Hawaii and HWV
 

I had already mentioned in the Northwest forum that my trip to Kona, Hawaii started out with two bumps. Northwest gave me a 300.00 voucher and put me on a Continental flight shortly after the scheduled flight. Continental offered me another 500.00 to fly out the next day. Arrived at the airport the next day and was offered another 500.00, but I could not accept it. Again it would mean postponing the trip for another day. My husband and kids had already made it to Hawaii and I was ready to get there. When I arrived in HNL and checked in at Hawaiian Airlines I was told that CO did not schedule the ticket properly and said there were no seats and no reservations for me and nicely told me I was not going anywhere! They said it was clear that I had flown YESTERDAY and that I had made it to Minneapolis. When I called CO at 1 800 WE CARE, they said the confirmation # showed I was Margarita and I was supposed to be in Lima, Peru……I can promise you I am not Margarita & I was not in Lima! My boarding pass had one confirmation # and my trip interruption form (that the agents handwrite, not computerized) had ANOTHER! I spent a few frustrating hours between 1 800 We Care at Co, THREE Co supervisors, Hawaiian Managers and the blame went from them to NW and back. Co made reservations for me at a hotel and said I wasn’t going anywhere until 8:45 the next morning and they were very sorry. Bottom line: I got on the flight by my own persistence – I just got in line for the last flight, showed my form, the attendant took the form like nothing was wrong, the flight left with approx 10-12 EMPTY SEATS!! I had been going back and forth between the two terminals and it is not an easy walk and I was exhausted and mentally drained.

I arrived in Kona and my husband picked me up at the airport. We had a nice room at the Hilton Waikloa Village (no upgrades available due to a major convention and spring break). There are many posts on this hotel and I won’t go into great length repeating everything, but will give a few opinions and cover maybe one or two new facts (ok, my idea of one or two facts is not one or two).

· The roads are dark at night. If you don’t have to drive after sunset, don’t. For sure do not plan on going great distances. I put this in with hotel info because it is dark even in the parking lot and streets leading to and from. You will need a car to get around during the day. Everything is very spread out.

· The rooms are very far from the lobby, but the trams and shuttle boats were very convenient for us. With the hotel being so booked it was nice to see that the shuttles were often, not full (except one night), and easy on and easy off.

· While we did not get an upgrade to a suite, I have no complaints. We were on the 8th floor at first, but had to move to the fifth floor when we had the company of ants in our room (also did not have access to high speed and could not check our emails half of the time. We spent 33.00 one day in the business center to check our emails. We were wasting too much time in the room trying to access them on Dial Up with the horrible lines that they have. We also got bumped off and had to reconnect at 1.00 each time). I had heard that the views are obstructed from trees if you are not on the 7th or 8th floor, but we did not find this true. Room 5090 is where we wound up and had partial view of ocean, pools, mountains, nice landscaped area – some of everything.

· I had the best of both worlds. My kids each brought a friend and stayed for 6 nights. We stayed another 6 nights without kids! We did take two rooms while the kids were here. They are teenagers. My son stayed with us and the three girls had the other room. For those who have posted that you have had four adults in a room…….How did you do it? I think 3 is the max for comfort (unless it is two adults and two young children) unless you have booked and are paying for a suite. Without a guarantee of any upgrade, I suggest taking a second room.

· Breakfast coupons do not exist anymore. We did not get them and nobody appeared to have them. We did eat the buffet most mornings as the Diamond Hilton Honors Executive Lounge is nothing to write home about. Since we were on a Hilton award, it was not a big deal to pay for a decent breakfast. We only went for appetizers at night a few times. Not worth rushing to at all. Very mediocre. We enjoyed the buffet very much in the restaurant with selections of blintzes, French toast, lots of fresh juices, crispy bacon, eggs, etc. While it is expensive and everyone says the hotel food is so high priced, we found all the nicer places on the island to be on the high side. Room service (as everywhere) is a crime: Over $35.00 for One sandwich (one of the best, however!) fries, dessert and iced tea. They added a service fee, gratuity, tax, title, license, etc.

· I thought I was in Vegas! Did laundry and put in four quarters into the dryer and got nothing in return. Only one was broken. Story of my life when it comes to slots. There are four washers and 6 dryers in the Ocean Tower. I only had to wait about 5-10 minutes for my turn when I needed this facility. Soap and fabric softener available for 1.00 per one load sized box. I happened to have bought two 4 load sized Tide boxes for 49 cents each box back home since I did not know that it was available for sure in vending machines.

· One night the door opened to the room. I was on the computer and yelled jokingly “it is about time you got back here,” as I thought it was my husand who was long overdue from the spa. Then I said “Hello???” several times and there was not an answer, I looked up and back at this point and saw a man pulling the door closed that WAS NOT MY HUSBAND OR MY SON! I called the front desk and security was Johnny on the Spot and up to my room promptly. They were very concerned that I was ok and nothing was missing. I had gone to the door and looked down the breezeway and saw someone walking off in the distance. They locks were changed on the spot and new keys issued. I don’t know who or what, but I think the poor soul was probably as surprised as I was with my wonderful greeting.

· Spa was free as a Diamond. I did not have any Spa “treatments,” but did use the sauna and hot tub and then showered there using the Spa products a few times.
· There are plenty of chairs by the pools. There is no reason to go down early to “mark” your territory. People do go down however and claim hammocks and the cabanas unfairly as they don’t come out to use them for HOURS later (just like on cruise ships)

· Many areas have wildlife that is maintained by Wildlife Preservation of Hawaii, not the Hotel. Very unusual birds. Have your camera ready.


· Very enjoyable artwork and museum quality pieces throughout the walkway. Complete exhibit information can be found in a printed booklet that is 3.00 in the gift shop, but we had one in our room. It is divided into three parts to allow a self guided tour if you are truly interested.


There had been a major rainstorm a few days prior to our arrival. Streets were washed away (not flooded, but gone!) and we found it best to call for directions each time as the normal directions could be different. The roads are being rebuilt now and should be back to normal within 3 weeks. We went horseback riding and had to take a longer route that added 15 minutes of travel time to get there. I had not been on a horse in X number of years and of course my horse got spooked at the wind and reared and took off twice. I don’t know how I held on. It was a 2 ½ hour ride with spectacular views at an elevation of about 3,000 feet up. The weather is cooler there and a delight. Some of the tours on other ranches go into the valley and down lower.

Restaurants to try:
Roy’s (discussed before in the forums) in the King’s Shops Center
Oodles of Noodles (about 20 minutes away, not too far from Wal-Mart)
Harbor Grill (about 10 minutes away)
Bamboo (intersection of 270 & 250)

We did go to the Marriott hotel to see the small beach that is part of their facility. It is a beautiful hotel and the beach area is very clean and nice. This would also be a very nice property to stay at while vacationing in Hawaii.

Of course we did the mandatory shopping at Hilo Hattie’s, The King’s Shops, & The hotel gift shops. While nothing in particular jumped out, I added another charm to my bracelet that represents my travels, some comfortable sandals for both myself and my husband, a prom dress for my 17 year old and many other misc. things.

I had been to Honolulu before and was not prepared for how much dark lava really makes up The Big Island. Going on route 19 you will see “Hawaiian Graffitti” where people take dead coral and spell out names and messages into the dark lava rocks. It looks like white rocks being used. We had to ask to get the details. It is not a bad thing and no hotel or area cares if you take the dead coral from the property if you want to proclaim, “you were here.” As we took my son back to the airport he requested that we put GIG’EM AGGIES, but we did not want to schlep the coral needed to do this. We are just dull parents. What can I say?

We took the kids to the Luau at the Kona Hotel. I did not enjoy that. We had done a much nicer one in Honolulu and this one did not compare. Maybe I would have liked it if I did not compare the two. I heard from other guests that they enjoyed the one at the Marriott. I have no intentions of going to a second Luau this week, but thought I would share that bit of information.

We had a van the first week and traded it in for a red mustang convertible after we took the kids back to the airport. Spring Break is over for them now and they had to get back to school.

Mauna Kea Beach: Great Beach! Only 30 cars are allowed in. The beach is public, but is part of another golf resort and hotel. By 9:00 am we were #24, so get there early. Clear water where I could see my toes (my kind of beach). Then drove to Pololu Valley Lookout for great pictures and scenery. Gas is running $2.27 per gallon today. Gas Stations have full service like the olden days. We live in Texas and just don’t have this anymore. I don’t know about the rest of the US.

We have four more days on this vacation. Hard to believe that 8 days have passed so quickly. I will post this now and add more to finish this trip report when I return.

Aloaha, Everyone.
FS

That's the great thing about a 10+ day stay at HWV: you don't even THINK about having to leave until about the 8th day.

We just spent two weeks at the HWV last month. Not that I ever saw a need for security, I noticed that security was constantly walking the hallways just making sure that everything was ok. We had a room next door to my brother & his family and so we would leave the doors wedged open so that the kids could come and go as they pleased. On a couple of occasions, security would walk by and check in on us to make sure that we knew that the door was wedged open.

If you take a walk along the brackish water pools just south of the HWV (just past the parking lot), you will find lava rocks with "baby sized" hawaiian grafiti. I was able to gather up enough strawberry sized coral pieces to make a "I Love Mrs. Onedog" message. If you take the picture just right, it looks like you created a huge message visible from the roadway when in reality it is only about the size of an unfolded newspaper. No one back home has to know! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

We too went to the luau at the Kona hotel. I had gone to a luau in Oahu (Jermaine's) which was much much nicer and less expensive than the one at the Kona. One saving grace is that the luau at the Kona hotel is free for children under 12 ( or maybe 15?). My brother has four kids youngin's and this was thier first time to Hawaii and first luau. For them, the luau was just stupendous.

We were lucky to spend two weeks at the HWV and the first few days we spent just relaxing & getting use to being on vacation. One week wouldn't be enough time.

Done! We did exactly that. We happened to have joked about it earlier and then when I saw your post we used the digital and did what you suggested - I don't think we were in the same area though.

It rained hard last night and drizzled today. We have now added the flamingo sanctuary and the dolphins to our site seeing at the HWV and now I think we have covered the entire HWV from one end to the other and used each pool area. We covered many of the food areas as well. The only place we did not like was the Diamond lounge. I think they only use freezer type appetizers in addition to fresh fruit, same assortment of cut up cheese & veggies each nite. The restaurants were all very good and nice presentations, too.

We did not get to the volcano. It just seemed too far of a drive to use the whole day with the roundtrip drive considering it is not flowing down. We will have to catch that on another Hawaiian trip.

For those who don't realize how far away everything is from this resort: If you want to go to a movie (yes, you can do that at home - but on a 12 day vacation extra time pops up) the closest cinema is 30 minutes away.

There are actually coral artists who are sometimes hired to make corporate logos out of the coral to welcome conventiongoers. I've seen some pretty remarkable works such as the Coca Cola logo complete with the wavy lines.

When we were there last month, the Toyota dealers were having a meeting at a hotel further up Queens Highway. Toyota had hired someone to create the Toyota logo and name in coral along the highway at the entrance to the hotel. It looked kind of neat.

Outstanding trip report - great detail.

Thank You!

Have a safe trip home and enjoy the rest of your vacation.

I love this report. I felt like I was back in HWV.

Enjoy the rest of your vacation!

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Just Relax, Your Home in the Air.