- Joined
- Nov 20, 2008
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- Resorts Owned
- Four Seasons Residence Club
This was the second week of a two week trip my husband and I took to an island we have been to many times but never to this resort.
The Resort: The resort is quite lovely and consists of a hotel section on the beach side and a timeshare section across a small road. Main lobby and check in are on the timeshare side. The staff are wonderful. Each side has a fitness center and the TS side has a large business center. The beach and pool area are beautiful and there is a large, causual, open air restaurant/bar there that is open 7am-9pm. Almost every day there is live music there during lunch time that lasts for several hours. Prices are reasonable and the service is very good. There is also a fine dining restaurant Rum Fire that is open only Th-F-Sa evenings. It is also right on the coast and is a lovely large room with lots of windows but it is not open air (?!?). It is completely enclosed and was freezing when I popped in to take a look. They have a menu online with no prices (we did not eat there).
Our unit loction: We were given 5102 which was a ground floor unit looking at a pretty garden area and lots of greenery and was quiet. Very close to the large self-park area. Overall we liked the location a lot except for the caveat below about the sliding lanai doors.
The unit: was really disappointing and SMALL – 438 sq ft. I thought they had brought us to a studio by mistake. (By contrast the Westin Princeville where we spent our first week is 1 ft short of 800 sq ft.) The unit is designed like a studio; one rectangular room with everything in it except the bed room which is off to one side (which does have a door), but it feels like a studio. There is almost no storage anywhere in this unit. (The under bed space is unusable for suitcases or anything else.) The bedroom has a very small wardrobe with 2 small drawers and a ½ hanging area (picture below and the white linens hanging there are not ours). In order to even have that, that side of the bed has no bedside table but just small table attached to the wardrobe. The kitchen cabinets are crammed with kitchen supplies so what little counter area there is is quickly filled with food, coffee maker, paper towels etc. There is a small sink but no dining room or table, and the bit of counter space is completely unappealing for eating a meal. No space really to fix anything but very simple meals which we ate sitting on the couch.
The bathroom is also part of the rectangular studio like configuration. These pictures help: Marriott Find & Reserve - Choose Dates, Rooms & Rates but they do not show the bathroom. The double sinks have no door and are behind the refrigerator and essentially open to the kitchen and living room. The very small shower/toilet room is behind the sinks and thankfully has a door. It is a very odd arrangement; I’ve never seen any bath area with so little privacy.
The truly annoying feature of these units is no screen door for the lanais. The choice is to sit glassed in with A/C or open the doors to the lanai and have flies around all week, which we did. And in our case, on the ground level, the occasional bird (one actually flew in) and roosters which we managed to fend off. But the flies were a given.
The Poipu area is back to life, no one is maksing and restaurants are booked ahead. Some of the shops are still having staffing issues. Koloa fish market is closed Sunday and Thursday (staffing) and the Dolphin fish market is only open Wed-Fri (same issue) but most everything else is running well.
The Resort: The resort is quite lovely and consists of a hotel section on the beach side and a timeshare section across a small road. Main lobby and check in are on the timeshare side. The staff are wonderful. Each side has a fitness center and the TS side has a large business center. The beach and pool area are beautiful and there is a large, causual, open air restaurant/bar there that is open 7am-9pm. Almost every day there is live music there during lunch time that lasts for several hours. Prices are reasonable and the service is very good. There is also a fine dining restaurant Rum Fire that is open only Th-F-Sa evenings. It is also right on the coast and is a lovely large room with lots of windows but it is not open air (?!?). It is completely enclosed and was freezing when I popped in to take a look. They have a menu online with no prices (we did not eat there).
Our unit loction: We were given 5102 which was a ground floor unit looking at a pretty garden area and lots of greenery and was quiet. Very close to the large self-park area. Overall we liked the location a lot except for the caveat below about the sliding lanai doors.
The unit: was really disappointing and SMALL – 438 sq ft. I thought they had brought us to a studio by mistake. (By contrast the Westin Princeville where we spent our first week is 1 ft short of 800 sq ft.) The unit is designed like a studio; one rectangular room with everything in it except the bed room which is off to one side (which does have a door), but it feels like a studio. There is almost no storage anywhere in this unit. (The under bed space is unusable for suitcases or anything else.) The bedroom has a very small wardrobe with 2 small drawers and a ½ hanging area (picture below and the white linens hanging there are not ours). In order to even have that, that side of the bed has no bedside table but just small table attached to the wardrobe. The kitchen cabinets are crammed with kitchen supplies so what little counter area there is is quickly filled with food, coffee maker, paper towels etc. There is a small sink but no dining room or table, and the bit of counter space is completely unappealing for eating a meal. No space really to fix anything but very simple meals which we ate sitting on the couch.
The bathroom is also part of the rectangular studio like configuration. These pictures help: Marriott Find & Reserve - Choose Dates, Rooms & Rates but they do not show the bathroom. The double sinks have no door and are behind the refrigerator and essentially open to the kitchen and living room. The very small shower/toilet room is behind the sinks and thankfully has a door. It is a very odd arrangement; I’ve never seen any bath area with so little privacy.
The truly annoying feature of these units is no screen door for the lanais. The choice is to sit glassed in with A/C or open the doors to the lanai and have flies around all week, which we did. And in our case, on the ground level, the occasional bird (one actually flew in) and roosters which we managed to fend off. But the flies were a given.
The Poipu area is back to life, no one is maksing and restaurants are booked ahead. Some of the shops are still having staffing issues. Koloa fish market is closed Sunday and Thursday (staffing) and the Dolphin fish market is only open Wed-Fri (same issue) but most everything else is running well.
