggage.

We drove up to Oceanside in the pouring rain. The weekend forecast didn’t look great, but as it turned out, there were some breaks in the weather that allowed us to get outside a bit.

We arrived at Mission Pacific around 10:30am and our room was ready. I had booked with a Category 1-7 free night certificate (vs. a cash price of $400 or 25k points). Thanks to my Globalist status, we were upgraded to a One King Bed Studio with Ocean Front which provided a ton of space and a lovely ocean view. I definitely find that shorter, especially one night, stays get upgraded more frequently.

There were lots of huge windows and natural light. The bathroom had double sinks, a tub and walk-in shower. There was a chaise longue by one window and a table and chairs. The balcony also had two chairs but they were unfortunately soaked by the rain.

The minibar was stocked with the usual overpriced snacks and drinks. We did receive a welcome gift of some chocolate.

The weather improved a little bit so my wife decided to bundle up and go out for a walk on the beach to look for shells. I went to the gym as it was still raining. It was well-appointed with lots of new equipment.

Later that day, we went up to the rooftop (indoor) bar for some cocktails. We chatted to a lovely bartender from Liverpool. I grabbed a picture of the pool, but it was still raining.

That evening, we went into town and ate at a local sushi place, which was pretty good. The next morning, after watching the 6am Liverpool match on TV, we had breakfast at Piper, the restaurant next door at the sister Seabird resort. We could pretty much order what we wanted, and it was all included as a Globalist.

After breakfast, we just relaxed, went for a walk on the boardwalk and rested ahead of our long journey to Singapore that night.

I stopped by the lobby bar, High/Low, and found out it’s actually not part of the hotel, even though it’s literally in the hotel. I had to pay separately for some drinks there and couldn’t charge them to our room.

We checked out right at 4pm and headed up the interstate towards LAX. We had a great, relaxing stay at the Mission Pacific, helped by an early check-in and late check-out. In fact, it felt like we spent more time at this hotel on a one night stay than on our two night stay at the Manchester Grand Hyatt. I would definitely come back here and stay again, hopefully when the weather is a bit better.

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