I was here recently for a few nights as part of a Hawaii vacation, after having visited multiple times in the past for business trips to Honolulu.

Sadly the Beach Club remains closed, but otherwise operations seemed more or less back to normal; there were no COVID restrictions of note with the mask mandate and other rules having recently ended. Elite breakfast benefit is $18 per person off of entrees in the restaurant, which generally cost in the $30s, but do at least include coffee and juice as well as the food.

I used an expiring and otherwise-mostly-useless to confirm an upgrade to a Tower room (not a suite) before arrival; it still drives me crazy how much Marriott has allowed properties to completely gut that program (there were no suite categories available to select even if I'd wanted to) but at least it allowed me to confirm a reasonable room at the cost of a tiny Banyan room. If you would use points anyway, the incremental points cost to book a Tower room upfront was also pretty reasonable for my dates, so that could also be a decent option. I don't recommend a party of 2 try to stay in a Banyan king room, especially when at other properties nearby (like the Hyatt Regency) you can usually get a room comparable to the Moana's tower rooms for a lower price than the Moana charges for the Banyan rooms.

There was a new-to-me system of issuing cards that can be used to pick up one beach towel per person, and then you have to return the towels and get the cards back, and return the cards at check-out or supposedly you may be charged; I don't know if that's enforced but just one more example of how Hawaii hotels manage to get away with offering a pretty mediocre resort experience in some respects. Our main resort time for this trip was at the Andaz on Maui, so I wasn't too worried about it, but certainly if resort amenities (pool especially) are a priority for you, this hotel isn't a great option.

I requested a 2pm late checkout and was rejected, as is the hotel's right as a resort property, but they did offer me 1pm "as a courtesy" (vs the standard 11am), which was appreciated and certainly better than some places manage (ahem W South Beach for one).

It was also nice to find ourselves staying here after listening to the GyPSy guide on the Road to Hana, which gave a sketch of Hawaiian history and mentioned the Moana as the first hotel in Waikiki. Not sure how I hadn't noticed it before, but there is a great exhibit on the hotel's history on the second floor of the Banyan building which is worth spending a few minutes checking out. I did learn from visiting that the Moana hotel was the original building, now the Banyan section, while the Diamond Head rooms and then later the Tower rooms were built as the Surfrider hotel, which were later combined, hence the current name.