DELee

Photos from May 2018. My time at the property from check in to my departure was about ~18 hours, although my wife spent an additional day/night here because I had to leave a day early.

Originally booked only into a 1 king/2 double w/ocean view+balcony, first at cash rates of $269/night+$39tax, then on points but flipping and flopping on dates in trying to coordinate schedules with my wife. I must have booked and re-booked at least a half-a-dozen times given the sheer number of e-mails in my account - both confirmations and cancellations. Anyway, by the time I finalized our reservation, it ended up only being 2 nights but wasn't able to secure the cheaper point rate and had to book a 1 bedroom villa, 1 king/2 double, 2 bathrooms w/ocean view+balcony. For a Category 8 hotel (at current rates), that's 40k/night or 80k total but, because this wasn't a base room, an additional 10k points were required.

For those who haven't stayed here before (and we hadn't), we'd driven by the day before our check-in on one of our drives out of Poipu/Koloa just to make sure we knew where to go. This property sits on Kalapaki Beach and overlooks Nawiliwili Bay - which is home to Kauai's primary deep water ocean port. If you fly into Lihue Airport and land on 35N, you end up passing the property on the aircraft's west (left/port) side. Also, this place is a rather large property comprised of multiple towers/"wings" and self parking lots that are quite large.

Here's the entrance:

This is really more of a porte-cochere where valets do their stuff and shuttles and vans do their drop off and pickups.

If you want to get on property, you end up going down this escalator:

Or, I guess you could also use an elevator over in the Kahili Wing.

This entrance alone made me think of some of the larger casinos in Las Vegas - not only because you have really only one way to get into the place but also because of how big and expansive this property is.

Once you get down to the lower level, you end up still walking further to get to the "Main Lobby"/Front Desk. Rather than try to explain the layout in words alone, here's two images of the property's layout - the first is the property map inside of the room key holder you receive and the second is a photo of this map displayed on some of the monitors around the property:




At check in, we also received the opportunity to spin for prizes and points. I landed on a 1,000 bonus points which aided in my pursuit/push toward LTP.

As shown on the map above, here's what we were assigned: connecting rooms 415/416 in the Kilohana Tower/"Wing". Note that the Kilohana Wing sits atop the Waialeale Wing - Waialeale comprises the lower 3 floors and Kilohana are floors 4 through 12 (or 13). Here's what the panel of floor buttons on the elevator that services Kilohana looked like:

These elevators have seen a bit of use.

For those who haven't been in the Kilohana Wing, here's what the hallways look like - one side (ocean side) are doors to the rooms, the other is a lovely wood-topped wide ledge with faux plants and the back wall of the wing/tower. These hallways are stuffy/airless and have their own smell:

And, at least one of the elevators was out of service/under repair so it made getting up and down a bit slow. Also, I don't recommend using the stairs - especially those at the west end of the Kilohana/Waialeale.

I'll show a photo later on from the garden and koi pond area that make it clear there are no rooms on the north side of this tower - just a wall of concrete - since what's desired is the ocean view and not back toward the island and vegetation (and parking lots).

Anyway, here is 415 (which we entered first and is the very end room of 4th floor - not sure where rooms 400 thru 414 are) - this is the 1 king bed room:
















Here's 416 - a 1 queen murphy bed with a "gourmet center" - not sure why you'd need a dishwasher with only a microwave and a coffee maker and a mini-fridge - 'tho to be fair this room had a dining-type table and 4 seating chairs:





















FWIW, the bathrooms in either room were some of the smallest and most cramped I've ever had across the many room nights I've stayed.

While both rooms have ocean views, you're looking out over the top roof of the Waialeale's 3rd floor rooms, so there's a good 20 feet between the Kilohana's 4th floor room balconies and the 3rd floor roof edge:









Oh, the roofline to 415's immediate right (west side) is the top of Duke's...

Forgot to show what you get in your room key packet - most important are your parking pass and your towel card(s):
Also, ignore the mini-SD card, that was me finding out that I had brought the wrong type (XC) for the camera that was now almost out of memory...

So I went down the stairs next to our room (yuk) and tried to get out some how to the west parking lot area to put the parking pass on our rental car's dashboard. No dice - either you go back through the hotel's wings/towers to the escalator and porte-cochere entrance or you walk out down to Duke's around and out to Rice Street, up Rice Street and wind your way along the driveway. So from our rooms to our car, it took anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes of walking and navigating - and we were lucky that first night since we had parking in the first aisle next to the driveway. Parking in the north lot would have probably added another 5 minutes to our walking commute each way.

FWIW, here's what the back of the Kilohana/Waialeale Tower looks like from the garden/koi pond area:




Anyway, I didn't even try to get a shot or two of this property's signature pool - that folks can look at for themselves on the hotel's website.

Not sure if I could have gotten better rooms since this is a MVC property and I had not played book/cancel/book/cancel/book/cancel/etc. Also, potentially my impression of the property might have evolved had I spent another night there. However, coming from Koloa Landing and its newness and relative intimateness versus this property, I would likely not book here again.

David

RedSun

Nice post. Greatly appreciated!

Still researching.

stvr

If you book into the MVC component of this property do you still get free breakfast as a Titanium? I'm guessing not...

tawcan

A few questions:

1. How big is the sofa bed? Can you fit two kids (4 and 6) on there?
2. What does the "resort fee" include?
3. Does the hotel provide any chairs on the beach?

bsdstone

Just got bumped from our trip to the Big island...considering staying here. We've always stayed at the Grand Hyatt on Kauai and absolutely love it...but don't have the points to do it this time. We have 6 people in our crew. My two teenage boys (14&15) my wife and I, and my in-laws.

I know it won't be the Grand Hyatt, but I'm lifetime platinum...any chance of getting a decent updgrade using SNA over the Thanksgiving Holiday? What are the benefits there now days?

FlyinHawaiian

https://www.thegardenisland.com/2021...-457-laid-off/

CIT85

According to the article, Marriott Vacation Club is a separate entity from the hotel, with ongoing discussions with Sonesta to manage Kauai MVC.
We have only stayed at the MVC a couple of times as timeshare, never at the actual hotel.