Sunday, March 31, 2013

Grand Wailea #2 (lots of pictures)

Without a doubt, the lobby and common areas of the Grand Wailea are beautiful. 

The lounge in the lobby.

Indoor/outdoor lobby with lots of water and art.

The lobby is all interconnected walkways around fountains and pools (reflecting, not swimming.)










 We walked a LOOOOOONNNNGGGG way to the pool area. In order to sit on the pool deck area, you must have a wristband. You get the wristbands from the activity centre in the middle of the the pool complex, which involves going up and down, over bridges and under caverns. The pool complex is extremely elaborate- much more themed and extravagant than most Disney resorts I have visited. We lined up for our wristbands and getting one require a computer check and a phone call. We all needed to give our names and they were matched with the code on the wristband and entered into the computer. I get that they are trying to protect against pool usage by non-guests, but this was some high security stuff! At the activity centre, they had some craft tables that looked a little worse for wear (I think it was tie dye t-shirts one day- for $25) and they also sold shave ice ($7.00!). We decided to have lunch at the poolside cafe. Our server was actually quite amazing- she had been there for 17 years, and seemed to totally love her job. She was good at her job, too, because we were all talked into refillable plastic pineapples to hold our cocktails and smoothies ($22, refills of boozy drink- $15).  The food at this restaurant is served in plastic and is all pre-made. I had sushi, it was fine. For four lunch dishes (one sushi and 3 sandwiches) and four refillable cocktail glasses (2 non-alcoholic) plus two cocktail refills, the bill was $220.00. Yeehaw! Thank goodness those cocktails were boozy. 




After our lunch, we sat on some loungers around the pool while the kids swam. The loungers are packed very tightly around the pool- touching, with no space at all in between. We had to climb up from the bottom to sit on them. We waited, and waited, as the lunch buzz wore off and the clock ticked. I went and checked on our room again at 3:00, explaining again that we had (very expensive) luau tickets on the property and wanted to change before it began. I was reminded by another robot (oops, I mean front desk clerk!) that check in is not guaranteed until 4:30. I expressed my disappointment and went back to our seat around the pool. Finally, around four, our cell phone rang and we were told we could come get our room keys.  

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