I took DD to the tower twice - once early in the morning at opening and it was great and not too crowded, and once in the afternoon (after Tower Bridge and a few other sights) and it was much more congested, so my vote is for morning.
Speaking of Barclays parting ways with AA: I just got an email from Barclays that the "FlightCents" feature, where you can round up every purchase to essentially "buy" more miles, is going away in March 2026, so that might be a good indicator of when the relationship is ending.
We ended up booking a 10:30 am slot. Hopefully it won’t be too busy by then. The early slots were gone and I’m not sure if we would even make the 9 am time honestly. I have a feeling we’ll be going to bed super late after we land the night beforeI took DD to the tower twice - once early in the morning at opening and it was great and not too crowded, and once in the afternoon (after Tower Bridge and a few other sights) and it was much more congested, so my vote is for morning.
You can make the air tag beep from the app. I've only used the app to find them in my roommostly because I have a bad habit of leaving one in a suitcase and I don't always take the same one.
Otherwise I've used them to track bags in Japan when shipping or similar.
I have had to replace batteries in them, but it's easy to do and the app will let you know.
)
We did the Tower in 2022 right when it opened. I highly recommend doing it early too.I took DD to the tower twice - once early in the morning at opening and it was great and not too crowded, and once in the afternoon (after Tower Bridge and a few other sights) and it was much more congested, so my vote is for morning.
Why do I think Virginia will leave it at $600?
We ended up booking a 10:30 am slot. I don’t think we would make the 9 am. I’d rather be there right when they open but I also think we’ll need the sleep because we have the Ceremony of the Keys that night.
That was a shocker 4 years ago when we moved to Virginia! I bet they will leave it there also.Why do I think Virginia will leave it at $600?
We recently returned from a three-week trip to Hawaii, including a weeklong stay at the Grand Wailea in Maui—a first for us. This is an amazing property and a great use of Hilton credits and FNs. We were upgraded to an Ocean View room. The resort charges for everything, but I had a stack of Hilton GCs and prepaid my hotel bill so I had $6,000 to spend at the resort, which was unfortunately done easily. I was planning on buying myself multiple pairs of Maui Jims with the leftover money, but I didn’t have anything left lol You can charge anything to the room even things at the shops.
The spa here is my favorite spa ever. I even used some Hilton credits for a $125 Kiolani Spa Wheat branded T-shirt. DH was not happy lol The spa check in staff remembered me by name when I returned. The space was recently renovated and the hydrotherapy gardens were amazing.
We also spent Hilton credits on beach chair rentals, the luau, (which we did for the kids in my traveling party, but the food was really good, it’s all you care to enjoy and brought to your table) beach toy rentals (the snorkeling at this hotel was amazing), and a bunch of meals. We tried all the restaurants expect Olivine.
Nobu recently opened which I have been wanting to try for years. This didn’t count for the daily food and beverage credit, but I was able to charge to the room and use Hilton credits for this, which was a fantastic deal and amazing meal.
We did the hotel breakfast buffet one day and it was a waste for me. I think it was like $68pp and I really only had some malasadas and fruits. Everything was good tho and it had a really pretty view, just not worth the price tag for me. (Could have gotten Maui Jims instead of a meal here for 6
Humuhumunukunukuapua’a for dinner was ok. Nobu was around the same price and I would rather do that. They charge $30pp for an ocean view for dinner, which is crazy to me, but nice I guess if you want to guarantee a view. If you make a reservation for Nobu instead of walking up they will seat you outside with an ocean view. (Much better deal imo)
We used the food and beverage credit everyday at the QS Loulu. Which has a partnership with the grocery store Erewhon, which DH thought was hysterical. I was going to use my $50 credit one day for an Erewhon tote bag, but they were $150, so we passed. I got lots of Hibiscus iced teas and bottles of hot sauce to take home which was nice.
My only complaints… the hotel grounds feel very 90s. The place needs another renovation.
With two rooms for three nights and our own seven-night stay, the total valet charges came to nearly $1,000—wild.
The beach and pool chair situation is miserable. DH and I like to sleep in. Finding a place in the shade is hard. I ended up getting up at 6:30 to get chairs one day and did some work by the pool before he woke up. And then another day we paid $450 for 6 chairs. Hilton credits go really fast here. Thought about a cabana, but passed when it was $1750 and not all the chairs were in the shade!
The pool slides close at 5. Super early. We would normally go to the beach at around 5 so it made getting a chair in the shade easy then, but I never ended up spending time in the main pools.
Overall it was a really nice stay and we will hopefully be back. Hopefully with more Hilton credits to use and maybe I can get some “free” Maui Jim’s lol
Call and ask if they will waive the late fee. This happens to me every couple of years and I have yet to have a CC not agree to refund the fee.
We just came home from Maui on Wednesday. We were right next door to you in a condo at Wailea Beach Villas. We’ve stayed at The Grand Wailea, and your experience is spot on in my opinion. We used the restroom at GW a couple of times while down on the beach. The pool did look extremely busy. The chair situation is disappointing. Even Wailea beach was people soup sometimes. My husband always gets sticker shock from the price of everything at GW. That valet parking cost is insane. Sounds like you had a fantastic trip. I absolutely love Maui, and we had another amazing family vacation. Even though it is expensive, I love the location, and walkability of the Wailea resorts area. I also find Wailea Beach to be perfect for all activities from snorkeling to boogie boarding depending on the time of day. Thanks for sharing your experience.We recently returned from a three-week trip to Hawaii, including a weeklong stay at the Grand Wailea in Maui—a first for us. This is an amazing property and a great use of Hilton credits and FNs. We were upgraded to an Ocean View room. The resort charges for everything, but I had a stack of Hilton GCs and prepaid my hotel bill so I had $6,000 to spend at the resort, which was unfortunately done easily. I was planning on buying myself multiple pairs of Maui Jims with the leftover money, but I didn’t have anything left lol You can charge anything to the room even things at the shops.
The spa here is my favorite spa ever. I even used some Hilton credits for a $125 Kiolani Spa Wheat branded T-shirt. DH was not happy lol The spa check in staff remembered me by name when I returned. The space was recently renovated and the hydrotherapy gardens were amazing.
We also spent Hilton credits on beach chair rentals, the luau, (which we did for the kids in my traveling party, but the food was really good, it’s all you care to enjoy and brought to your table) beach toy rentals (the snorkeling at this hotel was amazing), and a bunch of meals. We tried all the restaurants expect Olivine.
Nobu recently opened which I have been wanting to try for years. This didn’t count for the daily food and beverage credit, but I was able to charge to the room and use Hilton credits for this, which was a fantastic deal and amazing meal.
We did the hotel breakfast buffet one day and it was a waste for me. I think it was like $68pp and I really only had some malasadas and fruits. Everything was good tho and it had a really pretty view, just not worth the price tag for me. (Could have gotten Maui Jims instead of a meal here for 6
Humuhumunukunukuapua’a for dinner was ok. Nobu was around the same price and I would rather do that. They charge $30pp for an ocean view for dinner, which is crazy to me, but nice I guess if you want to guarantee a view. If you make a reservation for Nobu instead of walking up they will seat you outside with an ocean view. (Much better deal imo)
We used the food and beverage credit everyday at the QS Loulu. Which has a partnership with the grocery store Erewhon, which DH thought was hysterical. I was going to use my $50 credit one day for an Erewhon tote bag, but they were $150, so we passed. I got lots of Hibiscus iced teas and bottles of hot sauce to take home which was nice.
My only complaints… the hotel grounds feel very 90s. The place needs another renovation.
With two rooms for three nights and our own seven-night stay, the total valet charges came to nearly $1,000—wild.
The beach and pool chair situation is miserable. DH and I like to sleep in. Finding a place in the shade is hard. I ended up getting up at 6:30 to get chairs one day and did some work by the pool before he woke up. And then another day we paid $450 for 6 chairs. Hilton credits go really fast here. Thought about a cabana, but passed when it was $1750 and not all the chairs were in the shade!
The pool slides close at 5. Super early. We would normally go to the beach at around 5 so it made getting a chair in the shade easy then, but I never ended up spending time in the main pools.
Overall it was a really nice stay and we will hopefully be back. Hopefully with more Hilton credits to use and maybe I can get some “free” Maui Jim’s lol
