Just completed a 4 night stay using the Wailea offer, as part of my honeymoon. Used Diamond Cert to Upgrade to Partial Ocean View Suite.
In a nutshell it's been a great experience but the Hotel still has lots of room for improvement.
Good:
- Breakfast at Ka'ana Kitchen was great. Very attentive service and they were happy to fulfill special requests. Lunch at Bumbye Beach Bar was nice as well, go for the Lobster Sandwich or the Poke Bowl.
- Overall the resort didn't feel crowded at all, everybody was very friendly, although some staff tried a little too hard to make conversation.
- Room itself was very nice and modern, except for the awful balcony furniture. Didn't think the couch was that bad, but then again didn't spend a lot of time sitting on it.
Not so good:
- Room wasn't ready until 4:30pm.
- When they say partial ocean view, they mean partial. At best. We were given a Suite on the lowest floor.
It was facing a walkway and had a villa or maintenance building blocking the ocean view. You could only see the ocean if you leaned on the edge of the patio. Also zero privacy as people can see right into the bedroom / living room when walking by. We asked to move to a higher floor and that request was granted. Were given another partial ocean view suite on the 5th floor. Now we were looking mainly at the unfinished villas (i.e. construction site), but the ocean was partly visible from both the bedroom and the living room. However, the room was missing the ipad, and bathrobes and slippers. Everything was promptly provided upon request though.
- Upon check-in we were offered to make an appointment for a complimentary 30 - 45 min photo shoot. The front desk agent made it sound like you also get to take the pictures home free of charge. Sounded too good to be true and it was. Turned out the shoot was indeed complimentary, however after a 30 min sales presentation of the pictures they took, you can only take 1 picture (not just any, but one of their choice facing the resort) free of charge, for every other picture its $49 or you buy a package, $600 and up. Since we had arranged for our own photo shoot a couple days earlier it was a waste of our time, however if we hadn't we might have ended up buying the set.
- Upon check-in, I selected a fruit platter and a bottle of red wine as Diamond Amenity, to be delivered on the same day at 6PM. Never came. Had to inquire the next day, then it was delivered as promised. But with a bottle of white wine instead of red wine. Ah well, drank it anyway.
- Even though the front desk agent acknowledged the fact that is was our honeymoon, the hotel did nothing special. The agent informed us because it was our honeymoon we were upgraded to a partial ocean view suite, but then again I already knew that since I used the Diamond cert to upgrade to that category.