And on to the Grand Wailea.

We had a beautiful six days at the Fairmont. I will intersperse the rest of this blog with posts about that. But you came here because you are considering and trying to decide between a few Maui hotels. So I will get on with it!

It took us way too long to pack up out Fairmont room. We slept in that day and had a relaxing morning. Check out is not until noon. 

Once we got our bags packed and said a sad goodbye to the room (my daughter actually cried- she's a little emotional!) we went to get our car, which valet had stocked with two bottles of water. 

I knew that check in at the Grand Wailea was not until 3:00. It was 12:30. We left the Kea Lani and arrived at the Grand Wailea exactly one minute later (ha!). We pulled over and I went in to see about checking in early. 

Grand Wailea beach. 

I had booked this room through a Preferred Partner website called WhatAHotel. This was one of the best deals I had found- the room rate was the same as the Grand Wailea's own site, but WhatAHotel offered an upgrade (based on availability), a $25 resort credit and breakfast for two daily. 

The reservation at the Grand Wailea was for two nights. We really wanted to check out the pools. Our daughter had seen the Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston movie Just Go With It, which features the hotel. As I mentioned way back in the beginning, I love hotels, so there was no way I was going to Maui and seeing only one hotel.

The lobby of the GW is also very big, but very different from the Kea Lani. There is no sweeping view, no open air facing the ocean. Parts of the lobby are open to the sky, but I immediately noticed the lack of a view. 

I expected that we would not be permitted to check in early, but I tried to be extra charming and nice and see if I could check in just a little bit early. We planned to go for lunch at the hotel, then were hoping that a room would be ready at around 2:00 ish. We had tickets for the Grand Luau on the property for that night, and I expressed our desire to have a few minutes to change/lay down before rushing to the luau at 4:00. The front desk clerk was ice. No smile, no interest, no nothing! And certainly no effort to check us in early. She "preregistered" us, which allowed us to charge food and drinks, and also to be allowed on the pool deck. She took my number and said that they would call when our room became available, which would be after three but there was no guarantee for a room until 4:30. Wow, that is late! I was hopeful. We placed our bags with bell services and our car with mandatory valet ($30 plus tax) and headed to the pool restaurant.