Maui Marriott Resort & Ocean Club…just lovely – Great Hotel W/O
Written: Sep 04 '03 (Updated Sep 22 '04)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: location, rooms, food, service
Cons: Expensive, possible construction noise, no beach in the summer
The Bottom Line: What a great introduction to Maui and the relaxing life. Too bad this will be only timeshares in a few years.
|
|
|
| HJS33's Full Review: Marriott Vacation Club Maui Ocean |
Location, Contact Numbers, Check In/Out, etc.
Maui Marriott Resort & Ocean Club
100 Nohea Kai Drive
Kaanapali Beach
Lahaina, HI, 96761
Phone: 1-808-667-1200
Fax: 1-808-667-8300
Reservations (from U.S. and Canada): 1-800-763-1333
Sales: 1-808-679-3350
www.marriott.com
Check-in: 3:00 PM; Check-out: 12:00 PM
Just so you can get your bearings, the Maui Marriott Resort & Ocean Club is located on Ka'anapali Beach, which is on the west side of Maui. It is a fairly short ride from the main airport on Maui; I believe it took us around 30 minutes to make the drive. Just remember that most of the roads have a 45-mile per hour (or less) speed limit, so it will most likely take you longer to drive places (Note: This is especially important on the road to Hana).
The How
My husband and I spent one week of our honeymoon at the Maui Marriott Resort & Ocean Club thanks to my very generous in-laws and their gift of a Marriott Points Package. I would not hesitate to visit this island again or hesitate to stay at this resort again (although my understanding is that within the next 2 years or so it will only be available to timeshare (aka vacation club) owners). Both were phenomenal.
The Lobby & Check In/Check Out
The first impression can really matter, especially upon arrival at a resort. We had a great experience. When we drove up to use the valet parking (which incidentally is only $2 more than the self parking price of $7), the front entrance was very attractive and inviting, and I can’t say that about all of the hotels, because I didn’t really like the entrance to the Hyatt. The entrance is nice and open, and there are great chairs to sit in and wait for your car, or whatever else you are waiting for. Then, when you walk into the lobby, you notice that it isn’t your typical lobby. The whole area is open. There is no roof. The lobby desk itself has a roof, but the rest of it doesn’t.
My husband and I arrived pretty late for check in, and there were absolutely no lines. We were greeted by a friendly valet parking attendant and then again by the people at the front desk. They even gave us these great necklaces to keep (but they were not the flower ones). Check out was also a breeze. We just used our tv to check out bill and check out of the hotel. No problems whatsoever.
The Room
Before I go on and on about my room, I just wanted to point out the following information regarding the hotel, which is also mentioned on their website:
Guestroom Renovation Project currently in progress. Heavy construction noise from 8am-5pm Monday-Friday. We recommend off property activities be planned during construction hours. September through middle of October, light intermittent construction noise from 8am-5pm Monday-Friday.
Now, construction was also happening during our stay, which fortunately for us the hotel gave us a generous discount of 10% off our room, but truthfully, we didn’t hear a thing. My understanding is that they are redoing all the rooms so that the whole hotel will be timeshares. One of the two towers is already finished, and they were working on the top three floors of the tower we stayed in. My guess is that you will hear construction closer to the finish of the project.
There are 9 floors, with 391 rooms and 10 suites. You can get an ocean view room (which we paid to be upgraded to) or a mountain view room (which I hear are just beautiful). Our room gave us a great view of the pool and a slight view of the ocean. It was still lovely.
The room itself was very spacious. It had a large and comfy king size bed, a couch that folded out into a bed, a great lanai (aka balcony), a table and 2 chairs and a tv (with 20 or so channels including HBO, a specific channel telling you about the Marriott and a channel on events in Maui). There were also a variety of other amenities like a small fridge, a safe, 2 phones, iron & ironing board, hairdryer, coffee maker with coffee, tea, etc. and movies that you can rent (the cost wasn’t horrible either), etc. One of my husband’s favorite amenities is that they delivered USA Today every day.
One of my favorite things about the room was that the lanai area was almost completely glass (yay sliding glass doors!). It was so great to open the curtains to a nice view that you could enjoy either on the balcony or in the air-conditioned comfort of your hotel room. We had a wonderful view of the 3.5 acre pool. We could also see the Pacific a little.
The restroom was really nice as well. The room was just the right size. The shower was nice and hot (and clean). There were ample towels (and they serviced the room 2 times a day, so if you need to shower a lot, you have a second chance for clean towels without having to call the desk). As with most hotels, they offer a few items, like shampoo, cream, etc. just in case you leave yours home. I really enjoyed the shampoo and cream. They had a really pleasant smell.
Amenities, What Else the Hotel Has to Offer!
The Pool
I’m going to start with the pool. Did I mention that it was a 3.5 acre pool? The layout is pretty cool. It has 2 main pool areas and a few smaller sections all interconnected by stairs, a slide or both. There are also a few little waterfalls and a couple of Jacuzzis. Lounge chairs are all over the property, which you think would mean you can find one easily, but that isn’t necessarily so. We always found chairs, but often we had to work to find 2 together.
Separated from the main pool is a cute kid’s area with a pirate ship and sand and such. The kids seemed to have a blast in it.
For your convenience there is a great little bar (simply named Pool bar) where you can purchase drinks. I even saw people ordering drinks and drinking beer in the pool, so I guess that is allowed since the staff didn’t chastise them. If you like fruity drinks, get a lava flow (pina colada with strawberry in it). You can get this in a gutted pineapple too! Yum.
In addition to swimming freely in the pool, they offer other classes and such that you can take in the pool such as water aerobics (which is a free class) and scuba classes (this has a fee). They have other classes available such as yoga, but most of them had a fee (which I think is a bummer…especially if you are paying a ton for the rooms).
The Beach
This was the biggest bummer to me. We had no beach! I was told by the staff that the beach gets gobbled up in the summer, but that this year it was even worse than normal. When we wanted to go on the beach, we either walked next door to the Hyatt or went down to the Sheraton end.
Marriott also has a Beach Activity Center located on the property. You can rent boogies boards, snorkel equipment, etc. there. We never did this.
Fitness Center
We meant to actually use the fitness center, but we never did. We did visit it though, and the center was wonderful! Now you will see many signed that tell you different things about the hours, but the truth is, it is now 24 hours. You only need your room key to get in. They really need to change the signs that are up, because that is very confusing. There was a good amount of equipment in there, and I didn’t see anyone waiting to use anything.
Massage Therapy
When I called before my arrival looking to schedule a massage appointment, I made the mistake of asking for a spa, so they sent me to the Hyatt next door. If you want a massage, they do have the facility. There is an office you can go to to schedule an appointment (or just call) in the line of little stores that they have. You can also request to get a massage on the beach. The prices here are much more reasonable than at the Hyatt. I received a massage at the Hyatt, inside, for $110, and you can get a beachside massage at the Marriott for $90.
Beauty Salon
The beauty salon is small but cute. It is located in the Molokai tower (I believe that is what the other tower was called) at the pool level. Next to the salon is the self serve laundry machines, which are 24 hours, and the videogame room, which is small, but decent.
Marriott Luau
The Luau was great! Marriott has a whole area blocked off just for their luaus. This is a great big feast on the oceanfront that started around 5pm or so. They had a huge buffet spread of a variety of foods, including Kalua Pig (which you have to at least try…I didn’t want to, but I tried it), poi (yuk), salmon, beef, island fish (YUM!) and a variety of other choices. I’m a pretty eater and I find things I liked. Also, they had open bar (woohoo!). The luau itself was really entertaining. The dancers and musicians were wonderful. Yes, it is a little commercialized, but most things are nowadays. You also get a discount on the price if you are a guest. Check out http://www.marriottluau.com for more information.
The Business Center
Next to the lobby/front desk, right next to the activities desk, are two computers that you can use 24 hours a day. There is also a printer; I’m not sure about a fax machine. We used the computers a couple of times to check out e-mails. It was very easy. You just swipe your credit card and off you go. The price was $1.99 for the first minute and then I believe it was around $.30 or so for each additional minute.
Restaurants on the Property, etc.
Let me start by saying that I think my husband would have eaten at Nalu every night if he had the choice. He just loved it! Nalu Sunset Bar & Sushi is definitely a great choice for a light snack or sushi. It is a fairly small restaurant located on the 2nd floor right above the Va Bene restaurant. The tables and chairs are cute and comfy, and it has an amazing view of the ocean. Some times they have live music, which at times was nice, but not when the music competed with the noise from the luau. My favorite to order there was the Banana “Rum” brella. It was a tasty banana smoothy type drink with rum of course. My husband ordered tons of different types of seafood and loved it all.
Unfortunately, we never ate at Va Bene, because it was really cute. Va Bene is an Italian Beachside Grill restaurant with Northern Italian cuisine for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
We did eat at Beachwalk Marketplace and Pantry every morning. It is nice and casual and their breakfast was reasonable and large (we at for about $8 a piece, and often didn’t eat lunch because we were still full.) Lucky for me, they had Starbucks (yay), so I could start my morning right, but note that there are no frozen blended drinks, like fraps. You can also pick up any snacks and things you may need here, such as chips or soda, or even a salad or candy bar.
Then last but not least, there is room service. We did this a couple of times, and every time the staffers were really friendly and nice. You do get charged a pretty hefty gratuity though.
Oh, I forgot to mention that you can order a special Romantic Beachside meal for $375 per couple (doesn’t include taxes or tip). It does include your own exclusive server. We never did this, because I just couldn’t justify the cost.
The Timeshares
Just fyi, to those who are part of the Marriott points programs, we went to one of the timeshare (which they prefer to call vacation club or ocean club because timeshare has become such a dirty word) meeting. We received 15,000 Marriott points to speak with/listen to a representative for no more than 90 minutes of our time. Personally, I found it quite interesting, and I did not feel pressure to purchase.
What Else is Around?
The hotel is in a wonderful location! It is one of a fairly decent sized stretch of hotels, including the Sheraton Maui (which has excellent snorkeling), Westin Maui, Ka’anapali Alii (which is on one side of the hotel) and the Hyatt Regency (which is on the other side of the hotel). For your convenience, there is a great walkway that stretches all the way from the Hyatt to the Sheraton, so you can walk next to the beach, but not on it.
About halfway between the hotels, and just a short distance from the Marriott (maybe a 10 minute leisurely walk on the walkway, is a shopping center called Whaler’s Village. This is a really cute shopping center that not only has some cute shops, but a couple of restaurants as well. We had a nice time at the Rusty Harpool, which is a bar/restaurant. They have happy hour twice a day! Another great thing about the Whaler’s Village is that the stores are open pretty late. The stores were closing at 10pm one of the nights we were out.
Then, when you have exhausted the strip, you can always take the short drive to the town of Lahaina. You can’t miss the action, because it is all on Front street. There are lots of cute shops, restaurants and bars. We had a wonderful time at Bubba Gumps (mmmm…shrimp, and the prices were reasonable for the amount of food you get). We also ate some excellent seafood at Lahaina Fish Company. We also went to a great bar that had $2 well drink specials. I can’t remember the name of the bar, but as you are heading toward the huge tree that spans a block (a must see by the way), it is on the left side of the road on the second floor. We were also fortunate enough to catch a craft fair of sorts under the tree. The items were lovely, and most were handmade! For other shopping, you will definitely want to visit Hilo Hatti’s. They have a lot of choices, especially with shirts, and they prices aren’t table.
And last in Lahaina, but certainly not least, go see Warren and Anabelle’s! It is a great show! Warren is a magician, but not a David Copperfield type. He does a lot of close up magic. For a pre-show, Annabelle, the resident ghost, plays some great tunes (and takes requests) in the lounge. It is a great evening out. You can even get a whole package, which includes dinner, or do what we did and just buy the show tickets.
Other attractions that you may want to visit or should visit while in Maui are the Haleakala Crater, the road to Hana, Historical Lahaina Town & Museums, Honolua Bay Marine Reserve, Iao Valley State Park & Hawaii Nature Center, Maui Arts & Cultural Center, Maui Ocean Center Aquarium, Maui Tropical Plantation and Tedeschi Winery & Ulupalakua Ranch. There is also a plethora of golf courses to choose from including:
Kaanapali North Course (18 holes; 6994 yards; 72 par; 0.3 miles away)
Kaanapali South Course (18 holes; 6555 yards; 71 par; 0.3 miles away)
Kapalua Bay Course (18 holes; 6600 yards; 72 par; 8.0 miles away)
Kapalua Plantation Course (18 holes; 7263 yards; 73 par; 9.0 miles away)
Kapalua Village Course (18 holes; 6632 yards; 71 par; 8.0 miles away)
I don’t know much about golf, so I can’t really help you there. I will have another review on some of these places some time soon.
Overall
I was extremely pleased with my stay here. I’m generally a budget traveler, so this was a whole different experience for me, but well worth it.
Thanks for reading/rating.
Heidi
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.