HI Maui The Whaler Kaanapali

[ralan]

:) The Whaler room 1116.

Summary. Excellent room. Excellent location. Helpful staff. Older building, but upkeep appeared to be quite good.

Pros. My wife and I spent 5 days in late April at the Whaler. (We made reservations in January through Priceline.) The condition of the room was excellent. We had a studio that overlooked the beach and Black Rock. The studio had a complete kitchen and utensils were included. The refrigerator had two bottles of water and a sliced pineapple waiting for us. The Whaler is a 3 minute walk from Whaler Village. The shopping center has everything from a Louis Vuitton store to Borders Express. The ABC store there is good for groceries and souvenirs. The restaurants we ate at there were very good. The Rusty Harpoon has breakfast we found especially good.

The Maui Bus leaves from the east side of the shopping center. The stop is hard to miss because it is next to the skeleton of a large whale. (A whaling museum is also in the shopping center. Admission to the museum is free.) The bus left for Lahaina every hour and cost $1 a person. The bus took about 10 minutes to get the Cannery Wharf Shopping Center, which has a Safeway and Longs Drugstore, and about 10 minutes more to get the wharf center.

For snorklers, we found that snorkel rental at The Whaler, at $7 an hour, was cheaper than renting the gear at the Sheraton, $8 an hour. The Sheraton is at Black Rock making it very convenient.

Cons. Very few. We didn't find a muffin pan with the kitchen utensils. The pool was a bit small compared to other hotels along the beach. The concierge was usually very busy. We often had to wait a while before being able to talk to her. (Wish the Maui Bus ran back from Lahaina later but The Whaler has no control over that.)

Hints. We ended up with $200 of dining gift certificates and a $125 gift certificate at Hilo Hatties, a Hawaiian gifts store, for attending two timeshare presentations. Lahaina has lots of excellent places, including a Ruth Chris, to dine. $200 buys several very nice meals. You might even find you like what the timeshare companies have to offer.