- Joined
- Mar 27, 2008
- Messages
- 2,193
- Reaction score
- 2,585
- Points
- 574
- Location
- California
- Resorts Owned
- Hyatt Highlands Inn, Hyatt Pinon Pointe
We've been here at WPORV for the past week and--despite a week of mostly rainy and windy weather--we've had a fabulous time here. I thought I'd share some overall impressions of the resort, the service, and the tourism industry on Kauai.
The Resort
In a word, fantastic. We stayed in unit 7213 on the second floor of Building 7. One of the things we really loved about our large 1BR unit was the generous balcony with the wonderful view of the ocean and the infinity pool. It was just great to sit out there when it was raining, read a good book, or take our lunch out and just enjoy the beautiful surroundings.
Contrary to some posts I've read, the access to beautiful Anini Beach is fairly easy. It's about a ten-minute walk and the beach there is lovely, although not conducive to swimming during the winter months. The hike back is somewhat steep, but I will emphasize that you've got to be in pretty bad shape not to be able to make the hike back without too much trouble.
When we arrived, we received a very warm and hospitable welcome. The valets unloaded our luggage--including the groceries we'd bought at Safeway in Kapa'a--and brought everything to our room so we would not have to lug everything across the resort upon check-in. One nice perk is that guests receive free valet parking for the first night--a welcome plus after a long day of travel to get there.
Our room was immaculate: very clean and well-maintained. The highlight is the Westin Heavenly Bed. But all of the room amenities are ultra modern and easy to use. A recommendation: the rooms include a Bose Wave Machine, so be sure to bring your favorite CD's. The room also includes a DVD player. We were able to rent DVD's at the nearby Foodland's Redbox for $1/night.
A couple of nits: the air conditioning is both noisy and seems to cycle on and off a lot. When it does, it's noisy. As a result, we ended up just turning the a/c off during the night and opening the door to the balcony to let the sea breeze lull us to sleep. Another related nit: the ceiling fan in the bedroom was also very noisy. I mentioned this to the service desk and--hopefully--these issues will be addressed for the benefit of future guests.
We made full use of the gym during our stay. The gym is pretty good-sized and has a full array of aerobic equipment and some weight machines, as well as free weights. My wife enjoyed using the workout balls outside on the balcony overlooking the main pool.
There's one restaurant--Nanea--on the property. We ate dinner there one night and had a very nice meal. Like all of Kauai, it wasn't cheap (about $25 per entree, on average) but the service was prompt and efficient and the food was quite good.
One final comment about the resort in general: the grills are a wonderful perk. They're beautifully maintained Weber gas grills and they get lot of use from the guests. The grills themselves are removed each night and clean grills are replaced so that the grills are always sanitary. I grilled three of our meals during the week. It was really pleasant to stand out there while the food was cooking and watch the whales playing in the ocean.
The Service
I was frankly astounded at the level of service and the lengths the resort goes to maintain the resort's beauty. We saw groundskeepers--usually a crew of 6-8--everyday on the resort, working at pulling weeds, pruning shrubs, cutting grass or cleaning the grounds. Last night, a man was washing the deck around one of the pools until about 10 pm. We got to know a couple of the service people pretty well during the week, and everytime we'd say hello, they would ask us if there was anything they could to to make our stay more comfortable and enjoyable. This kind of service only comes with great training, and my hat's off to WPORV for doing a really outstanding job of that.
The Tourism Industry
No surprise here, but it's suffering. I would estimate that the resort has been at about 60% occupancy during our stay this week. When we went to dinner, I made a point of asking the restaurant managers how business was doing. The consensus seems to be that tourism on Kauai is down 35-50%. Many well-established restaurants have gone out of business, including Coconuts in Kapa'a and Pizza Hanalei.
The silver lining, of course, is that it's easy to get a table, a reservation for an excursion, or just about anything else you want to do on Kauai. About the only thing we did that took some advance planning was getting a sunset seating at The Beach House for my wife's birthday. One other thing about the downturn: the famous hospitality that has always marked the Hawaiian culture seems to have actually been turned up a notch or two from our previous visits to the Islands. I think people really appreciate seeing tourists come, especially since such a huge part of Hawaii's economy is dependent on those of us who come here to enjoy this spectacular natural paradise.
The Resort
In a word, fantastic. We stayed in unit 7213 on the second floor of Building 7. One of the things we really loved about our large 1BR unit was the generous balcony with the wonderful view of the ocean and the infinity pool. It was just great to sit out there when it was raining, read a good book, or take our lunch out and just enjoy the beautiful surroundings.
Contrary to some posts I've read, the access to beautiful Anini Beach is fairly easy. It's about a ten-minute walk and the beach there is lovely, although not conducive to swimming during the winter months. The hike back is somewhat steep, but I will emphasize that you've got to be in pretty bad shape not to be able to make the hike back without too much trouble.
When we arrived, we received a very warm and hospitable welcome. The valets unloaded our luggage--including the groceries we'd bought at Safeway in Kapa'a--and brought everything to our room so we would not have to lug everything across the resort upon check-in. One nice perk is that guests receive free valet parking for the first night--a welcome plus after a long day of travel to get there.
Our room was immaculate: very clean and well-maintained. The highlight is the Westin Heavenly Bed. But all of the room amenities are ultra modern and easy to use. A recommendation: the rooms include a Bose Wave Machine, so be sure to bring your favorite CD's. The room also includes a DVD player. We were able to rent DVD's at the nearby Foodland's Redbox for $1/night.
A couple of nits: the air conditioning is both noisy and seems to cycle on and off a lot. When it does, it's noisy. As a result, we ended up just turning the a/c off during the night and opening the door to the balcony to let the sea breeze lull us to sleep. Another related nit: the ceiling fan in the bedroom was also very noisy. I mentioned this to the service desk and--hopefully--these issues will be addressed for the benefit of future guests.
We made full use of the gym during our stay. The gym is pretty good-sized and has a full array of aerobic equipment and some weight machines, as well as free weights. My wife enjoyed using the workout balls outside on the balcony overlooking the main pool.
There's one restaurant--Nanea--on the property. We ate dinner there one night and had a very nice meal. Like all of Kauai, it wasn't cheap (about $25 per entree, on average) but the service was prompt and efficient and the food was quite good.
One final comment about the resort in general: the grills are a wonderful perk. They're beautifully maintained Weber gas grills and they get lot of use from the guests. The grills themselves are removed each night and clean grills are replaced so that the grills are always sanitary. I grilled three of our meals during the week. It was really pleasant to stand out there while the food was cooking and watch the whales playing in the ocean.
The Service
I was frankly astounded at the level of service and the lengths the resort goes to maintain the resort's beauty. We saw groundskeepers--usually a crew of 6-8--everyday on the resort, working at pulling weeds, pruning shrubs, cutting grass or cleaning the grounds. Last night, a man was washing the deck around one of the pools until about 10 pm. We got to know a couple of the service people pretty well during the week, and everytime we'd say hello, they would ask us if there was anything they could to to make our stay more comfortable and enjoyable. This kind of service only comes with great training, and my hat's off to WPORV for doing a really outstanding job of that.
The Tourism Industry
No surprise here, but it's suffering. I would estimate that the resort has been at about 60% occupancy during our stay this week. When we went to dinner, I made a point of asking the restaurant managers how business was doing. The consensus seems to be that tourism on Kauai is down 35-50%. Many well-established restaurants have gone out of business, including Coconuts in Kapa'a and Pizza Hanalei.
The silver lining, of course, is that it's easy to get a table, a reservation for an excursion, or just about anything else you want to do on Kauai. About the only thing we did that took some advance planning was getting a sunset seating at The Beach House for my wife's birthday. One other thing about the downturn: the famous hospitality that has always marked the Hawaiian culture seems to have actually been turned up a notch or two from our previous visits to the Islands. I think people really appreciate seeing tourists come, especially since such a huge part of Hawaii's economy is dependent on those of us who come here to enjoy this spectacular natural paradise.
