Cleveland Arcade and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
I’ve lived nearly my entire life in Ohio without ever visiting Cleveland. But this year, I found myself within a few nights of Hyatt Globalist with the excellent Cleveland Hyatt Regency Arcade at off-peak award pricing. Unfortunately, the trip was subsumed by a bit of unexpected work, so I didn’t get to see much of the city, just bits of downtown, the Arcade and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Hyatt Regency Arcade
The Arcade is a historic building that is now mostly taken up by the Hyatt Regency. The first and second floors have a mix of shops, galleries, offices and restaurants. During the holidays, they add a Christmas tree, string lights, decorate the railings with wreaths and play christmas music.
The third and fourth floors are all hotel rooms. So your room looks out into the arcade. This is pretty cool, but it does mean you can faintly hear the tinkle of Christmas tunes from within your room. That said, noise really wasn’t a problem as my room at least, had two a front and back room and music was only noticeable in the front.
If the arcade had been a hopping place, I could imagine it being a little louder, but sadly there wasn’t a lot of traffic. Many of the stores had been taken up with government offices or gallery style displays masking a vacancy.
The hotel is within walking distance of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, BetJack Casino and downtown was pretty hopping. They had valet parking and a restaurant for breakfast, both free for Globalists on an award stay. In addition, there was a pretty nice Hyatt bar as well as a pizza dive bar at the far end of the arcade.
The total cost of a two night stay was 18,000 points.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Hall of Fame is located in a giant glowing pyramid along Lake Erie. The bottom floor has most of the exhibits, which consist largely of outfits, guitars, original scores and some fairly immersive video presentations. The largest exhibits are for the Beatles, Elvis and the Rolling Stones, but you can also find Taylor Swift, Jimmy Hendrix, U2, Aretha Franklin and many more.
Higher floors feature more exhibits and an interactive zone where you can play free pinball machines, or jam on guitars and other instruments. This floor also has a large installation for Pink Floyd and the Wall. Above that is the actual hall of fame where you can see all names engraved on a wall by year and vote on future inductees.
The apex of the Pyramid has a single room with tributes to four artists.
Closing Thoughts and Cost Summary
This was a pretty cheap trip, just 18,000 Hyatt points. Maybe next time I’d shoot for sometime in Summer.