We are planning to celebrate our 25th in December in Kauai. We need opinions on the Sheraton and Marriott - which? Also, we were concerned with the weather as to rain.
Please help!!!!

This year? If you haven't booked your trip yet for this Christmas, you may be disappointed. Christmas is a very busy time Hawaii and accomodations, rental cars and flights tend to fill up.
The Sheraton and the Marriott are comparable. I like the location of the Sheraton better. Make sure you get an ocean front room. The other parts of the hotel are not as nice as the ocean front.

We stayed at the Marriott 18 months ago, for our 40th anniversary and LOVED it. We also visited the Sheraton to see if it was better. Perhaps if we had been staying there we would have seen more of it than we could see just from stopping in for a drink and walking around, but I didn't see anything that would make me choose it over the other. The Marriott's pool is generally recognized as being in a class of its own. Our room looked out over it and it was a joy to behold. The gardens, the pools of fish, the many open "verandas" running all around the hotel on the pool side, were beautiful. There were several choices of restaurants on the grounds. The Sunday night seafood buffet should not be missed! The crab legs and shrimp were plentiful and delicious.
We took part in the early morning 45-minute walks all around the grounds and along the bay. Met nice people and had views that you couldn't see from the car. There were other planned exercise activities too, if you were not out sight-seeing. We felt the location was very central for visiting the whole island, which we did do over the cousrse of the 6 days.
Good Luck!

I agree with Annie. We just celebrated our 31st wedding anniversary in Sept of this year and spent 3nites at the Marriott and 3 nites at The Princeville Resort. We drove to the Sheraton, had a drink and walked around the property. Unless the rooms are spectacular, I thought that the Marriott had them beat hands down!! As Annie said, the grounds are gorgeous (I think better than the Princeville) I think if you stay at the Marriott, you will not be sorry. And before you ask, No the noise from the airplanes did not disturb us!!! In fact we had more noise at the Princeville because there were lots of Helicopters and they made noise continuosly.
Good Luck and enjoy your 25th wherever you decide to celebrate!

For us it will be a 33rd anniversary. Question: do any of you remember if the Marriott has refrigerators (or microwaves) in the rooms? Are you allowed to take your own drinks to the pool area?

We had a nice half size refrigerator in our room, no microwave, when we stayed at the Marriott a few weeks ago. While there is ample poolside service, I see no reason why you could not bring your own non-alcoholic drinks to the pool.

We stayed at the Timeshare side of the Kauai Marriott so they had a complete kitchen along with a large living room and lanai. I suggest that you call Marriott to see if there is a major price difference. I love staying in the vacation suites because of the extra room (we even had 2 bathrooms)
Good Luck

Kauai Kauai Kauai. That damn island most me so over populated with tourist by now.

I'll be the contrarian of the bunch. For point of reference, my wife and I are both 50. We've not done more than drive by the Sheraton. But we stayed at the Marriott for a week in May this year. My observations are:
1. Yes, the grounds are nice. But the Marriott is next to what appears to be a failed large-scale resort complete with abandoned buildings, etc. A little depressing.
2. Yes, there are several dining choices at the Marriott. But none are worth writing home about. Duke's, the best of them, is not operated by Marriott.
3. Yes, the pool is big, and with a half dozen hot tubs around one end. But there's no diving, no slides, and no swim-up bars.
4. The Marriott is situated in a bay with a nice beach, surf and all, but the view from the beach is not to the open ocean.
5. The Marriott is located on the SE coast. Though not directly in the path of weather, you're likely to get more of it there than at the Sheraton in Poipu.
6. The Marriott, as more of a high-rise, has a Waikiki Beach kind of look and feel. I like the way the Sheraton is built to look more in harmony with the culture and landscape.

Don't know avaialbility or rooms but Poipu is going to have the most consistant weather in December. The Hyatt is another possibility for a hotel (don't like the Marriott or location personally) or Kiahuna Plantation- condos but with daily maid service. Best units are thru Kiahuna Beachside (they have a website). Don't miss the Plantation Garden Restaurant at Kiahuna. Wonderful food and very romantic..sit out on the lanai.

I would vote for the Sheraton. Weather likely to be better, beach out front is a really nice sandy bottom swimmable beach, complex is smaller than the Marriott, ocean front rooms are likely to be the best so don't bother with the garden rooms as they are out back with no view. Sheraton is closer to nice restaurants like Roy's, Planation House, Beach House, Keoki's, and Hyatt restaurants. We were walking around the Sheraton grounds last year and saw tons of whales, one breached about 300 yards off the beach. Spectacular. You won't see that at Marriott as it does not face open ocean. The drawback about the Marriott in my opinion is that it is located in an industrial port area of Kaui where the cruise ships and container ships come in. I don't find it all that pretty an area, but that is my opinion.