Hotel is about 30 minutes from airport, there are some shuttle companies but uber was cheapest it costs about $40.
Check-in is a late time at 4pm, room was ready and check-in process had no issues. Food is okay at hotel, with a few vegetarian options. Take advantage of happy hour from 4-6pm. Never ate breakfast, went off the reviews. Pool is great and uniquely shaped with a few waterfalls, a couple of slides there's also an adults only pool and hot Jacuzzis around. There are activities regularly which we never got round to doing, with a games room too. Free shuttle bus regularly takes you to the nearby Queens, King's and Hilton Hotel, we used this several times throughout our stay, it is very handy. You can get to the beach from these Queens/Kings, it is a walk of about 10-15mins to the Lava Lava Beach from these stops, beach is nice - was not too crowded when we went with some complementary loungers. Water was cool temperature - not a lot going on snorkeling wise.
Concierge desk is helpful and would definitely recommend the grand experience card they offer it gives you discounted rates to lots of tours, luckily Kimberly who we signed up with was great and saved us over $100! You must attend a timeshare presentation in order to get the card, which is about two hours but well worth it with what you get.
A major negative and a reason this review is knocked down from a five star is that there are no food options on site after 7! This is new to us and you have to get a shuttle bus to the nearby restaurants, there isn't room service as well. Very inconvenient after a long day out and perhaps wouldn't have booked if we knew about this, luckily there was only two occasions when were exhausted and had to travel out. No restaurants deliver to the area too.
There are a few restaurants in Queens market that cater to vegetarians. The grocery store they recommend is very overpriced, we limited it to a few bits for our breakfast and some snacks. They didn't even have a vegetarian selection of sandwiches or toasties which is very poor. We ate at Kings twice at Roy's and Fosters kitchen would recommend both, also lots of shops at Kings.
The lagoon grill is nice in the village hotel. Would definitely recommend checking out the village hotel area, it is a very busy hotel but the sites around are amazing. My favourite place was the lagoon where you can swim with turtles, fish and even a ray.
They don't have a DVD selection anymore so it's all by app amazon prime, netflix and the wide range of TV channels. WiFi was very good and strong connection throughout the hotel.
Staff at Kingsland were mostly very pleasant and friendly, just one poor experience with a receptionist who was unhelpful and needs some more training I think.
The luau they do on Thursdays nights is worth checking out, also has a different menu with extra food options. We didn't have a rental car as everyone seems to recommend but didn't see it as a problem as lots of companies pick up. We did whale watching, manta rays, submarine and circle tour. The only company that didn't pickup was atlantis but we got a helebus right to their ticket office from hilton village this saved us a lot of money, we caught the first show, ate at taco bell and got an uber back. We really wanted to do the stargazing but it kept getting cancelled due to weather so bear that in mind if coming in winter months.
Housekeeping was okay, just one unexplained day where they missed cleaning. There were some bits on the ceiling that were missed during cleaning and shower area sometimes had finished bottles left on the floor which makes you question the level of cleaning. They provide two water bottles, coffee, green tea as the only tea option and butter popcorn. Salt and pepper is missing though, which we felt should be there.
Had a couple of special occasions we were celebrating including my 30th which took place whilst there, would have been nice for a gesture of some sort as my wife told them about it beforehand and every hotel we have been to does something when we are celebrating. Also a lei on our first time in Hawaii would have been nice.
