The Ritz Carlton O’Ahu, Turtle Bay

“A wonderful introduction to the beauty and hospitality of Hawaii”

You will love this gorgeous resort--at least, my daughter and I did. The bay is beautiful and the water is calm, and if you go snorkeling you might see cool things like sea turtles and rainbow fish. The rooms are very airy and comfortable, and ours had a great deck and view. Every meal we had was d… more

You will love this gorgeous resort--at least, my daughter and I did. The bay is beautiful and the water is calm, and if you go snorkeling you might see cool things like sea turtles and rainbow fish. The rooms are very airy and comfortable, and ours had a great deck and view. Every meal we had was delicious and the staff goes above and beyond to make you feel genuinely welcomed. Highly recommend the add-on stargazing evening and the tour of the farm that the resort owns. They source a lot of their produce from it. Enjoy!

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“Outstanding Service”

Fabulous setting with lots to see and do. Most appreciated was amazing service, particularly by Travis Bennett Tanouye, who, to get a forgotten computer shipped out ASAP, solved the problem of needing to wait days for the next FedEx pickup by personally getting up early, going into town, and taki… more

Fabulous setting with lots to see and do. Most appreciated was amazing service, particularly by Travis Bennett Tanouye, who, to get a forgotten computer shipped out ASAP, solved the problem of needing to wait days for the next FedEx pickup by personally getting up early, going into town, and taking the package to the fexex store on his own time Saturday AM. Amazing and appreciated customer focus.

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“Same Turtle Bay, don’t expect a Ritz Carlton experience yet.”

I have been staying at this hotel for 30 years. This week was the first time we’ve stayed there since it was taken over by the Ritz Carlton. We have stayed in many different Ritz Carlton hotels and as others have said, it doesn’t live up to the brand….yet. Service I think the transition to a high… more

I have been staying at this hotel for 30 years. This week was the first time we’ve stayed there since it was taken over by the Ritz Carlton. We have stayed in many different Ritz Carlton hotels and as others have said, it doesn’t live up to the brand….yet. Service I think the transition to a higher quality of service will take time as the staff needs to adapt. I got the impression some of the staff I talked to are inherently bothered by tourists which is true of a lot of local Hawaiians. It doesn’t really bother me because I used to live on the north shore and I get it. However, the hospitality didn’t match the Ritz Carlton brand. Room The rooms are obviously the same footprint as they’ve been since the building opened 50 years ago, so yes, they’re small for Ritz Carlton. The mattresses were not yet upgraded. There were no robes nor slippers. The towels were thin and small. I found a dirty pair of compression socks in our room. I didn’t see any cockroaches though which is a major concern on the north shore. The doors close very quietly even from the outside which is nice if you have a sleeping kid or family in the room. Activities My child attended some classes such as hula lessons, lei making and ukulele playing. All the instructors were amazing and so nice. We totally enjoyed every moment of the classes which are included in the resort fee. On the last day of our trip I noticed there was a “passport” for the kids. I asked the concierge desk about it, said she had done all those classes and asked if we could have one. She suspiciously asked me if I had photos I could show her before she gave me the passport. It was a piece of card stock paper haha. I asked her if she was asking me to show her proof and she narrowed her eyes at me. It was a very strange encounter as if she thought I was trying to pull a fast one on her for this piece of paper. Nevertheless, my kid got the paper and a stamp for each thing she had done. Apparently if your child gets enough things checked off they get a prize. Fun and cute idea. They don’t have a Ritz Kids but I’m hoping they will incorporate that soon. We went to the luau that is paniolo (cowboy) theme and it was nice. Honestly the Polynesian men they had up there dancing in cowboy clothing was comical to me. Seemed a little strange. They’re really trying to make the paniolo theme work with the “stables” and such. It feels a little awkward and forced. They should stick with a regular luau. They did have a Samoan fire dancer at the end who also gave a somewhat awkward performance though he was great at fire dancing. The food was great but I wouldn’t say it was worth the $600 or something my husband paid for the evening. I probably wouldn’t do that again unless they changed the theme. Someone tell them it’s okay to be traditional. Beach The beach was so overrun this time. This is the first time I’ve felt like there were just hoards of people there. I noticed there were tour busses parked in the Kam highway that must’ve dropped loads of people off and were waiting to pick them back up. It’s too bad.

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“Rates went way up and quality down!”

This is our fourth time staying here (we leave tomorrow) but first time since it was bought by Marriott/Ritz Carlton. We were disappointed to hear that they got rid of the evening fire show since being purchased. My kids always look forward to that. The coffee at the coffee shop really isn’t good… more

This is our fourth time staying here (we leave tomorrow) but first time since it was bought by Marriott/Ritz Carlton. We were disappointed to hear that they got rid of the evening fire show since being purchased. My kids always look forward to that. The coffee at the coffee shop really isn’t good or strong. Four seasons ko’olina coffee is so much better. Can they get that here? It’s disappointing when you can’t get good coffee and it’s really the only thing around. We traveled with two other families and our friends all agreed. The food options and quality aren’t good at the coffee shop either. The daybeds used to be front row at the beach. We reserved one, even after checking the map online which showed them in the front and got down here to find they are in the back so we cancelled. We don’t want to pay $100 to sit behind a bunch of people at the beach. I went to use the restroom at the beach and they are under construction with workers tearing them apart. One of the workers told me the women’s was closed, but I could use the men’s and I went in there and it was disgusting and there wasn’t any toilet paper and it was a construction zone. Every other time we have been here the facilities have been nice and usable. The coconut cream drink at the lounge bar inside was very good. We ate at Beach House by Roy and the food was great, but we ordered three or four appetizers for the table and they brought them all out at the same time as our food without even apologizing. So we had 3 apps come out with 3 entrees. And we waited a very long time for it, so having the appetizers as appetizers would’ve been nice. The WiFi has been extremely slow. We got a poke bowl at the pool. The ingredients were fresh, but there was zero sauce or anything flavorful on top like a normal poke bowl would have. Every other poke bowl I have had on the island has been amazing. After not loving the poke bowl the next time I ordered garlic shrimp and asked the server what her opinion of it was and she just said “Well we hope it’s good. The ingredients are listed.” She was nice in general, but didn’t make me want to order it. The shrimp was good and flavorful unlike the poke bowl. We left our towels and water bottles on our pool chairs to run up to the room for 45 minutes and we told the towel staff that we were coming back to not remove our items. It’s very windy so there are plenty of open chairs. We came back down and our stuff was gone including our water bottles. When we asked about them, they just said oh we must’ve taken them. We never got them back and they didn’t even offer to locate them. We ordered breakfast to the room (which was much better than the coffee shop food) and one of the things we got was sourdough toast. They brought us a bunch of bread that wasn’t toasted. The staff has been fairly friendly but that doesn’t really make up for the other things that are subpar here now. Given that they raised their prices by 40% and things have gone downhill we are not feeling great about coming back.

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