So, just how much do you love her?
By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
If you're feeling nostalgic, romantic and ready to spend $10,000, The Royal Hawaiian Hotel has a special deal for you and your valentine.
The "Lavish" romance package offered all month at the historic beachfront Waikiki hotel starts with two nights in the regal pink-hued Kamehameha suite.
The two-bedroom, 3,000-square-foot, oceanfront suite has hosted numerous heads of state, celebrities, honeymooners and well-heeled travelers.
And yes, iconic movie star Marilyn Monroe and her baseball hero husband, Joe DiMaggio, spent a night there on their honeymoon in 1954.
As part of the package, the hotel said, a lucky couple will sip champagne and enjoy chocolate-covered tuxedo strawberries at sunset on the suite's lanai while a musician plays Hawaiian music.
They will get "an intimate couple's massage" at the hotel spa, a private beach cabana for two, luau tickets, a dinner under the stars, and gourmet breakfast in bed with champagne mimosas and caviar-topped lobster poached eggs Benedict."
The hotel also includes a romantic "motor rendezvous" to East O'ahu in a Rolls-Royce. (If we called any old ride to Hawai'i Kai a motor rendezvous would we feel more romantic, too?)
There is also a tour of the Doris Duke estate Shangri-La, a picnic near a tropical rain forest and two tickets to Hawai'i Opera Theatre's "Romeo & Juliet."
And just so you know, this is a deal for people vacationing in this stratosphere. The regular published rate on the Kamehameha Suite of $4,500 a night compares to standard rooms that start at $365 a night. And that's before the hotel undergoes its scheduled renovation later this year.
Spokeswoman Candice Kraughto said some folks don't blink at paying these prices. She said the hotel has a list of more than 1,500 regular guests, many of whom return often.
"Price doesn't matter to them," Kraughto said. "They've brought their children, their children have brought their children."
Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.