Maui:
Background:
I had loved reading Dan’s TRs on Hawaii, and it was obvious we wanted to get out there at some point-we didn’t know exactly when and we figured we would just wait until we were already on the West Coast as the travel would be easier. I wanted to go at some point in December / January but being as my work schedule is extremely volatile I had no clue when.
I decided on Maui simply based on the fact that we had direct flights available there- Kauai also seems beautiful and we want to get there at some point, but that’ll be for another trip. Of course going to Maui we wanted to stay at the Andaz (especially given the night before we were successfully matched to Hyatt Diamond) so I called up- they spoke with the hotel as there was no availability for the 4 nights we wanted to get out there, but they could open it up for Wednesday night - Sunday. This was Monday night. Wife and I talked about it Tuesday AM, decided to go, and started preparing.
Prep:
Flights -
SEA- OGG: We had an Alaska Air companion pass and based on the fact that for a little over $350 for both of us direct it and with points we’d have to stop over in LAX (which my wife really didn’t want to have to stop, considering transferring planes with two infants isn’t a walk in the park) we opted to pay for the way there.
OGG- SFO-IAH - On the way back I had to swing through Houston for work, so we booked United 22.5K for each of us. The flight wasn’t available at saver level, but of course from reading around these parts I knew to look for each leg individually - which of course were both available at saver, so I called United and after a little wrangling they were able to piece it together.
Hotel -
Already spoke about how we wanted to stay at the Andaz - but honestly I wasn’t super impressed and given the option again I would opt for a more convenient time and stayed at a different Hyatt property. Free breakfast was a huge plus (and paid nicely as I’ll explain later) with our new Diamond status.
Car -
Booked through Costco - was the cheapest (or close by a few bucks) and they threw in a $20 Costco cash card. Total came to ~ $120 for a full size. I really wanted a convertible but it wasn’t an option with the bags and two car seats - maybe we could have rented one just for RTH but it seemed more work then I had the energy for. Its worth noting the Andaz has an Enterprise built into the hotel- so you could always rent just from there (or get a different car just for RTH), but I didn’t price it out.
Food -
You can purchase a ton of Kosher food on the Island - but we also didn’t want to have to run around different stores shopping for food given we were only there for 5 days - so we cooked some simple meals at home in small aluminum tins, froze them, and stuck a 4 lb block of dry ice on top - definitely overkill but our meals were nice and frozen solid by the time we got there. I ordered a flexible cooler from Prime Now but I guess I didn’t read carefully enough and it was measured in cm (I thought I was back in the States!). Anyway it wasn’t big enough to fit one pan in much less 6, but the flexible freezer bag our frozen food ordered from Prime Now worked perfectly with another soft freezer bag from the grocery store stored inside - and our cheese and refrigerator items we stuck outside the inner bag of our makeshift freezer and were the perfect temp when we got to the hotel.
Plans -
Following Dan’s advice (once again) we picked up a copy of Maui Revealed. Our local library didn’t have it and there wasn’t enough time for prime shipping- and it wasn’t available on Prime Now! Luckily Seattle happens to ALSO have a B&M Amazon bookstore, and sure enough they had it. I had them hold it for me-swung by and grabbed it. Ironically enough we actually ended up leaving the book on the Alaska Air flight to Maui - one of their seat back pockets is hidden behind the tray table and we forgot to check their. Luckily, we also purchased the app (an absolute necessity considering on RTH you’ll have no service for a good portion of the trip. The book is pretty much also on the app-so we got our reading done on the iPad as well - so if you had to pick one I would get the app (although if you were planning properly the book would be more casual to read through).
Flight to Maui:
Alaska has family boarding, but unfortunately because we were so thrilled to be finally using TSA precheck as a family (wife and kids got it the week before when the only spot for three months opened up at our center) we weren’t able to break down the stroller and get moving in time. Still we boarded and Alaska had blocked off the middle seat between my wife and I because of the lap infants (we have two) which was very lucky.
**Brief diatribe about two lap infants - 1) With only 1 accessory oxygen mask you can only have 4 people seated in a three person economy row - meaning 1 lap infant for one row (on each side of the aisle). 2) If you have the middle seat open between two adults you can each have a lap infant because you’ll have 4 passengers for the 4 masks- the middle seat next to a lap infant isn’t exactly desirable, so if there’s an empty seat on the plane you basically have a good shot at having the row to yourselves. Obviously four seats with car seats is great, but it’s expensive (even in terms of miles - and we’re not exactly rolling in them). Getting your own row is great, and if there are 4 seats or more open and you can snag a full row (on Southwest for example) then its really nice, especially if they let you bring on both car seats. We have two Maxi Cosi infant car seats that we use with with the City Select, which allows us to easily get between the gates, gate check the stroller, and then bring the car seats on or gate check them.
Anyway we had a row (3 seats) so we gate checked one car seat (slight mistake -should have kept it for the other kid to sleep in on the floor), had one lap infant and one kid in the seat. Flight was fine, they served a nice tropical fruit drink because it was on the way to Hawaii. Although there was Wifi there was no internet once we left the continental US. Even the regular economy seats had a surprising amount of legroom - I’m 5’10 and I didn’t feel cramped. We let the kids play around in the legroom area, they slept, and before we knew it we were landing in Maui. We took off at 8:50 AM and got there around 1 PM (I much preferred this to the other direct flight option of getting in at 10+ PM - you’re essentially just paying for a nice hotel to sleep in - I want to get the most time in the hotel possible - so we had requested early check-in on our reservation even if I wasn’t sure we would get there before 3.
Maui Arrival:
The Maui airport is crazy outdated- the walkways are outside which is nice, but you’ll be walking a while until you find a bathroom, and the whole airport feels very 1970s. We got our luggage and situated the Mrs, next to the Starbucks before I hopped on a rental car shuttle. After a few minutes we were there - I was renting with Budget because that’s who Costco paired me with - it’s was a far cry from Hertz #1 Gold in the garage, but it was also half the price of Hertz so there you have it. Checking in they offered me a Camaro at an extra $30/ day, and a Jeep for an extra 10/day (which I almost took), but ended up as per the Mrs. sticking with the full size. They also offered me a Minivan but I didn’t need it, and I’m pretty sure at this point all the offers were because they were having trouble finding a full-size car. Eventually they got me in a white Nissan Altima, and I was on my way. I picked up the wife and kids and it was off to the Andaz.
In retrospect we should have just probably stopped at Target then because it was a bother the next day knowing we had to go out there to get some food staples - you don’t want a to-do list on vacation if you don’t need one. But we were exhausted and just wanted to get the kids to the hotel.
When we got to the Andaz we were greeted by some nice guys at the front of the hotel who took the keys and promised they would take our luggage up to the room for us. We walked down the beautiful walkway of the Andaz and faced a lovely view of the property, pools, ocean, and sun. They sat us down, came over with an iPad to check us in and offered us cool towels to refresh ourselves (no cool drinks offered to us - I wouldn’t care if we didn’t see everyone else getting them for the rest of our stay - these are some of the little things that built up to me really disliking the service at the Andaz, especially compared to the Conrad KS and the Hyatt MLE, but more on that later. After being checked into our room, we were upgraded as diamonds to the 6th floor (one above the lobby floor which is the 5th), and asked about being upgraded to a suite- can’t blame them but they almost laughed at us - nothing doing so we went to check out our room. We were put in the main tower, on the side facing the side pool and the mountain. Facing the main area of the hotel might have been nice, and we couldn’t see the sunset from our room, but having more quiet and privacy was better for us, and the view was spectacular. We were happy to have any decent view and not a garden view either way.
The two cribs and two high chairs that we had requested the day before were there and ready along with some little bottles of Johnson & Johnson, baby blankets, and some rubber duckies for the bath (we were lucky we got a room with a bathtub- not all rooms have them so be aware if you want one). After settling in we went down to the front lawn by the beach crew and watched the sun go down - it was great start to our vacation.
We went back to the room, relaxed, fed the kids dinner on the balcony with the backdrop of the ocean and the mountain. I grabbed the car at 7:45 to switch over to the park parking lot (to avoid the $30 parking fee), parked, and walked back the 5m to the hotel. We talked a little about our plans for the next day - the Road to Hana, and went to sleep excited to get up and get going early the next morning.
