First of all, I would like to thank all who have contributed to this site. I've learned so much from reading the posts and the information were valuable. Here is my report:

We just came back from a 10-day trip to Kauai and Oahu with our two children ages 12 and 10. Our trip duration was 6/10/03 to 6/17/03 in Kauai and 6/17/03 to 6/20/03 in Oahu. We used two frequent flier tickets and purchased two tickets when prices were low in February. I bid Priceline and received the Kauai Marriott and Hawaii Prince Hotel as well as Kauai car rental. In Waikiki, I used $15 Alamo coupon for 3 days there, since bidding Priceline would not beat the rate I booked with Alamo. We?ve been to both islands in the past and decided to have more relaxation this time rather than doing a lot of sightseeing. The whole time we were in Kauai the weather was beautiful, some days it was partly cloudy with some sprinkle that lasted less than 5 minutes.

We arrived at the Kauai Marriott around 6 or 7 PM on Tuesday. We?ve stayed here in the past when they had a timeshare promotion a few years ago; and the kids love the pool. I?ve read that some Priceline customers were given rooms without lanai. We are Marriott members, so I asked for complimentary upgrade. The front desk person said he could not give us ocean view since many honeymooners were asking for upgrades. I said that garden view was fine for me. We were given a 3rd floor room in the back of the Ha?u?pu Tower. At one end of the lanai, I could get a partial ocean view. We freshened up, went to dinner at Duke?s, and missed the Taco Tuesday, which is from 4PM to 6PM. The food is great as always. My husband had the Ono and I had the Onaga. As it got dark outside, the sky was a dark shade of blue ? beautiful.

Every morning, I got up around 5:30 AM and walked the trails around the Marriott or used the fitness center. The golf course on this trail is beautiful. There was a shopping pavilion past the Chapel of the Sea inside this property that is deserted. It must have been there during the Westin time.

On Wednesday, we lounged at the pool all day.

We went to Ke?e Beach Thursday morning. We arrived close to 9AM and the parking lot was almost full. The water was calm close to shore. Past the rocks, waves were a little rough. While we were there, the Kauai Fire Department had to rescue two kayaks with 4 people who were in distress in the open ocean. It seemed that they were a group of kayakers who were doing the Na Pali coast. We stayed here until noon and had our picnic lunch. On the way back from Ke?e, we stopped by Wishing Well Shave Ice and bought some sunrise papayas and lychees at the smoothie stand close to the shave ice place. We drove to Anini Beach afterwards. The water was a little murky and smelled fishy. It was not as nice as Ke?e.

Friday, the kids and my husband stayed at the pool. I had a lomi massage at the Alexander Spa located inside the Marriott. We canceled the reservation for Café Hanalei?s Friday buffet since we didn?t feel like driving to Princeville. Instead, we had the Friday Buffet at Kukui?s inside the Marriott. The great thing about this restaurant is that kids 12 and under eats free during breakfast buffet and dinner. The Friday Buffet was very good with various fishes, chicken, prime rib, lomi salmon, various salads, peeled shrimp, king crab and Hawaiian music entertainment.

We drove to Opeaka Falls on Saturday morning and went on the ?Jungle Hike? with our full size car. It was a struggle to get there. We met another couple that was also trying to get to the Jurassic Park gate. We met two locals who were mountain biking and they sort of followed us to be sure we got to the right place. They were mountain biking on another nearby trail. They thought we did not drive far enough. It rained the night before and the dirt road had many potholes filled with rainwater. The wives had to get out to poke the holes with stick to see how deep the holes were. We finally made it to the gate. We met a third couple that just returned from the hike who mentioned that the trail was narrow and very slippery from the rain. The couple that drove with us decided not to hike. The four of us made it to the end. The water from the falls was very cool and refreshing. We did not have our bathing suit and did not cross the water to the other side of the falls. The couple we met went to the other side and mentioned that there is a natural kind of jacuzzi/pool behind the falls. We drove to Spouting Horn to watch the sea turtles and had dinner at Brennecke?s.

On Sunday, we snorkeled at Lydgate Beach Park. We tried to book the ATV tour but it was full until Tuesday. We decided that it would not give us enough time to travel from Koloa back to Lihue to shower and check out of the hotel. Oh well, maybe next time.

We went to Moloa?a Bay on Monday and fell in love with this beach. Besides Hanalei Bay and Ke?e Beach, I would recommend this bay. This is where the movie Gilligan?s Island was filmed. The further end of the bay was a lot calmer than the part close to the trail that takes you to the beach. At the end of the beach, there was a large area of lava rocks that formed tide pools. The kids love counting sea cucumbers and sea urchins. I believe most of this beach is a little rocky or has coral due to warning signs. However, we stayed at the further end near the 4 coconut trees and the entry point to the ocean was sandy. After noon, the tide rose and the tide pools disappear which would be great for snorkeling.

We stayed at the pool on Tuesday morning before checking out of the hotel. We went to Hamura?s Saimin to have lunch: good noodles and great BBQ sticks for $1 each.

We took Aloha Airline to go to Oahu. We checked into the Hawaii Prince hotel. We did not even have to ask and was given a room on the top floor of the Diamond Head tower since I applied for the Prince card. The service is very good here and there was no distinction between Priceline customers and customers who booked hotels the conventional way. Every time the operator answered the phone, she was very upbeat and very pleasant. I?ve read at biddingfortravel.com that they used Aveda bath products. However, they?ve switched to Garden Botanika brand. The room had 2 robes, slippers, a nice size refrigerator with 2 complimentary bottles of Da Sani everyday, and a large safe. We had a great view of the yacht harbor and Ala Moana Beach Park from the room . We had dinner at Todai. The sushi bar has a lot of variety and very good.

On Wednesday, we opened the window and saw a rainbow from end to end by the yacht harbor. We went to the Aloha Stadium for some souvenirs. If you are thinking about purchasing gold jewelry, the Aloha Stadium has some very nice jewelry stands. They even beat prices at the stands in Poipu. Gold prices at International Market Place are about 4 to 5 times the Aloha Stadium prices. Nokia cell phone faceplates were sold for about $6 or $7. Nice quilted Hawaiian print aprons were $5 each. We went to Chinatown for lunch and also bought longans and lychees. My husband and I also had lomi massage at the Yamano Spa inside the Prince Hotel. My husband liked it so much he booked another massage on Friday morning. Around 7:30 PM, we drove to Salt Lake Shopping Center, about 20 minutes from Waikiki, to buy some ?Morning Glory? items for my daughter. We stopped by Soon?s Kal-bi next door to the Morning Glory shop to purchase dinner. The BBQ chicken plates had 2 large scoops of rice, kim chee & bean sprouts, and 3 large piece of chicken for $5.25. We bought 3 plates and shared between the 4 of us and everyone was full.

We snorkeled at Hanauma Bay on Thursday. We arrived at 7:30 AM and had to wait about 10 minutes to see the movie. When we left around 11 AM, the line for the movie was long and the line for the admission ticket snaked its way toward the parking lot, which had a ?parking lot is full? sign. It was a cloudy day and it rained in the Kailua area. We had reservation to kayak at Kailua Beach but did not go because water was choppy. According to the Honolulu Advertiser, the Fire Dept. had 350 rescues on Wednesday. The surfs were higher than usual due to a Pacific storm the previous week. Therefore, many surfers had to be rescued. However, when we drove back to Waikiki area, it was sunny. We walked to Ala Moana Mall and went to Daiei for some poke and Japanese candy. We also took the Hawaii Prince shuttle to International Market Place and did some browsing as well as people watching. We had dinner at Keo?s. The food was very good and the price was very reasonable.

While my dear husband was having his massage on Friday morning, the kids and I took the bus to the zoo and the aquarium. We asked for a late check out and were given until 3PM. Even so, when we came back from breakfast, the bed was made, new towels were given and more bath products were filled. We took the shuttle to the International Market Place for a late lunch and checked out at 3PM. We stopped by Daiei for more candy and drove to the airport.

Good one, useful info. Thanks for taking the trouble to post. Now all you have to do is start counting until the next one !

Great review. Couple of questions what are longans and Morning Glory stores?

Thanks for very useful reviews.

This is my second night at Ohau and I am now staying at Hawaii Prince Hotel. I am very tempting to try Yamano Massage.

Morning Glory is a stationery brand for kids I guess.

i can answer the longan question. they're like lychee, growing on trees on long stems w/ a big seed in the middle, but they're smaller, round, juicier and much sweeter in a slightly medicinal way, and the skin is a speckled yellow color.

enjoyed the report, btw. esp impressed w/ 2 trips to daiei. i loaded up on jpnese candies/snacks a couple weeks ago in japan, only to find the same things at daiei.

Thanks, Hanalei for a detailed report. I'm staying at the Marriott Kuai timeshare (supposedly 1BR villa- "oceanfront") at the end of July. Our first time to visit. Any recommendations about the timeshare units? Are they far from the hotel or merged within?

Aloha,

Sorry for the "?". All my apostrophe and dots in Word converted to question marks.

Morning Glory carries Japanese and Korean pens, pencils, etc. with cute designs such as Blue Bear, Mashi Maro, Pucca, etc.

Thank you for the longan explaination from Mari808.

Besides having a good massage, I like Yamano because they provide ladies with disposable panty for ladies, so it is more discreet than draping sheet.

I forgot to mention we bought burgers and fries at the Kalapaki Beach Hut behind the Marriott. Their food is very good.

I also found out that you should not rely on the hours of operation posted on store window. The Beach Hut has a sign that said they open from 7 to 7. My husband stopped by one night to buy burger at 6:40 PM. They were already closed. Morning Glory said they close at 8:30 PM. We got out of their store a little before 8 to go to Kal-bi next door. By the time we took our order to go at 8, Morning Glory was closed already. I guess people are very laid back when it comes to operating hours.

Mari808, we bought quite a few lychee candy, some li hing mui flavored watermelons too. Yum.

Dolciani, as far as the timeshare units in Lihue, I think they are in different buildings. They were selling gardenview, oceanview and oceanfront timeshare units a couple years ago. The hotel is in the Ha'upu building. We went to the timeshare presentation and saw the oceanfront units located in Kilohana Wing. They are very nice. It seemed like 2 hotel rooms were converted into a villa. One room has living area, small dining with refrig & dishwasher & maybe wet bar. The other side is the bedroom. This type of unit can be locked to provide a hotel room only if timeshare owner chooses to rent like that. Do not expect a kitchen since they did not have the ventilation for that. I think they might have electric stove or none at all, with the sink, refrig & dishwasher. I don't remember if washer & dryer are inside the unit or not. However, the Marriott has 3 self-service laundry rooms located on three floors of the Kahili Wing, which is parallel to the beach and behind the pool. The hotel wing (Ha'upu Tower) is perpendicular to the Kahili Wing and located to the right of the Kahili if looking from the beach toward the building. The Kilohana and Wai'ale'ale Wings are parallel to the beach and located to the left of Kahili Wing, but much closer to the beach. All the rooms in these 2 wings are oceanview or oceanfront. The Nounou Wing is to the left side of Kahili. All buildings are within walking distance. The resort is not spread out like Hilton Waikoloa. It doesn't take long to get from one wing to another.

When I was doing laundry in the Kahili Wing, I noticed some of the rooms had dining tables because the maid was cleaning. Therefore, I am assuming that all of the wings contain timeshare units with the exception of the Ha'upu wing. I hope that helps.

You are right about the kitchen facilities. The units have micro, small frig and apt size dishwasher and bar sink. No stove of any type. Washer and dryers ARE NOT located in the units, but there are facilities on every floor of the timeshare wings.

There is also a small fridge in the bedroom....washers and dryers are not on every floor. Just don't do your laundry on Saturday morning.....everyone else has that same idea!!
Plus, the 2 baths are great!
Timeshare presentation is painless...Very nice sales people....they will take as little or as long as you want.
Kukui's food is very good, but if you find it getting a bit pricey...take a short walk over to the Kalapaki Beach Hut...their breakfast is superb!

Ice2 - we did the "timeshare presentation" in Orlando at the Grand Vista and got $25 to use at any Marriott and 10,000 marriott points. It was worth listening to, because now I'm using those points (along w/ alot of other points) to go to Hawaii!!!

Dolciani, have you noticed what grand rates Marriott has thru the 18th of December in Orlando Vacation Clubs - Cypress Harbor, Grande Vista, Royal Palms and Sabal Palms...use your promo code M11 and check them out.

Yes, they send me their "specials" all the time. Unfortunately, w/ 3 weeks off to Hawaii, my husband can't really take off any more time this summer from work. (We'll probably look into something in the fall - some of the specials down south will still be available).