Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Trip Report KBH Part 2

Part Two, RE: The Room at KGH continued: I wondered what the non renovated rooms looked like!! Again, for our purposes, it was adequate. The staff is as friendly and accommodating as anyone could ask one to be. The Tiki bar serves decent finger foods, and the outdoor patio restaurant is ok. We had the spare ribs (approx. $24)which were quite good and a steak (26) that was tough. Their buffet breakfast (12.95)all you can eat... is ok, however, none of the food dishes were labeled, the plastic covers over the buffet food looked ancient and not very clean. There were two occassions where are silverware was dirty, the replacement was dirty too!!! The placemats look like they have been around since 1970 (like the TV!!) I don't want to sound too negative, because these are really little annoyances that bugged US, but I want to give a fair and accurate opinion of the place. The waiter do try very hard to please you. One thing that REALLY bothered us were the birds that constantly swept down on your plates to take your food. We saw tons of bird droppings on the dining tables and witnessed once or twice, a dinner getting bombed with a little wet surprise!!!! This was disgusting, but I know, its part of eating outside. We just think they could come up with a solution to this, without detracting from the natural beauty of Hawaii. Anyway, The "Mixed Plate " restaurant, we only ate in once, for breakfast. It is a buffet/cafeteria style small place (very old looking, yes, from the 1970's again!!)The food was okay. For comparison, we went to the breakfast buffet at the Sheraton ($ 26.00 pp). This was Outstanding (and you pay for it too)... we loved it and I would recommend it to anyone, to try once. The pool area is small and crowded (I don't sit by the pool anyway. It is shaped like a whale. Thats all there is. Everyone seemed very happy at the pool. It is next to the Tiki bar/snack shack. We packed 2 cheap 10.00 folding chaise lounge chairs in a cardboard box as I found that all beaches in Maui are public and the hotel does not provide free chairs for its guests. You can rent a wooden dual cabana (one large wooden cabana w/ two cushions and a folding canvas sun protector for $ 15.00 for 2 hours, or $ 25.00 for the day - Since we live in the desert and wish to sit by the ocean for 6 hrs a day, you can see why we lugged the chairs. Honestly, it really wasn't a bother, and lots of people asked us where we got them!!! The beach is lovely. It is a short walk to great snorkeling at Black Rock. This is getting really long and I hope thats okay. I'll finish up. We ate at the Hula Grill and at Leilani's many times. The food was very very good, but again, be ready to pay for it. (Opakapaka Snapper, w/ small salad and rice costs 28.00) I'll be happy to go into more food detail, or answer any questions I can if anybody would like me to. We loved Maui, and will definitely go back again, but will probably try the condo rentals for a week next time. Aloha. Betsy