Grand Hawaiian Vacation; Tour EKE

by **maximagxe** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 9:47 am

We are going on this trip in October 2006. Has anybody gone on it and how are the Sheraton hotels in Hawaii? Trip Advisor has some awful reviews of the Sheraton Hotels in Hawaii.

Cheers

General Max

by **maximagxe** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 9:25 am

Is anybody going on this tour?

by **magnolia** » Fri Aug 11, 2006 2:07 pm

I've a preference for Marriott Resorts. That's just me tho.

It's so homey anything everything will be alright. :wink:

Have a good vacation.

by **wedidit06** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 12:36 am

Globus Hawaii is really nice!

We took the 3 island Hawaiian Splendor tour which included all of the islands that you will visit with the exception of the Big Island. If I had it to do again I would certainly book your choice of tours --and I hope I will have the opportunity to go there again.

The Sheraton hotels on the 3 islands at which we stayed were all very nice. Every one had a private balcony, a refrigerator and an in-room safe.
The rooms were decorated very nicely and certainly spacious enough for all but the extremely discriminating. The new "suite sleeper" beds that the Sheraton is in the process of upgrading in all of their hotels are simply luxurious. Also - lots of pillows for each bed, of varying firmnesses.

In Honolulu: Wakaki Beach - A multi-story (20+) hotel in which we enjoyed a very nice partial ocean view. It is not directly on the beach but beach is just across the main street. The location is fabulous.
You are directly next door to the outdoor "marketplace" where you will find a multitude of souvenirs at varying prices - and the vendors are very receptive to bartering. In fact, if you bring home t-shirts, this is the place to buy as it will be the most reasonable you will encounter on this tour. Our tour director offered us the opportunity to add an additional bag for around $15 for the entire tour (to pay for driver handling, transfers, etc.) A bunch of our group jumped at the chance and I picked up a very nice size wheeled traveler at that market for $35. I really needed it later and packed a lot of souvenirs. As for bags, I also picked up an additional large "gym" style bag at the end of the tour as a carry-on and stuffed the little Globus bag in that one along with more items!
Also, across the street is a multitude of "high end" shops all in one location. For example Guicci, Movado, Waterford, etc. Not much that we don't have here in the Dallas area but all in one single location. (Can you tell we liked to shop?). . Skip the optional "dinner cruise" unless you just want to phtograph the sunset or want a boat ride as the food is less than desirable in my opioion.

Kauai Sheraton: Nice garden resort. This location is not on the ocean. It has a library with 4 computers for public access. Nice to email back home at no charge if you did not bring a laptop. We had an amusing court yard view - a tribe of colorful hens, roosters & chicks roamed freely among tropical pools of fish. Optional helicopter ride on this island is well worth the money.

Maui: A very large Sheraton resort hotel. Right on the beach with fabulous amenities including a full excercise wing. In room computer hookups. Depending on your pre-assigned room, you may wish to pay for a $50 a day upgrade. We did so as our original room overlooked the tennis court with a tiny 1 chair balcony. The upgrade included a very spacious balcony with table and chairs and a nice ocean view, and view of the entire resort. This island is where our tour had the luau and that was a real highlight of the trip for me. The optional "Road to Hanna" tour was a long 8 hour bus tour but the scenery of the rain forests with waterfalls, and the ocean cliffs, was well worth both the ride and the price. Photo opportunities abound on this side trip.

The tour itself was fairly fast paced - but perhaps because we opted for several of the side excursions. I may have opted for the 2 day extension in Maui just to rest and relax had I known in advance.

Overall -- very pleased with both the accomodations and the quality of the Hawaiian tour. The food was fabulous everywhere with a wide variety of choices for our included dinners.

And.. .. . I could never have planned, executed, and arranged the variety of places, things and sights that we experienced. So I do recommend the escorted tour, even if it is my own country. After all, Hawaii is a world to itself in comparison to the mainland!

Enjoy!!

by **maximagxe** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 7:51 am

Thank you very much, wedidit06. We appreciate your positive comments and are looking forward to the trip. The only concern is that we have a good tour director. we had a bad experience with a Globus tour director in Italy.

by **maximagxe** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 12:13 pm

We leave on this tour in two weeks and I think it is sold out. The coach will be crowded.

by **Letsgo** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 1:18 pm

Hope you are happier with this tour than you were with your last tour to Italy

by **maximagxe** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 1:21 pm

Thank you, Letsgo. We certainly are willing to give Globus another chance. We did enjoy Italy very much but could not tolerate the Tour Directer and how she treated some of the other travelers with us.

by **magnolia** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 3:05 pm

Let us know how your trip goes . .. . a short review.. . interesting anecdotes

by **maximagxe** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 8:31 am

Yes magnolia, look for some comments around the end of October. We return late on the 21st.

by **maximagxe** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 1:11 pm

We still have not received our tour documents. We leave on October 5th.

by **maximagxe** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 12:52 pm

We received out travel documents today and everything appears to be in order

by **magnolia** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 9:07 pm

. .. .. . 8 more days to go

. .. .. . still time for that daily walk to keep the waistline down
. .. .. . all those buffets pack loadsof calories
Have a wonderful trip General Max

by **maximagxe** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 8:15 am

Thanks magnolia. We looked over the optionals for this tour last night. The Polynesian Cultural Center tour ($81 pp) and the Road to Hana tour with lunch included ($105 pp) look to be interesting. Several helicopter tours as well as snorkeling excursions are offered.

by **maximagxe** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 9:25 am

We leave for Hawaii tomorrow to start the tour.

by **Letsgo** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 3:07 pm

Hope all is well for Max in Hawaii now. What is this about eartquakes and flooding?.I sure hope trip was not ruined.

by **magnolia** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 4:30 am

Sunday Oct 15 = Day 12 - 3rd day in Maui
Program: to Haleakala National Park, site of huge volcanic Haleakala Crater

When it happened at 7:07a.m., Max still in the hotel getting ready to breakfast. Nah, Maui is about 85 miles from the epicentre. Max is safe.
If the hwy to HNP is blocked with landslide rocks, hey may be Globus will give him another free trip. :wink:

I look forward to your safe return Max.

by **Letsgo** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 7:27 am

Thanks Magnolia,
I bet he'll have some interesting stories to tell.

by **maximagxe** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 1:44 pm

Greetings. We returned on Saturday from our tour and had a very memorable experience, earthquacks and all. Our tour director, Randy Schuster was outstanding and Globus has redeemed themselves on this excursion.

We were having breakfast at the hotel on Keuai when the earthquack on the big island occurred. We did not feel anything and did not hear about it until we were on the coach for our transfer to the airport for a flight to Maui. Power was out at our hotel on Maui but was on when we arrived there in the afternoon.

by **Letsgo** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 7:10 pm

Hi Max,

Glad to hear you are back in 1 piece and not all shook up! We were thinking about you.

How do you compare your Italy tour with this one? Apples and oranges????

Hope you had a great time.

Letsgo

by **maximagxe** » Wed Oct 25, 2006 10:42 am

Letsgo, We enjoyed both the Italy and Hawaii tours very much. Our problem was with the Tour Director on the Italy tour. You could call the comparisons between the tour directors as fresh apples and rotten oranges.

We did learn one thing on the Globus tours. Don't totally blame and trash the Tour Company if you happen to get a bad tour director. We gave Globus a second chance and are happy we did.

by **maximagxe** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 10:07 am

The Globus coaches used on the Hawaiian tours are not Globus coaches. They use Roberts tour buses and you will have a different driver each day requiring you to tip them on a daily basis. This is fine as long as you have dollar bills with you.

by **HRose** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 11:47 am

This tour is perfect. The Sheratons had wonderful beds. Randy was our tour director and he was great. I can not say enough good things about this tour. You will not be disapointed.

by **maximagxe** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 9:46 am

Rose, were you on our tour? October 6, 2006 start. There were 46 of us on the tour. Randy said he did several earlier in the year.

by **maximagxe** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 12:19 pm

Randy said that this was the last tour in Hawaii that he was doing this year. He will be doing several tours in 2007.

Grand Hawaiian Vacation; Tour EKE

Grand Hawaiian Vacation; Tour EKE

October 5, 2006 is the start date

Italy and Hawaii Tours

Grand Hawaiian Vacation

Randy Schuster

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