wintergreen
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2004
- Messages
- 1,221
Hi Folks,
We just returned from a trip to Hawaii that included a stay at the Hilton Grand Vacations Club (Lagoon Tower) at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki. While we booked through Hilton.com, and paid cash, I noticed that this is on the RCI exchange list, and thought some of the DVCers here might like a quick review:
The facts:
The Hilton Hawaiian Village is located at the opposite end of Waikiki Beach from Diamond Head in Honolulu. This resort is HUGE, with rooms housed in seven towers, several of which house Hilton Grand Vacations Club units. We stayed in a One Bedroom oceanview HGVC unit in the Lagoon tower, adjacent to the Duke Kahanamoku Lagoon and the newly-opened Paradise Pool. The room had a king bed in the master bedroom, a full-size sleeper sofa in the living room, one (relatively small and rather) bathroom and a full kitchen. The lanai had a table with chairs, and a view of the ocean and the marina next door.
There are two feature Pools for the use of all of the guests at the Hilton Hawaiian Village: the new Paradise Pool near the Lagoon Tower, which has several slides, and two hot tubs and the Super Pool near the Rainbow Tower, which does not have a hot tub, but does have a Keike (Childrens) Pool. There are some other quiet pools, one near the Tapa Tower, for the use of all guests, and two near the Alii Tower and Kalia Towers, that are for the exclusive use of guests of those towers.
The resort has over twenty restaurants and bars, paddle boat, surf board and snorkel gear and other beach rentals, a spa, health club, and myriad stores and shops (both in the individual towers and in a separate shopping village). Sign up for surfing lessons ($90 for a two hour group lesson) at the Beach Activities booths. We did this, and it was a lot of fun.
Our take:
Even though this resort is extremely large, we really liked it a lot. The grounds are lush and well-tended, with fish ponds and exotic birds (including flamingos and South African Penguins). The Duke Kahanamoku Lagoon is a wonderful place for swimming, particularly with small children, and the Paradise pool was amazing. As guests in any of the three HGVC towers, you can borrow DVDs from a fairly well-stocked video library. Also, seek out the tiny Hanajuban Noodle Restaurant, where you can sit at the counter and order a variety of noodle, gyoza and other Japanese dishes. We thought that the Lagoon Tower one bedroom units were fairly similar to DVC units. However, the bathrooms were nothing to write home about (no whirlpool tubs or separate showers), and there were no laundry facilities located in the unit, you had to walk down the hall for that. I thought that the master bedroom was smaller, but the living/dining room area larger than in our home resort, VWL.
All in all, we enjoyed our stay, and I would be happy to answer any questions.
We just returned from a trip to Hawaii that included a stay at the Hilton Grand Vacations Club (Lagoon Tower) at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki. While we booked through Hilton.com, and paid cash, I noticed that this is on the RCI exchange list, and thought some of the DVCers here might like a quick review:
The facts:
The Hilton Hawaiian Village is located at the opposite end of Waikiki Beach from Diamond Head in Honolulu. This resort is HUGE, with rooms housed in seven towers, several of which house Hilton Grand Vacations Club units. We stayed in a One Bedroom oceanview HGVC unit in the Lagoon tower, adjacent to the Duke Kahanamoku Lagoon and the newly-opened Paradise Pool. The room had a king bed in the master bedroom, a full-size sleeper sofa in the living room, one (relatively small and rather) bathroom and a full kitchen. The lanai had a table with chairs, and a view of the ocean and the marina next door.
There are two feature Pools for the use of all of the guests at the Hilton Hawaiian Village: the new Paradise Pool near the Lagoon Tower, which has several slides, and two hot tubs and the Super Pool near the Rainbow Tower, which does not have a hot tub, but does have a Keike (Childrens) Pool. There are some other quiet pools, one near the Tapa Tower, for the use of all guests, and two near the Alii Tower and Kalia Towers, that are for the exclusive use of guests of those towers.
The resort has over twenty restaurants and bars, paddle boat, surf board and snorkel gear and other beach rentals, a spa, health club, and myriad stores and shops (both in the individual towers and in a separate shopping village). Sign up for surfing lessons ($90 for a two hour group lesson) at the Beach Activities booths. We did this, and it was a lot of fun.
Our take:
Even though this resort is extremely large, we really liked it a lot. The grounds are lush and well-tended, with fish ponds and exotic birds (including flamingos and South African Penguins). The Duke Kahanamoku Lagoon is a wonderful place for swimming, particularly with small children, and the Paradise pool was amazing. As guests in any of the three HGVC towers, you can borrow DVDs from a fairly well-stocked video library. Also, seek out the tiny Hanajuban Noodle Restaurant, where you can sit at the counter and order a variety of noodle, gyoza and other Japanese dishes. We thought that the Lagoon Tower one bedroom units were fairly similar to DVC units. However, the bathrooms were nothing to write home about (no whirlpool tubs or separate showers), and there were no laundry facilities located in the unit, you had to walk down the hall for that. I thought that the master bedroom was smaller, but the living/dining room area larger than in our home resort, VWL.
All in all, we enjoyed our stay, and I would be happy to answer any questions.
