My wife and I stayed at the Ritz April 19-26. To start it is a beautiful hotel. The setting in Kapalua is very nice. The renovations made recently appear to be a good investment. The pool area is very nice however there is little to no shade if you are looking for some around the pool area. The weather in Kapalua is very hit and miss. Unlike Wailea where they get less than 10 inches of rain a year, Kapalua gets a significant amount of rain and wind. The first three days we were there the tradewinds were whipping around bringing rain and clouds. The last four days the tradewinds shut down and it was sunny hot. The good thing is if it is raining in Kapalua drive 10 minutes south to Kannapali and it will be perfect. You just have to plan your days at the beaches accordingly.
Now onto the service issues. The service is just flat out bad. I am not a huge service customer as I perfer to park my own car and get my own towels, but a hotel like the Ritz that prides themselves on service and charges big $$ for it, the Ritz Kapalua completely misses the mark. The bellman took 2 hours to get luggage to our room after I discovered it sitting in the lobby not being watched that whole time. When we checked out I gave them a two hour notice because I did not want a repeat. They were late. We passed them in the hall after waiting 1/2 hour past the time I asked them to come. The pool for the most part was unattended. The housekeeping was OK. There were issues with the bathroom not being that clean. You had to call and tell them exactly when you would be out of your room or they would let your room sit all day until they finally got there.
We only ate at the Terrace restaurant for breakfast which was OK but not worth the $60 for two people not even close. For breakfast, we had two other reservations at Ritz restaurants but cancelled after the breakfast. The Honalua General Store right outside of the hotel is the way to go for breakfast. The Plantation is a great restaurant for dinner but very expensive. It is about 2 miles from the Ritz. Up on the hill.
The beach at the Ritz is nice but the water is not nearly as clear or smooth as Kannapali. It does have three lifeguards that just kind of hang out, it is a public beach as are all Hawaii beaches but fairly quite for a public beach. There is a $20 a day resort fee at this resort.






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