ThompsonBr

My family of 4 (5 and 8 years) stayed here and had a wonderful time overall. I am a Diamond and we stayed for a 6 night VIP reward stay. Check-in was fast and efficient. They had us booked in a Ocean Tower, Ocean View room. After reading up on the resort, I requested a move to the Lagoon tower as we planned on a lot of excursions and wanted to be closer to the lobby. They gave us a room with a great view of the dolphin pool. However, this ended up being a mistake as the birds kept 3 of us up most of the night. Starting around 4 am, they were non-stop, so I took a walking and it appears that the Lagoon Tower was by far the worst location for bird noise.
The front desk graciously accomodated a switch back to an ocean view room in the ocean tower.

Other Notes:
intra resort transportation: We really only used this to move between the lobby and the ocean tower, otherwise it is quicker to walk. Later at night there is only one train and no boats, so you may need to wait up to 20 minutes just to get aboard.

Food: We did not eat much on site, as we spent a lot of time out and about. In summary, it is expensive and rather un-remarkable (as to be expected). We saved all of our coupons for one dinner at the Japanese steak house. We left satisified, but unimpressed.

Crowd: The resort seemed active, but never crowded. Given the sheer size, I can't imagine it ever becomes overly crowded.

Pools: The were not heated, but they were not by any means uncomfortable

Lagoon: This worked out great for our 2 young girls. I was calm and an excellent prep for snorkeling. While there are no reefs, there are plenty of turtles, fish, and eels to see without the fear of urchins or damaging reefs. The water was fairly cloudy.

Room: While not elegant, it was definitely clean, roomy, and did not appear outdated

Staff: Always friendly, very helpful, and courteous.

Overall the resort was beautiful. My only regret is that we really did not spend much time there as we preferred to spend our limited time on the island on excursions. I would highly recommend the Dahana Ranch open horseback riding, our daughters loved it, Mauna Kea Beach over Hapuna Beach, and the Fair Winds Kealakekua Bay snorkel trip.

dvc_john

That's odd. I stayed there Sept 24-26 (Fri-Sun) on an award stay after a week at Kingsland, and that wasn't my experience at all (although beforehand I was concerned that it would be crowded). There were plenty of pool chairs at all pools, and the pools weren't crowded at all. The only chairs at a premium were the lounges out by Buddha point. Maybe they didn't have any kama'aina rates that weekend.

AGS

I always enjoy seeing the eels but always wondered whether they were much of a danger if you got too close. There was at least one that appeared to be fairly large (3ft?) and I've seen several smaller ones in the very shallow water near the bridge by the little inlet. Stepping on one was always a worry.

Also, we saw two stingrays the last time we were there, circling around the large area in front of the falls, and they could almost certainly do some damage.

AGS

iahphx

The kama'aina rate is $159/night; $129/night if you stay 3 or more nights. But the rates for EVERYBODY are cheap now; $175/night before any additional discount codes and such. Not really worth using points to stay here now.

As I've posted in the Hawaii forum, Big Island tourism seems to be hurting.

greg0ire

Staying at the King's Land for 8 days during the Thanksgiving week. Can anybody give a quick rundown on that property please? I've seen brief mentions of it, but not much. Did you ever go to the main Hilton area? Did you get free parking here as many often do in that main area? I have Diamond status for both Hilton and HVC.
Also, feel free to tell me what you do on the island. How did you visit the volcanoes This is our first time to the Big Island. Finally changing it up and skipping HNL & OGG.
Thanks.

cblaisd

There are lots of threads on these topics (and a specific one on visiting the volcano and lava viewing) in the Hawai`i forum.

greg0ire

Thanks. It was more directed toward the King's Land experience. The other part was a throw in.

chitownflyer

This is the one island I have yet to visit, so I hope to stay here in the near future. Which rooms avoid the bird noise and have any towers been renovated more recently than others?

vetforus

This will be our 1st time at the Hilton Waikoloa Village. I booked a Lanai Garden View room. I am a Diamond Member. What are the chances of getting upgraded? Our stay is in March 2011.

Thanks for any help.

cblaisd

Decent chance, I'd say - unless you're already into school spring break season in parts of the U.S.

Per my usual advice, send a fax about 5 days before (not an email) expressing your anticipation and nicely asking, with much aloha spirit , if an upgrade would be possible. If you have specific tower requests you can put that there.

BBFD

Last time we stayed was this past April which was east coast recess. Got a suite upgrade off a Q3FN booking. As a Gold I had my preference set to upgrade and the FD clerk made a point of asking if we had stayed at the hotel before prior to committing to a better room (which we had been there before). I guess that makes a difference??? If they do indeed take care of repeat guests then more power to them!! The other thing that might make a difference as it was only a 2 night stay mid-week (left the kids with the inlaws who live in KOA ).

I've stayed in the Palace tower and the Lagoon tower and personally have not had any issues with bird noise and I sleep real light.

I'm back there next month during Turkey Day week so it should be interesting to see what we get.

Rockhopper24

Just returned from Waikoloa Village. Low season, very quiet. My wife called the Diamond Desk and booked a Garden View room with two double beds. Ended up with a Lagoon Tower room on the 6th (highest) floor with great ocean views and a view on the Dolphin lagoon. There doesn't seem to be a clear strategy concerning room upgrades for Golds or Diamonds (no matter if you are paying or on points/certs).

As a Diamond you do get two $10 coupons a day and two bottles of water per stay. Not spectacular...

I fully agree with BBFD that the bird noise wasn't an issue, although staying at the 6th floor possibly made a difference.

I have read comments about Waikoloa village being some kind of Disneyland. In low season it doesn't feel that way. Yes, there is a monorail and you can go to your room by boat, but without the crowds the large swimming pools were great! We don't have kids ourselves, but we never felt we had to go to the adult-only pool. The week before we stayed at the Grand Wailea on Maui, and although being a great property and more luxurious, the large crowds at the pools were not my cup of tea. But maybe I'm spoiled by the Conrad Maldives...

PHLGovFlyer

Staying at HWV right now. The place is very lightly populated with only about 1 in 20 beach chairs occupied at the main pool each day. The lack of crowds is really very nice. This is our 4th trip and we're really taking it easy this time since we've done/seen most of the big time attractions the Big Island has to offer.

We're staying on a GLON award (225k points) and got upgraded to an ocean view room in the Lagoon tower (our favorite). Never once have I gotten a suite upgrade here and have always been a Diamond.

For the bird noise I think we've cracked the code. They're noisy at dusk and dawn pretty much everywhere. So we bring a small (9 inch) portable fan and the white noise easily drowns out all the bird noise.

If anyone has questions we're here for a few more days and are just chillin' so fire away

greg0ire

Thanks. I'll be at the King's Land Bay Club over Thanksgiving Week. I'm thinking it won't be as quiet...first time to Big Island...enjoy.

hauteboy

Won the Hilton WV on Priceline recently for two nights, 12/21-12/23; but our flight back isn't until 10:45PM on 12/23. Any recent info on day rate/late checkout?