My wife and I stayed over Valentine's/President's day weekend like Rock72. I was lucky enough to have booked a POV suite on a P+C +DSU last July before they sunsetted the P+C option 1 or 2 months later. I specifically remember the Hyatt GP person being astonished (something to the effect of "WOW that is an awesome deal!") that he could book a P+C +DSU for me. Maybe I killed it. Sorry.
First time for me on Maui/Hawaii (wife's been numerous times), but we've been to places like Tahiti/Bora Bora, Bali, Cancun, Cabo, etc.
Overall, I had a great time (being at the suite on the 6th floor definitely helped -- especially when we had nearly all day rain on Saturday). As a beach resort, I've experienced better: IC Thalasso Bora Bora was definitely better (duh), and depending how you look at it, a suite stay at the Grand Hyatt Bali could give Andaz Maui a run for its money. I think the main thing Andaz Maui needs to work on is the service, but hearing from others in this thread, it has deteriorated since the opening.
When I checked in, my wife was given a Diamond greeting, a choice between 1k points or amenity (red or white wine, Honolulu Pineapple shaped cookies or some dessert I forgot, opted for the red and cookies). The host pointed out where some things (pools, restaurants, etc) were from the lobby overlooking the pools, and told us about getting the lavender lemonade (perhaps they were out at the time? We weren't offered the lemonade or wet towels when we checked in, but we asked for and got the drink at the check-in desk a couple of times afterwards). We also had to ask for the free water bottles and slippers afterwards (these were apparently provided automatically at check-in during the honeymoon opening phase of hotel).
Did the free Diamond breakfast (Ka'ana Pantry option) every day -- I took a look at the Full breakfast upgrade and decided against it. I didn't think pancakes, beignets, french toasts, omelet, bacon, Kalua Pork Steamed Bao, and Portuguese sausage warranted an upgrade. With the pantry option you could order the "slab bacon" as your one complimentary side, which was like a couple of small pieces of teriyaki pork chop. Along with the scrambled eggs in the pantry, I thought it was enough for my breakfast protein.
Also, I asked if we were able to get some custom stuff (like poke as seen here:
http://viewfromthewing.boardingarea....te-hotel-maui/) made if we upgraded, but the server said that was just a special thing they did for the first 6 or so months after the Hotel opened. Anyway, I felt that the Pantry option was sufficient -- one day we just sat down for like 15 minutes and ate some fruit because we had to catch the sunrise Whale watching tour. All of the servers were pretty nice (save for one that seemed to blow us off when we wanted a check), but it did seem they were understaffed because we had to flag them to get refills on coffee, juice, even on days where the Ka'ana kitchen wasn't packed with guests. The rainy Saturday was crazy though, since a lot of water tours got cancelled tons of guests overwhelmed the breakfast buffet -- there was like a 30 min waitlist if you didn't have a reservation.
So I do not think the Andaz Maui's breakfast is close to Park Hyatt Vendome's at all, well, at least currently (saw some wild comparisons made by some travel bloggers that the two were similar, when the Andaz first opened). At Vendome, a couple of days Roger Fed's wife and kids (and nannies) were eating at regular breakfast buffet next to me -- they didn't opt for room service -- I guess that tells you how good Vendome's regular breakfast buffet is?
It was the best Andaz that I stayed at though (comparing against all the Cali Andaz's) but it had a lot to do with being in a suite that had a pretty great view of the ocean. If I were to stay in a regular room, I'd probably spend more time off property doing excursions. But not the Road to Hana again LOL! I couldn't lounge around at the pool for more than 1 day, especially when there is only one small, usually full jacuzzi for the whole property.
Anyway on to the Andaz Tokyo and Conrad Tokyo in a few months. Any tips TokyoHyattFan?
