Domes of Elunda has a excellent hard product but the soft product lets it down so badly. We were there in May and I felt let down after spending $600 a night on a hotel room. They nickel and dime you on everything. Even coffee pods in the room are extra. Think it was $3 for a Nespresso pod. My 3yr old is a slow eater and likes to take her time which means we normally carry her fruit bowl or cereal back to the room sometimes. We were rudely told on day 1 that they would allow it just once and from tomorrow we need to order her room service. Only give 2 bottles of water and the third is something silly like $6. We went in may and were told that they would have one heated pool which was really cold and clearly not heated. Asked management to look into it everyday and not once did we get a reply. Even other reviews on the Marriott site at the same time complained about the pool not being heated.

Like I said good hard product but not worth the cat 9 cert.

My take is that, between 8/18 to 9/18, the old TP system will be locked down. The old TP system will be phased out. They do not exist any more. If you have TP attached, you can still change or cancel the reservation. But you can't change or re-attach it to a new property.

After 9/18, the attached TP should be still attached to the hotel you booked with the new category. All un-attached TPs will be mapped to the new category with equivalent value (or MR points). Very likely MR will bump the category up.

I think MR has been very fair with the TPs. We get very good value out of the TPs. And MR will keep the value of the TPs. It is up to the TP holders to mange the TPs.

I know that I am the only person in the world who gets value out of Delta SkyPesos, but just in case...

Package ordered Friday posted on Sunday.

EDIT: Also, for whatever reason, the miles from a United package ordered at the same time on Friday posted on Sunday with no expediting option.

While it wouldn't be my choice, if Delta works for you I am certainly not going to criticize you decision. Just curious where you find the best value among the options to use Delta miles.

Non-stop high price routes where the miles option has not kept up with the cash price inflation.

For example, looking at an SFO-MSP round trip at around 2 cpm. Since we have no international travel in the near future, I'm quite happy to get 2 cpm on a domestic redemption.

So confused by all this! We have both a category 7 and 8 five night stay certs but can't decide what to do! Maybe just wait as our fall and winter travel is set now and can't book next fall until after Sept 18. Can't decide if we should just attach them to a place that we are thinking about visiting late spring or early summer or just wait it out. Would love to be able to attach them to a Starwood stay we have booked in Mexico in January but then again maybe we should wait?
We know that we are lucky to have such decisions to make!

It really comes down to your own preference. Personally, I think if you have some idea of where you want to go later in the year and dates, there is no harm attaching your certificate to it now. That way, you have locked in that reservation guaranteeing you do not have to pay any more for that reservation should you decide to keep it, but if you decide you want to convert the certificate to the new ones later that can be attached to Starwood properties, you can always unattach the certificate later and have it converted. Most current category 7s and 8s will be 5s, I think, in the new system?

Simple question, if I book now using travel package for 7 nights, can I call in to cancel and get the travel package/hotel award back so that way I can book at another hotel? I'm not sure if the travel package booking works same way as using hotel points and then canceling for refund of points.

Can you call in to cancel? Yes.
Can you get the SAME travel package back? It depends. Will you be canceling before August 18? Then, yes. Will you be canceling after August 18? We have no official word from Marriott on this, but if what Mr. Marriott's office said holds, then no. It will be converted to a different travel package which allows Starwood hotels and is matched up to the new hotel categories.

Has anyone else had trouble booking these TP reservations for the end of July? We have been trying to get a reservation for one over the very end of the month and while the dates finally just opened up last night, the hotel has still not dropped in availability and despite contacting the hotel directly and two cases opened about this, the hotel has not dropped in their availability yet. This is difficult because if we would like to have ours attached before August 18 and not touched afterwards, but we cannot do so because we cannot make the reservation.

Thanks for the data point on your experience. I've yet to stay here, but agree the hard product looks unrivaled. When did you visit? I'm curious if it was during off-season or peak times. I'm planning to visit in summer of 2019 (booked using the cat-9 cert), but would be interested to know if your experience was while they were busy, or if the resort was relatively slow and in maintenance / refurb mode

Well that sucks. Sorry to hear that, but thanks for sharing your experience. Telling you that you need to purchase room service for your kid who is eating fruit is outrageous. Never heard anything like that. Did you write Marriott directly about it?

Thank you!

Plenty of European cities can make you busy for a full week, even for those who have been in Europe twice or 3 times every year... (us).
On the other hand, Hawaii is of NO interest to us. I would rather spend 7 nights on a Green Island (as many think of the Dome property) than in Hawaii. We get far better value and scenery on a Caribbean cruise for example.

The bottom line is, each person / family has own travel needs and style, hence what works for a person better does not mean the same thing for the other person.