PHLGovFlyer

IMO you made the right decision. I've stayed at HWV many times as a Diamond and as a gold and they are pretty good about upgrades to at least partial ocean view rooms for elites. Cutting your point cost by 52% is a no-brainer.

gbearbuck

+1

azepine00

early december is the slowest season in HI

ksyrah

Early December is the best time to visit. We had been doing that for years (kids are too old to miss school now) and were always upgraded after booking the cheapest room using points. The resort might be 40% full. Diamond helps a lot and being a repeat guest helps even more!

dranz

Many visits over the past 20 years .... last visit three (four?) years ago ...
was disappointing. So much so, that we began using our points at other
Hilton properties.

My observations, in no particular order:

Yet another lay-off shortly before our arrival. Fewer and few familiar staffers.
No grumbling in public, but when we would ask about someone,
the answer was frequently: Laid-off; or, hours-reduced and couldn't live
on part-time wages

Rumor: Property being "prepped" to sell ...

Trams seem to be running slower. Never saw more that two boats running.
Typically, one boat running. The trip from Ocean Towers to Reception or
the spa ... ALWAYS faster to walk it.

Dolphin babies ... were were told four. We only saw two. Woo hoo!

Cabana/awning seating at pools, inlet and ocean. A couple are $0, most
range from $25 to $95/day.

Landscaping: Four years ago, it was poorly maintained. This month, a lot
less exotic landscaping ... but a LOT of landscapers working to update,
thrift, maintain. LOTS. (Prep'ing to sell the resort?) Too much PVC
irrigation plumping is exposed.

Restaurants: Kamuela(?) Provision Co. demanded $50 for outside seating.
It includes two glasses of champagne and one appetizer. I declined ... and
went to "Manta" at Mauna Kea (resort) twice, Merrimans once and Keei
Cafe twice.

Later we tried again. Same $50 gambit. I countered with: We don't like bubbly.
We will order cocktails of our choice, salads and entrees w/wine. Frowning
and staff discussion before being seated outside - Thank you. An adequate
qty of empty tables @ 6:15PM. Grrrr. But I also don't have a suggestion
how they can shuffle those on a burger budget to the indoor seats.

Ferral children: Never seen so many ill behaved children. I was approached
by a random 4 year-old, asking me to take him to the bathroom. "Where
are your parents?" "Dunno." I escorted him to the nearest staff desk and
said, "Your problem."

Ferral adults: Typically 20-somethings ... Skate boarding on the stone
walkway such that my bride has to detour into the landscaping? No, dude.
Not cool.

Spa: Mostly unchanged. Bic razors are no longer free. Shaving gel is free.
My favorite massuese has departed. Sigh. The alternate did an even
better massage/PT session. Hurray!

Coupons: We prefer them to the HHonors Breakfast Closet that was running
four years ago. Sadly; we found it IMPOSSIBLE to use them for any of the
$10 breakfast choices. It was the $30 self-serve buffet; or be ignored.
How bad was it? One morning, we conducted an experiment. I went for the
$30 buffet. Bride wanted a the $10 fruit plate (not self-service). Loooong
omlette line. Great omlette w/the usual sides. I went back for fruit. Server
ignored my bride's multiple requests for the $10 fruit plate. I was finished.
She had not yet ordered. She got her own "fruit plate." Charged $30 for it
and the server was unwilling to budge/comp/correct. Tipped: Zero ... and
we never returned. Did seem to be too few staff for the number of guests.

Requested the old-style coffee maker/pot to replace the individual-cup
brewer. No hesitation. Housekeeping apologized that they couldn't provide
coffee packets. No problem. Plenty of options at Safeway. No harm. No
foul. No problem.

Hawaiian Style Cafe; Waimea. Loved it (for breakfast). Set your watch
back 50 years. Bananna/MacNut pancakes are to-die-for. Really.

Keei Cafe; Capt Cook. Never disappoints.

Merriman's Restaurant; Waimea, Did not disappoint.

Manta (formerly: Pavillion); Mauna Kea Resort. Always a treat to return to
our honeymoon spot.

Bar service at pools. IN-attentive. If I tell you I'll need another drink in
45 mins, please come back the same day. Happy-hour drink/pricing being,
um, withheld. Why is it double-secret? Why must I ask for it?

Mexican [cough] restaurant @ Ocean Towers. Yuck. Mexico should file a
grievance at the UN.

TSUNAMI!

I fly for USCG ... and got an SMS/alert re: a possible tsunami resulting from
the Vancouver earthquake. A quick look on-line at the data, and I was
convinced it would be a non-event for us and decided to stay, rather than
self-evacuate. The state declared an alert. HWV sent security door to
door. They got to us ~40 minutes after TV began reporting the alert.
Guests on floors 1-4 were reassigned temp rooms on floors 5 and above.
HWV staffers and security were organized and very effective in this aspect.

BUT, there was a morbidly obese, elderly lady on 3rd floor that had spent
the prior night at the Kona Hospital. The elevators were turned-off. (Right
thing.) But she couldn't climb one flight of stairs nor walk (half way around
Ocean tower to her alternate room). Hilton staffers and security ignored her
situation and left her in the elevator lobby on the third floor, with her
elderly girlfriend. Their assigned roles and procedures apparently said
nothing about evacuating an ambulatory guest ... and seemingly did not
accommodate improvisation.

I called the front desk. No answer. Security? No answer. Housekeeping?
No answer. Bell stand? No answer. Just great. I returned to the gaggle
of staffers passing out keys. Got a wheelchair? No. Know where I can
get a wheel chair? Crickets. Anyone served in the military? No. No. Marine
Corp. No. How does USMC handle their wounded? Crickets. USMC never
leaves their wounded behind - YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE for getting this guest
to safety. Would you like me to assist you? No. When I checked back ~
15 mins, she was relocated. Good job, but it ought not have taken a swift kick in the arse.

CostCo - our first week; lots of guests on CostCo package deals. They
were happy and bragging to everyone about their great deal. Apparently;
$269/nite including two full breakfasts, rental car, parking, WiFi and
bottled water. Later in the week; they were apparently being offered
return vists for $100/night; IF pre-paid direct with HWV, 6-nights max ...
and must be used within 18 months. No other bennies.

I was curious if I'd be solicited at check-out. Nope. Just the usual,
how was your stay? Thank you for your business, farewell.

Will we return? Yes. But next year we will probably try Conrad Koh Samui (sp?).

alfaman

how about the barracuda at the kona resort!...wonder if it's still there

Tpa-flyer

I took a deep breath and reserved using AXON redemption, for eight nights this upcoming April. Looking forward to visiting the Big Island but will miss our usual repeat vacations to Kauai. Am a bit nervous about the WV as it's an unknown for us, but will hope for the best and negotiate the rest, if need be, once we check in. April feels so far away!

TR7_DFW

Be sure to go to Volcano National Park. We have been to WV three times and have gone to the park each time.

Tpa-flyer

Will do! So looking forward to it! Still have to research and reserve our rental car, but once that's done, all the pieces of our vacation will be set up. It's been a project of sorts to make it all happen as everything is reserved using miles or points. And, of course, we're already strategizing how many points we can rack up according to whatever "spend" will be required while we are there. Honestly, the miles/points game changes one's DNA.

particlemn

I was checking my up coming reservation here and now there is listed a daily $25 resort fee that was not there at time of booking, it says you get interenet access included in the resort fee. i already get that as gold, just a littke disappointed

MileKing

I saw this as well and it is on top of the parking charges.....disappointing. Wonder if they are waiving the resort fee (or reducing) for Gold and/or Diamond members? Looks like Premium Room Award reservations are not charged the resort fee. If you have an award stay, it may be more economical to redeem slightly more points for a premium room than pay the $25/night. At my HHonors points valuation of 0.425 cents/point (i.e. just over 4/10ths of a cent), it would be worth it if the premium room award is <5882 points per night extra than a regular room award.

jimnyo

so, for anyone who has never been here before, you will probably love it. as someone who is here for the third time in about 10 years, i am a little wistful and sad, as it is clearly on a downward trend, as many of the previous posters said.

we are here for 10 days, 6 b/c of the timeshare presentation, and 4 on hilton hhonors points, gold status. i did hear them mentioning a $25 resort fee to the person ahead of me at check-in, but nobody mentioned it to me and so far i have not seen a charge, so perhaps it is waived for gold members, or maybe b/c of the timeshare thing. best to just call and ask so you won't have any surprises.

one of the things i always loved here was that i could take yoga classes free of charge, thanks to our gold status, but now that just gets me into the fitness center for free and i have to pay for the classes like everyone else (which means no exercise for me on vacation, lol). just another sign of the downward spiral.

we stayed in the ocean tower our first time, but last time and this time we are in the palace tower. every tower has its pros and cons. here's my take:
1) the ocean tower has the laundry room in the basement, very convenient to one of the pools. however, the palace tower is not that far from the ocean tower.
2) when we stayed in the ocean tower, we were awakened every morning at 5am by the hundreds of extremely boisterous mynah birds. i was not happy. however, we had an outer room that had opened out onto the outer hallways. in the palace tower, we had and have a room off an interior hallway, set away from the courtyard, so if we hear the birds at all, it's barely noticeable. i imagine the same thing would apply in the ocean tower.
3) the palace tower has less of a wait for elevators--don't know why, maybe b/c everyone requests the other 2 towers, or it's off season now, but i certainly enjoy it. it's also not at one end of the other, so for me, i like being a little more central to both ends.
4) they just cut down several trees in the courtyard to try to curtail the mynah birds. don't know if that has been very effective, though. they are still noisy as ever.
5) i requested and received a complimentary upgrade at check in...i had hoped to stay in the newly renovated lagoon tower, but there were no double bed rooms left and we wanted the 2nd bed for the kids. so we are on the top floor of the palace tower with a partial ocean view looking towards the lagoon side. it's not a fantastic view (mostly we see the tram and palm trees), but the room is super huge and quiet, so i'm certainly not complaining.
5) i just wish the restaurants were better. food is such a huge part of our vacations, it really is a bummer that we have to eat off-property. i'd even be willing to pay the exorbitant resort prices, if only they were any good. we made the mistake of paying 13 bucks for a lava flow (oh yeah, make sure you ask about happy hour specials--they change everyday and it so happened, if we had waited 2 hours, our lava flow would've been half off). it had almost no alcohol in it. thank goodness for our "breakfast" coupons...we used them to pay for the drink.
6) the only breakfast i would consider sort of worth spending the coupons on is the acai bowl at the waikoloa coffee company. it's large enough that i can split with my 8 year old daughter and be pretty much full. not to mention way healthier than all the other baked junk (which i guess is better than the crazy toppings like skittles at the cereal bar they have at lagoon spoon).

we love hilton and have been members for almost 2 decades now, but i am a little sad about what they're doing to one of our favorite hilton properties...

SAN 1K

The #251 rooms (Iolani, Kalakaua, Monarchy) are in the palace tower, one above the next. We recently stayed in 5251 Iolani and it was incredible. Two full bedrooms (one a king, one with two double beds) each with a very large bath including a whirlpool tub against an exterior window. An office, large living room with two seating areas and a full grand piano, dining room with a table for ten, dressing rooms, a sauna, a laundry room, and a kitchen with a full size ref/frz and a four-burner range, and a powder room. Lots of closet space. Kitchen had enough glasses, pots, pans, etc. to seat six for a meal. The suite has an enormous lanai across the entire front with eight teak lounge chairs and two teak dining tables with four chairs each. Admittedly the suite decor was not fresh. It made me think of a 1985 Architectural Digest interior. So a bit dated, but very well done for its time. There were not many signs of wear, other than some lights that were out.

I believe that the other two Palace tower suites are similar, but obviously higher with slightly better views.

The other two P Suites are located one in each of the Ocean Tower and Lagoon Tower. I don't know which is where. The Lagoon Tower suite was probably renovated as part of the recent full Reno.

deant

Agree that HWV has gone down hill in the last few years. They have cut back on the number of boats and "trains" that transport people from one tower to another. The landscaping also seems to be less pristine than it was years ago.

That being said, it is still a great place to stay and relax in Hawaii.

uElliots

its been a steady decline for the last 10-12 years

man I can't believe the free fall this place has or should I say is taking