We will be there for one week in late September for our honeymoon. I'm debating between garden/mountain vs. ocean view.
Any advice would be appreciated. Also- anyone know where to get the best price?

one other question- has anyone taken any day trips to Kauai while staying in Maui? Is it worth it? We will be on vacation for 7 days total. My travel agent says she can reserve the flight and car for the day in kauai for us. Would still like to know what people advise about which room to go for at kea lani....

The mountain view isn't a mountain view, it's more of the property next door with the mountain in the background. The courtyard was very nice if this is what "garden view" means. Atleast you can people watch. We had a partial ocean view that was nice - it was sort of a combination of everything.

Your second question - it is very tiring to island hop for one day. We went to Oahu for the day while we were in Maui. We were in the airports for about 3 hours total and even though the interisland flights are plentiful you still have to give yourself time to get to the airport. If you can, I'd stay the night in Kauai and catch a morning flight back.

whether the increased rate for a view is worth it to you depends on how you use the room and the balcony...if you are the kind of person who gets up and goes out to a big sit down breakfast at the restaurant and then hits the beach...and heads to the bar to watch the sun set, you don't need an upgraded room view...it will be dark when you get back to your room.

On the other hand, if you like to get up and have your coffee on your lanai and enjoy the view - even if you have to buy muffins at the supermarket to pay for it...and at the end of the day, you want to pour yourself a glass of wine and have some chips or cheese and watch the sun set from there...then the better view is worth every penny...

We just got back from the Kea Lani and had a great ocean view with molikini crater and some other islands in the background. We absolutely thought it was worth the money. We joined the president's club and that got us a free upgrade. It is on the fairmont's web site. It is free to join, but do it fast since your free upgrade coupons need to be mailed.

I'm specifically interested in the differences in view between the garden room, the ocean room and the ocean deluxe. Could someone comment on these? Thanks.

The Gardenview consists of shrubs and other plant life. On the other side of this is construction of private homes. Very noisy over there during the day. I would not recommend staying in these. Mountainview is parkinglot view with a hill with clouds covering it. Ocean view is an angled view of the ocean. Deluxe ocean view is a full view of the ocean. I recommend reserving an ocean view suite. Join the President's club and use the upgrades to get a deluxe ocean view. Stay away from mountain and garden view.

I think you could also book pool view and then try for an upgrade.
We booked Garden View and were upgraded to Ocean View for our honeymoon. The ocean view was great to have - but we really didn't spend much time looking out at it - we used the lanai more to dry our wet towels and bathing suits. The room itself was great though - HUGE!