Grand Wailea, A Waldorf Astoria Resort — Hotel in Maui

We recently traveled to Hawaii over the last week, spending 2 nights in Kona for a wedding before boarding a plain in absolute excitement for our trip to the Grand Wailea, a Waldorf Astoria hotel in Wailea, Maui. We were beyond excited to finally get out of the Uber at the hotel and that's when we started to notice a few things. ||So my wife group up going to the Grand Wailea, spending time there in the 90's and early 2000's. She has fond memories of the place and it was my first time to Hawaii, let alone the Grand Wailea, so I was as excited as it gets. Especially considered, the cost of this trip could have bought us many other things. ||So, my wife noticed they no longer run the waterfalls coming to the entrance, not a big thing, they are trying to do their job to conserve water, that's amazing! While we were welcomed and asked if our bags needed to be brought up for us, there weren't any Lei's offered. My wife had memories of this and a welcome drink. Ok, again, I get it maybe they were trying to do their part for the environment. So we get to check in and the line is short, but I thought, I guess erroneously there might be a line for Hilton Diamond members. For the record, we have the AMEX aspire card which provides certain benefits, one of those being Diamond status.||Ok, so no special line, no problem. We get to a front desk attendant, probably the wrong one, but they were cheerful and said our room wasn't ready yet, but that we could check in, they gave us keys, but no room number, and said they would call when it was ready. We were also eligible for an upgrade due to our status, but were told the only options available would require us to pay more. Since we had a Deluxe Ocean view room already, we opted not to pay for an upgrade. This was the best room option below a suite. Well, we checked in at 3:45pm, about 15 minutes before check-in, figured it would only take a couple minutes to get the room ready, so we explored. We tried to go to the Boltero lounge, which is lovely, but it was closed until 4:30, this was probably the second or 3rd sign at this point, but we walked the grounds and found the pool bar, the only one open at this property and got our drinks. We continued to walk around the pool area, check out the restaurants were were reserved dinners and walked back to the hotel lobby. At this point nearly 45 later, still no call from the hotel. So we sat at the Boltero lound, it was finally open and had another drink. ||The staff at the lounge were great, friendly, welcoming all of what you would expect. so we sat for another 15 minutes or so, now officially an hour after we got to the hotel and checked-in. Still no call, so I got on the Hilton app and asked if our room was ready. My wife is 7 months pregnant at this point, and we had a day of travel, so we were ready to lay down. Finally, the room is ready, but we had to go back to the check-in desk to get new keys. Why? We already had keys, it sounds like they had put us in a different room, so we went back. The next front desk attendant was the one we probably should have spoken with when we first checked-in, they were great! She took our bell desk ticket, had our bags sent to the room and told us where to go to find the room. ||Ok, finally at the room, it was nice enough, the bathroom was renovated and it had a 65" tv, but otherwise there wasn't anything special about it. Then there was the view, a grand disappointment. We specifically purchased a Deluxe ocean view and not a normal ocean view. We had palm trees in the way, so the view was blocked. It seems like we weren't the only one with this opinion after reading other reviews after our trip. But whatever, we were tired, hungry and had an hour before our dinner at Humuhumunukunukuapua'a. So we got some cheese and crackers out and chilled for a moment. My wife upon getting ready noticed the bathroom wasn't as clean as it should have been, but this was mostly a grout issue, so we went on getting ready. One thing we didn't notice but not till our final night was mold around the AC vents and lots of dust on the walls. That was a disappointment, but we were at the end of our trip. Should we have complained to the hotel, maybe but the first night we just wanted to eat and relax. ||Ok, day 2, we rented a cabana, it was a great move too, because the free loungers fill up by 7:30am. There arent many and people are like hyenas, they take whatever they can find ASAP. Then don't even sit there and move off to breakfast or whichever. That brings me to my next point. We arrived at the check-in desk for the pool, were greeted and given wrist band for the pool. A side note on this, of the other properties in the area, the marriot and the four seasons, the hilton is the only one stuck in the past, using different colored bands for different days, while the other hotels had digital bands that also covered their rooms. ||Ok, so we checked in for the cabana, nice, then they told us where to find it and pushed us along on our merry way. That was it, no host, just get lost. We were greeted by a host, after we got there, who seemed like they had no interest in their job. We asked about food and drinks, they said there was not available service until 11am, it was 9am. Our host, also, only returned to bring small snacks at specific intervals, no other assistance. The cost, $1500 for the day. I've never been to a cabana where service is not available right away. No coffee, no juices, no breakfast, you have to bring all your own stuff or wait until 11am when the wailea surf house opens. What a joke! Ok, so whatever, we waited and ordered food, they messed it up. In between, had to go to the bathroom...that was the worst mistake I ever made, you are better off going back to your own room. There was 1 bathroom set on the property outdoors for all of the pools, it was absolutely disgusting. Nobody cleaned it, the dyson hand dryer didnt work and it was demolished with turds floating around in the toilet. Thats another side note, half of the people there were absolutely disgusting in their respect for others, their manners and who they were as people. I've never been so ashamed for humanity. But that part isnt the hotels fault. The other hotels in the area, seem like they have their stuff going on, I don't know, but maybe they do. The difference is, the Grand Wailea has the best pool for the kids, but half of the features don't open til 10:30am, so another wait for guests. Between the lack of service, the singular and disgusting bathroom and overall inattention to guests, the pool experience was lackluster at best. They need to do so work on this part. Ok, final thought, the beach is there, but if you want chairs, they are $75/pair for half day and double for the full day. ||For such a historied hotel under the Waldorf Astoria brand, we expected a little more. The whole trip wasnt terrible, and Wailea is great, but the Grand Wailea needs to step up there game. Ok real final thought, the hotel provides 2 free waters in each room, they come in reusable metal cans, this is wonderful. However, the refilling stations are only in certain parts of the grounds. They are NOT on every floor as one would imagine, so you need to hunt the grounds to refill your water, also, the water was not great tasting. For nearly $1300 a night, we were disappointed. Would we go back, maybe, if they could get their...

Before I write my review, just FYI we went to Grand Wailea over our daughter's spring break from March 29 - April 4, and we have been long time Hilton Diamond Members who have stayed at Grand Wailea over 5 times in the last 8 years. We also used to be Elite members that cancelled due to rising membership costs and deduction of the benefit discount.||THE GOOD: |Grand Wailea is still an amazing resort. Beautiful grounds, excellently appointed and remodeled rooms on the inside, amazing pools and friendly staff. It is still a slice of paradise perfectly located next to the Wailea shops and well connected to neighboring resorts via beach path. We used Hilton points to book our stay, and from experience we knew that weren't going to get to Ocean View through any kind of free Diamond upgrade, so we emailed the in house reservations when we booked the base level room to ask about upgrades. For $120 per night extra we were able to upgrade to regular Ocean View, and then a few days before our trip we got most likely, the Diamond Upgrade to Deluxe Ocean View which is the higher floors and better views. After years of staying in the Wailea Wing we chose to try to Molokini Wing and we were very happy we did. This is a little closer to the pools and beach, MUCH closer to Loulu the grab and go breakfast/lunch/dinner/coffee shop downstairs and overall had a very nice different angled view of the ocean from the balcony. ||The chat feature within the Hilton app is fantastic and you can always get someone to help with anything you need usually within a few minutes. Our digital key worked flawlessly as well in addition to our room keys.||THE "NEEDS IMPROVEMENT": |Several things over the past few years have slightly soured our visits, and they seem to be pretty consistent with what most people are saying. Overall, it does seem like Grand Wailea is "nickel and diming" guests to the point where you feel like nothing is included except your bed, water and electricity. We are of course extremely grateful to have saved enough points to stay here for "free" but we are still using years of saved points as well as spending quite a bit of money on extras.||CHECK IN: What happened to flower leis upon arrival? If it is specifically due to being wasteful with precious island resources I respect that, but they just disappeared in the last few years without any signs or notice.||VALET: $65 a day with no other choice, but they no longer allow you to call to get your car brought up, so we had to bring our whole family down and wait 5-10 min each time, or have parents separate to come down ahead of the family to get it pulled up.||BOTERO - Lobby Bar/Restaurant: Great live music every night, and excellent place to have a drink. Fully understanding that the sushi menu had to go away with the introduction of NOBU, however once again Grand Wailea introduced a new menu without direct Kids options (same thing happened when we went to Olivine and paid $40 for kids spaghetti and meatballs). Four Seasons next door does an excellent job of kids menus for a very fair value, and with Grand Wailea being especially kid friendly I'm very surprised that there are no kids menus in the majority of restaurants we visited. We paid around $200 for 2 adults and a child for a casual lobby bar dinner and 2 alcoholic drinks, with just OK food. I know this is a new concept and hopefully it is improved soon with feedback.||Also, not sure if it was just an off night but it was spring break week and there were only 2 servers attending to about 20-30 tables the one night we went. We waited about 20-30 minutes to order and receive a drink, and another 40-50 to order and receive our food. It did seem like other nights we walked past were much better staffed.||BEACH SETUP: This was a massive downside for us. After years and years of coming here and enjoying lounge chairs and an umbrella on the beach for the price of a tip to the guys setting it up, GW is now charging $75 for a half day, and $150 for a full day. On top of that, the full day is reservable online, and for those of us with a napping child in the early afternoon who only want a few hours of beach shade in the morning, $75 is a huge disappointment. Tommy Bahama folding chairs (without umbrellas) are available first come first serve, but only until 3:30 and the supply is limited. We did the full paid rental once, then drove down the street to a snorkel rental place to get a basic umbrella rental for several days for $20.||POOLS: The pools are kept quite clean, it was nice to see people tending to the sand pool and cleaning the pools early in the morning. The ropes drop at 7am for people to begin reserve lounge chairs. I completely understand that if one person was to go ask for 10 towels they could reserve way more chairs than they need and it wouldn't be fair to everyone else. I also understand it takes time to stock up on the clean towels. However, Grand Wailea should have something on the computer to tell them how many people are in your family/room staying there when handing out towels. As we have a young child who most days wouldn't be fully ready at 7am to go down to the pool yet, however will absolutely need a shaded chair, it isn't fair to make two adults and a 4 year old get 3 towels together at 7am just to reserve their 3 chairs. I was often only able to get 1 or maybe 2 towels at a time unless other members of my family were with me, which was a bit of a pain. ||POOL FOOD/DRINKS: Don't open until 11am. Again, this is a family focused resort with kids that have been up since 5-6am most days, getting to the pool at 7am, and are ready for food and/or drinks well before 11am. Several days we walked over to the Beach Cart at Four Seasons to get some fruit or a drink. That's money that went out the door from GW to another resort and I'm sure many people do the same. It is a long walk back up the path to Loulu which is the only place open to grab stuff in the morning.||Additionally, not sure if it was just the day/week we tried, but the qr code ordering to the chairs that used to work in previous years did not allow us to order anything before or after 11am. We had a great server within a few minutes of 11am, but it was a nice perk to be able to order at your leisure to the chairs. Hope this is fixed or added back.||These are all minor inconveniences within an amazingly well run place, but they do add up and leave a lasting impression in an expensive week's vacation.||I still highly recommend Grand Wailea to friends and family, however I now feel the need to caveat to them a lot of the nuances that have changed and most of my restaurant recommendations involve leaving the property. Hopefully the introduction of NOBU (opened right after we left) will be a...

We just returned from a wonderful week at the Grand Wailea. We had honeymooned at Fairmont Kea Lani in 2015 and considered all the Wailea properties before settling on Grand Wailea. I was accompanied by my wife & 7 year old daughter, here is a breakdown of our trip: ||Room|- We booked a deluxe ocean view room and was given 7093. |- We enjoyed the location, sure it was a decent walk to the pools and everywhere else, but I didn't mind it due to the beautiful surroundings, and the need to be active to get rid of the added weight gained! I read previous reviews speaking to the distance you have to walk to the pools & beach, but after experiencing it first hand I thought those reviews were exaggerated. |- The room was spacious enough for us, we considered upgrading to a suite, but opted to use that money for other vacation items. Fairmont rooms are certainly much larger (as is Venitian/Palazzo in Vegas), but we enjoyed the views and spending time on the balcony relaxing (and looking for whales, which were really active). |- TV channels & outlets to charge our devices were plentiful and the bathroom was very spacious. |- There is a refrigerator in the rooms with refillable water bottles, which was great, however, there is no microwave (more on that later). ||Pools|- This is where we spent the bulk of our time. Our daughter absolutely loved the huge activity pool and all that was attached to it, including the slides, rope swing, and lazy river, we all had so much fun here. After reading all the negative reviews here about getting chairs I was worried and went down at 7:30 AM on the first day and found every option available to us so the next day we slept in more and arrived at 8:30 AM and still had a ton of great options with umbrellas available. |- I was able to sneak away to the Hibiscus (adults only) Pool a few times to enjoy a quieter experience and just relax in the pool or hot tub a bit before heading back to the fun-filled activity pool & slides. |- The slides & rope swing opened at 10:30 AM each day, which seemed like a bummer at first, but once we came down later each day we adjusted to that and enjoyed the quiet before everything fully opened. |- The desk to get your wristbands had some big lines after 10 AM, but getting there early helped get ahead of that. The workers there were super friendly and helpful. |- We rented a cabana one day (steep price of $1,350, but we really enjoyed it and hope to come with another family next year to help split the cost up and do multiple days with a cabana). ||Service|- We experienced great service everywhere on the property. The poolside service was great, very speedy and friendly. |- Check in/check out employees were very friendly and helpful, the scavenger hunt for kids is fun and they get a nice prize if/when they complete it. |- Management is definitely reading reviews here because I read many complaints about unattended chairs, we witnessed multiple employees marking unattended chairs and when they came back around if they were still unattended they removed the towels & items off the chairs to free them up for guests who wanted to use them. Based on our experience this week I would suggest getting down to the pools no later than 9 AM to avoid stressing over this, but maybe it was a less busy week than normal and we were lucky? |- The staff put out pool toys/floaties each day around the activity desk, which was a nice surprise. Our daughter used a pool noodle and floatie about every day and just would return it as we headed back to our room each afternoon. ||Property|It's such a massive property with shops on site and beautiful views everywhere you turn, I couldn't stop taking photos & videos due to how awesome it was. ||Food|- It's pricey, but we braced for that going in. $4 for a single banana, $11 milkshakes, $16 grilled cheese, etc., there are ways to help with that, which we learned the hard way and will take advantage of more next time. |- Disappointing that there is a $50 charge for a microwave, especially given the fact the portion sizes are really big. The $12 side of fries easily fed the 3 of us so that made the cost for those more reasonable. Other items had very generous portions as well, being able to take it to the room and heat up leftovers the next day would've been a great option, next time it may be worth the $50 charge on day one to have that microwave. |- Heading over to the Shops at Wailea was a quick walk and presented some cheaper options as well. |- The breakfast buffet is great, lots of birds waiting for us to finish, but it's a beautiful place to enjoy breakfast with great food. |- My favorite meal was on site at Olivine (kids pasta was $22 there, which is crazy high, but my $52 wagyu bolognese dish was one I would gladly get again). |- Having reusable water bottles in the room was awesome and the refill stations throughout the property helped reduce cost with that, very nice. ||Cons|- The biggest thing I would love to see when we return to Grand Wailea is some sort of kids club. I know Four Seasons has this and I would love to see GW offer some variation of this as well, to particularly help kids who are there without siblings or friends to meet others like them, which would help make their stay more enjoyable. |- No microwave in the room was disappointing. ||I'm not going to list price as a con because if you are going to Wailea in general you know it's going to be super pricey (expect food and drink prices like you see at a MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL game, take a trip to a store on the first day to help with snacks, too). ||Summary|If you have kids and want to stay in Maui then I don't know how you beat Grand Wailea. My daughter cried hard when it was time to leave and said this was her favorite place she's ever been. We walked to the other Wailea properties on the awesome trail, and came to the conclusion that while our daughter is young that this is the place we'll be returning to, we can't wait...