I broke with my usual convention of booking direct and booked a rental car for the entire week via Expedia. I was going to pay for a shuttle over to Kaanapali, then rent a car for a few days, but then I discovered that Expedia was brokering prices with Thrifty Rental Car for 50% of what I could even get on the Thrifty web site. Forget the 500 Frequent Flier miles, I’ll just save $200 USD. The car for the week was $170 USD. We hopped a bus over to the rental car center. The bus driver today was a bit of a Mario Andretti type screeching around the corners like he was in an F1 car.
There were only two people in line but over 35 minutes to get a car assigned and ready to be packed up. Thrifty seemed to be massively behind with both car assignments and paperwork. Having booked a Full Size, "Chrysler 200 or similar" we ended up with a new but marked up Nissan Altima, having turned down a Ford Expedition SUV as I didn’t want the gas bill.
We stopped in at Maui Costco for some wine and a Costco hot dog snack. I got a new snorkel as my mask was falling apart. We then had a 40 minute drive up to Kaanapali toward the Sheraton Maui. The hotel was not well marked posted off the highway but I had the address in Trip it.
Sheraton Maui
O’Hana Hale Family Suite
Kaanapali, Maui
We decided on the Sheraton Maui after reading the on line reviews. With the fact that they had a club lounge, better online ratings than the Westin Kaanapali and at a lower family price point than the more upscale newer Kaanapali offerings, it was a decision made easy.
Starwood was also running their summer “Take Three” promotion that offered 3 X points for weekend stays. We earned a boat load of SPG points with this stay as we earned 4 points per dollar as a SPG Platinum 75 member, 2 points per dollar for charging to the Canadian SPG American Express Card, 3 points per dollar for the “Take Three Promotion”; totaling 9 points per dollar AND 1,500 points from SPG Amex for a stay at a qualifying resort property. We were off to a great start there.
Our first impressions were all that you could expect from a hotel that’s been in operation since the 1960’s. The hotel has been in operation since January 20, 1963. There was a busy but competent valet staff taking care of things at the front end. Unfortunately, there was only 1 check in desk host working at 5 PM when we arrived. Per usual, there was a marked but unmanned Gold and Plat check in line. We joined the queue and were helped after about 5 -7 minutes.
After the expensive French Polynesian, Fiji Adventure, I had booked a simple resort room (lowest category available). I thought that we would chance it and use Suite Night Awards for any upgrades and hoped for the best with the Sheraton being a very large property with many categories of rooms (partial ocean view, full ocean view, suites, family suites etc..) My Suite Upgrades were declined at the 5 day mark but on check in, we got a super duper SPG Platinum upgrade to a family suite in the O’Hana Hale building with two double beds (#1109). I was super happy with that as they retailed for about $668 USD after taxes and our rate was only about $220 USD per night.
Otherwise, there was a nice open air lobby. It was usually pretty busy. The best feature were the ocean views. The line at the front desk was pretty typical of our experiences.
After the check in process, we led ourselves to Room #1109 in the O’Hale building. Room #1109 was a room on ground floor. It had a large living area immediately opposite two double beds.
There was ample bed space for a young teenager and us and much better than a base level room.
There was also a Murphy Bed in the living room which we never ended up using. The room could have slept 6 with two to a bed!
There was a massive bathroom that was about 25% of the floor space. The room also had the updated Sheraton “Le Grand Bain” toiletries.
The room also featured a wet bar along with a refrigerator. We promptly stuffed it full of beverages. The hotel was also kind enough to provide lots of bottled water for the stay. The pictured 1.75 L bottle of Sky Vodka was not included with the room, or the resort fee.
There was also a welcome letter explaining the features of the Black Rock Lounge benefits and the inclusions on the Resort Fee. The resort also offered unlimited free valet parking for SPG Platinum Members ($32 USD value – not written down anywhere except verbally explained via the front desk) and a 1,500 Starpoint Credit for the High Speed Internet Alternative (that credited to my account after the fact without explanation).
A nice walk out lanai leading to nice grounds… along with a night time view from the outside of the spacious room.
Although the room wouldn’t have been a number one choice for a romantic weekend but it was absolutely perfect for a family trip. The placement on the ground floor was also super convenient to the beach and made it easy to get back there for drinks or other supplies during the beach visits. We felt well treated as SPG Platinum’s with many inclusions, despite the resort fee charges with items we never used.