Moana Surfrider

Das Hotel bei Nacht - The Hotel at Night

We took a five hour flight on Hawaiian Airlines from SF to Honolulu. The airline is unique these days because meals were served! Can you believe that? On the way there they showed the movie "Ghost Town" starring that British funny man Ricky Gervais.

The airport in Honolulu looked like something out of the 70's. Actually most of the Waikiki area and hotels had a 70's ish look to it. We took the Roberts of Hawaii shuttle to our hotel. The shuttle ticket cost $15 for a round trip, which was a steal considering that a taxi into Waikiki would be more expensive. Only downside is that it takes a while to get to your hotel since they need to drop off other passengers at their respective hotels as well.

We had a woman bus driver, who was an interesting character. She played tour guide once we were in the bus and talked about different sights as we drove into the city. However, her annoying tick was that she repeated "Aloha and Mahalo" over and over. Yes, I know we're supposed to be in the aloha spirit, but that's overdoing it to the point that it gets disgusting.

Finally we got to our hotel, the grand dame of Waikiki known as the Moana Surfrider a Westin Resort and Spa. We were greeted by a grand white colored building with columns and a front porch populated with rocking chairs. When we first arrived, there was a couple of newly weds trying to be photographed in the threshold of the hotel entrance. There would be many more weddings that day as Hawaii is a popular destination for weddings.

Anyway, as we checked in, the front desk staff told me that they did not have the exact room as we originally requested it, but they would try to work something out. Because they could not provide me with an upgrade, they made it up by giving me a breakfast voucher and free local calls. Ultimately they gave me a room with a small view of the ocean, which was definitely better than the original room with a city view that they assigned us. In addition, we were greeted with leis when we checked in, which was nice.

The room had a balcony that was pretty clean, a coffee maker and a refrigerator. The bathroom was fairly ordinary. Every morning we got the Honolulu Advertiser. The first morning at the hotel we ate breakfast at the hotel restaurant. I had waffles with syrup and enjoyed the breakfast buffet as well. If we had to pay, it would have cost $28 per person, not including tip!

The hotel has a long history as it is the oldest hotel on Waikiki. The commons areas are very clean and relaxing. The front porch has rocking chairs that are fun to rock in the day or in the evening. Then there's the veranda in the back that faces the beach bar, the pool and the private piece of Waikiki beach that belongs to the hotel. Every evening there were Hawaiian musicians and a hula dancer to entertain the guests.

The hotel staff people were really friendly without being too insincere. They accomodated most of our requests. The only two incidents that were black marks against the hotel were the leaving of a bag of trash on a chair and the appearance of a cockroach in our room!

Regarding the trash, when I called housekeeping and asked them to remove the trash, they promptly did so and even apologized by sending flowers afterwards. Regarding the cockroach, I had the luck of discovering something black that scampered under a heavy chest of drawers when I moved my backpack. At first I thought I was hallucinating, but after we came back from dinner, the cockroach made a new appearance, this time closer to the bed. At this, we called housekeeping to kill the bugger, which dashed under the bed somewhere.

Knock, knock! That was housekeeping armed with a broom and bug spray. He looked under the bed, in a bed side drawer and finally behind the headboard where our little buddy was hiding. Suddenly when its cover was blown, the bugger ran for its life toward the air conditioning vent. The guy from housekeeping chased it to the vent and then sprayed in the vicinity of the vent. He told us that the cockroach would likely be dead because of all the spraying. Anyway, the cockroach had plenty of room to run around in the vent system so it most likely would not come out to our room.

Skeptical and scared out of our wits, we nonetheless called reception and asked for a new room. We packed in a mad rush and tried to dash out of the room as soon as possible. As I was surveying the room to make sure we did not leave anything behind, the cockroach had the nerve to scamper out again! It probably just wanted to spite us since he now had the room to himself!

Aside from the cockroach and the trash, it was a good hotel.