How busy is it at Westin Kaanapali?

[MommaBear]

DH and I are headed to Kaanapali North at the end of April. I'm looking for advice on crowding and lounge availability at the pools. We are thinking of buying beach chairs and an umbrella at Costco so we have seating options.

 

[wilma]

We were at Westin nanea for 2 weeks leaving March 26. There were rarely any chairs with shade available near the pool. The pool was so crowded we never used it and instead set up on the beach with our chairs & umbrella.

 

[teddyo333]

We are staying at WKORVN now. It is crowded but not too crazy. There are no lounge chairs available after 7AM but there is some availability after 5pm. We usually visit different parts of the island throughout the day and return late afternoon so it doesn't bother us. I will say that checking in was really crazy and expect to wait for your villa to be ready. We waited an hour after standard check-in time (5pm). They added a $50 credit to the room for the wait.

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[daviator]

We were at WKORV earlier in March, the resort was about 85% full and they said it would be 100% by April 1. They have removed a lot of the lounge chairs around the pool to allow better distancing for Covid, so I definitely recommend picking up your own chairs if you can. Especially at KORN, there's plenty of lawn area adjacent to the pool deck where you can set up chairs, and there were often areas on the pool deck where you could have put your own chairs without getting too close to others.

We found that it was very challenging (even more so than usual) to get lounge chairs, we gave up a couple of times and were successful on three days, by looking for someone who was leaving, or by finding a couple of single chairs and moving them to be together. If you have a larger group it will be tough, because people come down at 6 am and reserve them all, often leaving them all day without even using them. A couple of times we saw them removing items from chair hogs, but other days there was no enforcement.

It's always been a problem, it's just worse than usual now. I think you'll be happy if you pick up some chairs to use while you are there.

 

[EnglishmanAbroad]

We are there now. As mentioned, no pool chairs available (unless you are a towel) after 7am. Also they are being quite restrictive about the movement of pool chairs e.g. onto the grass, saw one guest and an employee almost come to blows over it. Beach is very crowded in front of the resorts, most crowded I've seen it in 15+ years. Better to walk about 400 yds S towards Black Rock where there is much more room.

Book before coming if you intend to do activities and are only coming for a week as it's unlikely you'll get the popular ones in a 7 day window. Concierge told me this morning all Luau's are booked up through April.

Long lines/waits to get into restaurants and if you can have your airline pre-check your covid status before you take off I'd recommend that. Hawaiian were doing it when we left Seattle and it saved us a 3-4 hour line when arriving in Maui.

One last thing. Rental cars are very expensive/hard to come by. $1200/week for a compact is not out of the ordinary.

 

[tborr123]

Why is it so full through April? I have a week at the end of the month and did not expect it would be that busy. I looked for a car on Costco’s travel website and none are available-never had that happen before.

 

[robertk2012]

They sold all of the cars

 

[Negma]

Why is it so full through April? I have a week at the end of the month and did not expect it would be that busy. I looked for a car on Costco’s travel website and none are available-never had that happen before.

Easter vacations and spring breaks

 

[ccwu]

We are in WKORVS since 3/28. The resort is 94% full per sales person. Now is spring break and Easter break. There are lots of young children. Pools and beach are all filled with kids. We are in building 3 by the front. We can see the pool and ocean. When we look out around 8 am. There is no available lounge chair (per local mayor’s order the lounge chairs are 50% of normal.) we saw lots of people just sitting on towels on the lawn. We did not check the holiday. But it is very crowded here.

We bought Tommy Bahama umbrella ($24.99) from Costco. The Tommy Bahama chair is $39.99. We also bought a beach mat when we were home from Costco. You can bring beach umbrella as carry on (we bought in Honolulu and brought to Maui. The chair is bought here. In the old time, you can check with security yo see if there is any chairs, floater, or umbrella left by owners for anyone who wants to use it. But due to Covid, they thru away all. No more leftover by owner. We are thinking to leave our beach chair, if anyone is coming and wants it we are leaving 4/6. I also searched on line that you may ship your chairs, but you need a chair bag. I saw Amazon has bag that may fit two chairs. But if you have to pay $50 for shipping, it is not worth it. The resort rent the beach chair for $15 a day and $45 for 4 days. If you can use it for 4 days, it worth to buy from Costco.


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[DinaM]

We are here at the South property right now. It is crowded- lots of kids. I haven't even tried to get a pool chair- they are all taken. They seem to open up a bit after 4-5 pm. We rented Tommy Bahama beach chairs from Boss Frogs for $20 each for the week. We haven’t come during spring break before, but it seems busier than when we come during the summer. Or maybe I’m more aware of people around me- I’m not sure.

 

[daviator]

We are here at the South property right now. It is crowded- lots of kids. I haven't even tried to get a pool chair- they are all taken. They seem to open up a bit after 4-5 pm. We rented Tommy Bahama beach chairs from Boss Frogs for $20 each for the week. We haven’t come during spring break before, but it seems busier than when we come during the summer. Or maybe I’m more aware of people around me- I’m not sure.

I didn't know that you could rent chairs from Boss Frogs, that's a great tip for the future. (I wonder if they collect all the chairs that people buy at Costco and then leave behind, and then they rent them out. I kind of hope so, actually, it's terrible to think of them all just getting thrown out!) Thanks for the tip.

 

[DinaM]

I didn't know that you could rent chairs from Boss Frogs, that's a great tip for the future. (I wonder if they collect all the chairs that people buy at Costco and then leave behind, and then they rent them out. I kind of hope so, actually, it's terrible to think of them all just getting thrown out!) Thanks for the tip.

I agree! They seem to be the same chairs, so who knows.

 

[jnsywg]

In December 2109 we bought some used chairs from the Goodwill not far from the airport. They were in great shape and at the end we left them for others at KOR.

I agree! They seem to be the same chairs, so who knows.

 

[WahooWah]

There are no cars available because the rental agencies sold off a lot of them during lockdown. Last summer there were cars packed all over the fields by the airport. You could see fleets of them from the Hana highway.

There is an incredible amount of pent-up travel demand, especially for timeshare properties. There was a lot of vacancy at timeshares in January and February. A lot of owners who typically come in winter are now coming whenever they can get a reservation.

A lot of non-US destinations are shut down for American tourists. This creates more demand for Hawaii that offsets the people who are too scared to travel by plane who would otherwise come to Hawaii. With vaccines and people tired of sitting at home, tons of demand to come to Hawaii.

Restaurants, boats and activities are still forced by the Maui Mayor (Victorino) to run at less than full capacity. Restaurants and bars are restricted to 30% unless they have outdoor seating. If you plan on coming you should pre-reserve your dinners and your activities. PM me if you want to reserve boat trips. I know some companies that are great and who still might have capacity (I am not an activities broker, I offer this advice free of charge). I know that Mama's Fish House and Sensei's, just to name a few restaurants, are booked for at least four weeks in advance. If you don't have a reservation, dinner options become very limited. I've seen too many people (tourists and servers alike) getting really frustrated out there, not to mention myself as a resident when I want to go out to dinner.

No announcements indicating the end of these restrictions have been made to my knowledge.

 

[MommaBear]

Thanks for all the help. Here's hoping Costco still has chairs by the end of April, off to make dinner reservations.

 

[tborr123]

I agree! They seem to be the same chairs, so who knows.

rented from Boss Frog last Christmas week. Similar chair but not the same.

 

[RC51Tofuman]

We are set to go to Maui in November
Hopefully things improve

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[EnglishmanAbroad]

There are a couple of houses along Front Street (between the back of Safeway/Longs and Lahaina town) that look like they do used equipment sales/rentals from their garages, one does chairs etc. and the other bikes.

 

[tborr123]

What are the alternatives to rental cars to get to and from WKORV from the airport midday? I just can't see paying $175 a day for a rental car. Is Uber in Maui? Shuttle bus?

 

[MommaBear]

What are the alternatives to rental cars to get to and from WKORV from the airport midday? I just can't see paying $175 a day for a rental car. Is Uber in Maui? Shuttle bus?

We've done Speedi Shuttle

 

[meme020]

We like to stock up at Costco after arriving in Maui. I don't see a way to get around renting a car to go from the airport, to Costco, and then to Kaanapali.

 

[vacationtime1]

We like to stock up at Costco after arriving in Maui. I don't see a way to get around renting a car to go from the airport, to Costco, and then to Kaanapali.

Exactly.

 

[Renegade]

We are set to go to Maui in November
Hopefully things improve

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Ditto!

 

[Negma]

You can rent one way cars since there are several rental offices across the street from the villas. This can be cheaper depending on how much you use your car and how long you will there. $200 OGG to hotel for 24 hours. We do Costco and food shopping on arrival day. Shuttles are a cheaper way to go. We find that if we are there two weeks (spoiled), the car sits for half the time. we have also taken a shuttle, then rented a car for $100 at one of these satellite locations for 24hr, we will go out to dinner and stock up on groceries. It becomes math vs. budget vs convenience.

 

[EnglishmanAbroad]

One way we have done it in the past is just to rent a car on the first and last day. On arrival, pick up the car, do the Costco shop, haul everyone and everything to the resort. The following morning I return the car to the airport and then meander my way back to the resort using Maui Buses ($4 for a day pass) while everyone else suns themselves. I then repeat this to pick up a car the next to last afternoon to get everyone back to the airport the next day. If you are light travelers (just carry on size bags) and can forego Costco you can skip rental cars altogether and just do Maui Bus if you don't mind a slower pace of life and public transport (I realize some will be wary with the current COVID situation).

We did do a rental car for the trip we just retuned from. I made the reservation back in January (~$600 for 11 days) with a view to cancelling and getting a cheaper option closer to the time of the visit. Imagine my shock when I checked in the middle of March and found the cheapest available was over $1000. If you are using Budget then be prepared to add an hour to your airport delay as they seem to be adhering to their name by cutting staff/making customers wait an inordinate amount of time. The guy in front of me in line had already endured 3h in the airport COVID check line and then had another 1h in the Budget line. Landed at 11am and finally got his rental at 3pm.