- Joined
- Jun 20, 2007
- Messages
- 1,661
- Reaction score
- 185
- Points
- 424
- Location
- Apex, NC (The Peak of Good Living)
- Resorts Owned
-
MFV (P) 2002
MSU (G) 2006
MOW (P) 2018
Enrolled in DP +++
My wife, daughter, and I just returned from our 2 week vacation to Hawaii. We had an amazing trip overall. It was our first time to HI for our 20th anniversary. We had previously said, we'll probably go there once and be done. I am pretty sure we are going back, just not real soon. The views/scenery was absolutely beautiful!
We stayed at Ko Olina in a 2BR for 8 nights, then went to Maui Ocean Club for 6 nights in a 1BR in the older towers, we were in the Molokai wing on the 6th floor. We had a really nice view. We normally stay in 2BR all the time, so our daughter can have her own space, but I could never get a 2BR option at MOC. While the unit was a bit different for us, that wasn't really the thing that didn't impress us.
When we checked in, we handed off our Marriott bands, like we do at every other resort. We had used them at Ko Olina the whole time, so didn't think anything of it, and the front desk attendant didn't suggest that they may not work. We luckily always also get one physical card to access the unit. None of our bands worked. We went back to the front desk, spoke to a different person, and were told that the bands usually don't work unless you bought it at MOC. She then said that it is usually obvious if they are not going to work, based on the response from the machine that programs them. She tried ours again and said, "oh, these seem to work fine, based on this response, so you should be good to go. I'm not sure what happened when they first tried." So, we went about our day, went to the pools, etc and then back to the unit. Bands didn't work. OK, not such a big deal, we just had to go get more cards.
All of the things that annoyed us seem to stem from the cards/room keys, for the most part. Here are a few others.
If you want to get pool towels, or a pool band, you need to bring a room key to the towel hut. Sometimes the towel hut attendant would give us a new band for that day and sometimes they would say the band we already had from the previous day was the same as today. Just to be kicked out of line at the slide for not having the correct color band. Same thing at the Beachwalk food location. Sometimes they made you scan your room key and other times they did not, just to order food. At the bar, same thing. It seemed to depend on which person was waiting on you. But, the times I was in the pool, wanted to jump out and grab a drink, I couldn't do so without having to go back to our chair area to grab a room key.
At the lobby shop, they also required you to scan your room key to purchase anything. Us, not being used to that, again had a few times where we wanted to grab a quick ice cream treat or something else while walking by, but didn't have the room key on us. There was one time, I was just grabbing a coke, so I asked the cashier if there was any way I could buy the coke without my room key. She acted like I had just slapped her across the face and said, "its only a few bucks, so if its a scam, we won't lose too much". Really!? She then made me fill out the room charge form, like usual, but then looked up my name and room number on a different computer, first telling me the info didn't match, then correcting herself. Only then did she hand over the coke. Why the multiple systems? I have never seen this at all the other MVC locations we have stayed at.
Another thing that was annoying was the different responses to the same questions of the staff. One day, the bar would apply the owners discount to our bill. The next, they would say the discount does not apply to alcohol. Same thing at the special dinner events, they wouldn't apply our discount one night, but would a different night. And, same thing at the lobby shop, where it was applied once, but not applied other times. One woman said, the discount can only be applied to Marriott branded merchandise. I asked her to point out the Marriott branded merchandise and she said they don't have any. Um, OK.
We also did not like that there is no place to go into the ocean, at an oceanfront location. Sure, we could have climbed down the 10ft sand cliff and gone into the ocean like a few people did. They were getting battered off coral though. One day we drove down to Kapalua beach. It was beautiful, but only stayed for about 1 hour. We rented snorkel gear, but the coral was so much it was not too fun. Many people were only going out for 10-15 minutes the day we were there. There was more sand to walk in on the left side entrance to the water. When we returned the snorkel gear, the guy said, today is not a good day for snorkel, not very clear today.
I know this is a big complaint post. Oddly, I'm not really trying to do that. Again, we had an amazing trip to HI and would love to go back. The 6 hour difference is killing me right now, back on east coast. These things just annoyed us, and it went on over and over, especially the different treatment of different requests/uses. I've read so many raving reviews of MOC, and we were expecting the serenity we are used to, for the trip and from a MVC perspective. We didn't get that on the MVC side.
Oh, and if you are a MOC fan and enjoy it, don't expect the vendors that sit in the 3rd party shops to be there much longer. We did business with one shop who told us he is likely moving to a different resort or location soon because Marriott just told him they are tripling the rent for all tenants to make as much money as possible.
We stayed at Ko Olina in a 2BR for 8 nights, then went to Maui Ocean Club for 6 nights in a 1BR in the older towers, we were in the Molokai wing on the 6th floor. We had a really nice view. We normally stay in 2BR all the time, so our daughter can have her own space, but I could never get a 2BR option at MOC. While the unit was a bit different for us, that wasn't really the thing that didn't impress us.
When we checked in, we handed off our Marriott bands, like we do at every other resort. We had used them at Ko Olina the whole time, so didn't think anything of it, and the front desk attendant didn't suggest that they may not work. We luckily always also get one physical card to access the unit. None of our bands worked. We went back to the front desk, spoke to a different person, and were told that the bands usually don't work unless you bought it at MOC. She then said that it is usually obvious if they are not going to work, based on the response from the machine that programs them. She tried ours again and said, "oh, these seem to work fine, based on this response, so you should be good to go. I'm not sure what happened when they first tried." So, we went about our day, went to the pools, etc and then back to the unit. Bands didn't work. OK, not such a big deal, we just had to go get more cards.
All of the things that annoyed us seem to stem from the cards/room keys, for the most part. Here are a few others.
If you want to get pool towels, or a pool band, you need to bring a room key to the towel hut. Sometimes the towel hut attendant would give us a new band for that day and sometimes they would say the band we already had from the previous day was the same as today. Just to be kicked out of line at the slide for not having the correct color band. Same thing at the Beachwalk food location. Sometimes they made you scan your room key and other times they did not, just to order food. At the bar, same thing. It seemed to depend on which person was waiting on you. But, the times I was in the pool, wanted to jump out and grab a drink, I couldn't do so without having to go back to our chair area to grab a room key.
At the lobby shop, they also required you to scan your room key to purchase anything. Us, not being used to that, again had a few times where we wanted to grab a quick ice cream treat or something else while walking by, but didn't have the room key on us. There was one time, I was just grabbing a coke, so I asked the cashier if there was any way I could buy the coke without my room key. She acted like I had just slapped her across the face and said, "its only a few bucks, so if its a scam, we won't lose too much". Really!? She then made me fill out the room charge form, like usual, but then looked up my name and room number on a different computer, first telling me the info didn't match, then correcting herself. Only then did she hand over the coke. Why the multiple systems? I have never seen this at all the other MVC locations we have stayed at.
Another thing that was annoying was the different responses to the same questions of the staff. One day, the bar would apply the owners discount to our bill. The next, they would say the discount does not apply to alcohol. Same thing at the special dinner events, they wouldn't apply our discount one night, but would a different night. And, same thing at the lobby shop, where it was applied once, but not applied other times. One woman said, the discount can only be applied to Marriott branded merchandise. I asked her to point out the Marriott branded merchandise and she said they don't have any. Um, OK.
We also did not like that there is no place to go into the ocean, at an oceanfront location. Sure, we could have climbed down the 10ft sand cliff and gone into the ocean like a few people did. They were getting battered off coral though. One day we drove down to Kapalua beach. It was beautiful, but only stayed for about 1 hour. We rented snorkel gear, but the coral was so much it was not too fun. Many people were only going out for 10-15 minutes the day we were there. There was more sand to walk in on the left side entrance to the water. When we returned the snorkel gear, the guy said, today is not a good day for snorkel, not very clear today.
I know this is a big complaint post. Oddly, I'm not really trying to do that. Again, we had an amazing trip to HI and would love to go back. The 6 hour difference is killing me right now, back on east coast. These things just annoyed us, and it went on over and over, especially the different treatment of different requests/uses. I've read so many raving reviews of MOC, and we were expecting the serenity we are used to, for the trip and from a MVC perspective. We didn't get that on the MVC side.
Oh, and if you are a MOC fan and enjoy it, don't expect the vendors that sit in the 3rd party shops to be there much longer. We did business with one shop who told us he is likely moving to a different resort or location soon because Marriott just told him they are tripling the rent for all tenants to make as much money as possible.