Kings Land 2br

[GregT]

Wow, thanks for pictures. That room is small

My husband commented that it looked like a hotel suite with a mini kitchen thrown in the corner.

I was wondering why Phase 2 didn't have an enclosed U-shaped kitchen but now I can see why. There's simply no space.

There appears to be just enough clearance between the refrigerator and sofa so you can open up the refrigerator door.

Phase 1 is also the first timeshare I've stayed in where the kitchen is merged into the living area -- without a counter island and limited counter space. It does require some adjustment -- but its an easy adjustment.

But Big Island is a great place to visit! We went to the volcano yesterday (and didn't visit any timeshares on the way) and were very lucky that there were surface lava flows that we could hike out to and be sooo close to.

It was almost four miles each way -- and the kids did so well!!!! Great great pics!!

All the best,

Greg

Edited to add: Does anyone know how many 2BR and 2BR+'s will be in Phase 2? And how they determine what's a 2BR and what's a 2BR+? Could be floor? Could be whether it faces the road or faces whatever's on the other side? I don't want to take a tour to get the answer....but curious. Thx!

 

[SmithOp]

Greg,

If you want a nice secluded beach close to KL, head south toward Kona a few miles and go into the Hualalai resort, south entrance. Ask for a guest past at the guard shack, they will direct you to the beach access. A small lagoon for swimming, good snorkeling and lots of turtles.

Aloha,
Dave

 

[fillde]

Greg and Dave

I will be at the Big Island in 2weeks if you wish to share any other tips and highlights I'm all ears. Thanks.

 

[GregT]

Greg,

If you want a nice secluded beach close to KL, head south toward Kona a few miles and go into the Hualalai resort, south entrance. Ask for a guest past at the guard shack, they will direct you to the beach access. A small lagoon for swimming, good snorkeling and lots of turtles.

Aloha,
Dave

I will be at the Big Island in 2weeks if you wish to share any other tips and highlights I'm all ears. Thanks.

Dave,

I agree with fillde and appreciate ideas. Any chance, you would be willing to post ideas on the VPE website? I started a BI thread here. Thx!

 

[GregT]

All,

I asked Steve to post a pic of the unit types in Phase 2 (thank you Steve!). But here are details :

2 buildings
49 units in each building
98 total units in Phase 2

48 1 BR units (32 1BR, 16 1BR Plus)
50 2 BR units (18 2BR, 32 2BR Plus)

All 1 BRs face the road, all 2 BRs face the golf course
75% of 1BRs are King bed, others are Double beds

Top floor on 1BR side is Plus designation
Top 2 floors on 2BR side is Plus designation
Buildings are three floors
Ground floor has a extra unit on end - a 2BR
No new pool for P2.

Thx

Greg

 

[slum808]

Greg's Pic

 

[HudsHut]

Thanks to Greg, I got to see the new model also. The common area is compact, but still looks nice. The floors are carpeted, not hardwood.

What I will miss most, that wasn't mentioned above is the lanai furniture. Kings' Land I has a beautiful, comfortable cushioned couch & chair on the lanai. There's a peek in post #2, (2nd layout) picture above.

Phase 2 has the lanai table/chairs seen in post #16, which are not as fancy.

The Kings' Land common area ambiance can't be beat. It really feels like a luxury resort.

 

[ocdb8r]

What I will miss most, that wasn't mentioned above is the lanai furniture. Kings' Land I has a beautiful, comfortable cushioned couch & chair on the lanai. There's a peek in post #2, (2nd layout) picture above.

Phase 2 has the lanai table/chairs seen in post #16, which are not as fancy.

Good catch. We absolutely loved the nice cushy lanai furniture in Phase 1 and used the space much more than we normally do because it was so comfortable to just relax and chat as a small group out there. That will be missed for sure.

We also really like the hardwood floors, but to be honest most timeshares we use regularly are carpet so I think we'll survive.

I wonder what percentage of RCI trades will end up being Phase I vs. Phase II once sales are well established? I can easily see Phase II, being much smaller and cheaper in points, filled with internal HGVC reservations with RCI trades ending up assigned to Phase I (I can hope, can't I?).

 

[ciscogizmo1]

Hi Greg,

I'm looking to rent next year on the big island and really trying to decide which complex would be better for us. Do you have pictures of the pool area that you can share?

The King's kitchen/living room/dining room looks small but it is vacation I really don't need huge kitchen just a functional kitchen. So, I think it would work for us.

Thanks,
Tina

 

[GregT]

Hi Greg,

I'm looking to rent next year on the big island and really trying to decide which complex would be better for us. Do you have pictures of the pool area that you can share?

The King's kitchen/living room/dining room looks small but it is vacation I really don't need huge kitchen just a functional kitchen. So, I think it would work for us.

Thanks,
Tina

Tina,

I'm sorry I don't have pictures of the pool area, hopefully another poster will put something here?

We felt the Phase 2 would be "cozy", bordering on tight, but I agree with your comment that because its a vacation, we can work with just a functional kitchen.

I do hope someone posts pictures of the pool for you -- if we were going back to Kings Land (and we will), we would be happy to stay in Phase 2 to save the points, but if we went to Phase 1, we would specifically want the 10,500 point rooms (even if we had points to burn) because we liked being on the first floor alot.

If we were renting for cash (and pricing was the same) we'd go with Phase 1. The extra room is nice and the furniture on the patio is terrific.

Please let us know what you do!

All the best,

Greg

 

[TheWizz]

Hi Greg,

I'm looking to rent next year on the big island and really trying to decide which complex would be better for us. Do you have pictures of the pool area that you can share?

The King's kitchen/living room/dining room looks small but it is vacation I really don't need huge kitchen just a functional kitchen. So, I think it would work for us.

Thanks,
Tina

The pool area IS really nice at KL even though the marketing material states there is a "lazy river" - trust me, there isn't. The units are pretty small (I was in Bldg. 10) and not well ventilated (one AC vent for kitchen, dining, and living rooms). Housekeeping is not that great either as the bathroom floors were dirty upon our arrival. But I digress...

Here are some pics of the KL pool area:

View of upper lagoon area taken from the walkway leading to the adult pool.

Middle section of the upper lagoon area.

Upper lagoon area closest to the adult pool.

Secluded sundeck on the back side of the adult pool, VERY quiet area.

As the sign notes, adult pool area past the lagoons.

Right side of upper lagoon area - nearest to adult pool.

Upper lagoon area.

Upper lagoon area with open slide.

Lower Lagoon area 1, which connects to another lower lagoon area
with water volleyball and basketball areas and a "dark" slide
(sorry, no pic of lower lagoon area 2).

Kid Pool / Beach Area - connects to the lower lagoon areas 1 and 2.

 

[slum808]

Those are great pictures. I had just taken KL off my wish list for a few years. Now it looks like I'll be putting it back on.

 

[TheWizz]

Those are great pictures. I had just taken KL off my wish list for a few years. Now it looks like I'll be putting it back on.

You're welcome and thanks again for the pic upload help. The website pics are misleading and since the KL website info claims to have a "lazy river", I accidentally expected it to actually have one. As you can see from the pics, some nice distinct and quite large lagoon/pool areas, but no lazy river.

 

[ciscogizmo1]

Thank you, The Whizz... Love the pictures.

So, my friend is staying at the Marriott nearby right now and she said that she doesn't like how far these resorts are from Kona. She says that it is a 25 minute drive each way. Did you find the resort remote?

I thought there was some shopping near by and dining.

Thanks again for your pictures...

 

[TheWizz]

Thank you, The Whizz... Love the pictures.

So, my friend is staying at the Marriott nearby right now and she said that she doesn't like how far these resorts are from Kona. She says that it is a 25 minute drive each way. Did you find the resort remote?

I thought there was some shopping near by and dining.

Thanks again for your pictures...

You are welcome. It is about 25 min. from "civilization" and the Kona area for city amenities. But it didn't bother us. We took one day to skirt around Mauna Kea and over to Hilo and then around to the (active) Volcano Park and then around the southern side of the island back to Waikoloa. Took around 12 hours with all the stops. If you like wine, there is a great little winery on the way back to stop at and sample their vino, appropriately named Volcano Winery.

At Waikoloa there are the Queen's and Kings Shopping areas which has an ABC like store, several high-end shops and a few places to eat like Macaroni Grill and our favorite in HI: Roy's. There is also a Starbucks, and a food court. For groceries, the closest place is a Foodland or Foodtown in the Mauna Lani development about 5 min. north of Waikoloa.

In Kona there is a stretch of road along the coast that is similar (to me) to the main road in Lahaina on Maui. On this road there are several more restaurants (like Bubba Gumps) and MANY gift and clothing shops. This is where we got our Big Island T-Shirts, gifts, etc. Hope that helps.

 

[GregT]

TheWizz,

Those are great pictures, thank you very much for posting these. They bring back happy memories of our trip there a couple months ago!

It is worth reiterating the Lazy River comment -- there is no lazy river. If you look at Wizz's first picture, you see on the right hand side a little "island". The river is the water that circles that island -- but there is no flow to push you. It's just water around a pool island.

I understand the comment about the distance from Waikoloa to Kona, but we didn't see any major attraction to Kona. We much preferred being so "close" to Hapuna Beach and the access roads to the east side of the island, even though it was still quite a drive.

Thanks again for the pictures!

Best,

Greg

 

[ocdb8r]

Have we figured out what's up with RCI trades? Curious if there is going to be any way for us to tell which phase we'll be put into.

 

[MikeinSoCal]

I thought there was some shopping near by and dining.

Also check out:

Waikoloa Village Market
68-3916 Paniolo Ave
Waikoloa, HI 96738

 

[eal]

Ha ha! It sounds like a very "lazy" river indeed!

 

[alwysonvac]

Bad PR

wow... Can you image how many complaints they receive from guests who select this resort because of the advertised lazy river.

It's on the Hilton website - http://www3.hilton.com/en/hotels/hawaii/kings-land-by-hilton-grand-vacations-club-KOAKLGV/index.html
The caption for the pool photo states "The 19,200 sq. ft. Super Pool is designed with dedicated areas for children and adults, complete with a winding lazy river, two 90-foot water slides, two children’s water slides and a poolside sandy “beach” for kids."

It's on the Club Intrawest site - http://www.clubintrawest.com/destinations/hgvc-kingsland/
It states under Features and Amenities "Super pool complex with slides, hot tubs & lazy river"

It's also stated in the 2012 Club Member Guide - http://multimedia.hiltongrandvacations.com/mg/Book_Reader.cfm?BookId=19
It states under Property Features "20,000-square-foot super pool featuring 4 slides, lazy river, whirlpool spas, serenity section, children's beach and water activity play area"

 

[Sandy VDH]

To be honest it is winding like a river, as most of the pools are connected. It just have no current that propels you around that you would EXPECT with a 'lazy river'.

 

[ciscogizmo1]

Thanks for the information about remoteness. It all sounds fine to me. I love Roy's and swimming at beaches and watching sunsets or sunrises. I'm not much of shopper so this place sounds good. Hope I get a chance to stay there next year.

 

[HudsHut]

When we arrived in June 2011, my son and I walked around the entire pool complex trying to find the lazy river. Finally we asked an employee. He looked puzzled and then explained that the narrow part of the pool right under the high lava rock/waterfall, where the lifeguard sits manning the waterslides, is called the "lazy river pool".

We loved the resort ambiance and the superpool; it's unfortunate that they used the term "lazy river" for that section of pool, as it does imply a pool with current on which guests can float along on inner tubes.

 

[TheWizz]

Indeed... not only is there no current or real lazy river, the pool rules forbids any type of floating device except for necessity, e.g. ones used by small children.

 

[HatTrick]

I started a BI thread here.

Hey Greg,

Regarding this statement on that BI thread:

11) None of the HGVC properties are located on the beach -- and none (that I am aware of) can even see the ocean.

Just wanted to show you a view from the third floor of the Kohala Suites. Ocean! :whoopie: