Lana'i/Maui/Moloka'i 2011 Refurbishment

Click here to see refurbishment schedule and pictures of a remodeled Moloka'i suite.

Recommend if you have an existing reservation during this time to ask to be at least 2 floors away from the floors being worked on due to noise.

Looks very nice, very similar to the way the Villas look...

Thanks Gary for taking the time to post these photos.

We purchased at Maui Ocean Club during the construction phase, so this represents version 3 of the decorating we have experienced.

I will always be fond of the original color scheme and furnishings, but this new design is nice as well. Yes - I agree that it looks a lot like the interiors of the new Lahaina/Napili towers. I'm not necessarily a fan of the sofa throw pillows (they look like Sesame Street colors), and what's up with that living room carpet pattern? But I won't quibble over such details. In general I'd say this is an improvement over the mustard/magenta colors that it replaces.

We'll be there in April, so I'll look forward to seeing the new decorating in person.

gblotter said:

...and what's up with that living room carpet pattern?

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It looks like the same inset patern they are using in the Villas, only theirs is surronded by tile.

GaryDouglas said:

It looks like the same inset patern they are using in the Villas, only theirs is surronded by tile.

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Yeah, I noticed that too. I just don't think it works so well in this application - looks odd and out of place. But I'm not going to get hung-up on such details.

We traded for Ko Olina during 2010 and 2011, so it will be nice to come back home to Maui and see these fresh interiors. Quite a number of things have changed in those two years, including exterior repainting and refurbishing of the central pool.

We stayed there for our last night Sept. 5th as the first in our room after it was remodeled. (Molokai tower).

We'd never stayed there before so I can't say anything regarding new vs. old color scheme, BUT: Those sofa pillows and colors are something else!!
What an odd assortment of bright, garish colors (IMO).

The living room rug pattern was a bit more muted, and very pretty, altho rather odd if you thought too much about it, with part being patterned and part not.

Otherwise, it seemed very nice. Once we took the pillows off the couch, it looked a lot better. I do have to say none of the sitting furniture was very comfortable. All quite modern squares and VERY firm. (stiff)

I have to laugh, tho, about those sofa pillow colors. I was in the elevator and had a conversation w/an owner. In the process mentioned the sofa pillows' colors. I must have been too subtle about my dismay, as she started waxing poetic about the lovely new colors -ESPECIALLY the pillows!! :rofl: :rofl:
My girls were also laughing because they knew exactly how I really felt, and loved watching me try to be polite...

I was just at MOC

Am I the only one willing to give up a bathroom for a decent kitchen/washer/dryer? I have a two bedroom and would be happy to have a real kitchen? Any one else?

rpw said:

Am I the only one willing to give up a bathroom for a decent kitchen/washer/dryer? I have a two bedroom and would be happy to have a real kitchen? Any one else?

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We decided not to choose, we have one of each each...

Thanks for the pictures and keeping us up to date. You can't beat the view from the 14th floor and a big lanai too on a corner even.

How is the weather? Enjoy your vacation on Maui!

The weather was good 11 out of 14 days, and the lesser days were only partially bad. We just got back.

The beach has already moved to the Ali'i and points north. We're not going back until the beach rearrives...

I temporarily added a picture of family at the end of the pictures.

rpw said:

Am I the only one willing to give up a bathroom for a decent kitchen/washer/dryer? I have a two bedroom and would be happy to have a real kitchen? Any one else?

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I'm sure we could live without the extra bathroom, but a full kitchen is not high on our list. I realize that we are probably in the minority with that opinion.

While on vacation, we don't really want the burden of cooking up big meals. We typically go out for dinner. We eat breakfast and lunch in the room, and the smallish kitchenette is fine for cereal and sandwiches. We don't really have any use for a range/oven while on vacation. However, we would really love a full-sized refrigerator in the unit.

I'm happy to use the laundry room by the pool. Very easy to throw in a couple of loads while reading a book by the pool. And the need to do laundry arises only once during a typical week-long vacation.

rpw said:

Am I the only one willing to give up a bathroom for a decent kitchen/washer/dryer? I have a two bedroom and would be happy to have a real kitchen? Any one else?

Click to expand...

When the new units were first built I thought for sure we would somehow upgrade to them but after we stepped away from the hype and did our home work we just didn't see the value in spending all that extra money to get what we saw as small value in return.

Sure it would be nice to have full kitchen but mostly for the large fridge more than anything else.

We just don't cook on vacation much even where we have full kitchens, and when we do its grilling something on the gas grills, so not much loss for us.

We also might make one pancake breakfast and bake some cookies but other than that we don't need full kitchen facilities.

And we do really like the 3rd bathroom. That means our kids never have to use ours and if we have guests it works out well.

Especially when we just use the 1bdrm side, having only 1 bathroom now with older teenagers would be deal breaker.

I am not that familiar with the buildings at MOC. I have my mom confirmed in on Oct. 7 in a 1 bedroom, 2 bathroom, garden view.

Does it make sense to request the Molokai building for her? One of her friends will be having to sleep on the sofa bed, so my thinking is that newer is better...

Many thanks

Quimby4 said:

I am not that familiar with the buildings at MOC. I have my mom confirmed in on Oct. 7 in a 1 bedroom, 2 bathroom, garden view.

Does it make sense to request the Molokai building for her? One of her friends will be having to sleep on the sofa bed, so my thinking is that newer is better...

Many thanks

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There are relatively few 1BR Garden View units in the Lanai Tower, so chances are you will get the Molokai Tower even without requesting it. Setting aside the refurbishing topic, I think you would enjoy the location of the Molokai Tower better (just my opinion).

Quimby4 said:

I am not that familiar with the buildings at MOC. I have my mom confirmed in on Oct. 7 in a 1 bedroom, 2 bathroom, garden view.

Does it make sense to request the Molokai building for her? One of her friends will be having to sleep on the sofa bed, so my thinking is that newer is better...

Many thanks

Click to expand...

Ask for a rollaway bed. They are extremely comfortable at the MOC.

We looked at the new buildings, and actually prefer the original towers. More space, bigger lanais, bigger windows, and the extra bath are worth more to us. Plus, we love the view over the pool to the ocean. We do cook a couple nights while there, but the grills are awesome! We will absolutely take a bath over a full kitchen, and carry our stuff to the laundry room.

skifast said:

We looked at the new buildings, and actually prefer the original towers. More space, bigger lanais, bigger windows, and the extra bath are worth more to us. Plus, we love the view over the pool to the ocean. We do cook a couple nights while there, but the grills are awesome! We will absolutely take a bath over a full kitchen, and carry our stuff to the laundry room.

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We feel the same way. The laundry and larger fridge to me would be nice but nothing I would pay much more for.

Also when the new units were being sold I thought if I didn't upgrade my units would be much less in demand with all the new units with kitchens on the market. Well that hasn't happened at all. The original units are still very much in demand so I'm glad I didn't spend the $3ok it was going to cost to upgrade.

MOXJO7282 said:

We feel the same way. The laundry and larger fridge to me would be nice but nothing I would pay much more for.

Also when the new units were being sold I thought if I didn't upgrade my units would be much less in demand with all the new units with kitchens on the market. Well that hasn't happened at all. The original units are still very much in demand so I'm glad I didn't spend the $3ok it was going to cost to upgrade.

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We have friends who spent the big bucks to upgrade from the original building to the Napili tower, taking advantage of a Marriott trade-in offer.
They now have huge regrets because they can no longer get reservations for the weeks they want (we've heard similar stories here on tug).
My friends are ready to dump their week altogether now - I don't blame them.

Great Pics!!
thank you very much.
As a fellow owner of MOC I cant wait to go.

Quimby4 said:

I am not that familiar with the buildings at MOC. I have my mom confirmed in on Oct. 7 in a 1 bedroom, 2 bathroom, garden view.

Does it make sense to request the Molokai building for her? One of her friends will be having to sleep on the sofa bed, so my thinking is that newer is better...

Many thanks

Click to expand...

There are two towers at MOC but there is a short third wing between the two towers which some of the rooms over look the pool are are "ocean view' but most of the rooms are garden / island view. So if your mom has a garden view room she likely will be assign to that in between area.

GaryDouglas said:

Click here to see refurbishment schedule and pictures of a remodeled Moloka'i suite.

Recommend if you have an existing reservation during this time to ask to be at least 2 floors away from the floors being worked on due to noise.

Looks very nice, very similar to the way the Villas look...

Click to expand...

Thanks Gary, this is good information

Quimby4 said:

I am not that familiar with the buildings at MOC. I have my mom confirmed in on Oct. 7 in a 1 bedroom, 2 bathroom, garden view.

Does it make sense to request the Molokai building for her? One of her friends will be having to sleep on the sofa bed, so my thinking is that newer is better...

Many thanks

Click to expand...

I have a similar question. We are going to MOC next summer, we have never been there before and are not familiar with the resort. We have two 1bedroom/2bath units confirmed. One is garden view and the other one is ocean view. Is there a way to request certain buildings so that the units would be as close to each other as possible without sacrificing the ocean view?

Thanks!

enma said:

I have a similar question. We are going to MOC next summer, we have never been there before and are not familiar with the resort. We have two 1bedroom/2bath units confirmed. One is garden view and the other one is ocean view. Is there a way to request certain buildings so that the units would be as close to each other as possible without sacrificing the ocean view?

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The Molokai wing has a lot of 1BR units. The Lanai wing has a lot of 2BR units. If you request Molokai wing on the same floor, I think you stand a very good chance of both units being placed close together. And I actually prefer Molokai wing FWIW.

There is a helpful graphic here: http://community.webshots.com/photo/fullsize/2869420210075946734VtkTRa

Thank you for the great graphic!!

Great timing with all this info!

Thanks for the pictures and the graphic and the information!

We just a couple of days ago, reserved a 1BR2BA OF for 7 nites mid-February with DC points! The new system worked for us. Definitely more and easier options.

We have only been to Maui once - for about 24 hours several years ago - in fact the original hotel was just under conversion to the timeshare and the towers were not built. We had a great room (still hotel room) in the center of the Maui Wing overlooking the pool to the ocean. Construction was everywhere! We are regulars to Kauai and Oahu and thought we would venture over for the whale show in February! Also we were able to grab a good flight over.

We leave Sat 10/15 (countdown in process) for Waiohai (our original "home resort"), so getting in the Hawaiian frame of mind! We love that Hawaii is only "one state away" from California!

Thanks again for all the MOC info!

Some more tidbits...

One of the electricians told me that they were also making electrical changes in the rooms to increase efficiency, but I didn't ask what specifically that was, probably lighting and or switch related. There is a plan to replace the chillers for the original buildings. This should also help our electric bill. If you look at the budget, energy is a major component. They are also going to make a change to the newly sanded areas, hopefully for the better (less sand). The annual meeting is in another week and we should be hearing the outcome of the two lawsuits with the state of Hawaii and the county of Maui, which were in our favor.