rstidolph

Understand there are nicer locations. We are finishing a cruise in Oahu and do not want to fly to another island before returning home.

SacTownGuy

If you are a "city" person I would stay in Waikiki but not at the Marriott. We really like the Royal Hawaiian. It's a sanctuary among the chaos. On the other hand, if you like to totally get away from it all Ko Olina is great and, at least for us, is far superior to other Marriotts over there.

rstidolph

Thank you. Many years ago we stayed at the JW, which is now Four Seasons. I would stay there again if the price was right. We like the idea of being able to walk along the different inlets at Ko Olina.

My major fear at the Ko Olina Marriott is having a low floor in a bad location. Willing to pay more for the one bed room villa to avoid this.

AnalogMan

The units are essentially all the same, so I do not quite understand why you think booking a one bedroom villa will help you avoid low floors. I think only the three bed room villas are guaranteed to not be on low floor, because as far as I know, three bed rooms are all penthouse units. It is not practical (would be very expensive) or likely to rent a three bed room directly from Marriott.

A one bed room is simply the larger half of a two bed room unit that has a lock-off. Some two bed rooms don't have lock-offs, but I think 95% of the units at KOBC are two bedrooms, with the remainder being three bed room units. I think they they built anything smaller.

Having said all that, I think the cost is incremental, but the facilities are much superior in the one bed room. You get a full kitchen plus stacked washer/dryer, a dining table, and a much bigger balcony. The one bed room square footage is more than twice as big as the studio/lock-off/'hotel room' (all three mean the same thing).

As a FYI, I am an owner there, and we bought when only the first tower existed; at that time they were only selling two bed room units.

SacTownGuy

Above is not accurate regarding 3 bedrooms at Ko Olina. They have 3 bedrooms on every floor. I was in a three bedroom on about the 4th or 5th one year and we liked it. Could hear the kids playing in the pool. Was enjoyable looking through the tops of the palm trees at the ocean. Too high up feels disconnected to me. I have always had ocean view though so not sure what a low level parking lot view is like. Probably not great. Oh well, then go sit at the beach.

As for the JW/Four Seasons I haven't stayed there but ate many meals at the old JW. Was never impressed by it. I am sure it's very nice now.

Renting a Marriott Ko Olina unit on Redweek, Ebay, etc... is one of the best deals out there in my opinion.

Aloha.

UnderEst

There are 3 bedrooms available on every floor, although if some floors have multiple 2-bedroom and studio villas rented, then they may not be available. The 3 bedroom villa is the 2-bedroom villa plus the studio villa.

Low-level golf/mountain views, i.e. parking lot views aren't anything that great, but how much time are you spending looking out your window/off your balcony? The resort does a good job of hiding most of those lower level views with palm trees. I've had a 3rd floor golf view for a few nights and it wasn't awful, but the primary annoyance were the birds that were always hanging in the trees outside the balcony.

What works best for me is to book 1 night using my MVC points then the rest of my stay on MR points. That way, I get all the owner's privileges, decent view and typically get better value for my MR/MVC points. As always, YMMV.

My wife and I really like this property for a week long stay with our toddler, but the MVC Preview Center here has been one of the more aggressive out of the 10+ properties we've stayed at. While I don't mind the occasional call, we start to get annoyed when they call both our room and cell phone numbers every 1-2 days.

rstidolph

I have looked at redweek and eBay for the week staring May 7th with no luck. Will keep checking

Thanks everyone for suggestions.

FightingIlliniUAL

We have two back-to-back reservations in February booked at Ko Olina, one a six day, five night "preview" package in a two bedroom villa. MVCI says the room is non-view specific but the property regards that as "island" view. The second is a MR award for two nights in a two bedroom villa but with an ocean view. Upon the suggestion of MR, I called the property and the property indicates we need to either expect to change rooms or to wait for MR to offer an island view award.

MR doesn't have an island view option and the MVCI doesn't have an ocean view option. Any suggestions on how to handle in advance, or just wait it out and hope for the best at check in? Any counsel would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

rstidolph

FightingIlliniUAL

Bump. Any suggestions?

bluemeansgo

Curious what a week goes for on average on redweek.

hhoope01

Not sure there is much help here. MVCI properties are run differently than hotels. Inventory is much more limited because individual owners own weeks at a resort. Thus the resort management can't just upgrade or even downgrade someone as that could interfere with an owner's ability to get the room type they purchased.

Though given you are being offered a preview package, I'm guessing the property isn't sold out yet. That means MVCI probably "owns" a number of weeks, though what view or type of weeks they own isn't known. What I would suggest doing is at check-in, let the front desk agent know about both your reservations and ask them that you would really like to get a unit that you could stay in for both reservations. And maybe they can work something out at that point. But if they can, I'm guessing they will more than likely have you in an island view room for the whole stay rather than an ocean view.

rstidolph

jerseygirl

FightingIlliniUAL

Looks like two bedrooms.