Turtle Bay Resort - Oahu

Not impressed for a 5-star resort. Service was either shitty or excellent; nothing in between. The parking gate lady was very nice and informative and so was the Conference Service Manager. They were excellent! The rest of the staff I met, I would give a 2 out of 10 as a generous rating. We sat down by the beach lounge planning to eat, asked for the umbrella to be opened; we got a flat "no". Too windy; so we pointed to all the umbrellas around, they were all opened providing shades. The waitress looked and said "O.... I did not see it. I cannot open it; it is too heavy and requires a pool attendant to open it up". What kind of BS was that? She never returned by the way. We looked at the menu and the pricing; well, you thought Ritz @ Virgin Islands was bad; this one was worse. A veggie burger US$14, a hot dog US$8.00. The selection on the menu was small but compensated by the large font being used. We left the pool lounge and no one noticed. Strike one.

We walked around the hotel; found a public beach between the Villa and the hotel. The little pathway next to Ola, another beach front bar/lounge, led to the beach; it smelled of rotting garbage. The public beach was small. Strike two.

Room price was expensive; the local received (still is) at least 50% off the rate; so feel like being ripped off?

As I was sitting by the resort main entrance "observing" services, most guests arrived with their own cases of bottled water, sodas and coolers; what message I received! The concierge service, some staff were good, some were non-responsive. The check-in queue was long for the customary 2:00pm to 3:00pm official check-in time. Interesting. Strike three.

The views from around the hotel was superb; someone did put thoughts in designing the place; but the quality of service did put me off. Maybe I was old and demanding. Or I traveled enough to notice good service vs bad. Don't be fool by the website; it has the elegance of a very high end hotel; but in the end, I felt it has become too commercialized as an "American" destination.

Go ahead take an afternoon drive out there via Route 83 West. It's lovely. Single lane traffic. You get to see different sceneries: forests, Pali, ocean shores, lots of shrimp farms and local fruit stands; sample as much as you like. Remember if you want to eat at the Turtle Bay resort, make sure you get there before 130pm; nothing opens after 2pm except the beach bars which serve expensive second rated food.