Great post. Let me add a few things. We were actually pleantly surprised with our garden / volcano view. We could have upgraded to ocean the next day, but we enjoyed the wildlife in the early AM.
In hind sight, we made the right choice. I would still have taken the garden view over the ocean view because the sunsets (at least while we were on the island) always set behind the clouds and were significantly less than spectacular. Maui on the other hand has truly magnificant sunsets. (Northern Canada still has the most colorful sunsets by far).
We found the few bugs to be very tolerable, just an occaisonal roach here and there, other than that, not a problem problem but still not acceptable.
We found the place booked solid as well, but very sparse. I feel it's because of the shear immensity of the place. It's just less dense than most places so that many people spread pretty well. It seemed kind of dead in fact. But the lobby was always packed around noon, so you knew there was much going on.
Gas is actually 3 blocks down on the left towards the entrance when leaving the resort. It's clear the timeshare scumbags have their hooks in the area because god forbid they put up a sign and display some advertising. I guess a small Shell sign is a big no no in a condo community. Better to cover it up with palms and bushes. It is there though - albeit tucked away.
We didn't try the eggs cooked by the capuccino machine, but I've heard lately the frother makes a nice batch of scrambled.
Congrats and good health. Did you ever get to the luai at the King's Resort? Totally awesome.