Back from FS lanai

Well drvalgamae....you were right! Think I better change my name to LUV LANAI!! We had an excellent time at the FS. Perfect weather, sunny everyday. Lots of whales out in the Bay, breaching and playing. We arrived on Jan.19th around 7:00pm or so. I was happy with the room, very large and we had an extra cot for our daughter and still lots of room to move around. On Saturday I was trying to figure out which person was you.....I don;%26#39;t think I could tell. I hope you and your wife enjoyed your stay as well. Our daughter had her 10th b-day there, we had dinner at the Ocean grill and had pre-ordered a chocolate cake. The staff were great, they sang to her as well. There were a few kids the week we were there but funny enough....mostly boys! One family of four boys, another of 3 boys....so my poor daughter was on her own a fair bit in the pool. I think she still enjoyed herself very much though. We were very comfortable sitting around the pool, good service there too. One thing I noticed though.....some particular people would go and save chairs facing the ocean very early in the a.m., which is okay for a certain amount of time, but they saved four of them and would show up hours and hours later. I found this a little rude. The staff around the pool were very nice and helpful. Loved the Ihalani restaurant....great 2 meals there. It%26#39;s too bad they didn%26#39;t have another restaurant to eat in though. WE did go to Henry Clays...that was very good as well. We had a look at the Lodge....nice but not our style of Hotel. It didn%26#39;t seem to be Hawaii, no Ocean to look at and I could detect a musty smell when I went in. We did however play the little 18 hole putting course....that was really nice.

All in all.....yes, it%26#39;s expensive....but you know that before you go there, and yes, we will probably go back next January. You didn%26#39;t have to go anywhere, golf right next door, whale watching from the pool and snorkeling right there too! I love Lanai.

Back from FS lanai

Sounds like you had a wonderful trip. Thanks for sharing. Which tour did you take to Lanai? I hate chair grabbers too!

Back from FS lanai

We did not go through a tour company, we flew on airmiles and booked the hotel direct. I am not sure if you get a better rate dealing with a tour company for the hotel or not?

We did the Bread %26amp; Breakfast plan....I think we saved a bit there.

so you spent the night on Lanai? Sorry, I%26#39;m confused.

I think she is saying that they vacationed on Lanai at the four seasons (wonderful resort btw..)

Aloha luvmaui(lanai)!

I%26#39;m glad you had a nice time. Sorry we missed you. On Saturday we did both hikes at Manele (Fisherman%26#39;s trail and the Pu%26#39;upehe (Sweetheart%26#39;s Rock) overlook, then spent the rest of the day at the beach. The winds were reasonable and the surf was relatively calm for our entire stay so we went to the beach just about every day (in fact we snorkeled 10 of the 14 days we were there). So we didn%26#39;t even spend anytime at the pool this year. Then we ate at Ihilani that night. If you saw a couple with sad faces in the lobby on Sunday, that was us. We were so sad to leave. But we did book a return trip for early December before the rates go up again next year.

I%26#39;m sorry there were chair hogs at the pool. This is not right. They should do what the FS Big Island does - you have to come and stay at the pool to get your seat, and they will only save your seat over lunch time for you to go eat. That is much more fair way to do things.

We saw more whales than usual this year - they do not always come around to that side of the island as much. Did you see any dolphins? There were none there our first week, but they we saw them nearly every day the 2nd week. In fact on that Saturday they were in the bay all morning and part of the afternoon. We swam out a ways and waited for them. All of a sudden we saw about 50 dolphins swimming under us and jumping out of the water around us. They stuck around for a few minutes and then swam off. This is the first time in all of our trips that we had dolphins swim around us. It was very cool!

Did you get to try some of the delicious venison at Henry Clays. They were out of it one night we went there (right after the busy holiday time), so we had to go a second time to get it. I found you can call in advance to see if they have it that particular night.

I agree with your assessment of the Lodge. It is beautiful, with a great dining room and nice service, but when I go to Hawaii, I want to see the ocean, and hear the surf. We don%26#39;t have that in Minnesota (Lake Superior doesn%26#39;t count), but we do have plenty of lodges in the woods. However, a great hike out from the Lodge is the Koloiki Ridge Hike (best on a sunny day). You get great views of Maui and Moloka%26#39;i.

I%26#39;m glad you had a nice stay and that staff gave your daughter a good birthday. Thanks for the report. I have yet to do a full report on our trip, but I did update my inside page on things to do on Lana%26#39;i. Being back in the busy real world, I just haven%26#39;t had enough time.

sorry, I was confused. I thought you were staying at The Four Seasons on Maui .

Sorry, I too misunderstood the question. I thought you meant which tour operater did you book with! We had such a hard time getting from Maui to Lanai....we ended up booking with Paragon Air. It was a small charter plane....not cheap to do but got us to Lanai a lot early than we would have previously done. We ended up taking the ferry back to Maui on our return and found it to be fine as well. Much cheaper than the flight!!

Yes, drvalgamae, we did see the dolphins on that Saturday! There were a whole bunch of them. We didn%26#39;t see them much after that though. We did see a lot of whales too! Everyday without fail, our last day there was spectacular.....having breakfast we saw one whale out there in front of the resort....not that far out....he must of jumped out of the water 8 to 10 times!! There is nothing better than to see that ! At Henry Clays....Ron had the ribs, I had the Opakapaka and Jamie had the Ravioli......everything was very good. The waitress was so cute....told us she had 6 kids! Are the rates going up after December? If you book now, do you have to go back before December or do they give you the rate it is at now for Jan.08?

Glad to hear you had a good trip as well, although I think you said you haven%26#39;t posted your trip report.

Wow, you had quite a whale show! Yes, if you check the web site the rates are going up significantly in 2008. For example, ocean view rooms go from $740 to $830 per night (ouch!). FS has been raising the rates nearly $100 every year since they took over in 2005. The every 5th night free rates are not yet out for 2008, but they did not come out till early fall 2006 for 2007 rates.

Yikes, that is getting up there isn%26#39;t it? You said you booked already for next year....is that correct? If you book now and stay more than 5 nights, will they still give you the 5th night free even though they haven%26#39;t put out their 5th night free rates yet for 2008? I am thinking maybe we should book now as well. Do you do the B%26amp;B plan? I am not sure if for us it was that big a saving....our daughter eats like a bird so to pay for her is such a waste! It would have been great if we could have just shared with her.

Are you going back in January again? I know we will. My daughter has already said she would like to spend her 11th birthday there as well!! Think she is getting used of this Birthday in Hawaii stuff!!