Eujeanie

They told you no breakfast because it was an award stay? Exactly which Hilton was this, there are several with some combination of "Hilton" and "New York" in their names.

Karen2

NY Hilton Midtown, Avenue of the Americas. If they have no room for you as a Gold member on the lounge floor, you get no breakfast at all. And the lounge is actually on the first floor anyway. The hotel has only a bar restaurant. Back of it is a deli run by a vendor. The fine dining restaurant is closed. Down, and down we go....

dcht

Stayed in the Ocean Tower in July/August 2018 as a Gold. Breakfast was included with the option to pay $8 for the "better" breakfast (I believe it's $10 now?). Construction didn't bother us at all. It was all done during the day. Only time it might be a problem is if you're at the adults only pool (near Ocean Tower). We sat through a timeshare presentation for a free luau.

loomis

It looks like they now have enough timeshare units finished in the Ocean Tower to call the HGVC "open."

https://www.hgv.com/hilton-grand-vac...acations-club/

They obviously have a lot of work to do before the Ocean Tower is fully converted.

The _Banking_Scot

Hi,

Thanks for that. Reading the article they have finshed just over 20% of the units ( 72/350)

Regards

TBS

Karen2

There is no construction noise now. They are taking a break. Some of the timeshare units were occupied. We went on the timeshare talk deal, arriving Jan 30, departing Feb 4. Some folks around the Ocean Tower adult pool said that they had bought a timeshare and were staying in it. Fabulous décor BUT more fees than they were told about. Also, the 2nd BR in the 2 BR unit has NO window and is quite small. That BR is placed next to the entry door. Woman said it was very bad for the other couple with them. Despite rumors a few years ago that the adult pool would be refurbished and HEATED, it was not HEATED. Pool was 70 degrees and most adults passed on going in. At our timeshare talk, I brought up the issue of heating the pool and got blank stares. The timeshare sales crowd is very much out to lunch and provided us the perfect excuse to say no. We were sent a couple of times to see this person or that. It did not occur to any of them to call over to see if that person were in. So we went from Ocean Tower to the lobby twice for no reason. They are also selling returned Kingsland units but that resort looked rag tag to me. Cushions on the outdoor furniture were frayed, for example.

As Gold members, we got an upgrade in Ocean to a suite. REALLY NICE rooms. We were very happy. Huge shower in addition to a tub. Almost an ocean view. Free continental brekkie across from the convention center. $12 to upgrade to the full buffet which ran $58 each!! The freebie was just fine. The Japanese and Chinese restaurants were down for the count. Boats run from 2 pm to 10 pm and only two of them. As guests who have been staying there since 1988 when it opened as a Hyatt, I can tell you it is painful to see what it is now. However, the ocean views, dramatic architecture, etc still made us happy. It was, however, the only time I have been to Hawaii and not gotten into any water.

Skip Sam Choy's restaurant which has moved to the outskirts of Kona. A bunch of greasy stuff. We got our macadamia fix at a sale at Long's and at Costco.

The weather was perfect AND the saddle road is PAVED!! Waikoloa to Hilo took 1 hr 15 min! All rental cars allowed. Still need a 4 wheel to the top of Mauna Kea. The volcano trip was a waste of time. Most roads closed and, amazingly, no heat, glow, etc at Volcano House. However, we did enjoy lunch at the Punau'u Bakery near the volcano. AND I snagged FOUR malasadas with lillikoi frosting... Another day, we boogied on over to Hilo to check out the astronomy museum. Nice place for lunch and we spent quite a bit of time at the exhibits.

One fine day, we dropped in on the old Mauna Kei Hotel, built in 1965, which is now a Marriott Autograph Collection hotel. We read that it had undertaken a major redo. However, it looked like the same old place and a desk clerk confirmed that Marriott was only thinking of a redo. There was almost no one there as a contrast to a very busy Hilton. Marriott wants $600 per night or 50,000 points. Hilton was between $275 and $300 and wanted 60,000 points.

If you call Hilton for any reason, they generally send you off to the timeshare folk. We saved around $1200 by spending 2 hrs with them. We really did enjoy ourselves at Waikoloa. The dolphins, the sunsets, the boats...

johnndor

"If you call Hilton for any reason, they generally send you off to the timeshare folk. We saved around $1200 by spending 2 hrs with them. We really did enjoy ourselves at Waikoloa. The dolphins, the sunsets, the boats.."

Can you elaborate on this? What sort of a deal did you get?

Karen2

Our deal, which I made Hilton put in writing, was $850 for 5 nights at Hilton Waikoloa, a full size car for a week with National, $100 toward expenses (food, drink, etc) at the Hilton, $200 toward a night at any Hilton in the future, waiver of the resort fee but had to pay for parking, and a discount card for activities if you show up in February. If you are a no show, you get dinged for $1200 which is about what we saved. The discount card was for a lot of expensive excursions that we did not want but did include a couple of restaurants, like Roy's, where we got 15% off. I would not consider it any reason to go in Feb. The water was 72 in the ocean and 70 at all the pools. Never got wet which is weird for going to Hawaii. If you want Waikiki, you get a luau as well. We had no interest in Honolulu.

If you are Gold or Diamond, the hotel respects your status and gives you free mini-buffet breakfast. We also got a room upgrade. All timeshare guests stay at Ocean Tower which, for now, was quiet but could be noisy again soon as the change over from hotel to timeshare starts up again. However, we were told that they begin work at 8 am and stop by 5 pm. Cars in Hawaii are very expensive so our car would have been $350 had we paid for it. Rooms were running around $200 per night plus taxes. Taxes were part of our $850. Our fee covered those too. Parking was $30 per day for drive in yourself. I think valet was $37.

If you are already at the hotel, I think you just get $200 for listening to the talk. Not a good deal by comparison.

Weatherboy

As an option for Waikoloa & the surrounding HGVC, Uber finally has a strong presence at both KOA airport and the Waikoloa Beach resort. There's at least 10 cars waiting around the area from about 8a to 9p. With parking fees becoming astronomical at the Hilton, and rental cars not much cheaper, it is reasonable and reliable to rely on Uber to/from the airport & hotel and perhaps rent a car (and not pay parking) from the Hilton on the day(s) you want to explore the island. I know of people that book a 7 day trip there, pay $600 for a rental car, pay $210 for parking, but only head out for 3 days of their stay.

But a word of caution: while Uber is plentiful around KOA/ITO, Waikoloa Beach Resort, Kona, and Hilo, it's still pretty non-existent in places like Hawi, Waimea, Pahoa, and Volcano. So if you plan to take an Uber to explore someplace on the island, don't expect any Ubers to be around to take you back.

HIFlya

I know this thread title is specifically about the Grand Vacations portion of the Hilton Waikaloa, but I just thought I would query about if anyone had any recent stays at the general Hilton Waikaloa and what they thought. It has been a while since we were there and I am debating whether to get the Aspire Card due to some increased expenditures, so we would probably use our certificate and $250 resort credit there. Any recommended paid resort activities for 7 and 4 year old boys. 7 year old can swim well so thinking snorkeling in the lagoon is a must.

And since I am going to be a Diamond, I am curious what kind of upgrade has been given to prior Diamond/Gold members.

HIFlya

Hi, I had posted in the HIlton Waikaloa Grand Vacations thread earlier, but it seemed like that one is dead, so I thought I would start this one as my question relates to a possible stay at the Hilton Waikaloa, the non-Grand Vacation side.

I am thinking of getting the Aspire card before going so I will have the automatic Diamond status along with the resort credits. Anyone have DPs as to what kind of upgrades I can get as a Diamond and also, we will have two boys, 7 and 4 coming along so any suggestions on good activities to do to make use of the resort credit? The 7 year old can swim really well, the 4 year old...not so much but we will have floaties.

Westcoaster

See Hilton Waikoloa Village {US-HI}

I'll suggest that the mods add your post to the above thread. You may get some helpful responses there.

HIFlya

I swear I did a forum search and everything and did not see that thread! Thanks for directing me to the right area.

Caroline Clark

Peter_Ng

I got a similar deal for next year 6/30-7/7/20. Mine was about $915 after tax. I am Hilton Diamond, so like you said, the hotel does some kind of recognition for the status? That would be nice, i was told if I want to upgrade to 1 bedroom in Kingsland, it would be $75 more per night, and $150 to the 2 br in Kohala Suites, maybe pass for both.