The Ritz-Carlton O’ahu, Turtle Bay

New York, I had never stayed at Turtle Bay before. We were blown away by the beautiful resort, amazing hospitality, great restaurant & activity options, & overall exceptional experience throughout our entire stay. Upgrade yourself to a Beach Cottage, it's absolutely worth it! Oceanfront Pavilion (Welcome Brunch): This was the most effortless part of my wedding planning. Turtle Bay made it so easy - you pick from their options, which are all good, & you've got yourself a wonderful little party. We had the Sunset Beach Brunch + deluxe hosted bar + custom cake (surprise bday cake for my husband). The weather was beautiful & the location was perfect. It was such a fun way to welcome our out-of-town guests to Hawaii. The Point: We all met up at the pool bar the night before the wedding. Great spot for large groups, incredible sunset views, & everyone was raving about the live entertainment. Roy's Beach House: Had dinner here on our last night at the resort. BEST restaurant at Turtle Bay! Had a table of about 10 of us & the manager Keith was so sweet to us & really made us feel welcome & taken care of.

eir pros and cons. We ended up settling on Turtle Bay because, for everything we wanted, it fit well into our budget. It also offered the conveniences that come with having a hotel wedding (e.g. not having to rent a ton of equipment and not having to hire a separate caterer) while still allowing us to have the wedding we wanted (i.e. aside from the food, they didn’t have required vendors, just preferred, and we could book whomever we wanted). We ended up choosing the pavilion at Kuilima Point for our ceremony, and the Kuilima Point lawn for our reception (under a tent). Overall, I was definitely happy with the fact that we had our wedding at Turtle Bay, but there were some things I would have liked to have known beforehand. For example, I knew that our guests would have to make a special effort to stay or make it to the North Shore, but for whatever reason it did not occur to me just how much the travel fees for all of our vendors would be. I totally understand vendor travel fees, and why they are necessary, but man, I really wish I had factored in the travel fees to the North Shore (which were generally more expensive than to, say, Honolulu) when trying to decide on a venue because boy did they add up. I think someone in some of the other reviews mentioned the funky way Turtle Bay does their hotel block. We ended up not doing the block because we didn’t have a guaranteed count of how many people were planning on staying at Turtle Bay, and because of that there was the potential for us to be on the hook for a lot of money if we did go with the block. I honestly felt super bad about this though, because it would have been nice to have had to offer to our guests. It would have been nice for the room block option to have been realistically more doable. Also, we ended up having out wedding in September to accommodate some of our family’s schedules. I was prepared for the fact that it would be windy in the North Shore, but when we checked in to Turtle Bay a few days before our wedding it was pouring. Honestly, the weather was pretty terrible until the day of our wedding. I don’t know how we lucked out, but I was seriously preparing myself for the worst. I think the rainy season starts even later in the year in Hawaii, so this was probably just bad luck on our part, but I do think that it would have (possibly?) been less likely to rain if we had planned our wedding for late spring or summer. All I am saying is definitely consider the weather on different parts of the island too before making your decision (for example, we drove to Aulani on one of the days it was pouring at the North Shore, and the weather was beautiful). But, with that said, did we have a beautiful wedding? Yes. The sunset during our reception was so beautiful that everyone started getting up and taking pictures. I was worried about the food too because we hadn’t had an opportunity to taste it beforehand (there is a complimentary tasting included with your package, but we could not fit it into our schedule), but my worries ended up being totally uncalled for. The food was SO GOOD and everyone was raving to us about it. Food is so important so we were very pleased that it turned out this way. In the end, we were extremely happy with our wedding, so overall I would recommend Turtle Bay.

she was a pleasure to work with. We had the clear tent at Kumilia Point and it was dreamy and beautiful. The food was out of this world and all my guest absolutely loved the resort and thought the wedding at Kumilima point was exceptional. Definitely check out Roys while you are there!

the beach and took excellent care of us and our guests at the reception. Overall a very nice day for our wedding

for you. They have spin class, yoga etc. and if you prefer weights they have that too. Another added plus is their vegan menu. Yeah! Mahalo Turtle Bay!

but the service is even better! We had some leftover food from our wedding reception, which was not at Turtle Bay, and they heated it up and brought it out to us poolside! Thats pretty awesome and impressive! This is why you pay the extra money to stay at this resort. They will go above and beyond for you, to make sure your stay is truly unforgettable and amazing. This place is beautiful, but the service and the employees that work there is what sets this place above the rest. Its the people that make the place.