34 - Sunday, February 12, 1989 - North Shore News

Fiotel chain turns Hawalk

into trip to fantasy is

HAWAII — Back in 1980
Hyatt Hotels went into the
fantasy business with the
Hyatt Regency Maui, which
had a huge open-air lobby
with trees, waterfalls and a
macaw called Sergeant.
There was a waterslide into
@ monster pool and a res-
taurant with live swans.

Even the literature was larger
than life, with a brochure gushing
about the resort’s ‘‘$2 million in
priceless artwork.””

But the punters loved it all, and
the Maui hotel became the most
profitable in the entire Hyatt
group, now 141-strong.

Not surprisingly, fantasy has
become the corporate policy of
Hyatt Hotels in Hawaii, whose
Hyatt Regency Waikiki has its own
niche in unreality with open-air hot
tubs 40 storeys above the beach.
This is recommended for Wardair
passengers, spoiled rotten with
champagne, lobster and mai tais,
who don’t want to come down to
ground level too quickly.

Now there is a third, the Hyatt
Regency Waikoloa on the Big
Island, at $500 million, said to be
the most expensive resort ever built
with 1,241 rooms of concrete and
cotton built on lava rock. My
Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 came
right over the 62-acre property,
revealing a golf course taking
shape at the back.

Golf clubs (bring them, Mauna
Lani’s delightful course is next
door) are stored at the front bag-
gage room while luggage is moved
underground to guest rooms.

The resort is laid out around
three low-rise towers, guests travel-
ling by canal boats or air-condi-
tioned trams whose operators are
decked out for the chorus of HMS
Pinafore.

Rooms are spacious and com-
fortable, although the railings of
the small balconies are at eye-level
when you ase seated, and my cye
also had to negotiate a flat roof
and a parking lot before it found
the surf of the Kona coast. The
more you pay, however, the better
the view, «nd there are rates for
every well-lined pocket, rooms
ranging from U.S. $195 to $295,
Regency Club is $330 to $360, and
Suites start at $425 and go to
$2,500.

Fantasies don't come cheaply at
Waikoloa, not with a mini-bar
Scotch costing $6 and a burger and
coke $10. But this is not a place
for the man with long pockets; this
is paradise for the person who
can’t wait to fork out $550 to hunt
on the Parker Ranck for wild Rus-
sian boar, Corsican sheep and
Nepal Kalig pheasant.

The Aloha Services Desk off cs
champagne tours of the islands by
‘private Cessna Citation jet ($650
per m, six minimum), decp-
sea fishing on a $1.2 million, 54-ft.
Bertram for $230, the $300

Hulihee Palace dinner party fan-
tasy, the $345 helicopter picnic
fantasy, a $360 paniolo cowboy
fantasy, a $375 sailing fantasy
adventure, and a sunset sail and
secluded beach fantasy dinner,
$695 frr twa

talk
David Wishart

I liked the sound of the sea and
ski fantasy in which guests ski the
14,000-ft. level of Mauna Kea and
scuba dive the Pentagon cave
system. The cost is $425 which in-
cludes a free T-shirt with ‘‘I skied

= nye | ¥

Mauna Kea’’ on the front and ‘I
dived the Pentagon’’ on the back.

More mundane mortals pay $55
to swim with dotphins in a large
seawater lagoon complete with
sandy beach or stroll, free of
charge, the mile-long museum
walkway lined with $3 million in
Oriental and Pacific art.

I liked the quietness of the huge
pool, broken only by the sound of
a waterfall, and the vistas, such as
looking over the water to towering,
man-made rocks linked by a rope
Jadder going over the pool, the
purple and orange Bougainvillaea,
and in the distance a blue tile-
roofed restaurant with a chef
standing by a French window.

Attention has also been paid to
little things, such as equipping the
pool loungers with red flags. When
guests want a drink they simply
raise the flag at the back of the
chair. Every home should have one
of those.

Eight theme restaurants lurk
among the palm trees, including
Donatello’s, where the best tables
are outside on the canal. Here you
can watch the moon above the
palm trees while upstairs a few
bars of Pink Cadillac is spilling out
of Spats disco.

Everything’s here — tennis,
squash and racquetball courts, a
health club with 20 massage rooms
and more exotic treatments than

Photo submitted

DOLPHINS FROLIC in the world’s largest man-made dolphin habitat at
the Hyatt Regency Waikoloa on the Big Island of Hawaii.

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- Cor

lands

It’s a Disneyland for adults,
with big people’s prices for the

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