toadman

Glad you had a good stay. We were there around the same time. I added my post on my stay to an existing thread. (There are so many already on the HWV.) One thing to note about that 100,000 point value, I agree at that level this place is worth it but at 175,000 I don't think that it is. We did not eat at Donatoni's though it looks very romantic. We opted for the Four Seasons resort for a nice dinner, which has similar prices but a much nicer view and atmoshpere than what we found at HWV.

We don't belong to COSTCO and opted for the Wal-Mart gig and brought the car back empty for a gas price of $2.21/gallon with Alamo. The Chevron closest to the airport was charging $2.26 when we were there.

tk007

We returned from HWV on Dec 9th. We were put in an Ocean Tower room on the top floor (8th) with a partial ocean view. The view was of the lagoon and the ocean, we liked it But as a Diamond I don’t think I received a room that was above the class booked on the TEEN, it was still listed as a garden view room, just one of the better ones. The room seemed large with a walk in closet and a nice bathroom setup, small balcony with a sunset view and a view of Mauna Kea. We enjoyed the birds in the the ocean tower at Sunup and Sundown.

We were treated very well and had great service all around. We had nightly turn down service with extra towels, shampoo and lotion each evening. We valet parked all 6 nights and used the bell service getting our bags to and from our rooms, this probably cost us $100 for the parking and tips for the week but it was much easier on the 4 of us.

The place did seem really huge but it also never seemed really crowded. It did get busy on the weekends but we could always find a place to land where it wasn’t crowded. The walks were enjoyable and when the two girls wanted to take the tram or boat my wife and I would walk. It seemed a toss up for time and a good way to burn some calories.

The food is extremely expensive; we probably ate one meal there in 6 nights. We went to the Kings shops a few times for Subway and had Chinese food at the Palace. I would think if they would drop the price it would be busier there. They never seemed really busy. For a family of 4 it is just out of the question. If it was my wife and I it might have doable more then once.
Plan on using the lounge as much as possible to supplement. And we brought in snacks to the room. It was the first hotel that I had ever stayed at where the minibar was less then the restaurants : (

But aside from the food all was great. Sunny weather, great service, nice pools, we would definitely go back.

LemonThrower

I am gold. Will be staying at the HWV for the first time in Feb. with my wife and young son. What room type should I request? I dont' care about lounge access but I would like a free breakfast. Is the only way to get a free breakfast there now to get lounge access? I think I care most about the view, so should I request Ocean Tower then Lagoon Tower? If I have to pay for breakfast, what am I looking at - about $200 for 6 days?

tinkybelle

Enjoy HWV.
Ill be at HHV in early feb

[This message has been edited by tinkybelle (edited Dec 29, 2003).]

travlr

no more free breakfast - the lounge is now the only option.

The buffet is @ $21/pp - not really worth it in my opinion, although ordering off the menu is still expensive but the food is fresher.

As gold, we were put in the Ocean Tower earlier this month (I didn't put in a previous request) with an ocean view. The rooms are large & the furniture is in pretty good condition.

lintemut

Just back after an ALON stay.

ROOM:
Upgraded to suite with limited ocean view 3099 as diamond. For me the spaciousness of the room far surpassed the value of getting a full ocean view room.

LOUNGE:
I inquired on Breakfast coupons vs. using the lounge and was told flat out their aren't any. For a while coupons were used at the resort but no longer. The lounge was adequate for breakfast but after 6 days one is ready for something different. The food for breakfast was not rotated the entire visit. Lunch was similiar with cookies and Cokes every day. Supper was rotated a bit with some type of chicken wings each night I visited. The choc chip and mac nut cookies at Lunch were quite good.

FOOD non lounge-
Expensive. Ate lunch at one of the stands in the Ocean View tower and spend $18 on chips with cheese and a turkey sandwich, no drinks. Ate at the chineese restaurant on site and spent $40 on two entrees, again no drinks, that were good but not great. Smoothies pool side were more like flavored milk.

RESORT
The resort is really a destination in itself. I wished I would have booked 2 ALONs back to back here to enjoy the Island as well as the resort. The grounds are very nice. The dolphins are remarkable. We didn't pay to "swim" with them, we just watched them. Their were 3 to 4 young/newborn dolphins that were fun to watch play. One swam beside it's mother most of the time. Others would jump and splash about. The large pool was the coldest pool I have ever been in. It reminded me greatly of the cold pool at my local gym. It was VERY cold. I think too cold to swim in. I only got in it when I went down the slide.

Their is also a flamingo sanctuary on grounds that is interesting to visit. Around 10 flamingos that mainly just stand around.

Every day around sunset and sunrise we were entertained by the bird choir. They gathered in one tree and really made some noise.

High speed Internet access was available in the room.

PARKING
Used the valet service. Car retrieval was very fast. When I called for the car from my room it was always waiting for me when I got to the front. When I forgot and requested the car at the valet stand it was always brought up in less then 5 minutes.

CAR RENTAL
Get a 4wd. I used the Big Island Revealed book to do my siteseeing and many of the places it talked about going suggested a 4wd. Next time that is what I'll get.

VOLCANO
Nice but I didn't get a lava flow.


I will be returning to the Big Island and quite likely will be staying at these property again. Last year I stayed at the HHV and while it was nice have no plans to return to Oahu. The HWV is much nicer.

RedSandFan

"The resort is really a destination in itself. I wished I would have booked 2 ALONs back to back here to enjoy the Island as well as the resort. The grounds are very nice"

I totally agree. Six days is not enough to enjoy the resort and see the sights on the Big Island. You can spend four to five days at the resort relaxing, using the many pools, activities, etc.

RedSandFan

Lemon Thrower,

Please see my trip report for the HWV, December 8-14.

Aloha and enjoy your trip!

Koshare

Tinkybelle & LemonThrower, I'll keep my eye out for you. We'll be there the 2nd week of Feb. This will be my first trip there. And from all of the reports I am very much looking forward to it.

vandesa

I will also be there Feb 6 - 12, although we also have a 2 Bedroom Condo booked for the later part of the week. Since we needed 3 nights it was pretty much the same amount of points for the old ALON and 3 nights on the by night chart. So we picked the ALON and figured we would use the pools and what not for the extra days.

I am hoping for an upgrade on gold status as well.

ddavis

We just returned from our ALON stay and wanted to add to the discussion of room assignments. When we checked in they said they didn't have any upgraded rooms in the ocean tower available, but said we would be very pleased with a palace suite. This would include access to the ocean tower lounge as we were diamonds or we could have gone to the palace lounge which reopened Tuesday. Well a suite would certainly work well as we were with the kids, however as we were walking down there I was worried we were talked into a jr. size suite over an ocean view. However when we arrived at our 3rd floor palace suite, I have to say it was absolutely stunning & palatial. The double entry led to a large hallway with a separate half bath and a lanai. There was a large separate bedroom with 2 lanais connected to a huge luxurious marble bathroom with separate shower. The huge living area had ample seating and room for many comfortable roll away beds - we only needed 2 but could have slept many more - and another lanai. The extra large dining room with wetbar area and mini frig was wonderful and had a 5th lanai. We had views of the gardens, the mountains, the golf course. Everything was beautifully decorated, plenty of Kohala spa amenities, turndown housekeeping service, everything but the ocean view. However with everything to see out of the room, we didn't spend much time thinking about the view from the room.
I used the posts from this group as a guide to our activities and restaurants and really appreciated all the info. I would say not to worry if you don't have a 4WD and want to go into areas like the Waipio Valley, if you walk down and don't want to hike back up there are always several friendly trucks bringing visitors back up.

[This message has been edited by ddavis (edited Dec 31, 2003).]

sftravelor

the hilton waikoloa is great - very romantic with a decent amount of activites, and great rest. it isn't too close to town(kona), or much else (other than a shopping center), so it is a bit isolated w/o a car. we stayed for 2 weeks. i think one week here would be great. regency club is pretty good here. one complaint we had is that everything closed at 11pm on the resort.

Football Fan

Waiting for PaulGQ to show up in this thread .

InHoc

I thought the same thing, counselor.

Arnold

We are on our annual trek to Big Island starting this Thursday. Discovered it 6 years ago and haven't wanted to go anywhere else in Hawaii since! Am Diamond and the ALON award was 100000 points for 6 nights and the best travel award bargain out there but they changed it now to 175,000 points (but still worth it). Car is a must if you want to see the island. Most of the island is well maintained 2 lane roads but speed limit is mostly 55 or less. Big island has tallest mountain in world and southern most point in US. You can snow ski there often(it snowed last week). Kona side gets about 7 inches of rain per week: hence where the resorts like Hilton are(resorts really stand out as they are the only thing GREEN in a sea of old lava flow). Hilo side gets about 100 inches per year and is very lush.Volcano is very active adding acres of land per year to size of island. Many small towns to stop and have a wonderful cup of Kona coffee (avoid blends).
Dec thru Mar is great for whale watching. Last Feb we had a room overlooking lagoon with about 30% of view of ocean. Any time during the day we could go on balcony and see whales within 15 minutes. Sometimes we would see 5 at same time. Walking around to ocean side there was just about a whale in view somewhere in the 150 degree sweep all thru the day and we were there for 5 days. If you're lazy or don't like to drive go to Honolulu or Maui which are much more tourist oriented.

My wife and I really like the Hilton. Three ways to your room- walk, boat, or train. Has about 5 or 6 eating places each with their own unique cuisine but quality is average and, unless we are tired, we generally ride into town (about 22 miles ) to eat. Staff in Executive Lounge are great. I have been upgraded every time so far.