Astrophsx

I'm guessing that they made their bookings some time ago.

liftingbrosef

I booked my P+C some time ago and will be staying for a week at the end of March.

If I am currently a Hyatt Platinum member, would I be able to apply for the Chase Hyatt card and potentially get 2 free suite upgrades to use towards my stay at the Andaz? Would these esentially be DSUs? I have heard that if you are already a Hyatt Plat, then Chase will give you a couple suite upgrades upon completing the spend for the card to get the bonus.

mnredfox

Is this place worth it to use one of my free night certs from the Chase Hyatt CC? Other than parking should I anticipate any other fees?

Rock72

I have a slightly different take on this property. I like it!

I'm staying here now on C+P. I booked my stay probably around 6 months ago. I do not hold status on Hyatt so I did not expect anything.

I was in a bit of a rush to get our room keys and just go to our room so at check in, we just sort of got the keys and went to our room. I'm stay with my wife and kids and one of the kids is an infant that needed to be changed and fed so we wanted to just go to the room.

At check in, I was with my son (9) and we were greeted warmly. We were given a glass of lemonade w/ lavender and a cold towel. My wife was still at the car working with the bellhops for our stuff and also with the baby. She wanted me to just get the key and go to the room.

We weren't offered a site orientation but we didn't want one anyway. My wife didn't even stop to get her lemonade or towel.

The room is very small but was expected I guess. It has 2 double beds and since we also have a crib, there's very little space. There are a lot of nooks and crannies and drawers for your stuff though if you want to be really resourceful. It works for us.

We have a garden view room and we're on the 3rd floor. This is ground level so people walk by our balcony all the time and can peer into our room. We have the blackout shades about halfway to mitigate that.

The amenities are great. The pools are nice. We have been spending most of our time in the family pool since I have kids. The adult tranquil pool seems like it's always quiet. There's another pool with adults that seems like the party pool where there are lots of drinks flowing, footballs being tossed, etc.

The food is fine as well. It's probably a bit overpriced but nothing out of the ordinary for a hotel. Morimoto is nice as well although can be pricey (our dinner tonight was over $300 but we were celebrating a special occasion).

Service has been nice. The pool attendants are great. I made a few calls to the front desk for some minor issues and they have resolved them quickly.

The hotel seems pretty full. This afternoon the pool areas were all busy with only a few empty chairs.

The beach is long but rocky and water is too rough to actually go into the water beyond just getting your feet wet. Maybe there's a better beach if you walk far enough?

I see a lot of complaints about parking and $30 is a lot but doesn't seem out of the ordinary for the area. I don't have a problem with it. One of the valets isn't the nicest guy around but it's ok...he kind of snapped at me once when I got my car because I wasn't moving the car out fast enough (I had to find and punch in an address into GPS, etc.). Another time nobody told me where to stop so I pulled the car over a little bit ahead of the valets (didn't want to block the main entrance) and started to unload stuff. he came up wondering what i'm doing there, if i'm checking in, etc. and i told him "i've been here for days. keys are in the ignition and all tagged already with our number, etc." and he backed off.

This is a nice hotel and I think I'll be back. I'm not diamond so I was not expecting anything additional and didn't get any bonuses so I'm cool with it. I am happy I was able to get the C+P rate and sad that it's not available anymore but I can probably stay on points or something like that next time (points via credit card).

CanfordCliffs

Rock72, you sound like you had fun regardless of the small room, certainly this is one of my favourite locations, Wailea is just magical. And you cant argue that this is a fabulous place to use your suite certificates.

BUT without a spare suite cert, the reviews are so mixed from here with the "college student" type staff and noise that we remain regulars at the Four Seasons in Wailea which is infinitely better although pricy.

I am hoping to find a flyertalker who has stayed at the Hotel Wailea as this looks gorgeous from the photos. I will be spending my points at the Park Hyatt Zurich and Milan (I will post trip reports in afew months) which are another level of property and for me, a better place to burn my points.

Rock72

Yes, we are definitely having fun at this property.

But just for some context, I'm mostly an SPG guy so I usually stay at various SPG properties around the world - Le Meridien, Sheraton, Westin, St. Regis, etc. In fact, next week I am moving from this hotel to the Sheraton Black Rock where we stayed last year.

There was a lot of noise yesterday at one of the pools (the 3rd infinity pool from the top) with a lot of people just drinking it up, yelling, etc. Today it wasn't so bad though. I am here with family so we were in the big family pool at the bottom.

The staff has mostly treated us well so I don't have any complaints. I would guess that based on age, most of them don't have a lot of work experience but they have been helpful. For example, today my son scraped his knee in the pool area so I went over to an attendant and asked if they have any band-aids. He checked but didn't see any, went to another back room and couldn't find any, and then went over to another station in another part of the resort and brought back a few. Sure, maybe they should have band-aids in more places but this guy looked around until he found some.

Another time, a pool attendant guy was walking by and noticed some wet towels on our chairs. He proactively grabbed them and said "I'll get you some fresh towels" and brought some dry towels over. I didn't even have to ask.

The rooms are small and the layout is a little odd. I overheard some other folks talking about the odd bathroom layout how the shower isn't very private and water can get over to the bed, etc.

I have never stayed at the four seasons in maui. Maybe I'll go check it out tomorrow.

devik

This property is nice but as someone else on this thread said, I did not come away with the feeling that it's anywhere close to 5 stars. (Not to be snarky but, at a 5-star, you shouldn't be surprised/impressed that a pool attendant proactively takes care of wet towels.) We just got the sense that this place is a little sterile, and also that it seemed to be designed for the younger crowd.

What makes me say that? Well for starters - unless we just missed it entirely - we only spotted one hot tub. One. There's what, four separate pools - but one hot tub? My idea of a vacation is NOT being crammed into one hot tub with the entire population of the hotel. So we skipped it.

Someone else commented that the adults pool is always quiet. When we were there, there was a very good reason for that: it was friggin' cold. The other pools were heated to a much nicer temperature.

That story about the guy finding you bandaids for your son? That's cool but - when we were there, they had to do that when we asked for SUNSCREEN.

At the Four Seasons, there are these huge vats of sunscreen - in three different SPFs - placed on stations all around the pool. At the Andaz, you ask for sunscreen and they scramble to find some.

To us, the $45 full breakfast at the Andaz (I'm no longer Diamond so had to actually pay for it - man being Diamond does spoil you!) was no better than we have had at some of the nicer Hyatts on the mainland - in fact, it was somewhat reminiscent to me of the buffet at the Hyatt Mission Bay when we were there awhile back, or Denver (Tech Center I think?), or either of the main SF properties. I've even had better at Hyatt Greenwich for less money. Needless to say, we only did the breakfast once.

Also - and this is such a subjective statement but it's just how I felt - when you're in the pools at the Andaz, you go on display. This is based on how they're laid out with the cascading infinity pools and everything, and maybe also because they're all so shallow (the pools, not the people). The effect is totally gorgeous, but you just don't see many people playing in these pools. Perhaps it's different down at the family pool, we didn't hang out there during the day so no idea. It's a really different vibe at other places - we also hit up the Ritz and it just seemed like people were having more fun there. Dunno. Like I said, subjective. I'm sure others may choose the Andaz for exactly these qualities (it is an Andaz, after all).

The Andaz is nice, and we may even go back, but it was just missing something for us. Love Maui, love Wailea, it was a great trip... but if you've never been here, don't go into this thinking it's at the same level as the FS.

canyonleo

I agree with most of what you write, especially noting that is (tries to be) a "young hip crowd" hotel... and that's why what you write about the pools is what it is. It's perfect for one crowd, and not for another crowd. One has to buy what one wants.

But, I do have to take the other side on the buffet. While I wouldn't pay $45 for a breakfast (and "is it worth $45" is a different question), there's no way their breakfast is comparable to anything at other Hyatts. The Andaz breakfast uses top quality ingredients. The coffee is better than maybe ALL other Hyatts (now, if one doesn't know coffee, then one can't really comment). They have almost all local ingredients, and much organic, and maybe don't use any (or little) packaged foods. I've never seen a custom juice or smoothie offering (not a special order) at ANY Hyatt. I've never seen another Hyatt allow me to go completely off the menu and order anything I want (if they have it in the kitchen, they'll give it to you) and without an a la carte charge. I've stayed at all the SF properties and Denver TC, and dozens of other Hyatts in U.S., none have such a breakfast (not that I would ever consider a breakfast offering in my hotel decision, just me).

suite2suite

In total agreement with Canyonleo with regard to breakfast.
When the kitchen didn't have what I wanted, they went and got it for the next day... they also baked another kind of pastry and made a second homemade jam.
As I said before where else are they offering you an assortment of at least a dozen fresh fruits which most of them are prepared just for you.
Service for us has always been great and it does help to know everyone by name.

trubador

Last time I was there (August 2014), they had these huge stations with sunscreen all over the place. And at least two hot tubs, don't forget the other pool area by the gym/spa that has a hot tub.

JetAway

I certainly didn't see the sunscreen stations when I was there in December but I prefer to use my own anyway.

spgplat21

During my stay they had sunscreen at the towel stations on the upper levels of the infinity pools. It wasn't really sitting out, so a person probably wouldn't have seen it unless they were looking for it.

devik

I'm sure if we hadn't paid $100+ for the breakfast we would've enjoyed it a lot more. ;-)

On the sunscreen thing, it happened twice where we asked, and they were like, "Oh, uh..." and had to scramble to dig some up. A third time, there was nobody anywhere around the attendant stand and so after waiting awhile, I grabbed my own towels and looked around for sunscreen but couldn't find any, so just left.

Rock72

We had our own sunscreen so didn't need to ask the attendants for it. The only place where I saw sunscreen was down by the beach at the beach desk.

Cabanas are around $200 I think. It could be worth it for some. I didn't partake.

I didn't notice a hot tub in the adult pool area but I didn't spend very much time over there except to walk through since my room was over there. I only saw the hot tub in the 3rd infinity pool area. It was sometimes crowded but usually wasn't too bad. The pools are more to just dip into and walk around a bit. There was one day when people were rowdy and throwing a football around and doing things like that but usually it was relatively serene.

My biggest complaint is that the rooms were just a little bit too small. I was at the hotel with my family so with kids in the room, we had a lot of stuff and it was just hard to make everything fit right. We did get everything in there in an acceptable way but it was a bit tough and we couldn't actually unpack everything so we were still in suitcases for some things. This is definitely more of a couples resort so it's great if you have 1 king bed in the room for you and your partner. On the plus side (at the detriment to room size though), the 2 beds I believe were queen size (not double) so they were comfortable when sleeping.

Our room was in the Akua wing 3rd floor and so we didn't have a real lanai / balcony. It was outside but at ground level so we couldn't use it for extra storage space to dry bathing suits, store wet slippers / water shoes, kid life preservers and inflatables, etc. In fact, we only went out there twice during the entire week because it was just not that usable (anyone walking by could walk up to you so there was no privacy, etc.).

Laundry machines are nice but one of the machines was not working properly (would flood and shutdown with an error leaving clothes soaked). Other guests weren't always the most responsive either. I know back in the dorms in college we would just take clothes out and leave them on top of the dryer but I wasn't sure how receptive folks would be for that. After waiting an hour (checking every 15 minutes) for one of the 2 dryers to open up, I did just that when nobody showed up. After my clothes dried, they still didn't pick up their stuff so I just put their clothes back into the dryer. Laundry machines are a great touch though.

The gelato was good at the market. Everything is a bit overpriced but I expect that. The larger size gelato (which is basically a full small cup (12 oz?) was around $10.

We also had breakfast at Ka'ana Kitchen one morning. We got the full breakfast buffet for $45. I thought it was pretty good. There was a nice selection of pancakes, french toast, omelet bar, portuguese sausage, chinese pork + scrambled egg buns, bacon, etc. The juice guy was nice although he just had 3-4 pre-made juices rather than me having him make juice on the fly.

I actually think that the pantry breakfast for $28 is good enough for me in the future. There is a nice selection of fruit, salad, fish (smoked salmon, smoked halibut), bagels, etc. I am one of the only people I know who eats meat but doesn't like salty meat so that just means that I don't like meats such as bacon, sausage, etc.

Kids pay 1/2 price so my 9 year old son got the full breakfast buffet as well for $22.50. He probably got the most money's worth in our group because he's a growing boy and was hungry...he ate like 4 plates of food, 3 omelets, etc.

We ate at Morimoto one evening and also ate there for lunch once. The lunch was actually pretty good and not too expensive considering the bumbye bar option next door. For example, Morimoto has a ribeye burger w/ fries for $18 and bumbye beach bar has an angus burger with waffle fries for $20. The burger was much higher quality at Morimoto (size was also similar but maybe even a tad bigger) and the fries were more like traditional fries instead of the seasoned waffle fries although the waffle fries are more filling if you're hungry. The Iron Chef himself was there a few days.

And finally, if you're a guy...there is some nice eye candy at this resort. There were a few really smoking girls at the pool. Most resorts have some nice looking girls but maybe an 8/10 at the top end but here you'll see some 10/10.

calbear03

My wife and I stayed over Valentine's/President's day weekend like Rock72. I was lucky enough to have booked a POV suite on a P+C +DSU last July before they sunsetted the P+C option 1 or 2 months later. I specifically remember the Hyatt GP person being astonished (something to the effect of "WOW that is an awesome deal!") that he could book a P+C +DSU for me. Maybe I killed it. Sorry.

First time for me on Maui/Hawaii (wife's been numerous times), but we've been to places like Tahiti/Bora Bora, Bali, Cancun, Cabo, etc.

Overall, I had a great time (being at the suite on the 6th floor definitely helped -- especially when we had nearly all day rain on Saturday). As a beach resort, I've experienced better: IC Thalasso Bora Bora was definitely better (duh), and depending how you look at it, a suite stay at the Grand Hyatt Bali could give Andaz Maui a run for its money. I think the main thing Andaz Maui needs to work on is the service, but hearing from others in this thread, it has deteriorated since the opening.

When I checked in, my wife was given a Diamond greeting, a choice between 1k points or amenity (red or white wine, Honolulu Pineapple shaped cookies or some dessert I forgot, opted for the red and cookies). The host pointed out where some things (pools, restaurants, etc) were from the lobby overlooking the pools, and told us about getting the lavender lemonade (perhaps they were out at the time? We weren't offered the lemonade or wet towels when we checked in, but we asked for and got the drink at the check-in desk a couple of times afterwards). We also had to ask for the free water bottles and slippers afterwards (these were apparently provided automatically at check-in during the honeymoon opening phase of hotel).

Did the free Diamond breakfast (Ka'ana Pantry option) every day -- I took a look at the Full breakfast upgrade and decided against it. I didn't think pancakes, beignets, french toasts, omelet, bacon, Kalua Pork Steamed Bao, and Portuguese sausage warranted an upgrade. With the pantry option you could order the "slab bacon" as your one complimentary side, which was like a couple of small pieces of teriyaki pork chop. Along with the scrambled eggs in the pantry, I thought it was enough for my breakfast protein.

Also, I asked if we were able to get some custom stuff (like poke as seen here: http://viewfromthewing.boardingarea....te-hotel-maui/) made if we upgraded, but the server said that was just a special thing they did for the first 6 or so months after the Hotel opened. Anyway, I felt that the Pantry option was sufficient -- one day we just sat down for like 15 minutes and ate some fruit because we had to catch the sunrise Whale watching tour. All of the servers were pretty nice (save for one that seemed to blow us off when we wanted a check), but it did seem they were understaffed because we had to flag them to get refills on coffee, juice, even on days where the Ka'ana kitchen wasn't packed with guests. The rainy Saturday was crazy though, since a lot of water tours got cancelled tons of guests overwhelmed the breakfast buffet -- there was like a 30 min waitlist if you didn't have a reservation.

So I do not think the Andaz Maui's breakfast is close to Park Hyatt Vendome's at all, well, at least currently (saw some wild comparisons made by some travel bloggers that the two were similar, when the Andaz first opened). At Vendome, a couple of days Roger Fed's wife and kids (and nannies) were eating at regular breakfast buffet next to me -- they didn't opt for room service -- I guess that tells you how good Vendome's regular breakfast buffet is?

It was the best Andaz that I stayed at though (comparing against all the Cali Andaz's) but it had a lot to do with being in a suite that had a pretty great view of the ocean. If I were to stay in a regular room, I'd probably spend more time off property doing excursions. But not the Road to Hana again LOL! I couldn't lounge around at the pool for more than 1 day, especially when there is only one small, usually full jacuzzi for the whole property.

Anyway on to the Andaz Tokyo and Conrad Tokyo in a few months. Any tips TokyoHyattFan?