gaobest

monkey pod is FURTHER away and a longer walk - 18 min per goog maps. I LOVE monkey pod and we drive there every visit - both this Wailea location and the Kaanapali location (Whaler’s Village?? A tad North of Lahaina). I think it’s a nice walk and I’ve ONLY driven. My friends liked Pita Paradise which is near monkey pod.
I also love the deli below monkeypod by the parking lot - THE MARKET. I hope it’s still there. They have nice groceries and very very delicious deli sandwiches & cooked breakfast. Plus when we were there on April 15 2019, their music system was playing a Christopher cross song and I finally decided to buy Christopher cross tickets on my phone for the April 20 2019 Sf concert as it was a tiny venue (500 people) and it was by far the best 4/20 I’ve ever had - smashed inbetween old people while at a standing venue, watching Christopher cross perform!!!! So fun. And all because The Market’s stereo (probably pandora Spotify) was playing Christopher cross.

Eujeanie

Well, Maui IS sort of between the Moon and New York City!

Cledaybuck

I need a little advice. I have a two night booking here in a 2Q standard room for two adults and one child next spring on points. I needed to add the night before, but the only standard (ie sane) availability on points was a 1K. The website claims this room sleeps 4, but it doesn't say how (rollaway? sofa bed?). I would prefer the 2Q for 3 nights, but the 1K would be fine too with a rollaway or sofa bed. The most important thing is that I don't want to switch rooms. Should I go ahead and change the 2Q nights to 1K to have the same room type for all 3 nights (these are 3 separate reservations) or should I trust that it can be worked out when I check in?

UsernameChuck

it sounds like something to be worked out there, especially since the 1 odd night comes first.

gaobest

I first saw Arthur at cinema in 1982 or so. I never stopped loving the light rock theme song yet I still didn’t think of going to see Christopher cross when the show was announced. It definitely took my brunch at The Market to put me in a position to buy tix on my phone before we exited The Market. And then being front row (SRO GA) and watching the kid perform this hit was just so awesome. Pure joy. Plus smartphones so that I could film and later rewatch a bunch :-)

our 1K garden view room has a “double” size sofa bed. Not rollaway. we only get a K bed in garden view (fast access to the pool!!!!!!) and it’s always a wide sofa bed that our child enjoys.
at worst, you get the King and spend 30-60 minutes repacking and moving The luggage while your family enjoys the pool. Add $10-40 for bellhop tip or just bring luggage to lobby to store it until you can check into the other room.

Enjoy your visit!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Eujeanie

Not all K garden views have fast access to the pool. You must have been on the "arm" closest to the pool, but your room on the other side of the hall, facing the garden? Our K garden view was on the other arm further back, the one where across our hall was the dreaded "terrace/parking lot view". So our rooms probably faced each other across the garden, that's my guess. To get to the pool we had to walk all the way down to the center (near Napua) and out. Once we tried to go the other way, through the garden, but it ends up where all the maintenace trucks are, but they directed us from there, but not a viable option.

travelbugging

Sorry for the delay, had a busy weekend but it seems like you have your travel plans figured out. Yes unfortunately the standard room at LS is a queen bed (if you're lucky, I swear our bed was a full...) so wouldnt work for your family. However spending those extra nights at GW will be nice! You won't have any issues being carless and if you would like some more affordable and delicious meals outside the resort $$ food, check out Island Gourmet Market at The Shops at Wailea (a nice 10-15min walk away).

UsernameChuck

We saw another 95K option open up in early August... on literally the same day that my wife had another free night cert hit her account thanks to the Aspire card. So we called and used the cert, and got the points back into the account. At this point, on a 7 night stay, we're using 4 free night certs, with the rest booked on points. My only mistake was that in my rush to jump on availability, I booked a couple nights using my points rather than my wife's... meaning that we don't have 5 consecutive nights from my wife, ergo we don't get to benefit from the 5th night free. Hopefully 95K availability will return for one of the nights booked with my points, so we'll be able to switch and get some more points back. Per web research, it seems like when you combine points nights with free night certificates, they divide out the 95K by five, and rebate back 19K per night booked with points.
(We asked the diamond desk if they could switch from me to her, but they said it's against policy. If anyone has ideas other than waiting for 95K availability which may never come, I'm all ears!)
By the way... isn't it annoying / worrisome that the confirmation emails don't mention anything about "certificates" being "attached" and to the contrary, say something about 95,000 points? It makes it really hard to figure out which nights are booked with points vs booked with free night certificates.

Eujeanie

I hope it works out for you, but what "web research" said you can combine points and certificates and get 5th night free? I thought it was that it had to be one lump of 4 x 95 pts to get the 5th free, no certificates involved.

And hindsight is 20/20 but next time you make a reservation, if you're not a print out the piece of paper person (like old me), keep a list of the confirms and whether you used pts or certs.

UsernameChuck

I think you're right that the reservations have to be combined into one reservation, but that is apparently possible - the first time we used certs we had two of them and did a third night with points, so we received a single confirmation for the three nights. One of them is with points, we have no idea which. (And by the way, when we asked the diamond desk, they read of three cert numbers so I don't know if they can see, either.) Anyway, it's my understanding that once they're able to combine into a five-night reservation, the fifth-night free kicks in, which reduces point amounts by 20% - so if you had 3 nights on points, you'll save more than if you had only two nights, etc. But that doesn't work for us since stupid me has one reservation on my account rather than P2's. If we're able to switch out a night, as I hope, I'll report back to confirm how it works.

Here's one of the pages I consulted... discussion of this begins about halfway down the page (excluding comments): https://awardwallet.com/blog/essenti...-certificates/

We are "save the email" people, but as I said, the email confirmation doesn't include the cert number - and it doesn't show up in the app, nor when we log into the desktop site. I assume someone can see it on their end, but it seems pretty antediluvian.

Eujeanie

Don't have time to read the article right now, but if it works that is great - will hope to take advantage of it in the future.

When I get my original e-mail telling me I earned a FNC, that e-mail has the certificate number - I keep a list of that number and write next to it what I used it for, and that confirmation number. But I really despise that you have to call to do everything with these certs - I wish they would just appear in your account and you could choose to use them from there (like Marriott...EXCEPT...when you cancel a Marriott award it goes into oblivion and you have to call for them to find it). You would not think it should be this difficult.

UsernameChuck

Guessing everyone saw that as of June 15, inter-island travel does not require COVID testing... and at some point after that, they'll stop requiring testing for vaccinated travelers from the mainland. That's great news (at least for us).
Now we have to decide which of our plans to keep... After a week on Kauai, do we make a quick four-day trip to BI, followed by 5 days at GW? Or do we make it 9 days on Maui, with 2 nights at Hyatt Regency Maui and 7 nights at GW? If any of you have been to both, any input is appreciated. It seems like there would be more to do with the kids on BI, the pool + beach are great but maybe too much of a good thing?

UsernameChuck

I was amused to see the cheapest point rates on 8/5 - 3,149,000 points per night ($1683/nt). I've seen some pretty poor points values, but at $.0005 (*not* $.005 - that's 20 points per penny) that's pretty impressive.

vtgambler

It's obviously a matter of personal preference, but I wouldn't bother with the BI for just 4 nights despite it being my favorite of the Hawaiian islands. Keep in mind that even though interisland flights are short, you still need to deal with check-in, TSA, rental car return and pickup, etc ... It really kills a half day even under the best of circumstances. Also, the Big Island is just that, big. Getting even a small taste of it requires a lot more driving around. I'd save it for when you can spend more time there.

jbeckett

No, this won't happen. The only way to get fifth night free is to have a single reservation made with points.