redbirdsj

Anyone know if globalists allowed walk-in spa access without a treatment and/or whether it's worth checking out?

beachfan

Is this near the the rocks between Ulua and the next beach north, Mokapu? It seemed pretty beat up but did see some nice things today (eel, angel fish). But the beach in front of the Andaz is Mokapu.

is one side of the point between the two beaches better than the other?

canyonleo

Yes, Ulua reef is the rocks between Mokapu and Ulua. Yes, it's a little beat up, and damaged from recent bleeching (as is most of Maui), but it has tons of animals, as much as any reef. OK, merely speaking of coral ("the reef") I do think Dumps and White Rocks, and Honolua have more "interesting" reef (like topography at WR, or diversity at Dumps), but for seeing all kinds of animals Ulua matches all. Many critters are hard to find and take a trained/experienced eye, like frogfish, nudis, leafish, flounders - I never found these (myself) in my earlier Maui snorkeling years.

ronbo83

We went in July and had to book treatments to use the facilities even as a glob. The facilities are good and we went back and forth all day. I needed a haircut and the wife did a pedicure which ended up being the same or slightly more than the spa day pass so it was a no brainer if you want to use the spa.. The location near the adult pool makes going back and forth pretty easy.

beachfan

Mahalo!
I suppose the easiest way is to snorkel from one side to the other with the current; if I don’t do both sides, do you have a preference?

canyonleo

There's no real current, it's a very easy (beginner) site. One can go either direction. If I'm staying at Andaz, I start off of Mokapu... if I'm parking in the lot, I use Ulua Beach. The latter has one "hitting the reef" right away where the former does involve a longer swim over sand... but nothing major.

TravelBug1314

Apparently we need to make the 10 night reservation to shorten to 4 nights. Have globalist status. Can anyone explain how to make this reservation without the 300k pts in account? Thanks in advance.

beachfan

Very helpful, mahalo!

redbirdsj

Easiest way is to use your concierge.

TravelBug1314

Usually our concierge is very good. In this case, she's just telling me that she can ask the hotel to change the dates AFTER I book the 10 day stay. That doesn't help me in the 300k points advance.

Might just have to try a random Hyatt representative on the phone. Wanted to know if there is some Hyatt policy regarding points advance for Globalists before calling.

Thank you.

TravelBug1314

Sorry for the extra posting. Read further back in thread and found answers to my question.

redbirdsj

The policy that's been relayed to me by my concierge is Globalists can be advanced the points in order to secure the reservation and must have the points in their account at least 7 days prior to the first night of the reservation or they will be charged the rack rate.

Michael Ad

Another good snorkeling spot is at the north end of the beach walk from the Andaz, right at that next big condo building past the private homes along the beach. If you're driving, there's a lot pretty close on the east side of the road and there's beach access not far from the reef. Saw several turtles there, along with the regular reef fish.

It's a (short, easy) drive, but I still love Ahihi the best.

Michael Ad

The parking lot is at Kilohana Road.

Michael Ad

I’ll basically leave out the good parts of our recent stay here since they’ve generally all been covered before (great beach, restaurants, room design, service, weather, etc.) and just air my gripes. But, to be clear, I’ll definitely be here again - my gripes do not outweigh my enjoyment of this hotel. I didn't even see the construction if it has even started, by the way.

-The rooms are getting a little worn and could use some mild sprucing-up. For example, in our suite, the dining table was seriously dinged up. It wouldn’t take more than a regular refinishing to make that much, much more presentable. There were also dings on many of the wood accents around the room (which might be harder to repair, admittedly).

-The espresso coffee at the breakfast at Ka’ana is incredibly burnt. I didn’t try drip. But each day, I tried to get them to make me something that wasn’t totally burnt, and I never got there. I don’t know if this is just a seriously dark roast or a problem with their machine, but it was largely undrinkable to me. I should have just given up and gone with drip. Fortunately, Honolulu Coffee in the mall makes a great latte.

-Finally, I really didn’t like the valet shakedown at the end of the trip. This one valet in particular fully latched on and keep pushing with “so you’re leaving? this is it? did we offer you good service? did your car always come up promptly? you’re not coming back? we won’t see you? is there anything else I can do for you? are you sure?” etc. etc. It was far too much. For a comfortable hotel with nice relaxed service, to have a pushy jerk like this as the last thing we remember about our stay is unfortunate for the hotel. I should have gotten this guy’s name so I could complain. I will admit that he was entirely out of place and not representative of the service overall or even of the other valets. But he was terrible, and he was the last person we interacted with at the hotel.