Maui has been voted the best island by readers of Condé Nast Traveler 20 times! The Polynesians supposedly arrived here in 450 AD and lived a quiet life till Captain Cook came in 1778 and changed her fate. Myths say that the demigod Maui pulled all 123 islands from the oceans depths.They say the god Maui stepped out of the Haleakala crater and captured the sun forcing it to slow its journey across the sky. 75% of the land here is isolated and inaccessible due to extreme terrain and rainforests. Helicopters seem the best way to see this land where views appear to stretch to infinity. If you were here longer you could explore a lavender farm, spend time whale watching, visit the historic Dole pineapple plantation, take a sailboat ride out to nearby islands, try the local cuisine or just explore her beautiful parks and history.
Maui is a tender port so you have to take a small boat off the ship to get to the pier of Lahaina. We had booked a bike trip where the vendor would take us to the top of the mountain and we would bike down e joying the scenery whilst stopping to have lunch... a full day. We had to be ready to get off the ship at 7 am as that was when they started giving out tender tickets. To get the ticket you had to be prepared to go so it was an early morning. We were instructed to meet a white panel van that said Mountain Treks right by the Pioneer Inn which is directly in front of where you get off the tender. We waited patiently there from 7:45 till 8:15. I texted the company to say we were they..they texted back to say there was a car wreck and they were delayed!! We realized another couple was also waiting for this tour so together we began to worry about when they would pick us since it was an all day tour. The other folks called and got no answer. Finally they called back to Florida to the number listed for emergencies. Long story short they never showed for us and by 10:45 we were headed back to the ship to change out of our long pants and coats and get rid of our packs with hats and gloves. We were so disappointed and because it was late there wasn’t much else we could buy in terms of another tour. All the whale watching tours were full. So we had a light lunch on the ship and then took another tender back to the pier. We decided to try the yellow submarine tour so we purchased tickets and waited to board. That was really disappointing too. The waters were murky and the reef looked bleached. We didn’t see much at all. The crew did launch two divers off the front to show you some ocean critters by your viewing window. After a 45 minute tour of the bay we decided to just walk the town area going up to the little mall area and taking in the Lahaina sites.
Disappointed that we weren’t able to do our bike ride :(
Forest Gump bench with his suitcase and shoes!!
Local fisherman right in the middle of town
Our sub ride..
A list of fish species you might see
Dan trying hard to spot something..
Hard to see any pretty coral or colorful fish
Divers show us objects from the ocean floor
Heading back to the cruiseship
We cleaned up and had a nice dinner in the Lido as we left the harbor. The ship had a production show with the singers and dancers called “What a Swell Party”. We opted to watch Karaoke in the Club Fusion. They were showing movies under the stars complete with popcorn showing “Fibding Your Feet”. There was all kinds of music venues happening on the ship but after an hour of Karaoke we were off the bed and preparing ourselves for a day in Hilo and a trip to the Mauna Kea Observatory at 14,000 ft!!
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