Description: This is our seventh trip to the Hawaiian Islands and the first time we have gone to a Luau. On our first trip we went to a Japanese Tea Garden Party and we have made two trips to the Polynesian Cultural Center on Oahu where they have a huge luau like buffet. As for hula shows, we had seen them at the cultural center, various malls, parks and even on TV with nightly live-casts of the Merry Monarch Festival. I had developed a "Been there, seen that" attitude. However while researching online for this trip I became convinced that we had been missing out on a wonderful experience. I selected the Old Lahaina Luau based on fellow traveler’s reviews and the terrific website OLL has. It also was only two blocks from our condo, so I knew we wouldn’t get lost in the dark trying to find out way home!
Be warned, reserve as early as you can. This luau offers two kinds of seating: table and chair, or low table and big pillows. You select your seating at the time you make your reservation. You reserve late…no choice. At our age getting up and down from the pillows would have been a problem. Sitting for hours in that position would have required even louder drum music to drown out my howls of pain. We saw lots of lovely younger people enjoying the pillow seating, which is culturally more correct. Bravo to them.
When we arrived at the luau we were served Mai Tais, given a lei and a lovely souvenir program then taken to our assigned table. Then we were seated the waiter encouraged us to tour the grounds before mealtime. This was a great time to go on a photo safari. The landscaping is interesting, waterfront views of Mala harbor and Lanai beyond, the craftsman making and selling items, the imu, the Hale ‘ai (eating house) and the musicians hut were all photo worthy. I think we read that this luau accommodates 350 people. It took a while to seat everyone. The waiters were kept busy supplying free drinks. The bad part of the luau set up is you share a table with strangers. Our experience with that was good and bad. The young couple across from us was from the area we were traveling to next so we had conversational material. The other two couples were more interested in testing the limits of the free bar. Nothing embarrassing happened, but they weren’t very courteous about leaving our view of the stage unobstructed.
Bill and I have never been big on buffet meals. I try to take little dabs of lots of things, but then end up with two good tasting dabs and seven so-so. And that’s what happened here. My two good dabs were: Kalua Pua’a, which is pork, roasted in the underground imu and Taro salad a cooked salad of taro and spinach in coconut sauce. At least I now know if we go again which foods to take normal size servings of. Bill liked the pork, Island Style Chicken, and was a little disappointed with the overcooked (burned) sweet potatoes. We looked forward to dessert. Just before the entertainment began the waiters had cleared plates and then placed the dessert trays on the table. Each tray had four varieties of mini-mini sized desserts. If you took one of each it wouldn’t add up to a normal size dessert. We were disappointed.
The entertainment was awesome. These people had honed their craft. The program was divided into five sections. Starting with the ancestral Polynesian home of Tahiti the dance troupe gave us a very high energy Tahitian hula. Next we had my favorite the Ancient Hula. The next segment reflected the change the Missionaries and The Merry Monarch brought to the hula. The fourth section featured the Modern Hula like what I used to see on the Arthur Godfrey show as a kid. The Finale brought back the Tahitian style plus solo dancers.
It was an excellent presentation.
Leaving the Luau we were bid aloha by our tip seeking waiters (they earned, it be generous). Several of the dancers were also available for photo-ops and a very small gift shop was set up in the out door lobby. Would we go back to a luau? I would go or the entertainment, but I would ask for ringside seats or go with friends.
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