Part 2-Hilton WV
There was good, bad and ugly during our stay. One of the good parts was being upgraded to two connecting Ocean View rooms overlooking the golf course and the Pacific even though our stay was an award stay. On a day without clouds, we looked out and could see Maui!
Check-in went smoothly even though it was Saturday afternoon and the lobby was mobbed. We were suposed to get a bottle of champagne in honor of our anniversary plus an amenityfrom the new Diamond amenity program that Hillton had just rolled out. I picked the spa amenity (samples of the on-site spa products) for our room and free Internet for the teenager room. We got to the rooms to find no champagne and no Diamond amenities. I made a polite call to the front desk, was switched around many times. Everyone who looked at my profile acknowleged we were supposed to get the champagne and Diamond amenities, but did not want to take resposibility for fixing the problem. Hours later, while we were out at dinner, the champagne, a bottle of wine, and a fruit platter showed up together with the spa products and Internet package.
We had made dinner reservations 3 months ahead of time at the Kamuela Provision Company. We waited an hour and one half to be seated. Things seemed quite out of control. They had no table for us and kept aplogizing, but could not seem to find us a table. The bartender at the wine bar was wonderful-chatted with us and gave us complimentary pours of his best wines, which we appreciated. Once seated, the meal took forever to come out-and mine (seafood bouillabase) was mediocre. Free dessert-nice gesture, but if they were better organized, they would not have had to offer us anything. We ran out to watch the sunset-an awesome view from that location-it is great to stand to the right or left of the dining area and watch the sun set.
Sunday-brunch in Waimea at Daniel Thiebaut-usually a pricey restaurant, but Sunday Brunch is reasonably priced and has a guy on a keyboard playing music. We bought a discounted gift certificate on EBay from HawaiiSavers before we left for Hawaii and saved even more. I discovered that I loved Kona cofee...a lot (usually drink tea). Took about 1/2 hour fto drive there rom the hotel. In the afternoon, we lazed around the pool. The adult pool by the Ocean Tower has comfortable cushy lounge chairs, but the pool itself is small-we spent the rest of our stay at the Lagoon pool for the most part because it had waterfalls and a slide and was close to the spa. 19 year old daughter and I loved stopping in at the spa for a steam/jacuzzi and a shower using the yummy smelling spa products after a day at the pool. Diamond members can use the spa for free. We all took advantage of this-we all worked out (19 y/o daugther got there at 7 AM each day-we almost fell over-uncharacteristic early rising for our college student!)-also used the steam room and jacuzzi a lot. Husband and I went over to get a tour of the spa on Sunday. We were so full from brunch on Sunday that we did not have dinner-just snacked on the fresh veggies and cheese in the Exec. Lounge. We liked the lounge-food was good-at times, birds would fly in and out if kids would feed them, but this was mostly in the front off to the side. It did not bother us.
Monday-first Exec. Lounge breakfast-tasty fresh fruit, bagels and pastries-ample so long as you don't need a hot meal. In the morning, H and I did the timeshare tour (our first) so that H and S could get a free round of golf for their afternoon tee time. i went in knowing that we would not buy-to my shock-, H seemed interested-we did not buy, but I came home and joined the Timeshare User's Group online so I could educate myself on timeshares and avoid overpaying if we purchase down the road. D and I spent more time around the pool that day and had snacks by the pool for lunch while H and S had fun playing golf. . D and I made beautiful floral leis at the cart by the main lobby-$15 each, which I thought was a fair price. We had dinner at Roy's-good fresh fish. The restaurant is located in the King's shops-fun for an hour's browse-but we all concluded that it was not worth more time than that. If you like Dairy Queen (a treat for us, because there are none near home), there is one in the food court there. That night, 17 y/o son went out to the hot tub and met some kids his own age to hang with, so he would go swimming or play sand vollyball after dinner most nights.
Tuesday-as we were celebrating our anniversary, H and I treated ourselves to a couples massage in the cabana overlooking the ocean-very pricey, but it was pure bliss-being kneaded into a noodle-like state with the sound of the waves crashing beneath you-we told the kids that we had a romantic dinner at Donatoni's planned and said that they could get room service or eat out-they chose to eat out at the Chinese restaurant above us and then surprised us by coming down to have dessert with us. Guess we're not so bad as parents after all! The food at Dontoni's was wonderful.
Wednesday-Exec. Lounge breakfast and then ATV Outfitters Adventure Tour-we voted as a family before we left-picked one excursion to do-H, S and D picked the ATV ride, so my snorkeling idea was out-voted. I was so timid on the ATV that they almost did not let me ride-we ended up having a blast! We rode through beautiful fields overlooking the ocean and hiked down to a waterfall-a highlight of the trip. We found the ATV Outfitters trip in the "Big Island Revealed" book-which I used a lot to plan our trip. We also bought gift certificates from Hawaiisavers on EBay which brought the price of our excursion down quite a bit (although we got discounts on all 4 tickets, be forewarned that ATV Outfitters is not keen on this and would like to limit the coupon usage to 2 per family-they were nice to us, but I believe they had words with HawaiiSavers about this). We had a late lunch/early dinner at Cafe Pesto in Kaiwae Harbor, about 15 minutes north of the Hilton-great pizza and salad! Then back to the hotel for more pool time.
Thuesday-more pool time-our last night in Hawaii -we had dinner at the Japanese restaurant-decent food but not phenomenal-ever since the kids first went to Disney World and fell in love with the Teppanaki Grill, we make it a point to try teppanaki-style restaurants if convenient when on vacation.
The tram broke at various points during our stay. There were never any signs posted to indicate that it was not operational, and no one from the hotel staff was ever around to ask any questions when a malfunction occured. I felt sorry for older guests or foreign tourists who may have had difficulty getting around. The paths are not well-marked-although the walk from the Ocean Tower to the Lagoon tower is interesting (lots of art and beautiful views) , it took me until 2/3 of our stay was over to learn how to get to these points via the walkway. The people running the boats were friendly and helpful. For the most part, the people running the trams were not.
The concierge staff was pretty mediocre overall-did not seem overly interested in doing anything other than making in-house dinner reservations. Even then, some acted like they were doing you a big favor if you called to ask to verify a reservation time. A notable exception was the wonderfully cheerful young lady who staffed the adult Ocan Tower pool towel area-she actually had set up a book swap,so you could read and then trade for another book when you were done. She called each guest by name and was a pleasure to deal with.
We had lots of trouble getting an Internet hook-up-we had gotten it for our kids as part of the Diamond amenity package, but no one knew how to set it up-we made about 8 phone calls-it was supposed to be a hookup to use the internet for several days for free-they finally threw their hands up and told us to use the regular costly set-up and they would take it off our bill. Unfortunately, our experience with Internet hook-up exemplified the "its not my problem" attitude that we saw in a lot of the staff members. There were some gems (notably, the Ocean pool towel person, the wonderful hardworking people in housekeeping, and both bartenders we encountered at the wine bar of the Kamuela provision Company), but overall the staff needs work. One young woman in the spa who worked behind the desk said they had problems with people calling in sick.
Despite the customer service glitches, we had a great time and found the resort and the entire island to be beautiful). We all agreed that it was the best family vacation we ever had!
Actually, Hawaii did not end the vacation-we spent a quick 2 nights at the San Francisco Hilton where we had WONDERFUL customer service-I had e-mailed the hotel that D was celebrating her 19th birthday that weekend-they upgraded us to a lovely suite on the 43rd floor with incredible views of the City and treated D to a lovely birthday cake with her name written in chocolate. Everyone at the hotel was wonderful-if a housekeeper saw you in the hall,they always said hello even when a bit of a distance away. We wished that we had more time there-they Hilton WV should send its staff to SF Hilton for lessons on how to make guests feel welcome!