Waikiki's original luxury hotel — the Royal Hawaiian hotel — closed for seven months — and reopened $60 million later with updated bathrooms, a darker shade of pink and a focus on preserving a slice of a more elegant era of travel.

On Saturday, the "Pink Palace of the Pacific" celebrates the grand reopening with a fundraising gala.

Here, coconut palms sway, birds do sing and the Royal Hawaiian stands out from blocks away — a pink and green garden oasis nestled among Waikiki's high-rises.

When the historic stucco Mission-with-a-dash-of-Moorish-style hotel was built in 1927, the six-story Moana hotel was down the beach but most of the other shoreside buildings were low-rise cottages.

When air travel started bringing visitors by the hundreds of thousands, Waikiki's historic beachfront became crowded with hotels as a concrete jungle grew up around the iconic hotel. In 1979, the landscaped drive to the Royal disappeared when Kamehameha Schools (then Bishop Estate) commissioned the shopping complex that became the Royal Hawaiian Center along Kalakaua Avenue.

Joni Mitchell wrote the familiar "Big Yellow Taxi" (1970) after her first visit to Hawai'i.

As the song goes: "They paved paradise and put up a parking lot. With a pink hotel, a boutique and a swinging hot spot. Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone."

She told interviewers that she woke up in a hotel and saw the contrast of the beautiful mountains in the distance and the stretch of parking lot surrounding her room.

Although the Royal is not on the historic register, it remains a community icon — for weddings, honeymoons, anniversaries and a special place to take out-of-town guests. But it needed some updates, guests and workers agreed.

"It's viewed in the eyes of the general public and government as being of historical significance, said Mark Taylor, vice president of design and construction for Kyo-ya Management Company Ltd., an affiliate of Kyo-ya Hotels & Resorts LP.

Later this month, Historic Hawai'i Foundation will present a preservation award to those who worked on the Royal Hawaiian's facelift.

Another big change officially opened on Sunday. An air-conditioned restaurant named Azure replaced part of the old, open-air Surf Room for dinner service. The open-air Surf Lanai sits alongside, serving breakfast and lunch.

Among the changes is an update of the hotel's official name: "The Royal Hawaiian, A Luxury Collection Resort."

Other changes include: the Mai Tai Bar umbrellas are now cream-colored, the Monarch Room was redecorated, and beachside cabanas-for-hire were added in front of the Mai Tai Bar and near the pool.

Construction challenges cropped up regularly.

Of 352 rooms in the historic section, they found there were 280 different variations, Taylor said. Sometimes, a king-sized bed would arrive at a renovated room and workers would find only a queen size could fit, he said.

When the crews scraped away the old driveway, they found two others underneath and the complete skeleton of a horse. "We had to peel the layers back," he said.

"We found a lot more items and issues that we'd never seen buried in walls — windows that had been boarded up in bathrooms," Taylor said.

Some changes to electronics and upgrades to plumbing were due. "You've got a killer bathroom and you've got a hit," Taylor said.

The guest rooms proved ticklish, with some longtime guests loving the trademark pink towels and sheets, and others who like the new white sheets and towels.

And room decor can be tricky, balancing modern without losing the classic feel. "That's a tough one when you've got a vintage hotel like ours."

Mostly, guests say the changes worked. "I've been pleasantly surprised," Taylor said. "I don't think there's been too much criticism."

Before deciding on a new motif for the guest rooms, designers construct a model room to get a feel for how the finished product would look. The first attempt was rejected after hotel officials concluded that it suffered from too much input from too many sources. The second try was a winner.

Getting it right in only two tries was good for a project this size, Taylor said, crediting designer Philpotts & Associates and others who worked on the resort. "I've been on jobs with five model rooms," he said.

Taylor said crews unearthed a 1,600-gallon tank half full of diesel and wondered if it dated from the last time the hotel closed — during World War II when it served as a rest-and-recreation haven for the military. (Officers paid a dollar a night to stay, and enlisted men needed just a quarter.)

When they found coconut trees too tall to be preserved, they replaced them with younger trees. The project ended with more trees than when they started, he added.

Paul and Lydia Dudley, of Bend, Ore., are now retired and have been coming to the Royal for decades.

That started 21 years ago when they stumbled into a first visit. They planned a night in Waikiki on the way to a conference on Kaua'i but arrived at a hotel that didn't meet their expectations. They went to the Royal and lucked into a corner junior suite at a good price.

"We try to come every year and we try to come as long as we can," she said. "This time, we're here for three weeks."

The Dudleys head for the beach and sit under one of the pink umbrellas. Even though the prices have gone up over the years, they prefer the Royal Hawaiian's all-inclusive rates rather than the practice of some resorts to tack on fees.

Paul Dudley, a retired geologist, said they don't mind paying a bit more than they used to. "We just never looked back." They even returned to the Royal that first year after their Kaua'i conference ended.

The Dudleys and many of the other regulars had some concerns that the renovation could ruin the hotel. "Everyone was very worried that they were going to gut the entire hotel," Lydia Dudley said.

They said they like most of the work, the rooms, the modern bathrooms, the floral designs, but miss some of the old touches. "I miss the pink sheets. No pink towels. Yes, we miss the pink," she said.

She believes the designers should have planned bathroom storage or a medicine cabinet, where guests could tuck their toothbrushes and other personal items, rather than leaving them out on the granite counters.

"It's not as practical as it could be. It still is gorgeous," she said. (General manager Kelly Hoen said storage baskets are on the way.)

And as a frequent guest, they appreciate the fresh flowers, fruit and banana bread waiting for them in their room.

"It's a privilege to stay here. It's so peaceful," she added.

Here, the employees not only know the guests' names, they know the families. Bellman Alan Doike's daughter is at Arizona State University on a music scholarship while the Dudleys' son is at the law school campus.

One of their fondest memories is when their son — now 27 — was a boy who sat with them in the Surf Room for dinner but ate quickly. "He'd jump the wall and swim at the beach and we'd watch him and have a quiet dinner."

Donna and Dan Hoag of St. Louis spent 11 days at the hotel last month — their third visit since 2000.

It's more than the chance to escape 36-degree weather. The Hoags, who own and operate a medical billing and collection business, first visited the Islands together in 1976 as a young couple.

They stayed at the Royal to celebrate their daughter's high school graduation, then four years later her college graduation with her fiance. This year, just the two came, relaxing after helping plan a wedding last year.

"Last time we came, it was starting to show its wear," Dan Hoag said.

Donna Hoag described the feeling of ordering room service for breakfast one morning. They threw open the drapes, sat down and watched the surfers while they ate. "I don't think it can get any better than that," she said.

"When we come back, we feel we're a part of the history," he said.

They trekked to the North Shore, Punchbowl, rode an outrigger canoe, relaxed on the beach and experimented with mai tais throughout Waikiki.

"The ones here are the best," Dan Hoag said. "We tested that."

Executive chef Hans Stierli, a native of Switzerland, arrived in Hawai'i to live just two days before the first big party, the Jan. 20 inaugural gala.

"It's a landmark hotel," Stierli said. He visited Hawai'i eight times before moving here to take over the Royal food.

Why leave the ski resort of Whistler? "Location, location," he answered with a smile.

He likes having one of the world's most famous beaches out front. "The cuisine is innovative," he said. And, "the toys to cook with are very, very good."

Jim Weisiger, serves as general manager of the Azure Restaurant, which had its official opening Sunday.

The new restaurant is air-conditioned with pillows, couches and rattan-style chairs that offer a contemporary yet comfortable look

"We are definitely a seafood restaurant" that will highlight what's fresh at the fish auction.

Weisiger, who has 25 years in the restaurant business, even manages to occasionally go surfing after work, out at Pops break nearby.

Owner Kyo-ya Hotels & Resorts LP is also renovating the neighboring Sheraton Waikiki hotel and expects to spend a grand total of about $750 million on the company's four resort properties in Waikiki.

With Hawai'i tourism slumping, the timing worked out better than it would have in the previous years of crowded occupancy.

Kyo-ya's Taylor said the owners carefully weighed whether to close entirely or renovate in phases.

They discussed the financial hit of closing for seven months versus partially closing, offering discounted rooms for 12 to 15 months, fielding noise complaints and a longer construction schedule.

"As it turned out, it probably worked to our advantage with the economy," Taylor said.