Cabanas at the Grand Wailea

We were really quite torn if we wanted a cabana one of our days at the resort. And I am so glad we did!
The standard cabana for the price we paid $ 350, split between two people, was totally worth it!
The first time, I’d planned ahead. In speaking with one of the Cabana attendants via email I’d let her know my preferences for the September weekday and we ended up getting, what in my opinion, was the best cabana at the adult pool (A).
Cabana A was right on the pool, so it was easy to get in and out for dips and to close the side for privacy. All the cabanas come with ceiling fans, safes, bottled ice water, and cold fruit — but that was our favorite cabana just due to the fact it wasn’t next to any other cabanas and was close to the bar.
After our first experience we ended up deciding to spring for another one, on a weekend, same month, the night before. This time the pricing was different, $ 250, for a slightly less awesome cabana (Q).
Cabana Q had a lot of foot traffic and had lawn chairs right in front of it. It’s much much farther from the bar and not on the water. But it was still fantastic — especially for the honey — to relax in the shade and enjoy the air and waves. And for us to have a place to leave our things (especially when it rained!). I’m really glad it was less money however as after seeing it we may have tried to switch to another — just simply for how far away it was.
A couple small negatives. I’m not sure they actually change the towels on the chairs each day. While I did see a couple attendants remove a cabanas towels, both mornings our towels looked used. The first morning they were wet in several places (which we chalked up to washing) and the second time there was a grass stain as well as several other stains covered by another towel.
The clincher was the drink rings on the safe towel — very obviously from an earlier guest. After that we made sure to put all our own towels down — and removed all towels from the chairs when we left.
All in all worth it, but entirely depending upon price!
There are also two types of casabellas at the Grand Wailea. Deck and lawn.
I did a bit of research while I was trying to decide if I wanted to spend a little more money for a cabana. The website of the hotel offers no pictures of any of the cabanas, casabellas or lawn chairs — and I wanted to know what the layout would look like prior to purchasing it.
I did a couple random google searches and was able to piece together what the cabanas looked like and what the deck casabellas possibly looked like (half coverage, burned legs and thighs) and I ended up going with a cabana.
But that doesn’t mean that everyone was like me and googled for the pictures. Our first day a woman was frantically searching for her «cabana» — but had actually purchased the deck casabella and «didn’t want any sun…»
While you can turn the basket-​like casabella around, it never has full coverage. It’s much more a a pillowed lounge point (no property safe or drink table) for someone who wants to be near the pool and have a place to leave their towel. You will get a ton of sun — on half of your body at least. But the pad is terry cloth, so it’s more comfortable than the cabana.
The second casabella is the blue lawn casabella, and is the reason this is a three star review.
These casabellas are incredibly disreputable. They’re dirty and directly face a shrub (the pictures don’t do it justice). In fact, they’re inches away from it. It’s not like a nice padded lawn chair on the beach. The Grand beach is actually a public beach (thus why the daily wrist bands) and so they’ve planted some sort of living bush line to keep the Grand land separate from the rest of the beach. The casabellas are right on this line.
And very obviously they are in no way taken care of (Some of their signs are literally hanging off of them) and were fashioned not to be movable. I would highly not recommend them. Especially not at the $ 95 they were quoted.
All in all a deck casabella is an okay deal if what you want is the above. Honestly, for the extra coverage, the ceiling fan, and the safe? The $ 120 difference was peanuts to us, especially since it seems the prices change on certain days and we ended up getting a cabana (requested the night before) for the same amount the deck casabella was first quoted to us.
We were pretty happy with our choice, but sadly the poor woman across from us was not.