Introduction:  A Week in Honolulu
Review:  Air Canada Economy – Vancouver to Honolulu
Review:  Sheraton Princess Kaiulani Waikiki Beach

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For our quick getaway, we booked a stay at the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani Waikiki Beach hotel. This hotel is right in the heart of Waikiki and just across the street from Waikiki Beach.

We booked one of the cheaper rooms – which was a renovated Waikiki city view room in the Ainahau Tower. The room had 2 double beds.

The cost of the room (including resort fee and taxes) averaged out to $325 USD per night. The resort fee was $42 USD per day and included the following:

The room had the following amenities/features:

We arrived at the hotel around 1:30pm. We were told that our booked room was ready, but if we wanted a free upgrade (due to my husband’s Marriott status) to a partial ocean view room, we would have to wait for another hour or so. We decided we would wait for the upgrade, so we left our luggage at the bell desk and went out to get some lunch.

When we got back from lunch, our room was ready, so we were given our room cards and headed to our room. Our room was #1442 in the Ainahau Tower.

Our room was the exact same layout as the City View room we had booked. The only difference was the view. Upon entering the room, the bathroom was on the left, and closets on the right. The bathroom was small but functional. There was also a bar of soap and a small lotion provided.

On the right side of the closet was an ironing board, iron and luggage rack.

On the left side of the closet was a cabinet with an ice bucket, plastic glasses, a hair dryer, safe and mini-fridge. The mini-fridge was empty, so it gave you lots of room to keep your own snacks and drinks.

Past the closet, there were 2 double beds on the left and a desk on the right. We are used to sleeping in a king-sized bed, so we each took a bed, otherwise we would be bumping into each other all night. We did find that the beds were too firm for our liking, so it wasn’t the most comfortable sleep.

The desk had 6 drawers for storing clothing or other items. On the far end of the desk was a coffee machine.

When we first got into the room, the lanai furniture had been brought in because of high winds. But, later the winds died down, so we moved them back onto the lanai.

In between the 2 beds was a night stand with a phone, clock radio, 2 AC outlets, a USB-A port and a USB-C port.

Strangely though, there were no easily accessible outlets in the desk area. There were outlets behind the desk, but because of the backing of the desk, you couldn’t access them (and they were all full anyways). There was an available outlet behind a bench to the right of the desk that we could use, but it was a good 4 feet away from where you would sit at the desk. Luckily the laptop cords were long enough, but anything else we needed charged had to sit on the bench.

The lanai was fairly spacious with a direct view of other buildings.

But if we looked to the right, we did have a view of the ocean past the roof of other wing of the hotel.

It was quite loud out on the lanai and could be cool once it was in the shade and there was any sort of breeze. So, we normally would only hang out on the lanai in the mornings.

Included in the daily resort fee was a souvenir tote beach bag. It was a pretty flimsy bag and it didn’t hold a whole lot. I wasn’t overly impressed.

The amenities of the hotel are as follows:

The hotel only had a single dining venue – the Splash Bar. However, the “Stay at One, Dine at All” program allows guests to charge food to their room from 3 other nearby Marriot properties as follows:

The restaurants included in this program are as follows:

The Splash Bar is located on the main floor of the hotel, just off the lobby and next to the pool.

Because of my husband’s Marriott status, we were able to have a free continental breakfast, or order other items from the menu at a reduced price (basically they would subtract the cost of a continental breakfast from another breakfast item). We were given vouchers that we would then present to our server when ordering. Our first morning there, we had the free continental breakfast.

The continental breakfast consisted of a plain croissant, some yogurt, a fruit cup and a chocolate croissant. I must say that I was not overly impressed with the food. The croissants and yogurt were okay, but the fruit was really disappointing. It tasted like fruit you would get on a plane – definitely not anything local or fresh. We later bought some pre-cut fruit from a grocery store that tasted way better than this fruit. For the rest of our stay, we didn’t bother having breakfast at the hotel. Instead, we just went to a nearby bakery and got pastries from there for breakfast. We didn’t have any other meals at the hotel since there are so many other options available within a short walk from the hotel.

Next to the restaurant is a bar/lounge area.

The bar had a Happy Hour every day from 3:00pm-5:00pm with drink and food specials.

Next to the restaurant was a game room where you could reserve various games/activities.

In the game room there was also a desk with a couple of computers and a printer for printing out boarding passes.

Behind the restaurant was a little library area with some rocking chairs. This was a popular area and most of the time there were people sitting in the rocking chairs.

The outdoor swimming pool was just off the lobby and was open 8:30am to 7:00pm daily.

Next to the pool is where you could get your pool/beach towels. You needed to scan your room card in order to get towels.

There was free sunscreen and cooling lotion available where you picked up your towels.

There were also a couple of cabanas that you could reserve for a fee.

Next to where you get the pool towels is a side entrance from Kalakaua Avenue to the hotel. This was a little shorter option for getting to the shops or the beach.

The Olakino Fitness Centre is located on the 2nd level of the Ainahau Tower and is open 24 hours a day. It was in a kind of strange location – just a walled off part of a big lobby area outside of the ballrooms. You needed your room card to access it.

Upon check-in, we were given a list of free activities that were included as part of the daily resort fee. You then used the QR code to register for any activities that you were interested in.

I registered for the Lauhala class and the Princess Historic Tour. In the Lauhala class, we learned to weave leaves from the hala tree into a little ornament.

For the Princess Historic Tour, I learned about the history of Princess Kaiulani (who the hotel is named for) along with some history of the hotel itself. I was the only one registered for the tour, so it ended up being a private tour. The tour included seeing some photos and objects from Princess Kaiulani that the hotel has on display.

I liked the idea of having these different free activities – especially the ones where you learned more about Hawaiian culture.

Overall, we had a pleasant stay at the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani. I think it’s main selling point is the location. It is right across the street from the Moana Surfrider hotel and Waikiki beach, and right next to the International Market Place (which has a number of shops and restaurants). It was very handy to grab some towels from the pool and walk across to the beach with just a room card. We would leave our towels on the beach and then go play in the waves without worrying about anything happening to our belongings. Once we were done, we would pop back the hotel to clean up. The hotel was very family-friendly with the game room and the free activities. Even though the hotel only had one restaurant, it was not a problem because there were so many other options within a short walk.

However, the room itself wasn’t anything exciting. Even though we were in a recently renovated room, it didn’t feel very upscale. And the location of available charging points was weird. Also, having plastic/cardboard glasses instead of glass/ceramic felt a little cheap. When we were there, one of the 4 elevators for the Ainahau Tower was out of service, so during busy times on the weekend, you could be waiting quite a while for an elevator (it wasn’t as bad during the week when it wasn’t as busy). And a couple times one of the other elevators was out of service for a couple hours – leaving only 2 operating elevators.

But other than those small negatives, it was a nice, convenient place to stay. It would definitely be a good option for any families that want to be close to the shops and the beach.