There were many options presented for the Diamond amenity including the standard food and beverage o

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As a little bit of a back-story, my daughter and I flew to Kauai in first class on Alaska Airlines flights thanks to a great (now defunct) deal from Iceland holiday inn sunspree wrightsville beach nc Air. No thanks to some routing and schedule changes, it ended up taking four flights and about 24 hours to get there. holiday inn sunspree wrightsville beach nc However, once we arrived holiday inn sunspree wrightsville beach nc in Kauai and got settled at the Grand Hyatt that was all a distant memory. I ll be writing a series of posts about our experiences on Kauai, starting with a look at the Grand Hyatt Kauai.
I don t think I have ever read a truly negative thing about this hotel, so I went into this stay with pretty high expectations. That is always way more dangerous than going into a stay with neutral to low expectations, but in this case the hotel lived up to the hype. The Grand Hyatt Kauai is a very popular Hyatt Gold Passport redemption option holiday inn sunspree wrightsville beach nc for families heading to Hawaii, and I think it is safe to say it is one of the very best Hyatt redemption options for families in the world based on location, activities, amenities, and service.
The hotel is located off Poipu Road on the famous sunny south side of Kauai. It is about a 15-20 minute (mostly) scenic holiday inn sunspree wrightsville beach nc drive from Lihue airport. This is a very large resort with over 600 rooms spread out across a very expansive footprint.
The lobby is an open air concept that is designed to basically frame the blue Pacific Ocean as the focal point. The view of the ocean takes your breath away and lets you know you have arrived in paradise.
I arrived at the hotel about an hour or so before the official check-in holiday inn sunspree wrightsville beach nc time of 3PM, but I was very hopeful that a room would be ready as my kiddo was officially exhausted and malfunctioning at this part of the journey (which always makes checking in that much more interesting ). The bad news was that our room was not yet ready, though upon seeing how exhausted Little C was ( she ended up laying on the lobby floor while I checked in ), they did offer to move us to another room that was ready immediately.
However, they said that because of my Diamond status we had been upgraded to a somewhat larger room, and if we wanted a room right away it would be a smaller room. I decided to tough it out for another hour or so and wait for the larger room. We were also offered a credit toward a couple holiday inn sunspree wrightsville beach nc of drinks or smoothies for the wait (I heard this offered to others checking in at the same time). It was a very nice gesture, though I never saw the credit on our final bill, perhaps a voucher type system might work better.
There were many options presented for the Diamond amenity including the standard food and beverage option which included holiday inn sunspree wrightsville beach nc your choice of: Canvas; two bottles of domestic, imported, or local beer; Ketel One Duo with mixers; spring or sparkling water; sodas or juices. The food options included: market fresh veggies and hummus; seasonal fruit; cheese plate; tropical sliced fruits or macaroon and truffle bouquet. As usual, you would choose one beverage and one food option. They also had some non-traditional Diamond holiday inn sunspree wrightsville beach nc amenity choices that included a Hawaiian music CD, bike rentals for two people, a Kauai photo book, a family fun kit (in-room movie rental + coloring book and crayons), or a one-day poolside or lagoon side cabana rental.
You could also opt for the standard 1,000 points, but I went for the cabana rental. I could get food and drinks in the Grand Club, but the cabana rental would have cost me $50 out of pocket so it seemed to be the best choice for my situation. How to reserve the cabana wasn t immediately clear, but I just went to the desk by the pool where you obtain towels and they set it up with no issue.
After check-in holiday inn sunspree wrightsville beach nc we had the hotel hold our bags while we changed into swimsuits and enjoyed the pool for roughly an hour while we waited for our room. The pool re-energized both of us, and I was glad we decided to wait for the larger room.
Our room was located on the bottom floor overlooking the pool complex. This was an ideal location for families who will be frequenting the pool and salt water lagoon, but it is quite the hike from the lobby, and an even further hike from the Grand Club. There is no way to be close to everything at this resort, so you kind of have to strategize based on what is most important for your family.
This was great as it provided a slightly removed area for me to work in while C took her daily naps. It also provided additional holiday inn sunspree wrightsville beach nc room for her to play in with her toys (not that we were in the room much during waking hours). We stayed in early June, likely just before the hotel s peak busy season, so I certainly would not count on any upgrade even as a Diamond member holiday inn sunspree wrightsville beach nc on a future visit.  However, it was a very nice surprise given that we had merely redeemed 22,000 Hyatt points for the room.
The bed was comfortable, the TV was large (and had Disney Channel), and the blackout curtains did the trick. I was a bit concerned about noise from the pool due to our location, but it was a total non-issue.
I did not love that the bathroom sink was so small, and really did not love the lack of a bath-tub. As always, showers with little kids are no fun. Based on photos, it appears that some rooms at the resort do have bathtubs, holiday inn sunspree wrightsville beach nc but ours did not. I m hitting that issue more and more at various Hyatt Hotels. As an adult I like the trend, but as a parent I do not.
I believe all rooms at this resort have either a lanai or balcony, and this was no exception.  Ours over-looked the pool area and made for a lovely spot for enjoying morning coffee or soaking in the last few minutes of the day before going to bed.
Our Diamond status gave us access to complimentary breakfast and snacks in the Grand Club, but it is a good 10-12+ minute walk across the property which isn t always holiday inn sunspree wrightsville beach nc pleasant with a still tired kiddo.  So, on the last morning we splurged and ordered room service.  The dining table in the sitting area plus cartoons on the TV made for a much more pleasant breakfast experience then wasting a ton of time hiking to and from the club.
The food was priced about the same as most room service breakfasts, though the kid s menu is quite reasonable and provided holiday inn sunspree wrightsville beach nc way more pancakes then a little one could ever eat.  It was well worth it to start the day off in that manner and then heading straight out of our door to the pools.  I think it is worth the splurge at least once while you are there especially if you are located so far from other food options, but so close to the pools as we were.
For those arriving to Hawaii from the US, you are likely going to deal with some timezone issues the first night on the islands. Hawaii was five hours behind our hometown in Texas, so we were ready for bed when evening arrived. We took it pretty easy the first night by eating in the Grand Club (more on that in a future post) swinging in the hammock, looking a little around the resort, and then heading to bed promptly at sunset.
We didn t want to go to bed too early and deal with a 4AM wake-up holiday inn sunspree wrightsville beach nc the next day as a result, but we certainly didn t want to stay up longer than necessary. We had a busy day ahead of us the next morning, and we were more than ready for sleep, holiday inn sunspree wrightsville beach nc Stay tuned for the next post in this series where I will focus on the Grand Club, the spa, Camp Hyatt, the pools, and many other amenities at the Grand Hyatt Kauai.
I took my family to Kauai over spring break of this year, and we loved it. I think it s unfortunate that one of the best hotels on the island is located on what I consider the ugly side of the island. We rented a condo on the north shore and only visited the south side briefly. I felt like we were staying in Tahiti but visited Florida when we drove to the south side. It s really that much different. I think if you want a really nice hotel experience while on Kauai you should stay at the St. Regis in Princeville.
Oh wow you guys really got left out on the bathroom. holiday inn sunspree wrightsville beach nc We stayed in a standard pool-view king and our bathroom was amazing. separate toilet and shower areas, dual sink and even dual vanity/shelves of which we could store EVERYTHING (and then some) of things we brought. It may have been the nicest bathroom we ve ever had in a hotel room including suites at Aria and the Venetian.
holiday inn sunspree wrightsville beach nc As a Diamond, didn t you get breakfast for two in the Ilima Terrace. It s $35 a person and waived for Diamonds and it s a terrific buffet, on par with the Andaz hotel spreads. When we stay at the hotel, our 10 year old twins wake up and hit the club for a very nice breakfast while we sleep in and then enjoy the Ilima Terrace. After that, we all spend the day relaxing, whether it is the Lazy River or a hammock by the lagoon, etc. At night we drive a few minutes and enjoy some local fun eateries: Bubba s Burgers and some cool fish places. (That is why it is important you have a car rental during your stay.)
I stayed in a partial ocean view on the first floor this past spring. It was just a normal sized king bed room, but the bathroom was probably half the size of the room. It was huge and really nice. My wife and I could both get clean and ready at the same time without stepping on toes.
Chris I ll fill in on the bathroom products. They are GREAT. I forget what brand they are, but tea tree conditioner, shampoo, body wash as well as a nice lotion and a nice huge bar with those scrubby dots built into them. And they are HUGE too! (1.5 oz each). They also gave us our own Aquafresh toothpaste for the room. I generally lik