If you're looking for a two bedroom close to the beach that won't break the bank, look no further. My friend and I stayed here for 1 month and overall the place was as expected. Let me share some details:
The Good:
- Location is fantastic. Three minute walk to the beach, close to queen's beach where all of the beach volleyball in Waikiki is played, and incredible unobstructed views of Diamond Head and the morning sunrise from the patio.
- Two bedrooms have very comfortable beds and good closet space. Not a lot of dresser drawers and not a lot of room to move around (the rooms are just barely bigger than the beds), but beautiful views of the Waikiki beach and sunsets at night. There is a second TV and a 4-drawer dresser in the larger bedroom, otherwise no dresser space beyond the one nightstand per room.
- There is a trash room and laundry room right outside the apartment door, which I thought would be noisy but I never heard anything and it was very convenient to not have to walk far with trash and dirty clothes. The washer and dryer worked very well - they take quarters or you can download an app and pay via that (with a $10 minimum). The unit even has a laundry hamper and a starter supply of laundry detergent
- The bathroom is small but works great. The toilet doesn't always flush super well (even just with too much TP), but plungers are provided. The shower is small but the water pressure is very good. Plenty of storage and counter space.
- The kitchen had most of the cooking essentials, and all things worked as expected. The kitchenware was a little dirty so we made sure to clean everything before use, but otherwise no issues. While sponges and dish soap are provided, the apartment does not come with ANY cooking foods (oil, salt, pepper, butter, etc.), so be sure to pack those with you or purchase them when you arrive. There's a little mini mart on the fifth floor of the building which does have a lot of the basics, and a hefty selection of alcohol (though no seltzers). There's an ABC store within a two minute walk of the building more a bigger selection of basic groceries, and it's a 5 minute Uber to the nearest grocery store, a Safeway (not walkable).
- We did have a rental car and parking was very easy and free.
- The unit has central A/C which worked wonderfully - we were never too hot or too cold
- The street noise was almost nothing, and I felt very safe walking down my street at night.
- The unit has beach chairs, a beach umbrella, a boogie board, and plenty of beach towels. We also left goggles, snorkels and flippers behind, so those may be there as well.
- The desk in the living area was PERFECT for remote work. The wifi worked well when it worked (see below for more details)
- The porch was just big enough to squeeze in a yoga mat and do some morning workouts while watching the sunrise - couldn't have asked for a better setup!
- The building just started allowing use of the common spaces (pool, gym, grilling area, etc.) with a reservation, though that may change depending on how COVID progresses there
The Bad:
- NOTE: the building is very very strict about knowing who is on the property at all times, and Captain Cook did not let us know all building protocols which almost left us with a massive fine from the building HOA. Make sure that you send Captain Cook the names and mailing addresses of ALL members of your traveling party AT LEAST a week in advance of their arrival, even if someone is just coming to visit you for a weekend during your longer stay. You will get fined if the building finds out you did not follow this protocol, and you will get fined if you try to give them this information upon check-in of any new guest (because they require it at least 3 days in advance of arrival).
- We did ask in the Airbnb reservation to turn the two twin beds into a king, and they misread the instructions and left them as twins. If you have any special requests, I recommend reaching out to Captain Cook after your booking is confirmed to make sure they have been received. After asking three or four times I finally got the king bedding and was able to switch the beds over myself, but the new bedding was a bit dirty.
- There was a power outage about two weeks into our stay, and since our wifi router was not plugged into a surge protector, it blew out the wifi and Captain Cook was unable to schedule a repairman to come out and fix it before the end of our stay. After a few days with no wifi, they did offer us another empty unit in the building to work from which was very kind. We made sure all wifi things were plugged into a surge protector after that.
- There was construction in the unit above us starting about three weeks into our stay, which Captain Cook was unaware of (the building failed to notify them). The noise was horrible, but on the third day the construction workers hit a wrong pipe and we lost water in our kitchen. After much back and forth with Captain Cook, they moved us to a different unit for the last few nights of our stay. I would have liked to have seen Captain Cook be more forthcoming with a relocation (instead they offered us a refund of about $200 for the inconvenience), but in the end they did meet our requests for a new space. The construction is scheduled to end sometime in December 2020 so if you're booking this unit