So Now That We Finally Arrived......
After the very long flight and delays it was almost 2:00 AM when we arrived in our room...everything was dark...no clue what to expect when we woke up in the morning.....well...It was about 6:00 AM when the sun started to stream into our window and the photo above is what awaited us! We could see it from the bed! Let me tell you....all thoughts of cancelled flights...long lines for rental cars...27 hours of travel.....left! We had only had 4 hours of sleep but there was no way we were going to fall back to sleep with all that beauty out there waiting for us!
First things first....we actually took a look at the room that we were in. Our Room was 9030 in the Wailea Tower....Deluxe Ocean View King Room. The room was very spacious....it felt large and was certainly big enough for the two of us. Here are some photos of our wonderful home away from home!
The room was just so comfortable and had all the amenities we could have wanted.
The desk area was nice to use and the TV probably was good...we never even turned it on! Who needs TV when you have that wonderful view outside! We even had our own hallway with large closet and safe. The bathroom was nice
The Bathroom area was very large and nice. There was a separate shower area as well as a separate area for the toilet. There was only one sink but the counter was large and we had more than enough room for each of our toiletries.
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The bedroom had a small sitting area which was nice...although most of our "sitting" was on the lanai!
This was my favorite place in the room...just couldn't get enough of that view!
Time to Get Outside and Explore
Since we knew we would be tired after the long flight, we didn't plan too much for our first day in Maui. We figured we would relax and take it easy. This ended up being a really good plan since the flight ended up being even longer. When we checked in in the middle of the night they gave us a map of the resort....luckily we remembered to take it along with us on our initial walk through of the place! It is HUGE and very easy to lose your way! I fell in love with this hotel the minute we arrived! It was absolutely amazing....
It really reminded me of a big floating city.....they incorporated the outdoor space so well on the interior of the hotel....there were so many open air areas and it just was beautiful!
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| The courtyards made you feel like you were outside all the time! |
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| Bringing the outdoors into the interior design |
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| The "floating" bar area. |
As we walked around we started smelling breakfast! Turns out there is a wonderful breakfast buffet in the Grande Dining Room. This was an amazing place to dine. It was indoors but so open...you never knew when a bird would fly by and the views were unbeatable. The food was good....it does get busy though if there is a large crowd staying at the hotel. The first part of the week we pretty much had the resort to ourselves....another perk of traveling in the "off-season". The second half of the week was a completely different story as a convention of pool owners descended on the resort! We were able to walk into the Grande Dining Room and be seated for breakfast right away on the first day. We tried again several days later and were greeted with a very long line (they do not take reservations for breakfast)...luckily there are other options available so we just moved on to Cafe Kula for a quick breakfast that we could eat outside on their terrace....not a bad second choice!
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| Christmas Decorations just added to the beauty of the resort. |
Time to Step Outside
Well...now it was time to step outside and look at what the rest of the resort had to offer....and boy was it a lot!
Every twist and turn brought something new to see.....
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| Wedding Chapel |
The resort was like an immaculate garden. It was so well kept and just stunning no matter where you looked. In addition to the pools, there was a public beach. The beach was clean and nice and the hotel offered chairs to use out there. The waterfalls and ponds were beautiful and it really felt like you were in paradise. We had the best time just walking around the property and taking in the shopping in the shops that were part of the hotel. It was such a relaxing day!
A Beautiful End to the Day and a Great Dinner too!
After walking around and getting acquainted with the resort we headed back to our room to get ready for dinner. We had reservations at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse at the Shops at Wailea which was just a short drive (or walk) from the resort. While we were getting ready.... we took time out to check out the beautiful Hawaiian sunset from our Lanai.....
Time to head to dinner....if you have read any of my other blogs than you know that we are huge fans of Ruth's Chris Steakhouses across the country and try to get to at least one on each trip we take. Maui actually has two Ruth's Chris's so we decided to give them both a try.....first one...Ruth's Chris Wailea..
This restaurant was a store front...a little different than some of the other Ruth's Chris's we had been in. We were a few minutes early for our reservation and were seated right away. We had a very nice experience. Our server was knowledgeable and attentive. The server's assistant was amazing...we were never without a drink....he was everywhere and provided great service to everyone in our area. Food was good...bread was a little different than most Ruth's Chris's...all in all a good experience.
Back to the Resort
A short drive and we were back to our resort and in for the night. The best part about heading back was the beautiful drive into the resort and the wonderful service by the valets! A great end to a great first day. It was an early to bed day as we were planning to be up early....very early to make sure that we could catch sunrise at Haleakala!
