Opening special? And OP received points stay bonus as well.

Or was there a choice between amenity and points bonus.

Staying at the Andaz, it would be necessary to have overnight parking. Parking in these facilities run a risk of getting ticketed and/or towed. I would suggest transferring to the hotel if parking and rental vehicle costs are the issue. The Andaz is a short walk to the Wailea shops anyway.

Some more thoughts:
We checked in Friday and are checking out Monday. We are a couple in our late 20s.

We booked a regular room on Hyatt.com with points (22,000 per night)
We checked in and were upgraded to a partial ocean view
Room itself is very nice with some high end fixtures. The bed is comfortable. Seating area is small for 2 people but the balcony takes care of that. Balcony chairs are oddly shaped and pretty uncomfortable.

Cons:
-We have a connecting room and quite a bit of noise can be heard from next door. There's at least one toddler in the room and we can hear his voice very clearly. Not what you would expect at a $400+ per night hotel. Since we are getting up very early anyways it has not been a huge issue, but noisier neighbors could cause problems for light sleepers.
-Music is playing everywhere on the pool decks - if you want to sit by the pool and hear nothing but the ocean this probably is not the place. It's not a party atmosphere, but it's not super quiet.
-Room doors slam shut - not sure how they missed addressing this as they are noisy.
-Surprising number of kids even though the hotel is relatively empty. There is a pool near the spa which seems like it is adults only.
-in room coffee is Starbucks via (instant) and an espresso in the marketplace is $4.
-Cocktails by the pool run $16 and beers from $7-$8
-Nothing is written down about activities or services. You have to ask someone for details, which is not very good if you are an introvert like myself.
-Service is too friendly. The hotel is fully staffed but it is not full with occupants, so the staff seems bored and wants to have extended conversations with you. It's very tough to come and go anonymously here if that is what you prefer.
-valet parking is the only option and its $30.

Pros:
-Very nice rooms and grounds. Automated shades in the room, USB chargers, etc - this is a fully updated hotel
-Gym is very nice, free, and fully equipped
-Beach is beautiful - Beach chairs and umbrellas are provided. They have a bunch of water sport rentals: outrigger canoe, kayaks, paddle boards etc for rent. Snorkel gear is $10/day. They do complimentary canoe trips 2x a day for an hour which was fun. Saw many turtles and you get a great view if the island.
- managers reception 1 hr prior to sunset. Not sure if they are every night. But last night they had a nice Pimms cup cocktail, red and white wine.
- free non-alcoholic drinks and snacks in the minibar. They did not refill the snacks, so I will have to ask.
-The shower is massive, with a waterfall shower head. The doors on it open see you can see into the room and out the balcony window.

I'm sure I'll have more thoughts, but if there are any questions that I can maybe answer while I'm here let me know.

More thoughts:
Wifi is incredibly slow in my room. Did a quick speedtest on my iPhone - 1 kbps download, 2 kbps upload, 402 ms ping. My AT&T LTE is running at 22 kbps down and 8 kbps up. Others have stated the Wifi is strong and it seems better in the common areas, so my room might just be a dead zone.

Nice review!

What is the diamond breakfast like? Any chance of getting it via room service for free as well??

I am not Diamond so I do not know.

Breakfast in the restaurant is $45 for the buffet and individual entrees are $20-$25.

It's been stated before that it is a breakfast buffet with a value of $50 per person. Highly unlikely they would let you do room service.

Here is the room service menu (pictures from TV):
http://imgur.com/a/UwLMU

What about street parking in the adjacent neighborhood, Hale Hookipa and Hale Alii streets?

+1

As a relatively new Hyatt Diamond member, I noticed the difference between the Hyatt Regency and the Andaz. The Andaz is a smaller property compared to the main Wailea resorts and HR Maui. It will be intimate onsite. It doesn't feel like you're a number at Andaz neither. If you're wanting to fly under the radar, I suggest other resorts. Andaz will provide personalized service and the Staff will definitely get to know you at a more personal level because its a much smaller hotel.

Not sure.. Literally YMMV as you try to save $ for parking. It means longer walks to the resort and less quality time on vacation. Condos on both sides of the hotel and Kihei is quite a bit of a walk. So if you find free street parking, it will be some distance.

There is no resort fee yet IIRC so look at the valet parking as a resort fee to maximize the time and value.

Grand Entrance from Valet to the lobby

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-E...0/P1000634.JPG

Breathtaking view of 4 levels of infinity pools from the lobby

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-a...0/P1000635.JPG

I think the buildings on the left side are the residences.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-F...0/P1000636.JPG

The wing on the right side of the 4 levels of pools is the only one open so far (1 of 3).

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-T...0/P1000639.JPG

Breathtaking view from the lowest pool level, at the pool bar.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-F...0/P1000643.JPG

Friendly bartenders at the pool side bar.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-I...0/P1000644.JPG

Open Concept Kitchen

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-z...0/P1000646.JPG

Sunset

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-e...0/P1000647.JPG

Saw one of the suites, it's very nice, but they definitely went for form over function (uncomfortable bench seating and couch) in the furniture choices in the living room side of the suite, nice bed, desk, tvs, views, great bathroom, beautiful tub, fabulous shower.

Others will be along to post pics of their rooms and suites.

Definitely a nice place.

Thanks for inviting me over for a drink.

-David

The lack of privacy on the balcony is shocking. The pseudo Arne Jacobsen chairs do not look too comfortable either. Very tough to transform a 1970´s building into something modern.

The pools look nice, but one can easily understand why nearly all guests so far complained about noise. :eek:

Diamonds (others?) don't pay resort fees on award travel, so implying that it's OK to pay $200 for a week of parking during a free stay because there's no resort fee isn't relevant.

I'm in Maui for a month, so a 1/4 mile walk in the nice weather won't take away from my quality time, if I'm saving a few hundred dollars.

I'm still not happy there's no self-parking, even for a small fee.

Does anyone know what is the maximum occupancy for a standard double room?

Hope that it is 4 people, 2 adults, 2 children. I am taking my Grandchildren there in June and do not want to use a suite upgrade because we then go over to the Grand Wailea.

I'm not happy neither, but looking on the bright side of the equation, we've visited Wailea for 10 years and see parking as a nominal cost to a service we use. In Calgary, $30 is the norm for downtown parking. Calgary had some if the highest parking rates in North America so I generally don't bat an eye to the parking charges. I find my time on vacation is valuable plus having two small kids, I like the convenience if valet parking. If I'm vacationing in a condo, then I would expect parking to be included, but most if our nights spent in Hawaii are in hotels. Haven't Spent a night in a condo in Hawaii now for ten years. We were at Valley Isle last.

Well, I'm not in the 20 something category and the incessant "music" from porte cochere to inside the room with the doors closed did not thrill me either.
After an hour or so of techno coming from the poolside DJ the first afternoon, I called the front desk to find out when the torture would end. The very short answer "24".
Yes, there is no music by the serenity pool, which is fine if your room faces that direction. If not, I suggest a quick move!

And don't expect ease in the rooms. The 1" deep sinks in the cool looking bathroom make it pretty impossible to rinse a swimsuit without a tiny tsunami and the wooden slats in lieu of counter top result in either very c-a-r-e-f-u-l placement or loss between the slats.

As to the staff, a little further training is in order for a few. At breakfast we were told all the produce came from the Andaz farm in Maui (?!) including the apples used to make the juice that morning. When I questioned this, I was assured it was the case.
That I'd pay to see!

The beach is stunning and I found the Hawaiian staff to be consistently good.

All I heard was soft Hawaiian music coming from the speakers mostly around the pool. Granted, I was only there for 2.5 hours yesterday, but you couldn't hear the music in the room I saw.

-David

Mommy Points was talking up farm-to-table there, but the fruit shown was cantaloupe, honeydew, and watermelon?!
https://twitter.com/mommy_points/status/376754821727916032
Cheap filler on the mainland, that you'd see at a Hampton/Residence/Holiday Inn, but nothing local/exotic. Local grown melon is incredibly expensive IME. Local papaya and passion fruit are dirt cheap, pineapple is cheap and plentiful too, and star fruit should be in season right now.
It's foolish either way, serving expensive mediocre fruit, or throwing around the term farm-to-table without knowing what it actually means.
I also wasn't aware of any local charcuterie/Brie producers.

I'm curious to see their cocktail menu though. They brought in a really talented mixologist for the menu. Even at $16, if they're true craft cocktails, cheapskate me will try a few. I was extremely disappointed with the GH Kauai's menu. Has anyone tried the drinks?

I have at least some of the cocktail menu photographed and will share it once we get back home and settled. They really were amazing drinks.

It is absolutely a farm to table kitchen, but your guess is as good as mine if that means absolutely everything falls under that umbrella, or whether that is simply what they strive for when possible.

Huge thumbs up on the yumminess scale for the meals we had in the restaurant (breakfast and dinner), but outside of the Diamond breakfast benefit just be aware you are paying for what you get. Many entrees were close to $40 and the small plates were often around $20.

Tons more info on my site coming once I get home and organized, but happy to try and answer questions if anyone has them in the meantime.

Oh, and we did not hear any Hawaiian music in our room nor did we find it loud or offensive, but if you want silence by the main pools that probably won't happen. I would call the vibe upscale relaxed Hawaiian chic...or something like that.

Re: cocktails
They are good, but the bartenders are still reading from recipe cards. It seems like they know how to make the recipes and the few we tried were good, however, great cocktails require frequent invention and using what is local/in season. It's not clear they have anyone on staff to do that since they outsourced the menu, but maybe I am underestimating.

If you have had craft cocktails elsewhere in major cities like San Francisco or Boston, you will probably not be impressed (especially from a value perspective).

Also, the drinks are all very measured so you are not getting a lot of alcohol for your money.

They allow 2 + 2 in the King + double rooms iirc, I have some bookings for December. Ironically, Suites have a 2 person max atm per GP.

Just wanted to followup after a few days stay....

The morning to night music was just on Saturday and I'm not sure if it was a weekend thing or if enough people spoke up to have it restricted til only the evenings. The evening music I actually find enjoyable but it was the morning/midday music which was a bit obstructive to reading a deeper book or even just sitting on the balcony to enjoy the scenery. Whatever it was the past few days were very pleasant to have the tasteful music kick on only as the sun was going down.

This Hyatt certainly had the pick of staff not just on the island but throughout the Hyatt organization as everyone we encountered was incredibly helpful and equally thrilled to be a part of the opening as the guests. Part of why my wife and I enjoy staying at Hyatts is the staff is consistently excellent across most all hotels and this is certainly no different, only perhaps they're more outgoing due to the initial high staff/guest ratio. Part of the shock that they were so outgoing initially was that we were in France most recently where the opposite attitude rules (non-Hyatt of course).:D

Thus far it's not a party atmosphere but the hotel concept is something that doesn't exist elsewhere on the island, not simply a W type but a little more upscale and sophisticated than that. I think the Andaz Maui fulfills a niche that is in high demand and will be very successful going forward. If someone wants a very quiet property this isn't necessarily it but they could accommodate it if requested.

The Kitchen opened very strongly with unique, locally oriented dishes and I hope it continues to uphold the standards. The hotel I most frequently stay at, St. Regis in Singapore, also opened strong but the current standards are nothing like when it opened due to economics taking precedence and corners cut but I think this Andaz Maui will be better positioned to resist a downward slide in standards.

Just returned from a 3 night stay.. Overall the service was great. I was not offered a diamond amenity, but I am following up with the hotel regarding this. As many others have noted, the issues with the blinds and lights are real. They blinds (black out shades and sheer) have a mind of their own and open/close all the time on their own. At one point in the middle of the night I turned the thermostat up and all the lights turned on and the blinds started going up as well.

Still some kinks to work out. I visited the spa yesterday and had the entire place to myself. It was quite nice.

Come my stay (November), if I haven't seen a post regarding a fix, we'll leave the blinds up when we go to sleep, and just close them right before sunrise... we won't sleep much later than that. We often do that at home when we want to maximize the airflow through the windows, or hear the sound of the outdoors when we go to bed.

Just to give some perspective, our blinds worked perfectly, so I don't think this is impacting all rooms. However, we were awake before the sun pretty much every day anyway.

Our only service related issues were a man who came by to collect our room service trays each morning although we never had room service. He seemed quite confused by this. I'm also not 100% sure what we got that counted as the diamond amenity. There was what seemed to be a welcome amenity in the room when we arrived, and then we requested the amenity and were told it would be a bento box the next day. However, wine and drinks appeared the next day. We were fine with that, but I'm not 100% sure what the Diamond amenity was. They seem to have just one amenity choice per day.

The evening drinks at 5 in the lobby are worth stopping in for. They were tasty and free. Three days a week the GM is at the evening drinks and their are supposedly some appetizers there those days.

What is the beach like/snorkeling?

Glad to hear they had a come to Jesus moment because we had NO Hawaiian music and we certainly had loud techno! Most of the music was generic crap. Good to know that the powers that be caught on quickly.

Now, can anyone who's stayed there tell me they found the chairs on the room lanai, comfortable? I'm truly curious.

As to the Ka'ana Kitchen, perhaps it depends on where and how you usually eat, but in my opinion, the compressed watermelon salad for $15+ wasn't and the three tiny pork meatballs for $16+ were not "dumplings" or very good. The flatbread from the Mokapu Market, on the other hand, was tasty and filling after our expensive non-meal.

I don't know how snorkeling would be, but the beach was fantastic! Uncrowded, gorgeous sand and easy access in the ocean.
We were told that the umbrellas are already not working correctly and new ones need to be ordered.
I got the distinct impression that many of the aspects of this hotel came from corporate, well outside the realm of reality in Hawaii.

I did not find the chairs on the patio comfortable. I found them odd and not comfortable. Not horrible... but not great either.

I found the beach to be very nice. Not a huge surf and nice enough to go wading for a few hours. We were offered chairs and towels.

I thought the food was priced very highly... breakfast for 2 with 20% tip was $110... realizing that is waived for diamonds is nice... but still very high to pay out of pocket.

Alcoholic drinks? This is a nice touch even just to get some POG (we don't drink) and appetizers.

What are some appetizers and drinks offered?

Alcohol punch the two nights we went. I didn't ever see the apps, but we were told they are there on "manager reception" nights.

For those wondering about snorkeling, I thought it was pretty good. Colorful fish, coral near the rocks, turtles at times (according to others, we didn't see one).

I didn't find the patio chairs super comfortable, but I found the view awesome. ;)

It amazing how many people, especially those that haven't even been to the Andaz, are complaining so much. I was there the first 6 nights the resort was open and never heard loud techno music. Not even close.

All alcoholic mixed drinks are made with two ounce pours. That is heavy on alcohol so whoever said the drinks didn't give you any value for the money please explain what you mean. If you get a drink at Grand Wailea you are getting 1.5 ounce pours. I know this from experience and because the bartender I got to know at Andaz told me this and he came to Andaz from the Grand Wailea.

This resort had little corporate influence according to the employees I spoke with. They have casual uniforms and when I asked about them I was told the GM hand selected the uniforms which are dresses for the women in the lobby, shirts and Hawaiian shirts or Nike shirts, etc.

The lanai chairs are horrible. My only thought was the cushions just haven't arrived yet but maybe they meant them to be like that??

I said this upthread but the Ka'ana Kitchen for dinner is a waste of money. We spent $100 and literally went to the cafe to fill up after dinner. Regarding breakfast, someone is complaining that the buffet has canteloupe, watermelon, and honey dew because they're crappy and star fruit, papaya, pineapple and guava because they are cheap??? What else would you like? A plum? Name what better fruit there is. I don't see guava and papaya at many restaurants.

And yes, the rooms have 2-inch deep sinks. If that is a deal broker you should find another hotel. I can't understand why someone can't rinse a bathing suit in the tub or shower??? So many complaints it is comical.

This is always a good time to point out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCqm4H3m3Ew

We got cheap salt and two candies as Diamond amenity. Upgraded to deluxe ocean view king. I like the breakfast here, they have everything... Food in general is overpriced, and the cocktails is so so.

P. S. Yesterday ordered Piña Colada and bartender didn't know how to make it...