Does this quote seem right?

[Sea Island Lady]

4 adults with 2 pieces of luggage each plus carry-on - [b]$300.00[/b]

I had asked a local transportation company in Honolulu to give me a quote for the following in a Deluxe sedan. The sedan will not hold that many persons and luggage, so the quote is based on a limo. I am not sure that the quote includes gratuity though. Breaking it down, it is $75 pp round trip or $37.50 pp for each leg. I just thought it sounded a little high, but I don't know how much a cab would be and if they could hold all of us. A shuttle would be less, but the chances of getting a shuttle where others will need the same exact service are kind of slim. Any advice?

[QUOTE] Transfer from the pier to Kahala Mandarin on Oct. 7th, and then on Oct. 9th from Kahala Mandarin to the airport. Includes luggage transfer and tax.
[/QUOTE]

[thecleave]

Maybe Spleen will have some better knowledge ('cause I know he's in limos all the time :D ), but that seems a little high to me.

Did you inquire with the concierge at the Kahala? I think their sedan prices are $90 to/from the airport. Not sure about a limo. With 4 people you probably will have to get something bigger.

As for your $300 quote, I doubt that includes gratuity, taxes or any other costs incurred (like parking fees waiting for you at the pier).

[bankofdad]

$300 sounds really high. We're booked for streatch limo service to the Marriot (only a couple of minutes away from the Kahala Mandarin), complete with lei greeting at the airport and bar stocked with my favorite beer:D through Charley's Limo. We're paying $110 (that's one-way), two people, four bags.

I've seen where others have done even better through Star Limo. Just do a web search, you'll find both companies.

Hope this helps!

[Sea Island Lady]

I thought that Star limo was only in Maui? :confused:


I think that we are getting charged about $80 to $100 too much. Charging by the person instead of limo.:eek: The rate does include tax, but I didn't know anything about parking fees. Maybe that's why it is higher...no hidden fees.

[spleen93]

I also agree that it sounds high. Might want to check with other companies and get a range of prices. Which company was this?

Checked Star Limo: ([url="http://www.hawaiistarlimo.com/price.html"]http://www.hawaiistarlimo.com/price.html[/url])

[img]http://www.hawaiistarlimo.com/pic/plane.jpg[/img] [size=4][b][i]Airport[/i][/b][/size]
Our drivers will meet you at the luggage claim and hold a sign with your name on it.
[size=4]From airport to any Waikiki Hotel (Stretch Limo): [color=black]$50 Round trip: $90
[size=4]From airport to any Waikiki Hotel (Super-stretch Limo): [color=black]$55
From airport to Ihilani Hotel: [color=black]$80[/color] [/color][/size][/color][/size]

prices are per limousine, not per person and they say that each limousine can hold up to 8 people. From those prices, it can't be any higher than $80/one way.

Spleen

[Sea Island Lady]

OK, I sent an email off to VIP Transportation stating that I think their rates are too high. Let's see what they come back with.:rolleyes:
Star Limo - A different companie thatn the one in Maui. I will get a quote from both the above mentioned names. Thanks!

[cdkempton]

also, you might try Aloha hawaii trans. They have been excellent in communicating. I'm sure you can get prompt info from them. Good luck & happy sails. :) Colette

[kelii]

That quoted price is outrageous. Mom, my brother and I live in a suburb of Honolulu, are booked for our 26 and 27th cruise and take a taxi from Aloha Tower to our home (about 25 miles) on most every cruise. We do not pack light and it's usually about $50 including tip. They saw you coming. They added Kahala and Cruise ship and came up with "rich ha`ole". That's where the $300 came from. You can do much better. Just check around.

[Sea Island Lady]

kelli - I can honestly says that I never thought of it that way.:rolleyes: Yu may have a point there. Still no answer to my email. If I don't hear back from VIP by tomoorrow, I will try the other places.

[TexasAlexus]

I agree, that is way too high! We took a limo from the airport to our Waikiki hotel late at night, 6 people, unlimited luggage and still paid less than $50.00 with tip. Don't even call them back, they don't deserve your business trying to overcharge you like that. I will check my paperwork and see if I still have the name of the company we used.

[tinkerme1]

For that much money, you could rent a car for the time you're there, travel the whole island and enjoy the stops at all the beaches for nothing!

Am I missing something? Is it that you just don't want to drive? Honolulu is very easy to navigate!

Most rental car companies are easy to deal with in Honolulu, and have transportation back to the pier after you return the car.

[Sea Island Lady]

That's correct! We just don't want to have the hassle of driving. We have all our excursions booked with private drivers or tours. We found this way of travel to be much more relaxing...especially in a limo.

I have still not heard back from the company after my email. I guess I have offended them...which is easy to do in Hawaii.:eek: I do have the name of another company and I will contact them on Monday.

[Sea Island Lady]

Spleen - Two days to go until we leave town. I just sent an email off to Star Limo. We will see what they come up with. We have also asked for a mini tour after pick up from the pier.

If we don't get anywhere with this company, we will just catch a cab back to the hotel.

[spleen93]

With 2 days to go, I would call - more likely to get answers quicker. There's a time and place for Email and I think you're past that at this pooint ... :)

Spleen

[Sea Island Lady]

We ended up getting a cab to the hotel (readily available at the pier) and a hotel arranged limo back to the airport from the hotel. All reasonable!

BTW - Spleen, thank you so much for the suggestion of the Kahala Mandarin. ASfter a room problem was fixed, we very much enjoyed our stay. The grounds are out of this world!

[spleen93]

Glad you enjoyed it! What kind of problem did you have with your original room?

Spleen

[Sea Island Lady]

[font=Arial]We booked a Courtyard room because it was the least expensive, [b]$250 plus[/b] (because of the view only - all rooms were the same in decor and size). We had requested and had confirmed reservations for two [b]NON connecting[/b], [b]NON smoking,[/b] [b]king bed[/b] rooms. We requested to be near my parents though.

[b]First problem[/b] - When we checked in at 9:30 am we didn't expect to have the rooms available and the hotel was very accommodating with storing our luggage and giving us passes to the spa - which we enjoyed very much along with the beach. We met my parents for lunch around 12:30 and tried to check into our rooms shortly thereafter. We were told that our rooms [b]should[/b] be ready, but that check in was normally not until 3:00. We had told the desk of our concern to get in the room earlier because we had a Luau booked (through the hotel) that left at 3:30 and we would like to get unpacked, changed, etc. The staff said that they could accommodate our request and to come back after lunch.

Well, we were told that no rooms were available and that they could possibly have one of the rooms available by 3:00. In the meantime, we noticed several newly arriving guest w/luggage checking in and be given keys to their rooms that were available. About the same time, I noticed that a large group of pre cruise passengers were leaving the hotel to head for the port by bus. My first thought was that these passengers had been occupying the Courtyard rooms that they had been given with the pre cruise packages. Check out wasn't until 12:00 at the hotel and it made sense that these passengers did not check out until they had to. Their bus was leaving for the pier at 1:30. My husband noticed that the guest receiving their room keys before us had rooms booked in oceanview, oceanfront and lagoon view. We decided that those rooms were given priority clean-up before the Courtyard and less expensive rooms.

At around 2:45, we were told that one of our rooms was ready. We had been given room numbers when we had first arrived, so we knew that the available room was for my parents. We arranged to have all luggage delivered to their room so that we could change for the Luau. Beautiful, classic room and I was pleased! After the luggage was delivered, I decided to sneak a peek at our room that was being cleaned. I was surprised to see that our room had double beds (they were actually only 3/4 beds) and the room also had a huge double door connection with the room on the corner of the hotel. We had specifically requested that we [b]not[/b] have a connecting room as we always have trouble with noise from neighbors, especially children. Not only that, but the doors had a huge 2 inch gap between the bottom of the door and the floor. I knew that would be trouble!

I went down to the front desk and told them of the mistake with our room. They were very apologetic and attempted to find another room. After several tries, the clerk brought over a supervisor. She took a look at the computer and then looked up at the clerk (not at me - ever) and said to him "they are only booked for two nights!" and off she went. I took that to mean that because we were only staying two nights and we had booked the least expensive room, we could suffer. I have to stopp here and mentioned that compared to the majority of guest checking in to the hotel, we were very well dressed in comparison. The clerk apologized and said that he could move us for the second night only and that all the Courtyard rooms were booked for that night. I said that it would be too much trouble to up and move everything again. I asked him if the corner room next door to us was booked that evening. He checked his computer and said that the people checking in the corner room were only a couple and we shouldn't have any problems with noise. No mention was made of an upgrade to a golf course view across the hall in which rooms were available both nights (I checked but it would be [b]$50[/b] more a night). The good news was that our room was ready. It was now 3:10 with just enough time to go grab our luggage and freshen up.

[b]Second problem -[/b] We get back to the hotel around 10:00 that night and unpack. The room next door was quiet, so assuming that the occupants had checked in and already were asleep and knowing that they would be able to hear us as much as we could hear them, we were really quiet. The birds in the courtyard tree were really singing and we could also hear the music from the nearby open air lounge. We had been told of the birds in the morning, but didn't know they carried-on all night or about the music. We had to get up at 5:30 am the next morning because we had booked another excursion through the hotel to the Arizona Memorial leaving at 6:15 am. We got ready for bed and luckily carry a white noise, sound machine with us. Unfortunately, there was not a plug where needed to drown out the noise completely, but we were too tired and fell fast asleep anyway. OK, here is where it gets nasty!:mad: At 3:30 am we are awakened by loud noises in the hallway and then slamming of the door next to us, followed by loud talking in the room connecting with us. Our neighbors have just checked in!:eek: They proceed to talk, unpack, etc. just like it is the middle of the day. They even turn the TV up full blast and we can hear every word they say (they were almost shouting) in addition to what TV show they were watching. Remeber that all this can be heard over our white noise machine that is placed between us and the double connecting doors! After no sleep from that point on, at 5:00 am, we finally crawl out of bed and get ready for our day. By the time we leave the room, we can still hear the TV going next door, but do not hear the guest. My husband went to the front desk and told of our experience and our original request and made a second request for a room change. The clerk told us they were full, but would see what could be done and to check back when we returned from our excursion. When we were boarding our shuttle to the Arizona, my husband looks up to the second floor and spots the occupants of the room next to us, out on their balcony in their bathrobes just chatting away - they never went to bed!:rolleyes:

We return from a very tiring day and check back in with the front desk. They recognized my husband and immediately had him some new keys and said that we have been moved down the hall. No assistance was offered to help move our luggage, however. We went to the new room first to check it out and it was acceptable. Then we preceeded to our original room. Would you believe that we could hear the couple next door as we approched the outside of our room! The TV was once again up full blast and the couple was having an argument. From inside our room, we could hear everything and it was not nice. It took us only a couple of trips with the help of my parents to get us moved. The new room had the king bed, and a wonderful view of the ocean over the courtyard buildings. I did notice that the beautiful curtains were missing from our room. Oh well, I guess they have to be cleaned sometime! We had trouble sleeping that night because of the birds and the music was going again, but did sleep a little better and were able to sleep late without noise from the neighbors.:)
[font=Arial]
Even with all the trouble, if we ever return to Honolulu, we will book the Mandarin again. We will just "bite the bullet" and get a room on the golf course side. The hotel was beautiful and the views spectacular! For the most part, the staff was great and the food superb. The grounds were what we originally assumed all of Hawaii looked like, but quickly found otherwise. The neighborhood that surrounds the Mandarin was different than any other area we visited and it bordered the golf course that holds the Sony Open each year. My husband was in heaven! We even took a stroll down to the pro shop to purchase a couple of golf shirts. We could have stayed at the resort the whole week and wished that we had another night there.


On a side note - We booked the Mandarin on our own because it was secluded and out of the way of the hustle and bustle of Waikiki. It was also more expensive than some of the other hotels and therefore we thought that the cliental of guest would be a bit nicer. We were surprised to find out, closer to our cruise, that RCCL had added this hotel to their pre/post cruise packages (Celebrity also uses the hotel) and were a little miffed as we thought this hotel would not be so touristy. The package rate was actually more than what we paid, so we didn't bother changing over to RCCL for our booking. I feel that the Kahala Mandarin Oriental has made a mistake with having an arrangement with the cruiselines. They must need the business though. The first half of our check-in day was a mad house trying to accommodate the newly arriving ship passengers and the departing passengers as well. We just don't feel that individual attention was given to those guess that book their rooms independently of tour groups unless you had reserved their nicer accommodations.

I would not hesitate to recommend the Kahala Mandarin Oriental to anyone! I will just be sure to give tips about the room locations.

One other plus for the hotel - The dolphins! We thought that watching the dolphins interact was better than our swim with the Seal ions and Dolphins in Cozumel! The hotel really has a nice facility for them and you can tell that they are well loved by their trainers. We also enjoyed seeing the various fish and sea turtles. They were just as exciting to watch as our snorkeling excursion in Kono.[/font]
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[spleen93]

Unpleasant neighbors can always make things more difficult! Sorry to hear about your trouble. I'm sure if the hotel hadn't been full, they could have done more to accomodate you - I've never had a problem at the front that they couldn't handle ... :(

Spleen

[Sea Island Lady]

The front desk did handle the problem eventually, but unfortunately, we probably received the room of the poor soul that was getting our old room that afternoon.:o