duranza

question regarding resort fee for the 2 night free award, isn't that included?

also, does anyone know how much the shuttle to the airport is?

BOSOGG

Shuttle ranges from $12.50 to $42.00 each way, depending on how many in your party and if you buy one-way or roundtrip.
See Roberts Hawaii Express Shuttle:
http://www.robertshawaii.com/mauiexpress/

A Hotel Town Car is also available, but my guess is it is a lot more $$
Call the hotel for quote.

Biggie Fries

We did shuttle (for two) from OGG to Andaz and it was fast, cheap enough (see post above), and fine ...

We punted on the shuttle for the return since they seemed to want us to leave Andaz 96 hours before the flight ... called a cab instead, which was a bit more expensive but gave us an extra 94.5 hours at Andaz.

jepiv

This information was accurate as of December 2013. I took the Tesla just because of the novelty of it at the time. Review is here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hyatt...l#post22507079

hailstorm

No helicopter service?

dewby

My stay has ended at the Andaz Maui.

I have reservations but a nice, not great property. It should be amazing.

It was great meeting footbalfan. It is funny how FTalkers can notice each other.

Safe travels buddy...

I will say it again Maui is spectacular and the hotel is pretty special but it could be amazing. I think it is down to some of the shady staff who have no idea of hospitality and how to treat guests.

all that aside I was sat on the beach this morning and was watching whales berthing out of the water. This is spectacular. Snorkelling with turtles and the great reef it has so much to offer.

Now all we need is a good and competent front desk team and quality leadership to make this resort what it should be.

In comparison on hospitality I have just checked into the GH in New York. I had a reservation for the PH but the difference of $600 just did not seem worth it so made a reservation here. The hotel is not amazing opulence and luxury but having checked in I used a credit card with chilli peppers as the front. The check in agent commented on the card being funny and if I liked spicy food.

On return from a long day I find a bottle of white wine, some tacos and salsa with a plate of haberneros and a card from the agnt saying welcome to the GH. In a hotel with over a 1000 rooms that is hospitality and personal service and for me recognition of being diamond. Noticing my credit cad had a theme and following it up. Well done GH NY. Andaz you should learn and you will quickly gain a following that will generate year after year.

AttorneyVin

How frequent were the whale sightings? We will be there in just over a week; I have never been to Maui during whale season as the family always went in August. Just curious how good the whale watching will be.

Thanks for all of your posts while at the property!

dewby

I think the whale season is starting to thin out but they are still around. We saw them everyday some just a glimpse others for longer.

Our last day was pretty spectacular and the morning was the best I had seen them during our time. They were jumping out of the water about 1km off shore and you could see them very clearly. You can also hear them very clearly if you dive down and hold your breath even at about 1.5 m.

Have a great time. It's nice but I will be interested to see how you find the staff. As I have said some are great, others are just rude.

Kacee

There's really no excuse for that in Hawaii. If they can't find and hire happy staff, they're doing something fundamentally wrong.

hailstorm

That's some pretty lame, uneducated stereotyping there.

Football Fan

Was great meeting you too! Safe travels to you and your family. We are checking out tomorrow morning. Did the road to Hana drive yesterday (and actually drove back the looong way the other way around the island (basically, all day in the car - don't try to take a shortcut on the way back, which we did and it got a bit scary), which I personally thought was the more impressive part of the drive.



Today, we went on a catamaran to the Molokini crater (we took the Kai Kanani Deluxe Tour - http://molokinicrater.com/molokini-b...comparison.php) and did some snorkeling, then stopped at another place and saw a few turtles. I thought both these activities were nice, even though the catamaran had a lot of people on it.

We are just not letting it get to us. Some of them are really nice and attentive (actually some a bit over the top, but that's ok) and a few of them are really not service-oriented at all. I think it's up to management to somehow check on that and review it, but I don't think they are doing it. Some of the younger staff seem to be more interested in having their own party going on and some others just seem to be in a really bad mood and taking it out on customers. It's not really a big deal to us. By the way, we didn't see the juice guy again. He didn't seem arrogant or malicious to me, just a bit socially awkward...never smiled and generally seemed a bit confused. The valet guys were really efficient and friendly. We never had to wait. But overall, don't expect service like you would get it in Asia. It's just a different style, and then there are a few who just shouldn't be in the service industry with their attitude.

Oh, the breakfast tip was added automatically (18 %) on the bill some days and some other days we had to enter it. I'll see how things work out at checkout.

Today, one lady impressed us - even before we ordered, she brought the exact things we had ordered from her the day before at breakfast (orange juice, some extra ice, coffee for me, tea for my wife).

Maybe we didn't know how to look the right way...I kept staring at the sea and didn't see anything for all these days, then today, I saw something popping up in the far distance a few times that was definitely not a wave or a boat. But we didn't get to see them as clearly as you did.

Some of the restaurants outside we visited were Fred's Mexican Cafe in Kihei, which I liked (simple and very casual and people from Texas or California probably know of much better places, but I wish we had places like that in Germany), Matteo's and Monkeypod Kitchen. None of them were bad. We didn't make it to Mama's Fish House on the other side of the island, which was strongly recommended to us.

Some of the room design is sub-optimal and the minibar offering is a joke, also this whole pantry breakfast/upgraded breakfast thing is unnecessarily confusing, in my opinion (I wouldn't mind paying the $ 17 extra and did that on a couple of days to test it, but it just doesn't really seem worth it for what you get).

Some minor things - I really like kids, but I think they should not let them use the hot tub unsupervised all the time - not sure where the parents were in some cases, but there were little kids running around and doing horseplay there and in the pool next to it at times and it could get a bit much (including getting kicked and splashed with a lot of water); plus, I don't know how good it is for small kids to be in that hot tub for ages.

They also seem to cater to corporates and family events quite a lot, several of the few days we were here, the whole area around the main pool (the one with the hot tub) was changed for events, so that there wouldn't be sun loungers on one side. Overall, the hotel seems to attract a somewhat different crowd than...let's say...a Four Seasons or a Park Hyatt. Depending on what your preferences are, that can be a good or bad thing.

Internet speed at the hotel is very good and it is not complicated at all (no need to re-enter credentials every day, etc.).

Our C+P with DSU (booked a long time ago) put us in a partial oceanview suite on the top floor. I guess we got a pretty good deal (especially since we gain a lot of new points with the current Hyatt promo, since C+P also counts for the nights for that and we will get the full 65k).

Overall, we had a very good time at the Andaz Maui. If we come back to Hawaii anytime soon, which is a bit unlikely (so many other places to go to and it is very far from Europe), we would probably have a look at the GH Kauai (I've been to the Big Island (Hilton Waikoloa Village back in 2003 when it was still not as dated, but drove pretty much everywhere), Oahu (Halekulani, Hilton Hawaiian Village and tomorrow the Kahala) and Maui now, and Kauai has been recommended to us quite strongly as well, so that would be the last one of the main islands on the list).

meecal

Great write-up! We did the full journey for the Road to Hana also and we really enjoyed the south side part of the ride as well. Stark change in scenery to the usual part of the drive and the lack of vehicular traffic increased the remote feel of it. Interestingly though, a friend who is visiting Maui just wrote to me in an email on 09 APR that the Road to Hana was closed for construction. Did he get bad info or did it open up yesterday?

Football Fan

It certainly wasn't closed for us (on 09 APR). There was a small part before the actual "Road to Hana" starts that was closed, I think near Hanson Road (?), but that was before the airport and there was a detour. Nothing was closed after that. We did see them start work on a bridge on the actual curvy part of the Road to Hana, but it didn't look like they were going to close it.

ERicday

I am booking four award nights in the end of august, but seems no award night. But if I book a 10 nights stay, then it shows available. Is there minimum nights limit for award stay in summer? I am confused since I can book 2 nights in Oct, which means there is no limit.

exmike

are you trying to book over the xmas/ny holidays? that could be why