thesilb

We just finished a wonderful stay at the Hyatt Regency Maui over Labor Day weekend. We dusted off yesterday just as the hurricane on the Big Island was beginning to cloud Maui over and had several wonderful-weather days in advance of that.

We had a one-night full revenue stay here January 3 after spending over a week at the Westin over New Years, and had decided to give the resort a full try this time. This resort in my opinion hands-down beats the Westin in many ways, and the staff did not disappoint this time.

Accomodations
We had arranged our stay for an Ocean Suite. I searched both the current and archive sections of FlyerTalk for suite info prior to arrival, and really could not find anything. So we opted for the ocean suite which is the smallest of the suites. We were quite impressed.

To the best of my knowledge, there are 28 ocean suites: x80 and x81 in the Lahaina tower and x33 and x34 in the Napili tower, so four times seven floors = 28. I do not believe there are any ocean suites in the Atrium (center) tower. We did have an opportunity to see an x80 room and chose instead an x34 room. I would have to say that the x34 rooms are in my opinion the best. The reason is location/view. Clearly the x34 and x81 are the premium ones, because they have two balconies each with full ocean view. The x80 and the x33 ones will have one ocean balcony and one parking lot or street balcony, which might in all fairness be called a mountain-view balcony, but, as I can see the roads/cars when looking down, to me, its a parking lot view because you both see and hear cars. The x34 and x81 have no such issues as both balconies overlook the ocean, and I prefer the x34 series simply because it seems to me that the Napili tower is just slightly closer to the beach/waves as well as to the important hotel facilities.

It should be noted that in these suites although there are two balconies, one is very small and you can't sit out on it, and in the x80 and x33 series, the "parking lot view" balconies are your sitting balconies, so you cannot sit outside and look at the beach from these rooms at all. In short, do try to get an x34 or x81 room if you have an ocean suite.

The room layout & furnishings are fabulous. You enter into a hardwood floor area with a couch, desk and the patio for outdoor seating. There is a long entertainment center with the TV and minibar and plenty of room for laying out drinks and so forth essentially on a very long buffet. There are sliding parition doors into a carpeted bedroom area with the small, seatless balcony and this in turn connects to a bathroom (marble, tub-shower combo) and a walk in closet.

The beds really were fantastic. I guess Hyatt must be mirroring the Heavenly Bed concept - there were Simmons signs where you could actually call to purchase the mattress setup, which is a pillowtop mattress, quite firm really, with a variety of pillows. Very comfortable. The room had a CD player, two TVs and they happily brought us a small fridge on request.

Gold Passport Treatment
I'd say very good with the one small complaint, we did have to ask for our benefits at times. For example, nobody ever mentioned anything about breakfast when checking in, but when we went down in the AM with our Diamond cards in hand, they cheerfully offered us a certificate which we could take to Swan Court every day of our stay for free continental (we paid the $7 upgrade to full breakfast fee per person daily - a heck of a deal in my view compared to a $23 buffet).

And, they also let us have a Regency Club key, which was terrific because in the early mornings I would go to work the cappuccino machine for a few drinks, earning me major brownie points from my sweetie when I would deliver her a latte to wake her up! They did explain that Regency Club occupancy levels are strictly enforced so not to expect this always, but that since the hotel was fairly empty for our dates, no problem to let us in.

The amenity was a bottle of very nice chard - can't remember exactly but not a half bottle of Phillips nor a full bottle of the Chilean that starts with a "V" which name I can't recall - this was a full bottle of a very nice Napa chard, like a $25 at-cost bottle, delivered with a nice fruit basket.

And I just checked out yesterday, but our points have already posted!

Hotel services / dining

Well, I'm just a huge fan of the Cascades sushi bar. I'm from SF, and the sushi here is good, but these guys really step it up. We're good tippers which probably helped, but they even remembered us from several visits last December/January and they really deliver the goods. This sushi bar gets high marks for basic stuff - the hamachi and majuro and sake are good - but really high marks for excellent quality ancillary fishes (the tako was superb) as well as for bringing in really random daily specials and having awesome rolls (do try the special scallop roll).

We also ate at Spats, which is only open a few nights of the week, and were impressed. The ambience is truly quite weird for a resprt in Hawaii - at least go down there for a drink to check it out. Well done!

Another really great thing was Spa Moana. Thanks to SanDiego1K we were armed with a few extra 25% off spa coupons, so we did a couples oceanfront room massage and Maggie did a facial and a pedicure. All were super, but I would have to highly recommend the couples massage (make sure to request that they use the couples room) which is done by two masseuses ocean-front. Terrific.

And we did get a chance to play tennis. The courts have a nice setup and were well maintained, although the pro was on vacation so we couldn't play him. Next time!

Overall
This resort is the one resort on Kaanapali with serious acreage where you do not feel cramped between other resorts. It was terrific in every regard and I highly recommend it. To me it is one of the most special Hyatt destinations.