We stayed at the Maui Sheraton for a week in June. We chose it because we have a 15 year old son who had never snorkeled before and were told it was the best snorkeling spot. We also were told by our travel agent it had a lot of kids.

We really liked the hotel from the moment we arrived. The valet guys were so great. They directed us to great places to eat and even gave us maps every time on how to get to all the places. I really think that the valet desk made the hotel 10 times better. Everyday we stopped by to find out a new place to eat. We tried to mostly eat local. After all we did not come all the way to Maui to eat at Burger King.

We were upgraded to an oceanfront room. Which was very nice since we didn't even ask for an upgrade. The room was nice,clean and recently remodeled. My only complaint is that there were two full beds. For the money you spend it should be two queens. I really had a hard time sleeping comfortably. The beds were not comfortable either, not like the Heavenly beds.... My son didn't mind since he had one bed all to himself.

The location is so great for snorkeling. You just walk from your room right into the water and snorkel around Black Rock. We did see a lot of sea turtles. That was amazing! One time I was out by myself, I turned my head and was face to face with one giant one. I tried to back up and and give him his space but he followed me around for about 10 mins. That was a very neat experience. You really have to go out to the end and around the corner of Black Rock to see them. They are not close to the beach.

The beach is always busy but does not seem "packed". There were lots of kids around. My son made friends to swim and body surf with.

The pool is nice and big. There are spots that are very secluded so you can have some privacy to just hang out. The hot tub is VERY SMALL.

Funny thing is we never ate at the hotel. We always tried to go where the valet guys and others at the valet desk recommended. Our favorite for breakfast was the Gazebo at Napili (Shores or Point, can't remember which now) We did go there twice because we loved it!!! They had the best banana macadamia nut pancakes with coconut syrup! And the Big Kahuna omelette with Portuguese sausage was so good!!!!!

The first night we were there we went into Lahaina and my son wanted to try Bubba Gumps because he loves shrimp. We all thought the meal was ok but not worth going again. None of us were impressed but the atmosphere was a lot of fun.

We really enjoyed Lahaina. Just walking around at night eating ice cream or flavored shaved ice, shopping and people watching....

One night we went to the Okazuya (whole name Honokowai Okazuya and Deli) Brandon from the valet desk told us the prices were great and food was awesome... The guy that owns it use to be a chef at Mama's Fish House.... It was very small counter service and a few tables outside but the food was so GOOD.... Go to mauihawaii.org and look in the restaurant section. Very good for and very cheap. The least amount we spent on a meal there.

We did the road to Hana in one day. The black sand beaches were sooo cool. We even found some off the beaten path. If you see something that looks interesting go check it out.... The was what made the road to Hana a great experience for us. The wind surfers were cool to see also at Hookapi Beach. On the way back from Hana we stopped and had an amazing dinner at Mama's Fish House. It was very pricey but worth it. I am glad I read the reviews and ate there. Eat there, you will not be disappointed. Our favorite place of all!!!

We ate at the Hula Grill and had the catch of the day. That was a good meal but Mama's was much better for the price. I would of eaten at Mama's twice since it was the same price....

Buzz's Warf had good fish, shrimp and clam chowder. Was good for an easy lunch.

We tried the Aloha Mixed Plate (on our own, not recommended by our valet) and we were very disappointed. We had so many good meals that we were not satisfied with it at all. We ended up later that night eating at BJ's pizza and had very good pizza there. Appetizers were so so...


We did the Old Lahaina Luau. It was a neat experience and the food was ok. Buffet food... The entertainment made it worth while. I would definitely say if you have never seen one to go experience it. It was very cool to see the history of Hawaii acted out.

We did the ziplining at Kapalua. It was fun and the views were very pretty. The staff was nice and seemed to really enjoy their job. The only part I did not like was the speech about tips at the end. Could of done without that. Otherwise would give them perfect marks. If you go ask for Hilary, she was awesome and had tons of suggestions of places to check out off the beaten path.

Also did the horseback riding at Mendes Ranch. I am an animal lover first and foremost. There were some horses that were in bad shape. Matted hair, horseshoes falling off. Thankfully they did not put us on them. But I am someone eventually gets them. The views were amazing. First you go up the mountain and down near the ocean. They stop twice and take pics for you with your camera.

We got a snorkel map from Boss Frog's. We had most snorkel equipment (from Costco) but needed anti-fog... If you don't have it get some for your masks. All of the snorkel places carry it and you don't have to come up every 5 mins to wipe the steam out of your mask..... We worked around the map and tried most of the snorkel spots. There are some amazing places and most are so different. It is very windy in Maui so snorkel early. The afternoons really make it choppy and difficult for newer snorkelers...

We did rent a car through priceline. Got a convertible for $20 a day. We had three though... Apparently the trunk latch on Sebring's are famous for not closing which makes the top stuck in whatever position it is in.... They brought us two more besides the one we rented. Finally the manager at Alamo said she was going to bring us a Cadillac. Holy cow we got the big daddy DTS. The good news is that every time they picked up a car they waived the gas fee. So we only had to fill up once. Which was nice since gas was $4.65 a gallon!!!!

Overall I liked Maui. Our hotel was in the best location but not sure if I would stay there just because of the beds. Would try somewhere else next time to try something new. I really liked the people. All the locals we met we friendly and helpful and seemed like great people. I am truly glad we got to experience Maui....

I have lots of pics so if you would like to see them or have questions feel free to email me---- rjsmom1117@gmail.com

Our family stayed 8 nights.
The Sheraton truly has in my opinion, the nicest nook of beach on Ka'anapali. The water is clean and clear, and we didnt have to go diving to find tropical fish or sea turtles. It only took a mask to look right under wherever we happened to be swimming. The turtles generally swim all around Black Rock- even while locals and tourists alike dive off the cliff, but they certainly did not limit their swim to the reef. We saw them all around us, along with Butterfly fish, Pufferfish, and oodles of Unicorn fish. I got the hang of using a snorkel because I didnt want to lift my head and miss a thing.
We had originally confirmed an upgraded room, but upon our arrival, they had no record of it. The following day after speaking to the manager our room was upgraded and we were moved a few nights later. Both rooms we occupied had a fridge that we could stock- which is always a good thing. The beds were comfortable, and the pillows nice. The bathrooms were not as clean as I would have liked them to be.
For the price of the room we hadnt expected them to nickel and dime us so much. While one would expect to pay for valet parking daily, there is also a charge for daily self parking, a 20$ daily hotel fee over your daily rate, and regular ammenities are another 20$ They didnt greet us with a lei, and we didnt find the hotel lobby staff to be pleasant or helpful, although the waiters and cocktail waitresses and housekeeping were very friendly.
The pool closed very early- but we found that most of Maui closes early. :) One great perk besides the good location, was that every thing you need from shopping to food was just a beach boardwalk walk away- literally. From board rentals to parasailing to banana boating. All within five minute walk. Some of the hotels right on the walk also had bars that stayed open a bit later that ours and hula.

Let me first say that the resort and the Ka'anapali beach are absolutely beautiful. The water is clear, and the Black Rock is unique to this property. Service in general was good too, but I did run into some issues.

I stayed at Building 4, which was not much different from the other buildings except that construction work was going on on the first floor building a Spa section. Construction work would go start from 9:30am to 5pm Monday to Friday, and all the noise from drilling to hammering propagated through the walls as if they were coming directly next door. It was so loud that I was awakened from sleep once at 9:30 in the morning. I called immediately to complain, but they couldn't relocate me to a different room because the resort was fully booked. The service manager called me back to apologize, but the situation didn't improve.

The same thing occurred on the next day, and at around 10:30am, I noticed the signal to the TV disappeared. As suspected and later confirmed by hotel personnel, the Spa construction managed to cut the digital TV cable. TV was out for almost two days. Admittedly, watching TV was not the top priority at beautiful Ka'anapali, but I wouldn't mind watching local news and weather reports.

At the end of the third day, after some more complaining, the service manager was able to find me a new equivalent room in the neighboring building three, which didn't have any of the noise issue, and I was compensated $50 for the TV outage.

I must give credit to the hotel front desk though as they were always polite, and I'm sure they weren't thrilled about the on-going construction work either. The did try to make my experience better by finding me a new room, and while $50 wasn't much, it was a nice gesture.

We just returned from Maui and stayed at 3 seperate hotels during our time there. We started the trip off at the Sheraton and loved it! It's very peaceful and quite and the staff is very friendly. There are great activities for kids and families each day that do not cost extra, the pools were great, the beach was amazing, and my son and husband loved the snorkeling at blackrock.

We ate at the pool side bar a couple of times and the food there was high, but very good. We ate at the breakfast buffet once and it was wonderful. Kids under 12 eat free so all three of us got to eat breakfast for $55 which is still high for breakfast, but since our son was free it helped offset the cost. Those are the only 2 hotel restaurants we tried so I can't speak for the others.

We did try several restaurants in Whalers Village down the path and enjoyed all of them - the proximity is very convenient.

Valet parking was nice - only $5 a day, free the first night.

I'm a Gold SPG member and we were upgraded to a deluxe ocean view room in Bldg 2. Great location and view! The room was a nice size, the balcony was large and the bathroom was very big and nice. The room was clean and must have been one of the recently remodeled rooms since we had no complaints on the room itself. The in room refrig. could have been a little colder, but I'm sure it was an older one and just did not get very cold to begin with.

We stayed at the Westin down the beach after we left the Sheraton and wish we had just stayed at the Sheraton the whole time. We did not care for the Westin at all but I'll write a seperate review on that one.

The lounge chairs with cabanas were a good deal for $40 a day and we enjoyed that one day while we hung out at the beach. I highly recommend doing that.

We plan to return to Maui and will definitely use our SPG points for another stay at the Sheraton.