My husband and I will be spending 8 nites this July '03 at the Marriott (outrigger) Waikoloa (Big Island)... I have already read the numerous postings...but have a few more questions.
1. We do not sit at the pool...we are strictly beach lovers...Does this resort have a large supply of lounge chairs for the beach? I e-mailed the resort, and their reply was we have "some" avail. on a first come first serve. So, I am wondering, do they have stacks of chairs, or just a few?
Also, water temp in July?????

2. Has anyone experienced the breakfast buffet? Is the seating indoor/outdoor? I ask because we enjoy the open air, however, we dislike the birds that land on the table, fly over your food and sit near the buffet serving stations and pick off of the serving spoons. (I realize this doesn't bother some people, but birds do carry disease...we just don't want them landing on the spoons as we experienced at the Kaanapali Beach Hotel. Our last stay at the Outrigger On Maui was wonderful, and they controlled the birds relatively well there).

3. If you have a room that overlooks the pool area, is there nightly entertainment that disturbs the peace in your room?

4. Anyone know of some nearby surf spots?]

5. We would be glad to hear any comments
good or bad, suggestions etc from recent trips to this hotel. Thank you as always.

We were on BI in October 2002. Did not stay at Outrigger Waikoloa but we did visit. The beach area was nice. Don't remember anything about the chairs. The pool area was filled with kids. I would call the hotel and ask someone specifically, if the beach chair situation is important to you.

When we were there in Oct there was a HUGE construction site right next door. It was very, very noisy. You may want to ask for a room on the other side of the hotel. The construction was on the right side when facing the ocean.

Stayed there in March, 2003.

There were sufficient supplies of beach chairs; the beach is large and varies from mixed sand to a bit rocky at the south end, which is shadiest. However, we preferred the beach in front of the Mauna Kea hotel; it's the ideal Hawaiian beach.

Breakfast buffet was indoors, but you may be visited by a bird or two because much of the building is open to the outdoors. Seating is your choice of indoor or outdoor.

Definitely ask for a room in the south wing. Yes, there is nightly music in the bar/restaurant/pool area. We were on the far south-facing side of the hotel and had no problem with it. On the first floor, we could walk directly outside to a hammock!

We didn't stay at the Marriott but did go to A Bay a couple of times, and there always seemed to be some empty beach chairs available. This was in April so I'm not sure if it gets busier in July.

Hapuna beach is good for boogie boarding. Don't know of any real surf spots nearby.

Our family stayed at the Outrigger November 2002 and loved it! Yes, the construction was going on and you will want to ask about that with room reservations--noise level and how it affects views? With 2 young daughters who love to watch other kids we did want to have a view of the pool and the waterfall so we put up with seeing the construction work too. Yes, if you are on the pool side you will hear music from the lounge at night, and the luau music on luau nights (which we enjoyed since we could watch it too!) We were NOT happy with the view from our first room and they moved us the very next day to a much better view .
Can't help you with the breakfast buffet, we used the refrig in the room and had breakfast goodies there. Birds were not a problem at the one lunch and one dinner we had there.

As far as beach chairs my best guess is there was a fair amount of them--not tons but not just a few either. A-Bay is a GREAT beach with spectacular sunsets over the fish ponds to the ocean and wonderfully warm water--every day our kids would run in, turn to us and say "MOM! DAD! THE WATER IS STILL WARM!" lol

Hapuna Beach for bodysurfing

BI has their rubber duckie race then if you would like to check it out.