Hello all,

Just returned from 8 great days in Maui. The weather was very warm but it was comfortable. Now, I am pretty much an analytical and somewhat high strung person. I have a job considered high stress by many and I can get pretty intense at times. But one thing I learned early in this trip was not to worry about too much planning and not to sweat the little things. For me, that was an accomplishment in and of itself.

I had planned to do a lot more “fine dining” and other sight seeing but you know, the weather was so warm that I did not care for too many heavy meals and frankly, I was so relaxed in my swim trunks that I really did not care to get dressed up too often, even if that only meant putting on a Tommy Bahama shirt and some linen trousers.

Day 1: The Journey Begins

Left John Wayne Airport at about 10:00 am. A little disappointed in AAA after I requested the earliest flight out. The travel agent assured me a flight at 8:00. Well, they were wrong. This, combined with what appeared to be a very confused Aloha staff at the airport started to get me irritated. We left about 30 minutes late.

Once in the air, we settled in. Flight was smooth. I mellowed out. By the time we were an hour away from Maui, the smell of fresh chocolate chip cookies got to me. I forgot just how comforting warm cookies and cold milk are. We landed, received a fresh lei greeting courtesy of Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays and all was good.

Since there were 4 of us, we opted for a mini van. At the suggestion of Aloha, I rented a luggage cart, left the family at the luggage area where my wife got our luggage from the carousel while I went to fetch the rental car. Check in at Dollar was quick and rather smooth, although they did try to tell me the van was undamaged. Upon inspection, I discovered a huge dent on the side door. I kept the car but made them make a note of the damage before I left. Got back to the terminal, loaded the luggage and left.

Arrived at the Hyatt Regency in Kaanapali about 45 minutes later. The place is gorgeous! Check in was rather efficient although they did mess up on the room assignments. I had made the reservations on my own several months earlier, obtaining the AAA rate. I requested to rooms side by side since my mother in law and 7 yr old daughter were going to be in the other room. While they said they could not guarantee this, they would get us as close to each other as possible. Well, they had us on opposite sides of the hotel. We could not have been farther apart! The staff apologized; got us settled in and assured us they would fix the problem by the next day. They did and moved our luggage.

We all dressed into our swim suits, headed to the pool, found chairs with no problem (It was now about 1:30). Relaxed for a few minutes, enjoying a mai tai and I just knew than that this was going to be a great vacation. Spent the rest of the day unwinding by playing in the pool with my daughter and going down the water slide about 20 times.

At about 5:00 pm, we decided to head back to the room. We stayed at the Regency Club level so we popped in to see what they were offering. I was pretty impressed. An array of various appetizers, veggies, cheeses, fruits were available as well as premium liquor, wine and beers. Since we were in our swimsuits, we were just about to head back to the room to clean up a little when the friendliest concierge assured us not to worry and to come in and enjoy ourselves. Well, I think we enjoyed ourselves a bit too much as none of us were hungry for dinner after leaving. The poke’ appetizer being served was pretty amazing.

Before leaving the pool area, we noticed that they offered a “Dive In Movie” on Sundays where kids can be in the pool while they played a movie at night. We decided to catch this since they were playing Shrek 2, one of my daughters all time faves. Okay, so I like it too. My daughter thought this was pretty cool. After the movie was over, it was now past 10:00 pm and we were all pretty wiped out. A long but enjoyable day had ended.

Day 2: A day of “oops”, Atlantis and Old Lahaina Luau

Woke up at about 7:00 am, completely relaxed. The beds are VERY comfortable. Just about to get ready when I discovered that my wife had left my garment bag on the carousel! I did not notice it when we loaded the luggage into the van. Now normally, I would have just gone off. But you know, I even surprised myself at how calm I was. Must have been the Maui air. In any event, I called the concierge desk, told them what happened and asked for the number for Aloha. They did me one better. THEY called Aloha, explained the problem and found my bag within 15 minutes! They even asked if I waited to arrange Aloha to deliver the bag (for a fee to Aloha of course). I politely declined, opted to go get it myself since we needed to get some things at the Kmart near the airport. It was then that I had discovered the road was jammed due to a pedestrian fatality earlier in the day. The concierge suggested we enjoy our continental breakfast at the Regency Club for an hour and then head out. We did just that.

Retrieved our bag, bought some misc. food and beach items at Kmart without hassle and headed back. The road was pretty busy when suddenly I get motioned by a police officer to pull over. I was getting ticketed for speeding! I explained to the officer that I was out of town, unaware of the speed limit and was simply keeping up with everyone else since there was a car in front of me and one in back. I was told about a “crack down” that they were having in speeding and that he had to give me a ticket. Then I looked around and saw two other cars pulled over by other officers. At the risk of sounding like Oliver Stone, the cars being pulled over were a Jeep and a convertible Sebring, obvious rental cars. It was also pretty funny that the car in front of me was an old pick up, the car behind me an old Honda, yet I was the one being pulled over (again, in an obvious rental). Driving down the road, both my wife and I saw several other cars also being pulled over and again, the same thing (convertibles such as Mustangs and Sebring’s, Jeeps and mini vans). No disrespect intended for the fine men in blue, but it was pretty obvious what was going on. Of course my ticket was not without the lecture on being careful because of the pedestrian death. I only wish I had known that the poor man was killed by a local teenager at the time of the lecture. But again, I took it in stride. I was on vacation and was not going to let this upset me. Besides, I was speeding. Just because others were doing it as well did not make it right. I slowed down from there on out, much to the dismay of many locals driving behind me.

After the morning fiasco, we arrived back to the Hyatt to find out new room already available and us moved. Picked up my daughter and mother in law and headed to Lahaina as I had made arrangements for the Atlantis Submarine Tour. I have to tell you, I was a little skeptical at first but we all had a great time! The crew was as funny as they were informative. The marine life was amazing. Even if you do not have younger ones, I would recommend this 90 minute tour.

After some brief shopping we headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up for the Old Lahaina Luau that I had made arrangements for about 2 months earlier. Unfortunately, while we did get a front row seat, we were off to the side and had the hot sun beating on us for the first 90+ minutes. The people in the back row center (who made arrangements later) had a much better view of the entire stage, were in the shaded area and actually ate and were ready for dessert by the time our table was just asked to go serve ourselves. Now, I may catch a little heat here but frankly, I thought the OLL was over rated. Don’t get me wrong, the service was very good and very friendly and the dancing incredible (the women are the most beautiful you will find anywhere in the world). But the food was marginal in my opinion. I just believe the OLL is over priced, even by Maui standards. In the end, I am glad I did it but would not do it again nor would I recommend it too highly.

Day 3: Beach/Resort Day

After 2 pretty long days, we decided we needed a day of nothing. I got up around 6:00 am and decided to take a jog along the beach, walk around Whalers Village and jog back.
The family was still asleep when I left but they were ready to go when I arrived. Before coming home though, I picked up some sub sandwiches at the local Safeway, a folding cooler from ABC stores and rented a hale from the Hyatt pool activity desk.

Once back, we grabbed a light continental breakfast from the Regency club, loaded the cooler with a few beers and sodas, grabbed the subs, chips and salsa and headed down.
Normally, I would be opposed to bringing the cooler down but the service around the pool was a little slow the first day. However, that quickly changed. Upon arrival to the hale, we were met by a nice, albeit a little dingy waitress with a plateful of fresh fruit, waters and ice. I told her it was a little early for cocktails but to be sure to check back on us periodically as we were “camping out” for the day. She did. Admittedly, she messed up on orders a few times, once delivering our drinks to the wrong hale (there are 2 of them to choose from!) while we were swimming. However, at the end of the day, she came up to me, profusely apologized and told me that all my drinks had been taken care of that day! WHOA! Now, I am not sure how much we drank but being down there all day, it was quite a few rounds. I told her that I did not have any cash on me since I planned on charging everything to my room but wanted to tip her anyway. She said not to worry about it as she had a good day otherwise. I felt bad so I made sure I got her name and dropped off a tip the following day.

Back to the hale, it is tucked away from the pool area. It is a very relaxing spot to get away from the action. At $100 a day, I felt it was worth it. You cannot access the beach directly from this but you simply walk a few yards in either direction to do this. However, as others have pointed out, the beach directly in front of the Hyatt is not the best. Lots of rocks and pretty narrow. But I knew this ahead of time and since the second part of the trip was to be in Wailea, it was not a concern. Moreover, better beach areas were available about a quarter mile away.

We were in our hale from about 9:30 am to 5:00pm, occasionally tucking out to lay out on one of the many lounge chairs available on the lawn area near us or go down to the pool (and for me, about another 20 times down the big waterslide) with our daughter. What made this day especially nice was the fact that our daughter met a very nice little girl around her age and they played in the children’s pool area with some other kids while we kept on eye on her from afar.

After such a great morning and afternoon, we opted not to get too dressed up and choose to dine at Cascades, the restaurant in the Hyatt. My daughter ate from the Keiki menu while my mother in law opted for a dinner salad and the guava sauced ribs from the appetizer menu. She proclaimed them to be a winner! My wife and I split a few sushi rolls and a rather large sushi combination plate. Washed down with some very cold Sapporo’s, the sushi was some of the best we have had in a very long time.

All in all, this third day was the most relaxing yet.

Day Four: Our last day in Kaanapali

Wednesday was “Sports Day” at Camp Hyatt. As a result, my daughter REALLY wanted to attend the morning session. Amongst other things they were to play soccer and fly kites, 2 of my daughter’s favorite hobbies. Now, the day before we had noticed that only one little girl was in the camp all day by herself and made sure that the same thing would not happen to our daughter.

Fortunately, the Camp had about 7 other kids reserved when we got in. The Camp operates at a ratio of 4 kids to every 1 counselor so this worked out well. Also, most of the kids were my daughters age (7) with a couple younger ones.

With mom in law wanting to rest, our daughter at Camp and the counselors having our cell phone number (and mom in laws room #), we decided to go back to Lahaina for some shopping (okay, so we did not want to veer too far). We cruised the shops, picked up a Red Dirt t-shirt (now officially my favorite t-shirt) and confirmed our evening reservations at Pacific O’s while in the area. Time flew by so quickly. Headed back to Camp Hyatt where our daughter pleaded to stay, have lunch with the other kids and stay for the afternoon swim session. We agreed, went back to the room to get mom-in-law, daughters swimwear and sun block. Got our daughter dressed and headed out to Cannery Mall for a quick stroll and lunch at Compadres. We all had and would recommend the chicken taco salad.

After lunch, wife and mom in law head to Whalers Village for even more shopping while I head to the pool. Okay, so I was curious to see how the Camp was working out. When I did not see my daughter I walked to the camp area where I saw all the kids coloring and watching a movie. They all looked like they were having fun but this was not what I expected. Later that day, I did eventually see them by the pool where one counselor took the bigger kids to the large waterslide while the other counselor took the smaller kids to the small slide/children’s pool area. I think the kids were MAYBE in the pool 45 mins. to an hr. Later that day, I asked my daughter how was Camp. I found out that they mostly colored and watched movies. I was not happy about that but my daughter begged to stay for the evening session to now have dinner with everyone. Before too long, I saw other kids doing the same thing to their parents as they went to pick up the kids. Of the 8 kids that were in the Camp in the day, 6 ended up staying for the evening. So I guess while it was not what I expected, the kids had a blast and that is what it’s about, right?

After spending a few hours with our daughter and going as a family to the Regency Club, my mother in law decides that she loved the appetizers so much she was not going to go out to dinner with us (she did not fool us, she know my daughter would be at Camp for the evening so she wanted my wife and I to have dinner alone). We dropped our daughter off and headed to PacificO’s, tails between our legs since we were 45 minutes late for our reservation and 2 people short.

Upon arrival at Pacific O’s, I begged the hostess for her forgiveness for not only my tardiness but arriving 2 people short. Fortunately, the restaurant was surprisingly slow (it was a Wed, at about 7:15pm). The hostess playfully gave me a hard time and ended up seating us in a prime spot, right in the front with a gorgeous view of the sun setting into the ocean.

Originally, I had made reservations at David Paul’s. I ended up canceling those because it lacked a view. While I am sure David Paul’s food is good, I just cannot imagine it being better than Pacific O’s. It just couldn’t be since this was the most amazing meal I have ever had (and we do dine out frequently). Food, combined with the smart service and atmosphere was unmatched. I started with the roasted Maui onion and tomato salad that was out of this world. My wife had the simple Pacific O’s baby greens. Not only did she enjoy it, but she is not on a mission to find crystallized ginger so that she can attempt to make the same thing at home. For entrees, I had the sesame crusted lamb, medium rare. Simply put, it was spectacular. Enjoyed with some nice glasses Merlot, I was in heaven. My wife, not a fan of lamb, opted for the Bling-Bling, a combo of lobster tail and filet mignon. She cut almost cut the filet mignon with her fork. I had a bite of it and my god, was it good! Now, we are not too big on desserts but while enjoying a cup of very good coffee following the meal, we were talked onto splitting the Chocolate Decadence. While I am not a big chocolate person by any means (but my wife is), this dessert would satisfy the cravings of ANY chocoholic I am sure. Best way to describe this dessert is to say that when you eat this, you know what Augustus Gloop in Willie Wonka & The Chocolate Factory must have felt as he sunk in the chocolate river.

To cap off the night, a nice stroll along the beach with a nice Macanudo cigar that I brought from home. A perfect ending to a great meal and another great day. I hated leaving the Hyatt and Kaanapali but I looked forward to our second part of our trip in Wailea.

I have enjoyed reading the first part of your trip report. Look forward to the rest.

Thanks for the great trip report. I can't wait til our trip in Sept. We'll also be staying at the Hyatt.

ssm, we buy crystallized ginger at Trader Joe's.

Good report ssm. I love reading about the effect Hawaii has on people once they get there. Thanks.

sunshine: I don't now if you have any children. But even if you don't, the hot tip is to go to the children's pool area to lounge around in. It is WAY less crowded (althoug I assume crowds will be a lot less in Sept). If you find it too noisy, go to the lawn area right behind it. Also, rent the hale if it's in your budget....you will not regret it.

ssm, no we don't have children, but thanks for the tip about the pool area.

Dear ssm and others, you speak of "renting a hale." I went to the Hyatt web site but couldn't find any mention of what a hale is or how one could be rented. Please enlighten me; I am assuming it is something you rent in addition to your room and resort fees, correct?

likeswords,

The hale at the Hyatt is basically a wooden hut they have for rent. Actually, there are 2 for rent. Other resorts may refer to them as the cabanas. They are tucked away from pool crowd but close enough that you can stroll over for a swim if you so desire.

It is in addition to the room/resort fee (it cost $100 for the day). They also have "hale packages" that offer other services (massages, etc). I did not opt for any of the extras.

To rent, you will need to go to the pool activity desk. As far as I know, you cannot rent them until after you have checked in. I was surprised mine was available on the very day I asked for it. They are generally reserved 24 hrs in advance.

Hope that helps.

SSM, thank you, your explanation was what I needed. Thanks for such a fine, detailed trip report.