HI Maui Hyatt Regency Kaanapali

[*Mel*]

08/31/05-09/05/05 $223 via HW 4*

The GOOD

First, this is an EXCELLENT location on the Kaanapali strip. Close to the Whaler shopping area, without being so close that you get crowd noise. Second, Hyatt had the BEST pool and slide. My husband regressed to his childhood and went down the slide many many times. Third, the rooms were nice and had a lot of nice amenities like robes, actually useable shampoos and conditioners, in-room safe, hairdryer, mini-refrigerator (on request), and comfy down pillows and comforters. The bath towels were huge and they provided like six for just the two of us. The lanai was nice. It had a small table and two chairs for morning breakfasts listening to the ocean waves. Ahh...

Mostly everyone on the staff was cordial and friendly. Wakeup calls went like this: "Good Morning, Ms. X. It is now 7:00AM and it will be 86 degrees today with warm breezes. Have a nice day, Ms. X." Wow. I was impressed. You get lei'd when you check in - women with orchid leis and men with shell leis. The staff at the front door were really friendly and particularly enjoy "talking story" with the mainlanders, like how much is gas in your part of the state? :)

The guest services also recommended some great activities, like the Pacific Whale Foundation for a day trip to Molokini and Turtle Arches for snorkeling - special rate of $70 pp rather than the advertised $80 pp.

I expected to have a full view of the parking lot, but was actually surprised to have a partial ocean view.

At the Weeping Banyan, they had nice live music nightly. The grounds are really beautiful - with ample trees, flowers and birds on the property (from flamingos to swans to parrots to penguins!)

Self-parking is free.

The BAD

Pool area could get crowded. The lawn chairs with individual shade covers were usually the first to go. The double lawn chairs with cozy shade covers for two were for rent $40 per day.

Mandatory resort fee of $15 per day. This "buys" you a morning paper delivered to your door, one hour at the tennis court daily, and admittance to the Mauna Spa/Workout Facility (which was actually very nice with state of the art equipment, free ice cold water, air conditioning and towels). There were some other things listed as part of the resort fee, but i thought they were too lame to mention.

Self-parking was limited. Only two lots - and the one near our rooms was quite a bit smaller than the other lot - so a lot of double parking going on. Luckily, no one ever blocked us in. We were able to find parking in either of the lots on most nights. (See below).

The brunch at Swan Cafe was pricey $25 pp and didn't offer as much variety as I would have expected for that price. However, what they did offer was tasty. Not many places at the hotel to eat. And at the places that they did have, a lot of the same food was offered. After a few days, it gets really boring. It can get annoying to have to get in your car and drive to get some food.

The UGLY

Self-parking on Saturday nights sucked. Apparently, the Hyatt hosts a Saturday night only club at Spats and ALL the locals go there. AND they park in the self-parking lots. ARGH! We came back to the hotel one night and both lots were filled to capacity (and then some!) After being put on hold for more than five minutes by a hotel operator (the ONE employee experience we had that wasn't positive), we were told to go to valet and the parking would be comped. HOWEVER, come check out time, they still charged us for the valet parking that night. After some explaining, the charge was removed, but still. If we had done automatic check out, we would've been dinged.

On the whole, we had a GREAT time. I had never used Hotwire before and only resorted to it after *almost* paying $350 per night at the Sheraton. So I think it was a great deal. We saved a lot of money without sacrificing the type of hotel we wanted. I would highly recommend staying at the Hyatt!

[jmoosman]

We just returned from a weeklong trip to Maui where we spent our last 3 nights at the Hyatt on Kaanapali. Last year we did a similar trip and spent our Kaanapali time at the Westin, and had heard good things about the Hyatt (even being rated a nicer hotel most places), so were hoping for the best, but ended up quite disappointed. We were extremely disappointed by the complete lack of beach at the Hyatt- absolutely TINY (20 feet long and maybe 5 feet deep), with rough rocky sand instead of powdery sand elsewhere on Kaanapali beach, and basically unswimmable conditions- with rocks and high surf. No lounge chairs of any kind there, but you can rent a cabana for $40 a day! Yikes. To be fair, I had read that the beach is "small" at the Hyatt- but it was basically uninhabitable.

The pool area was where everyone was, which was certainly nicer than the beach, but became fairly crowded. The nice parts of the pool area was the great water slide (be sure to get your wrist bracelet before walking up to the top b/c they'll turn you around!) and shaded chairs. Our room itself was very nice (much larger than the Westin's rooms), with comfortable bed and sitting area. The tower we were in faced over their nightly luau which allowed us a free show the first night, but could be annoying if you were wanting peace and quiet (it does end early enough not to interfere w/ sleep). Lastly, there is a $15 resort fee- which we took advantage of to play an hour of tennis daily on their loverly courts (which we enjoy anyway but wouldn't have done if we weren't already getting charged for it). Self-parking was never a problem as we parked in the larger back lot. Another nice feature of the hotel were the penguins, flamigos, and swans spread throughout the landscaping.

For the money, I would never stay at the Hyatt again and instead would stay at the Westin or try the Sheraton on Kaanapali beach. If you go to Maui to enjoy the ocean, snorkeling, and beautiful beaches (like we do) rather than shopping (the Hyatt had a lot of shops), or spa treatments- then the Hyatt may not be for you. We ended up driving each day to the Sheraton, renting their umbrellas/chairs (they rent them to non hotel guests), and spending the day enjoying the ocean to its fullest (and pretending we weren't staying at the Hyatt).

Hope this helps other beach lovers!

[bluedog925]

Just got back from this property yesterday. Fifth time staying here in 11 years and property is still exceptional!!!

I feel it's more like a 5*, but I'm also easy to please. Upon check-in, the clerk informed

us that we'd been upgraded to golf/mountain view. The Hyatt has upgraded each of our 5

stays automatically. They usually only give one-step upgrades and then charge

for further upgrades. We asked what it would cost to upgrade to Deluxe Ocean View,

and she told us it's usually $180 to upgrade to THAT category but she'd let us have

it for $80 a night. SOLD!!! Perhaps we could have wheeled and dealed for

$50, but having stayed here so many times, we knew this was an exceptional

deal. Not only did we end up with Deluxe Ocean View, but in fact, it was

OCEAN FRONT -- those rooms currently go for $430 a night per several web sites,

i.e., Expedia, et cet.... We even asked about upgrading to Regency Club Level, but

they were sold out due to conventions.

Room was in Atrium Tower on the 19th floor [which is really the 9th floor]

Beautiful ocean view, unobstructed. So worth it!!!

Hyatt resort fee is still $15, while Westin and Sheraton are a whopping $25 per day.

However, Hyatt's on-site restaurants are so pricy that we didn't eat there during

the day. Hamburgers $17 now. They were only $12 - $13 a little over a year ago.

They took away their snack bar and supplanted with some trendy restaurant

that has overpriced unappealing food, so we went off-site every day.

Go to CJ's Deli about half to a mile away from all the resorts if you want

a good meal. www.cjsmaui.com

When we checked in we asked the clerk how full the hotel was and she said about 70%,

so all in all, we really got an exceptional deal. Most of the hotels seemed pretty occupied

along Kaanapali Beach.

[texaspesina]

Just returned from Dec 1 - Dec 5 stay ... LOVED the Hyatt Regency. The grounds are WONDERFUL. Service was always cheerful and very good!!! We did not eat at any of the restaurants, however, so cannot comment on that.

The room was a good size and we were in the mountain/golf room - with a slight view of hte ocean and the laua area. The room has a nice walk-in closet and we enjoyed the VERY comfy beds!!!! Very comfy!

The pool area is very nice. No there is not much beach there, but that was never a problem for us. You could easily walk down 100 feet and find some beach - but the pool area was always so inviting that we used it quite a lot. There were always plenty of chairs (even chairs with shade) available. I'm sure this had to do wiht the fact that it was off-season, but we loved it!!!

There was a mother whale and her calf go by in the channel in front of the hotel.

The walk to Whaler's Village is not too far and the walk along hte beachwalk is beautiful. If you go there for dinner/shopping and are too tired to walk back, they have FREE shuttle service for the hotels on Kaanapali.

AMAZING views from this hotel. I would absolutely stay here again. I won the bid for it on priceline and was really hoping at the time for the SHeraton (and was a tad bit disappointed at first) - until I got to Maui and enjoyed our stay at the Hyatt. We went down to black rock for snorkeling one day and walked through the Sheraton grounds -- the Hyatt is definitely better in our opinion. We were VERY happy we had won the priceline bid for the Hyatt in the long run!!!!

I am SOOOO ready to return ... need to start saving those pennies (er, DOLLARS) now !!! :) Aloha

[freemanrj]

This hotel is fabulous!!

Just got back from 6 nights there and had a great time.

Partial ocean view room in the atrium tower was included in our price (18th floor). They offered us an upgrade for $50 a night to deluxe ocean view, but we did not take it. We were glad- we had a nice view from our room of the mountains, and a view of the ocean from the lanai. We didn't spend a lot of time in the room anyway, so a better view would not have meant much.

Yes, the pool gets crowded, but that's because it is the best pool on Ka'anapali beach. And "crowded" means there are people in most or all the chairs-- not that the pool itself is ever too crowded- it is not. Generally, the fact that there are other people at the pool will not bother you.

Shaded spots are harder to come by-- I have fair skin, so I was out there at 6:30 a.m. the first day. This was not necessary. You can really have your pick if you get there by about 8 or so. With the time change, this should not be difficult.

The beach by the hotel is not good- this is well-documented. However, it is just a short walk to one of the best beaches on the island. If you don't want to walk, you can take the free Trolley service that goes up and down Ka'anapali beach. This can take you all the way to the Sheraton/Blackrock, which is great for snorkeling. I would recommend taking the trolley if you're going that far, especially when lugging snorkeling gear. Trolley also stops at Whaler's village, where you can take the Maui bus to Lahaina for $1.

If you have DVDs, a laptop and an HDMI cable, you can hook your computer up to the TVs in the rooms with ease. The clock radios have an ipod dock.

My biggest tip for Maui is to stop at Costco when you arrive, and stock up on drinks and food. You can fit quite a bit in your mini-fridge.

It is probably impossible not to have a great time on Maui, and staying at the Hyatt definitely helps your chances-- it is a beautiful hotel!