travelbugging

GW is one of the few, if not only, property where this Hilton announcement isnt a deval (at least during covid times). When I stayed mid-Apr the diamond breakfast benefit was $20/pp valid only at Bistro Molokini or Cafe Kula between the hrs of 7-10/11am so this change is an increase of $5/pp and more flexibility

weezl

This month it's still $20, max $40 per room, same limits as above. Would be a nice improvement to loosen the restrictions, as we've been missing the cafe and bistro almost every day because the club* is so much easier (though we did miss out on the Kula's pre packaged gift bags and assorted non breakfast items that are fair game during breakfast hours). Don't get the $13 PB&J at Kula--its' $0.23 worth of bread and spread was pretty bad.

*Diamond upgraded to Napua Tower at OLCI- didn't even get to ask.

UsernameChuck

Thanks - I thought I was remembering correctly, but this thread doesn't have a wiki, and i couldn't find it. This should go well with the Aspire resort credit, too. But if we got a Napua upgrade... but no, we'll be lucky to get to see the garden, I refuse to even hope for Napua.

UsernameChuck

I just grabbed a 95k night in early august, it just opened up... (we may not use it, but we’re rethinking whether to cut back how many islands we visit- could make us want to get there earlier than planned)

PSA: keep checking those nights!

UsernameChuck

Can I ask people's honest opinion: would it be overkill to stay at GW for a week? We had planned on Kauai for 7 nights, Big Island 4 nights, and Grand Wailea for 5 nights. But inter-island Covid testing sounds annoying, repeatedly waiting for results would kill a lot of joy for P2. We're thinking of dropping the Big Island (sad emoji here) - we could do 9 nights in Kauai and 7 nights at GW. (Another option would be to stick with 7 nights in Kauai, then 4 nights at the Hyatt in Lahaina, then 5 nights in GW.)

I don't have much doubt we could enjoy another 2 days in Kauai. I do worry that we'd end up hanging around GW a fair amount over 7 nights, since some of the things that I'd be most excited about doing on Maui (e.g. Hana) don't seem super fun for kids. Would we get tired of the GW pools and beach at some point, and be worn out waiting for pool chairs? Would you rather be a few days up by Lahaina?

Thanks for your thoughts!

weezl

I was blown away last week that there was no wait for pool stuff, beach chairs, umbrellas, etc. Neither at the main rec kiosk next door to the breakfast restaurant (we never went because club and $40 of stuff at Kula), nor at the beach kiosk (both offering wristbands and towels). The front desk staff said they were 85% capacity and had a convention, but we kept wondering where the ppl were. It was NOT overrun with families, it was unbelievably quiet. They had live music day and night, and the bar was busy-ish but there were tons of places to sit around there. And the longest I waited for the main elevator was 16 seconds (most times it was <5 sec). The club almost always had space at one of only 3 tables on their patio (tons of tables in the lounge area, also not full up), and the bar had 0-1 ppl in line most times, on 2 occasions there were 4 ppl getting drinks, so we waited 5-6 min. It was really wonderful but I suspect we just had a lucky week; after reading the potential for crowds and all of those negatives mentioned in earlier threads, I too would be worried!
Loved the beach and walkway there, it is pretty attractive and we thought everything was well-kept. We stayed 6 nights, I would do 7 under these circumstances in a heartbeat.

travelbugging

How old are your kids? Will you have a rental car the whole time? I think if you have a car then a week at GW wouldnt be overkill as you can just drive somewhere else should you or the kids get bored of the pool/beach at GW.

However when we went to Maui, we did split our time 5N in Lahaina (Lahaina Shores Beach Resort) and 3N at GW and focused our itinerary around the area we were staying to cut down on driving time. I think splitting is a great idea as Lahaina and Wailea are so different from each other it will feel like you’re vacationing in two different places. Wailea is more relaxed vs Lahaina is more go out and explore (if you wanted).

UsernameChuck

[QUOTE=travelbugging;33279692]How old are your kids? Will you have a rental car the whole time?

I have a car reserved for 5 days - holy crap, I just checked - to add the first two days would be an extra $700. It'd be over 1K vs $300 when I reserved a month or two ago. So... I guess we'll be taking a taxi / uber to the hotel, and back to airport a couple days later. This sort of puts a new light on our choice of hotels... GW seems like the kind of place you don't mind being carless for a couple days, not so sure about Lahaina Shores.

Such weird calculations... an extra $550 for CVS testing if we keep our schedule... crazy weird car / transport expenses if we rebook. What to do...

Our kids are 8 and 11. What did you think of Lahaina Shores?

Eujeanie

I've been to Kauai exactly once...for some reason, maybe we just hit it wrong, it was years and years ago, but we just felt cold and damp the whole time. Enjoyed a helicopter ride but otherwise never saw any reason to go back. If you love Kauai that's great, but I personally think 9 nights would be too long. Even 7 for us, but as I said I don't know what YOU think of Kauai.

Maui on the other hand I've been to many, many times, so would have no problems with longer stays on either.

When you say the Hyatt Lahaina I'm sure you mean Kaanapali? Even though "Lahaina" might be the address, when I think of Lahaina I just think of the town.

We really need to go back to Kauai some time and see what we missed the first time.

UsernameChuck

I meant Lahaina Shores, I think it's a Hyatt partner of some sort, it's 15K per night.

Eujeanie

Know nothing about it (will look it up), but my suggestion would be to go there first then the GW after, especially if you have kids.

Just took a peek...the rooms (condos) look much nicer (bigger, more space, great OV location) than the GW but the pool is, well, let's just say a bit different than the GW pools.

Remind us if you're traveling with kids and how old?

UsernameChuck

Yeah, nevermind... I must have misread or mistyped when I searched earlier, the only rooms available on points only accommodate two adults (only one queen bed, no sofa). So that's not going to work. The best backup plan I've come up with so far is to go to Waikiki (Hyatt Place) for a couple nights and then go to GW... so 7 nights Kauai, 2 nights Waikiki, 7 nights GW. I'm not disturbing my other reservation, hopefully it works out to go, but even the improvements in testing rules don't seem likely to help us, since our kids are over 4 but under 12 - so not exempt from testing, and not eligible for vaccines.

Eujeanie

Not sure how I spaced on the ages, since you mentioned it a couple of times. Our grandkids are similar, 10 and 12, but we're not going until October with them so hopefully they'll get their vaccine issues figured out. They went to Mexico recently (not us) and they did have to test before and after but it all worked out fine.

gaobest

I know it’s late to respond but I would stay at GW for 7 nights. It’s so great. There are restaurants within walking so a car isn’t essential. The nearby mall (Shops at Wailea) have a mix of restaurants and it’s 6-10 minutes walking per Goog maps. Wailea Village is 9-15 minutes. Mind you this is probably from lobby so allow 5-15 minutes from your room to lobby :-)
i love GW!!!!!!!

Eujeanie

So what's good up there? Monkeypod? Matteo's?