Our family of 5 stayed at the Ko olina for 7 days. We have 3 kids, ages 6-13, and they enjoyed every aspect of the place. There are two pools, a beach-entry pool with a large sandy wading area which is perfect for toddlers, and a larger pool with a center island surrounded by deeper areas. The landscaping is beautiful, and the service without fault. The poolside service areas have plenty of towels, cold water, toys, and games. At the lagoon you can rent kayaks, cabanas, water bikes, etc. There are four lagoons in the develpment which are usually calm and clear, with a fish feeding in the morning which brings in many of the local fish for easy viewing.

The rooms are the usual marriott condo size - 2 bdrm around 1200 sq ft, they're furnished with a beautiful hawaiian plantation style and are equipped with w/d, full kitchen, marble bathrooms, sitting area outside the master with floor to ceiling windows to take in the view.

The downside - The location is about 20 minutes away from Honolulu, and about 45 minutes away from our favorite beaches on the Kailua side. Trips to honolulu and the airport have to be timed around rush hour, which is almost as bad as any large city. The tradeoff is in the peaceful atmosphere though - much better over Waikiki and kind of hard to find in Oahu these days. There are many casual restaurants, a Safeway, Longs, cinema and Kmart just a few miles away in Kapolei.

Bottom line - it's a great place to relax and get away from it all, but not recommended for the first time tourist to hawaii as it's too far from all the sightseeing (except Pearl harbor). Go if you want to be pampered while sitting on the beach.

After reading the trip reports before we left I had high expectations, and I can tell you the resort exceded them!
We had a two bedroom suite in Building #2 for the first 4 days then Building #1 for the the last 3. Each time we had a two bedroom suite but in Bld #1 we had an amazing ocean view. My husband, daughter (8 Months) and I stayed there with my parents. The two bedroom suit was perfect. It was HUGE and had three bathrooms, kitchen, living room, two bedrooms, two pull out couches, and two balconies. The nice part is that we could close the door and make it two seperate suites when we wanted.

The service was 5star all the way. Great for families as well as couples looking to get away. There are two pools, one for children and one for adults so you never have to listen to noisy kids. The kids pool even has a sandy beach infront with lots of chairs and umbrellas. The gym is beside the pool area and my husband and father found it to have lots of equipment and never was too crowded. (My mom did ask them to vacuum the floor though.) The beach with the lagoons is a public beach and you aren't allowed to bring alchohol down there. There are cabana rentals for the day. You have to bring your towels from the pool there as they don't have any at the beach front. The lagoon is calm and protected so it's very safe for swimming. There is a beautiful walk way that goes from the Marina all the way to the other Marriot hotel. It takes about 25 min to walk there. Along the way you see 2 more lagoons as well as lots of places to sit on the grass, under the trees or on benches.
For dining there is one beachfront outside cafe style place that serves a great breakfast buffet as well as a nice lunch/dinner menu. The Markte place also has Starbucks and an array of sandwiches, and breakfast bagels. There is also a nightly buffet with musice under the lobby which we didn't try. During the week they have a few diff shows. One which is free and they serve appetizers and drinks. The other is a show and buffet. (There are a handful of restaurants at the other hotel with varying prices.) They have a shuttle that takes you all over the estate, so you can go to and from each hotel as well as the Golf course.

You deff need a car when on this Island as everything is quite spreadout. 5 min away there is a Safeway and other shops like KMart. We bought lots of food and BBQ'd at the hotel a couple times and cooked in our kitchen. For a REALLY nice meal out you have to head to the Golf Club and eat at Roy's! We went there twice and it was amazing...great view, great service and yummy food. Some nights they have entertainment as well. Sit outside if it's not to windy.

If you go to the 90 min Presentation they give you 100 dollars to spend towars anything at the hotel. We went and my father actually bought a time share!!

We stayed for 5 nights from Dec 27 to Jan 2, 2006. We had the master suite with 1 bath, a full kitchen and dining area with an oceanview. The room was very nicely decorated and tastefully done. The bed was extremely comfortable and even the pull out sofa was fine - Our 14 year son had no complaints. We found the service and staff to be top notch, they go out of their way to be friendly and helpfull. We were totally impressed that they had preprinted directions to a everything we were interested in going to from Costco to the Northshore to Hanama Bay to the Aquarium at Waikiki Beach.

The logoons were interesting but due to extemely high wave action the water was not as clear as we had seen on a previous visit. Note: Jellyfish can be a problem in the lagoons due to a lunar cycle they are usually present from the full moon to 8 to 10 days after EVERY month. We did not experience any problems with jellyfish since the cycle had just completed. Lagoon 3 is where the resort is located and it had rentals for snorkal gear, kayaks, and even new learn to surf lessons. The beach has private two person cabanas for rent or free lounges. There usually were lounges available whenever we wanted them. They also feed the fish every morning in lagoon 1 at 7:30, it'w worth the walk down to try it out.

The pools are very family friendly with two large pool areas they never felt crowed even over the prime holiday season. The workout room was excellent and never really crowded.

The restaurant choices on-site are a little limited but the food was good in both. The JW Illini Marriot had more choices and down the road about 5 miles were a number or restaurants plus a Safeway. The property does have two gas grills and utensils to grill with so you can pick up some steaks or chicken at the grocery store and have a nice picnic at the resort.

One of the highlights of our stay was on New Years Eve the JW Marriot has a fireworks show over Lagoon 1. It was far better than we anticipated or expected. They supposedly have the fireworks every New Years Eve and for those of you lucky enough to be there its worth the time to go see the show.

All in all if you want to relax this is a great place to go, if you want a multitude of restaurants or evening activities then maybe Waikiki is a better choice for you. A rental car would be recommended but you can get different transportation options from the resort.

We are just finishing up a 9 day stay at the Ko'Olina and it has been a wonderful time. Starting with the room, 1 master/1 bath, full kitchen and dining area. The lanai provides us with an awesome sunset every evening. The staff is very warm and friendly, always available to answer questions. There is a shortage of places to eat, I would suggest renting a car, there are several great restaurants in the town of Kapolei. We had some wonderful island favorites at En Fuego's and Kapolei Chinese Restaurant, authentic food and great prices. The staff was very helpful in pointing out great palces to try new foods. If you have kids this is the place. The pools are terrfic as are the lagoons. My kids (8 and 14) favorite thing was getting the newspaper each morning. It included the schedule of events for the kids. Jewelry making, race car building, lei making, hula lessons, bingo, the list goes on. We visited a hotel in Waikiki and were so grateful to return to our peaceful island paradise. We plan on making this an annual trip.