Driving through Waikiki, past the Sheraton, and into the Royal Hawaiian property, it’s immediately obvious that this is a different type of Honolulu property. The landscaping in front of the hotel is green and open and has several very large trees. It’s like a private park in the center of the Waikiki chaos.
The doorman took our bags and gave us leis - flowers for Mrs, nuts for me. We headed inside to the short checkin line. There’s no SPG line here, just a single line with four checkin desks. Lemon water is available to the side, but is no longer offered to guests personally. The checkin process taking a bit of time, and when it was our turn we found out that they were having some computer problems. Customers all get coupons for a Mai Tai each, our checkin agent gave us some extra for the inconvenience.
I’d booked a Tower Ocean Front room though American Express’ Fine Hotels and Resorts program. This program provides a one tier upgrade on checkin if available. We were upgraded from a lower floor Tower room to a higher floor Corner Tower room - for this hotel, that’s two tiers. The Corner room is the same size as all the other regular Tower rooms, but has a lanai that wraps around the corner of the building, giving enough room to add a lounger to the pair of chairs and table that all lanais had.
In addition, the Fine Hotels and Resorts program gave us free breakfast in the Surf Lanai restaurant, and the checkin agent gave us coupons for this benefit. There was also a $100 Food and Beverage or Spa credit that would be taken off at checkout - sadly, alcohol, tax and tips were not eligible for this credit. Fine Hotels and Resorts also had a 4 nights for the price of 3 rate that we re-booked at the last minute to take advantage of.
As a Starwoods Preferred Guest - Gold member, we would get either a drink, or amenity, or 250 SPG points. Since the hotel gives everyone some banana bread (and the recipe to take home), and free Mai Tais, they just gave me the 250 points that Gold members are entitled to.
All Discounts and Benefits
Between American Express and the Starwood Preferred Guest promotions we managed to get a lot of extra value from this hotel stay.
Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts:
- 4 nights for the price of 3
- $100 food credit
- Free breakfast for 2 people for 5 nights
- Upgraded room
Hotel - everyone gets these:
- Free Mai Tai coupons
- Banana bread and recipe delivered to room
SPG Gold (from Amex Platinum):
- 250 points - bonus SPG points for Gold members
- 2279 points - 50% extra SPG points on base
- 4558 points - 2 points per $1 base SPG points
SPG More For You promotion:
- 4558 points - Double SPG base points for two night stay
- 4558 points - Triple SPG base points for weekend stay
Total discounts were worth about $950. Upgrades were worth about another $500, and we received over 16,000 SPG points for a five day stay.
The Room
Our Corner Tower room is a decent size, with an Ok bathroom with a shower/tub combo that isn’t my favorite thing. The railing on the lanai badly needs to be repainted - there’s a lot of flaking and bare wood. There are plenty of outlets on the end of the credenza, so they’re easy to get to, as well as plentiful. Even though there are likely to be two people in the room, they only supplied a single robe - in the very fashionable Royal Hawaiian Pink that everything is colored with.
Our room was in the part of the tower closest to the Outrigger hotel next door - which is very close. When the beach gets quiet, you can hear the staff next door dump the glass for recycling into their dumpster, and in the mornings, they have trucks that need to back up quite a long way. We left our lanai door open one evening to hear the surf all night, and were woken with the noise of business early the next morning. Other rooms in the tower probably have less of a problem depending on their location in the building.
The Food
The Fine Hotels and Resorts amenities include the full breakfast, and we received the coupons for this at checkin. These coupons are named and dated. You hand these to the host and they get the correct menus and take you to your table. “The Correct Menus”? Yup - our menus had no prices, and a smaller set of options than the menus that did have prices. I think there’s probably a few different levels of paid breakfast, based on the different piles of menus the staff had at hand.
Our menus had three sections to choose from:
- Coffee or Tea
- Fruit juice or fresh fruit
- Hot entree - oatmeal / waffles / pancakes / eggs
The options we had were all good. Kona coffee, fresh squeezed juice and omelettes were all good. Toast is also offered, and gluten free toast is available. Toast comes with butter, and jams and marmalade was on the table.
The Mai Tai Bar
The bar is a nice place to hang out, right next to Waikiki beach with a good selection of cocktails and various food options. There are three different Mai Tais on the menu - or rather, available. The free Mai Tai you get a coupon for is smaller than the two that are actually for sale. My favorite was the Royal Mai Tai, but all the drinks here were inconsistent - you’d get the same drink twice in a row, and they’d be very different, depending on who made it.
The bar has live music some evenings, and unlike a number of other bars we visited, the music was at a volume that allowed conversation to continue. I hate loud music in bars, but the Mai Tai bar seems to have this setup correctly.
On Monday evenings, the Royal Hawaiian Luau takes place on the lawn right next to the bar. If you don’t want the food, sitting in the bar is a good place to get the luau entertainment for the price of a few drinks.
The bar has cabanas available, but these need a minimum spend of $300, and for two people, this is quite a stretch. If there’s 6-8 of you, and you’re going to share a few bottles of bubbly, then this becomes something that can be useful. A number of such groups used the cabanas during our stay.
Last year, we visited Maui. The cocktails our hotel in Wailea served us were much poorer quality, and all of them were $15. Cocktails here started at about $10 and went up from there. This is actually a reasonable price for a well made cocktail on a beach.
Hotel Grounds and Pool
A number of reviews of the Royal Hawaiian will indicate that the pool is very small. And it is. Think of it as a very large hot tub, and you’ll be prepared for the size. During our stay the hotel wasn’t full, so getting seats around the pool wasn’t a big problem. It helps that the shared pool with the Sheraton next door is more kid friendly, so there weren’t a lot of children in the small pool.
The Royal Hawaiian also has chairs with umbrellas on the beach. These facilities cost money, and you pay for the whole day. We didn’t use these, as we didn’t spend a huge amount of time lounging around, and certainly not for a day.
In addition to the pool and bar, there are lots of seating areas around the property. Near the lobby are some comfy sofas, and on the other side of the elevators are some chairs and rocking chairs. Right next to the pool and the tower elevators is a seating area with two sofas. Mrs CRAZ8 declared this the best seating area in the hotel, as we lounged next to the pool, but on a comfy sofa, for an hour or two reading our books.
Overall
We really enjoyed the Royal Hawaiian hotel. We spent some time in the lobby of the Sheraton next door doing some shopping, and that place is a zoo in comparison to the Royal Hawaiian. There’s a lot of history in this property, and a lot of space that gives you a sense of something special. If you like old school properties, you will love the Royal Hawaiian. This property is a real oasis of peace in the middle of the mayhem that is Waikiki.