All Reviews for Maalaea Harbor & Ocean Center

I can't recommend this trip enough. We had a fantastic boating experience, the snorkeling was wonderful and the crew was the best. They went above and beyond and really worked to make the experience a special one. And the food was excellent, too. My wide and I had truly amazing time.

I took a day trip to Lanai Cat Sanctuary, using the ferry that departs Maui at 6:30 AM and returns from Lanai at 5:30 PM.

Both on the way there and back, you just need to show the reservation email or state your name at the boarding area, and the staff will quickly confirm and issue your ticket using a tablet. The ferry has plenty of seating, and they broadcast what seems to be a local Hawaiian TV station.

I didn't feel much on the way there, but on the return trip, the waves were higher in the evening, causing the ferry to sway significantly, and I experienced severe motion sickness. According to my family, there is a part where the ferry briefly goes out into open water, which can change the tide flow suddenly.

When I immediately told the staff that I felt unwell, they handed me a bag and instructed me to "go out to the deck." Many passengers followed suit, so it seems that motion sickness is quite common. I recommend taking motion sickness medication beforehand.

Once I got to the deck, it was difficult to even reach the restroom, and I spent about 30 minutes hunched over with my face in the bag. However, a crew member, who seemed to be the captain, kindly gave me a bottle of water and said, "Putting this on the back of your neck will help." Unfortunately, I still felt unwell, but I was relieved that the crew was completely accustomed to dealing with seasick passengers and treated everyone calmly and kindly.

It was an intense experience, but despite the mishaps, my trip to Lanai has become a wonderful memory, and I definitely want to visit again. While it seems there is also access by plane, I would absolutely choose to take the ferry again, prepared for motion sickness.

ラナイ・キャット・サンクチュアリ目当ての日帰り旅で、朝6時30分マウイ島発、夕方17時半ラナイ島発の便を利用しました。

行きも帰りも乗り場で予約時のメールを見せるか、名前を名乗るとすぐにスタッフがタブレットで確認して発券してくれます。船内は客席も十分にあり、ハワイのローカル局と思われるTVを放送しています。

行きはあまり感じなかったのですが、帰りは夕方で波が高くなるため大きく船が揺れ、ひどい船酔いを経験しました。家族いわく一瞬外洋に出る部分があるので潮の流れが一瞬で変わってしまうそうです。

すぐに「気分が悪い」とスタッフに伝えると、袋を渡され「デッキに出るといい」と指示されました。私の後にも続々と乗客が出てきたので、かなりの確率で船酔いが起こると思われます。酔い止めを事前に飲んでおくのをお勧めします。
いざデッキに出るとトイレにまでたどり着くことも困難で、ずっと袋に顔を突っ込んだまま30分ほどうずくまっていましたが、船長と思しきクルーの方が「これを首の後ろにつけると気持ちがいいよ」とペットボトルの水をくださいました。あいにくずっと気分は悪いままでしたが、船酔いする乗客にクルーも完全に慣れっこな様子で、皆落ち着いて優しく対応してくれたことにホッとしました。

壮絶な体験ではありましたが、ハプニングも込みでラナイ島行きは最高の想い出で必ず再訪したい場所になりました。飛行機でのアクセスも可能なようですが、船酔い覚悟でまた絶対フェリーで臨みたいです。

This was a great time for my family!! The check in process was very easy and we got many great pics! Dinner was also great and the staff was super polite. The weather can't be helped and we had a windy time on the water, but we all managed.

Michael (Mike) was our tour guide and created an exceptional experience for us. He was very welcoming, building rapport almost seemed second nature for him. He knew how to keep the audience engaged during the entire experience. The ride to pick up and start the event was just about the right length of time. I especially liked the fact that he could use a microphone while driving and that everyone in the vehicle could hear him. My family had our eyes opened on the lush landscape, history, and culture that Hawaii has to offer. Mike ensured that every angle was covered, and I honestly wish we could have strapped an audio recorder to him so we could capture all that he had to share. We all had ample time at the stops for swimming and pics. Mike was even nice enough to make an additional jump off the waterfall cliff with my go pro as I wasn’t brave enough to take that plunge. Our only constructive feedback on this event would be to tighten up the “meet up” process at the local shops. We were unsure where or how we needed to check in. Once we saw the white van arrive with the logo we understood.

We really enjoyed our visit to Maui Ocean Center. The displays were very educational- we learned so mych about Hawaii’s marine eco system. And the fish and aquatic tanks were AMAZING! We will definitely return on our next trip!

Russ was so knowledgeable of the island and where to go taking us off road and finishing up with a great recommendation for lunch. He also helped us out with shuttles to the cat farm and back to the beach. We visited shipwreck beach and garden of the gods as well as being told a lot about other places we saw, the history and current events.

An unforgettable engaging experience! The whole crew was personable, entertaining, helpful, just good people that really love what they do!

Food was great! They made enough for seconds for everyone. The boat ride and snorkeling experience was great. A lot of fun. I recommend this experience if you want to have a personalized trip with great people!

Amazing and knowledgeable guide who was pleasant and accommodating. Our guide actually extended our tour and took us to the cat sanctuary and made sure that we all had a great time. I fully enjoyed and recommend this tour. Lanai is very beautiful and I could not imagine seeing it with anyone other than our guide.

It was very cold. I was looking forward to breakfast at the Claw Lodge as mentioned somewhere, but unexpectedly, it was at the Maui Plantation...

とても寒かったです。朝食はクラロッヂとどこかに記載があったので、期待していましたが、まさかのマウイプランテーション・・・

I was disappointed because there were fewer fish than I had expected. On the day of my visit, there were no Japanese staff present, but the staff were friendly, which was nice.

思っていた以上に魚影が少なく、期待外れでした。
当日は日本人スタッフもいらっしゃらなかったのですが、スタッフはフレンドリーでよかったです。

Great job and lovely team saw whales at the end of April too. They are still here…

Professional and friendly
Good information, pleasant time, all Good seats ,
Very good scenery .
Timely all good

Premium is for certain, food was above expectations, and the views throughout the evening were unbeatable.

The sunrise at Haleakalā was a wonderful experience. The hour and a half leading up to the sunrise is extremely cold, but in exchange, you can enjoy the stars as if they are falling. What helped against the cold was my ski gloves. Even so, my fingertips were freezing. I definitely want to visit this place again.

ハレアカラのサンライズ、すばらしい体験でした。
日の出までの1時間半の間は、それはそれは寒いですが、代わりに降ってくるかのような星々も堪能できます。寒さ対策でよかったのは、スキー用のグローブ。それでも指先が凍えるくらいでしたが。
またぜひ、訪れたい場所です。

The trip was excellent. Parking at the Maalea harbor dock is a pain. In the future tell your clients to get the ParkWhiz app on their phone You can pay for close up parking on this app. The code reader at the dock is crappy. Our Lanai on site guide, Russ was a wealth of information and had as much fun with us and the other couple as we did with him and the tour. A nice day was had by all.

Russ is an excellent guide, knowledgeable, friendly, and accommodating.

All communications were clear and team was very helpful! Great guides! Beautiful views! Several whale sitings!

Beautiful setting for a Maui experience! A chance to see all of those native Hawaiian creatures you might have not seen on a snorkeling adventure. Nicely positioned in the Maalaea Harbor which includes shopping and dining experiences and is the departure point of many of Maui's tours.

A fantastic day trip providing lots of background on the island and an opportunity to view most of it. Russ is a great tour guide and made certain we had a great time. He also provided some recommendations for our afternoon at the beach. I absolutely recommend this tour to anyone looking to get the most out of a day trip to Lanai.

we celebrated our anniversary on this gorgeous evening, sunset was spectacular and we even got to see whales!

Gorgeous day on the water, I liked how this one goes all the way over to Lanai versus Molokini area!

Beautiful. Lifetime experience. Our guide was very knowledgeable.

We had an amazing experience on the sunset raft whale watching excursion. Our guides, Luke and Nick, were superb and told us so many facts about the whales. They were attentive to both my teenagers and my 9 year old, providing them with snacks and drinks and making sure that they had a great experience. We saw whales breaching and babies swimming close to the raft. It was the highlight of our trip.

Efficient. Well run. Clean.
Fun to see whales!
Great sunrise on the way to Lanai and sunset on the way to Maui!
Can be chilly—bring an extra jacket/ sweater.
Hit some waves—fun splashes!

Loved the tour, it’s well timed as it felt I had enough time in water at both Molokini and turtle town. The crew is very good and they really make sure you are well taken care of.

This is also an excellent opportunity for whale spotting, I did a whale spotting tour as well and this one was better.

The slide is awesome and everything is very family friendly.

This company won’t stop pestering me to leave a review so here goes:
I’ve done a lot of whale watching tours on Maui. I only chose this one because the company we typically use cannot run tours on weekends/holidays anymore (change to use abilities at the Mala boat ramp). This was the only other small group tour I could find.
Pros:
- Small group so you aren’t fighting for space/visibility
- Able to use a GoPro in the water off the side of the boat
- $10 credit per person at the General Store (which wasn’t advertised in activity description)

Cons:
- Whale watching is better from Lahaina and not as good from Ma’alaea
- Boat doesn’t go very fast so you don’t get the opportunity to get as much action
- Staff were less experienced and didn’t have a lot of knowledge about the whales/whale behavior
- Much more expensive than other tours

These guys did a great job. Saw many breaching whales! Some even waved at us. Crew was excellent

We had a fantastic day! everything was well organized and people were so friendly. It was a great experience and carefree. Thanks!

Unable to book round trip ferry ticket on same transaction. Needed to input info twice. Stood in long line at 5:30 am to exchange reservation confirmation for paper tickets. QR code suggested.