Zip

Too bad, we've enjoyed both of these.
So, no more evening entertainment at the Tapa Cafe? Or will the entertainment/bar area still be in use? Hope so.

MayorMcKnife

They closed them back in August during one of my stays. Did they re-open them and now officially close them?

DiverDave

I used to have breakfast a lot at Tapa, as I think they opened earlier than Rainbow. On my last stay there, I had to be enroute to work at 6:00 a.m.

David

dashark

Wow. When we stayed there in July, they had closed the Golden Dragon and moved Village Steak and Seafood into it's location, which I thought was a great move (I always like the food at Village, but not the location).

So that's 4 Hilton restaurants in the past two years (Village, Tapa Cafe, Golden Dragon and Pasta Festival). Have their been any closures in the Rainbow Bazaar?

Bikeguy

I haven't followed this thread in a while, but will be at HHV the last week in Feb, which is next week.

If others will be there and would like to meet a fellow FTer, please PM.

My family stayed there 2 years ago. We were UGed to an executive double and given the choice of changing to a room in the Rainbow Towers. We kept the exec double.

Breakfast 2 years ago was the full breakfast for all four of us. Looks like the breakfast is more spartan now.

Looking forward to a week in Hawaii.

I asked if we could move to Rainbow last time and they said yes, but the room was too small for 4 of us.

This is my (dated) experience.

The other good deal is SPG points and cash at the Sheraton which is more centrally located, but louder. Like $50 and 3000 points. I was UGed as a Gold last month (their lowest level).

I wouldn't pay for Rainbow and hope it carries over. That's the one I'd eliminate. Either they'll have room for you there or they won't. Things might have changed since I was there though with regard to UGs.

uastarflyer

Thanks for your feedback. I decided to buy the standard room rate for the first nights to avoid shuffling hotels, and then called and told them to link the reservations together for a longer stay - they put my room/tower request in the notes.

I noticed they have an e-standby upgrade offer at $59/night. I think I'll just let it ride instead....

Fredd

We just checked into this property last night. We'd decided to try a "standby" paid upgrade and were congratulated at check-in on making the upgrade and being assigned to a garden-view room in the Ali'i Tower.

The room itself was dark and even dingy and looked out on one of the other towers, with the tops of a few palm trees if you go out on the small balcony and look down for the "garden view." Yes, there's a lounge and the chicken skewers and spring rolls were tasty there last night, but the $8 gin and tonics were no particular bargain. We generally don't use hotel fitness facilities as we like to walk outdoors so that's not a deal-breaker to us. YMMV.

We talked to the front desk this morning about checking out a day early and explained our dissatisfaction - we just don't see we got much of anything for Diamond status and the extra payment.

He cheerfully "downgraded" us to the Rainbow Tower - $40 a night cheaper and we're sitting out on our spacious balcony of a bright and cheery room on the 23rd floor with a fantastic view of Diamond Head waiting for the Friday night fireworks. Slightly smaller tub and no bathtubs but the room actually "feels" larger.

I gather we're no longer allowed to use the Ali'i Tower lounge - odd that we're entitled to lounge access in foreign Hiltons but not here - but we're much happier where we are, in a spacious and bright room with a million-dollar view.

"Before" and "after" pictures here from our travel blog.

Cheers,
Fredd

hiflyer66

Seems like the above is becoming "par for the course" at the HHV--pay to play for Diamonds?? come on! We had to shag our own bottled water (Tapa Tower) last time we were there. Wife and I prefer the Rainbow tower, too....Alii may be the high rent district, on the HHV complex, but it ain't all that.

IncredibleDeals

We returned 2 weeks ago from a stay at the HHV. Upgraded to corner room in the Rainbow Tower ( 24th floor). We used the BKfst coupons in the Rainbow Lanai. The cold breakfast was more than enough - fruit, hard boild eggs, good selection of rolls and pastries, lox, cream cheese, salad, etc. Not worth the $10 upgrade for the hot stuff. Without breakfast coupons, the cold breakfast is $20.50 and the complete hot&cold is $ 26.00!!
We found a great deal in the Honolulu Revealed guidebook. Next door to the HHV is the military Hale Koa Hotel. From the beach ANYONE can walk up and buy from their concession stand. Burgers for around 3 bucks!!!
The HHV seemed kind of empty. The bellhop ran off at the mouth and told us the hotel was losing lots of $!!! The shops were mostly empty. According to the local news, Hawaii is hurting.
We did the timeshare thingee and got 30,000 points for it. Painless 2 hours. My husband and I figured out how to work it. I'm the good guy, oohing and ahing. DH is the bad guy, "NO!" And that's it!!!

uastarflyer

Free upgrade? And what is your HH status? I'm trying to get the same thing thus my question.

bdemaria

I'm a Diamond. I was at the HHV a couple of weeks ago had a reservation for an Ocean View room and was upgraded to a suite in the Ali'i Tower, corner room with beach/Diamond head view. (It was on a paid - not award - stay).

Brother & Sister-in-law are there right now on an award stay which was described in the reservation as a resort room. They're HH gold and were given an ocean view deluxe room in the Tapa Tower.

I agree the cold breakfast (I was given a coupon for use at the Tapa cafe) was substantial enough for most people.

Fredd

Re my previous post, that only supports further why we felt hard done by as HH Diamond getting a "garden view" room in Ali'i Tower with a paid standby upgrade. Or maybe we just felt like we were being played for suckers. For our $180 seniors rate the ocean / Diamond Head view from the 23rd floor of the Rainbow Tower is a much nicer upgrade

I note on the bill that our first night in the Ali'i Tower includes an $18 surcharge for "ocean view." I'll just refer them to our blog for a picture of our "tower view" to clarify that one.

The continental breakfast at the Tapa Tower is significantly superior IMHO to the one offered in the Rainbow Tower. The breakfast we checked out in the Ali'i pool area was considerably weaker.

I hasten to add we're enjoying ourselves, lest we come across as curmudgeons. It's not too crowded, it's a nice beach, and employees show lots of Aloha spirit.

Cheers,
Fredd

edited to add: We've eaten twice at a Vietnamese Pho restaurant on Ala Moana, Pho My Lien, and enjoyed it. A bowl of very good and filling pho available for $6.95. Today we noticed no fewer than four separate Hilton employees eating there. It's a somewhat dingy little place on the second floor of a building that you find by walking up to Ala Moana, turning left, and walking just a little way past the Kobe restaurant. Based on two visits, we recommend it to any pho fans and as an antidote to high resort prices.

Jeeves

Our family just completed a 7-night stay at the HHV. Overall, it was a good time. I plan to post a mini trip report within the next week.

However, I got my usual Diamond level "thank you" from the GM and I thought it was interesting that the GMs name was not listed. Here is the signature tag line:

Sincerely,

, General Manager
Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort & Spa

Is someone in transition or are they trying to be scarce?

Fredd

Consider yourself a VIP. We didn't even get the welcome letter.

There's actually a fair amount of strangeness - sort of dysfunctional - here. We finally got caught this morning in one of the 10-15 minute waits for a table in the Tapa breakfast buffet even with plenty of vacant tables visible (the same prevailed in the Rainbow Tower when we walked by), we tried three different numbers to make a restaurant reservation and nobody was answering in the middle of the day, and the big luau advertised in our room as Sunday night has actually been changed to Monday, according to the concierge.

Our lunch at Benihana yesterday was okay but the service was odd. We arrived at 1:30 p.m. (lunch advertised until 2:00), sat at a station across from a glum looking couple of Japanese tourists, waited 10 minutes for a chef to arrive for his chopping routine, and then promptly at 2:00 p.m. we were presented with the check despite not being finished, dishes were being cleared, and we had the impression we were the only ones sitting in the way of their setting up for dinner.

We're canceling a reservation we made for Bali by The Sea tomorrow night and eating off premises.

They're either converting to timeshares or suffering financially or both. Still, the setting is marvelous, and our Rainbow Tower room is just fine.

Cheers,
Fredd

uastarflyer

Thank you for posting - this is the scenario we have in front of us (gold award stay that just says "resort room") - I know what to expect better now.

Based on the other comments on this page I guess more dining $ will be spent off-site! (other than B-fast)