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Sheraton Kauai Review and Pics

Ken555

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Sheraton Desert Oasis
Unfortunately, I felt that this resort is not yet ready for owners even though they opened for occupancy earlier this year. There are a number of rough issues which I expect will be solved in the upcoming months. However, the resort itself is fundamentally flawed which will never allow it to become as great as others. In particular:
  1. The timeshare units are in the old hotel buildings across the street from the ocean, and almost all units have a view of concrete and perhaps a few trees. If you’re able to get the top floor (4) in building 8 you may see a sliver of ocean between the hotel buildings across the street.
  2. Currently buildings 6, 7, and 8 are ready for occupancy, though it appears that the first floor in building 7 was not utilized (all the windows toward the pool were covered). Construction crews were actively working on the other buildings located near the parking lot.
  3. Parking access required a longer walk to the unit than in future, since we had to walk along the road then enter the main entrance to get to the unit rather than walk direct thru the resort. Note that the parking at this resort is open to the public without parking pass, unlike all other Vistana resorts that I’ve visited. I believe it was the same 10 years ago when I first visited the island. I would prefer parking passes and some semblance of visible security.
  4. There is a lot of building noise within the unit and it’s easy to hear your neighbors, along with building noise.
    • I experienced multiple noise issues during my stay starting at 1:15am of the first night when the TV suddenly turned on by itself with the “greeting” music at high volume, which I am certain woke my neighbors in the connecting 1-bed unit. I ultimately unplugged the TV, after the on duty engineer had no idea how to guarantee this wouldn’t occur again. Of course, my neighbors then decided to turn their TV on for 30+ minutes at 4:30am as they prepared to check out (thanks so much), and there is absolutely no noise barrier between the studio and 1-bed other than the door (it should have more insulation along the sides and bottom, since this is a hard floor).
    • After I was moved to a 2-bed non-LO unit, even that unit had a lot of noise. Understandably I could hear the upstairs unit walking, but worse I could hear (and understand) their conversation whenever they were in the master bath. At ~3:15am of the second night in this unit I was woken up by loud banging which reoccured every ~12-15 minutes for hours. The following night engineering and management visited for over an hour to investigate, heard the reoccurring noise themselves, and could not isolate the source though did agree the noise was not from the unit itself. This proceeded to reoccur over the remaining nights of my visit. I am fairly sure this noise can be heard in other units, as it was audible throughout the unit, and seemed to come from the bathrooms.
  5. The kitchen in the 2-bed non-LO is very, very small. It’s smaller than even the 2-bed kitchen at Nanea.
  6. There are new building issues (even though it’s a very old structure). The tub in the master bath leaked into the unit below, requiring construction to visit and replace a cracked pipe.
  7. This resort feels like a hotel. They kept the existing structure and walkways. There are only two elevators for the three buildings (I’m not sure how many more there are for the others), with several outside staircases (which are nice).
  8. There is just one check-in area for both the villas and the hotel, and it’s apparent that they are placing hotel guests on the villa side (as I heard the people checking in just prior to me).
  9. The concierge staff doesn’t fully comprehend owner needs yet…and two couldn’t answer basic questions…though there were a couple that were quite nice and helpful. FWIW, they offered 20,000 Marriott points and $50 for an owners update (I declined, of course).
  10. There is no villa store with items we would normally expect. There is just the hotel store which looked just sad.
  11. The villa pool has no whirlpool.
On a positive note, there were several aspects I thought very appealing:
  1. The units were designed extremely well. The studio unit was very efficient with minimal wasted space, unlike WPV or WKORV. Don’t let the comparison of size between these resorts stop you from visiting.
    • The kitchen and laundry fit perfectly, and are very functional.
    • The bathroom is quite small (note the shower/toilet area is the same size in both the studio and the 2-bed non-LO).
    • The studio couch and rolling table is smart and actually more usable than the table in the WPV/WKORV studios, IMO.
    • The lanai was quite nice for a studio (larger than the WKORV-N lanai).
  2. I was told that there are some studios without a connecting door, though perhaps may not have any view at all. If I return to a studio I will be requesting one of those units.
  3. The 2-bed non-LO unit was similarly designed extremely efficiently to maximize use in the smaller space than other resorts.
    • The 2-bed lanai was large, though had only four chairs and two small side tables (no large table for eating outside like WKORV).
    • The 2nd bedroom was small, small, small… with an en suite bathroom that seemed squeezed in like many European hotels with a sliding door.
    • The 2nd bedroom has no built-in closet, with only a small wardrobe (fyi, the safe is on the bottom of the this unit, and not in the master bed).
    • The kitchen is near the entrance door and has a built-in table with two movable chairs…and no views.
    • The living room has a couch and a single chair, so has one less piece of furniture as compared to the living room of the 1-bed WPV or WKORV resorts. Even so, it was quite functional.
  4. The beach casual restaurant was quite good.

It seems there was a lot of focus on sq ft comparisons of this resort and others. I don’t think that is a big issue now that I’ve stayed at SKR. All the other resorts have lots of wasted space (long hallways, tubs in the studio units, etc).

While the resort was deficient in many obvious areas, I greatly enjoyed staying in the south.


Studio (Building 8, 4th floor corner unit)

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8.jpg

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Last edited:

Ken555

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Hmm... some of these pics didn't want to display from photobucket. I'll try again later, and add more pics.
 

Sea Six

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Apparently the chair hogs don't go to this resort! Why even use Photobucket when this site allows posting pics directly from your device?
 

Ken555

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Apparently the chair hogs don't go to this resort! Why even use Photobucket when this site allows posting pics directly from your device?

I hadn’t seen that feature, to my knowledge, since I last posted pics. I think that was added with the new software, since we used to always post from other sites. This just shows how often I post pics here.


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pedro47

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Thanks for sharing your review and photos.
 

Sea Six

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I hadn’t seen that feature, to my knowledge, since I last posted pics. I think that was added with the new software, since we used to always post from other sites. This just shows how often I post pics here.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
You can upload from your device, and choose between full size or thumbnail images. I always pick the full size. When you create a post, look for the "Upload a File" button under this window.
 

Ken555

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You can upload from your device, and choose between full size or thumbnail images. I always pick the full size. When you create a post, look for the "Upload a File" button under this window.

Yeah, I saw it when posting...after it was all formatted from photobucket. When I have more time later today I’ll probably replace all the photos from photobucket, and add others that didn’t want to display.


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Sea Six

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Yeah, I saw it when posting...after it was all formatted from photobucket. When I have more time later today I’ll probably replace all the photos from photobucket, and add others that didn’t want to display.


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This site began allowing direct uploads right after Photobucket announced charging people to store photos. Bye-Bye Photobucket.
 

PamMo

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Thanks for your excellent review, Ken555! I've stayed at the resort a few times as a hotel guest, and I've been curious how the conversion over to timeshares went. Your photos are very helpful. Thanks!
 

Ken555

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This site began allowing direct uploads right after Photobucket announced charging people to store photos. Bye-Bye Photobucket.

I don’t pay anything for Photobucket.


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DannyTS

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Thanks for the review. Unfortunately it seems that on the plus side are features that are temporary by nature like the quality of the finishing, the ones that will last are mostly on the cons side (small rooms, lack of soundproofing, no view etc).The fact that they are asking for the same number of SO's for this resort is troubling to me. What is going to end up happening, the other Hawaii resorts will become even more difficult to book internally.
 

controller1

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@Ken555 thanks for the review and pics. Questions: Are there no conventional ovens? Didn't see any in the pics. Also, does the resort have gas grills?
 

Ken555

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Thanks for the review. Unfortunately it seems that on the plus side are features that are temporary by nature like the quality of the finishing, the ones that will last are mostly on the cons side (small rooms, lack of soundproofing, no view etc).The fact that they are asking for the same number of SO's for this resort is troubling to me. What is going to end up happening, the other Hawaii resorts will become even more difficult to book internally.

Yes. I agree that the number of SOs doesn’t make sense on the surface, and I meant to include that in my review. Of course they can get it without difficulty, so they will... but the resort itself doesn’t deserve it, even if it is in Hawaii. It doesn’t even have a whirlpool!


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Ken555

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@Ken555 thanks for the review and pics. Questions: Are there no conventional ovens? Didn't see any in the pics. Also, does the resort have gas grills?

No conventional ovens. Yes to gas grills...I’ve got a pic of them that didn’t post earlier and I’ll add it soon.


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Sea Six

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I don’t pay anything for Photobucket.


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You pay the price of uploading your photos to Photoshop, then downloading them here. It's a waste of time. There are better ways to back-up your files. Most ISP's offer a cloud service, or you can buy an external hard drive. Photobucket isn't the way to go anymore.
 

controller1

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No conventional ovens.

That's a big negative in my book. I thought Vistana had learned their lesson with WKORVN. Apparently not. Too bad.
 

Ken555

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You pay the price of uploading your photos to Photoshop, then downloading them here. It's a waste of time. There are better ways to back-up your files. Most ISP's offer a cloud service, or you can buy an external hard drive. Photobucket isn't the way to go anymore.

I don’t backup photos to photobucket! In fact, the only reason I have an account at all is because that was the preferred method to post pics on TUG! Lol


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Ken555

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That's a big negative in my book. I thought Vistana had learned their lesson with WKORVN. Apparently not. Too bad.

I used the BBQs almost every evening. I know many others use ovens when at resorts, but I think since I started staying at timeshares in 2005 I only used one once. Once. So for me, I’m fine without it, but I appreciate you consider it important.


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controller1

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I used the BBQs almost every evening. I know many others use ovens when at resorts, but I think since I started staying at timeshares in 2005 I only used one once. Once. So for me, I’m fine without it, but I appreciate you consider it important.


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I consider it important and a negative if one is not available but it wouldn't keep me from going to SKR. Data point: I purchased a second week at WKORVN three years after we purchased our first week. So . . .
 

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If I wanted to stay in the south I would not hesitate to book. Just remember its better than a hotel room but not the perfect timeshare.
The better question is how does it compare to the other south timeshares.
Marriot Waiohai
Point at Poipu
Lawaii Beach Villas
 

dsmrp

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Thanks Ken555 for the review and photos !
The studio kitchenette looks about the same size as the St John Coral Bay 2 bdrm we had; not very usable for cooking other than very simple stuff. The Los Cabos unit kitchen was just slightly bigger, but not a big deal, because eating out is so much more enjoyable & inexpensive in Mexico.

I would not let the unit sizes & other small deficiencies keep me from booking, as south side Kauai location is great. With star options can book half a week at the south side and another half week on the north side...far less driving than staying only on end of the island. I'm sure others will say a whole week at Waiohai or Point at Poipu is much better than SKR, and I'd probably agree although I've stayed at none of them.
 

dioxide45

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It looks like Photobucket now place a watermark over images that are embedded in external sites. They used allow embedded photos without restrictions, then they stopped allowing them altogether. At least now they allow them, but with a stupid watermark. Unless you upgrade to a paid plan.
 

PamMo

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...It doesn’t even have a whirlpool!

Ken, do you get full access to the amenities at the hotel, like in Kierland? The hotel pool and beach at the Sheraton are quite nice. I think I'd probably spend most of my time at the main resort.

To JK's question, I prefer purpose built timeshares or condos converted to timeshares over hotel conversions, and would choose Waiohai over the Sheraton if I wanted to stay on the south shore. (I own in both systems.) The grounds at Waiohai are really lush compared to the back (timeshare) side of the Sheraton, and I've had lovely garden views at Waiohai, even on Interval trades. Kauai is Kauai though, and I don't spend a lot of time in my room, so I would certainly give the Sheraton a try if that was all I could get.
 

Tucsonadventurer

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Yes. I agree that the number of SOs doesn’t make sense on the surface, and I meant to include that in my review. Of course they can get it without difficulty, so they will... but the resort itself doesn’t deserve it, even if it is in Hawaii. It doesn’t even have a whirlpool!


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Can you use the hotel whirlpool?
 
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