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Honeymoon in Maui - review

We took our HM in November of last year so this is long overdue, but here it is:

Sheraton Maui - A++ Even though they messed up our first night, we loved this hotel. We had to push the trip back a week due to my catching the swine flu (fun!!), and we relied on Travelocity to change all the flights and hotel reservations. Our mistake was NOT confirming that all the changes were made. Anyway, when we arrived, they had no record of our reservation and made us sit in the lobby for 30 minutes (this was at 10:30PM Maui time, 3:30AM eastern time, we were EXHAUSTED, I literally just sat and cried, that's how awful it was) while they figured it out. Finally they said oh, Travelocity did call but whoever spoke to them cancelled the reservation instead of moving it. WTF. So they put us in a tiny, 2 bed temporary room for the first night, and got us into our ocean front room the next night. Not a huge deal but at the time it was very frustrating. Anyway, the staff is amazingly friendly and helpful, our room was cleaned and stocked very efficiently every day, the morning breakfast buffets were very good, and the hotel itself (the grounds ESPECIALLY) were incredible. Yes, the hotel is aging somewhat, but the beach and grounds made up for it. I put a review up on Travelocity under the name of chesneygirl, I put pictures up with that review. We snorkeled on the beach (bought the snorkeling packs at the ABC store for like $9 each), and saw TWO sea turtles!! It was fantastic. I didnt want to leave. I would not hesitate to go back. Funny enough, my mom stayed at the same hotel in 1972 when she was travelling with her parents.
Skyline Eco Tours Ziplining - A+ Lots of fun, make sure to wear a sweatshirt, jeans, and durable shoes, you will be doing some light hiking in a wooded setting.
Safari Boat Excursions - A+ We did the 6 hour snorkeling expedition, it was amazing. You'll be on the boat with about 12 others. The boat captains are hilarious, and they make you feel like you're hanging out with old friends. You have to be there pretty early in the morning (like, 7AM) and you get back around 3PM. They serve a very light breakfast on the boat (sliced pound cake, some fruit). Make SURE to take lots of Dramamine beforehand if you are prone to motion-sickness, there were times I started to feel queasy (and I HAD taken the medicine). There are a few times where they stop the boat in the middle of the ocean to point something out and the boat rocks real hard back and forth... but I have a sensitive stomach, so I might be in the minority. After eating a bit of breakfast (when you eat, the boat is parked in a non-choppy location so it's ok :) ), I felt much better. Anyway there are 3 places where they stop for snorkeling, we saw LOTS of fish. The water was a little chilly, a wet suit (if you have one) is a good idea! They also serve a very yummy lunch (sandwiches, wraps, chips, cookies). Dont be stupid like me and forget the camera!! (thank goodness for very kind fellow boaters who emailed me their pictures)
Mama's Fish House - A++++ Pricey ,but amazing. The scenery, the FOOD, it's all worth it. The restaurant is right on the beach and a lot of the tables are practically on the beach. Our meals and drinks were incredible. The fish is caught daily and menu is updated daily every day, even with the Fisherman's name who caught it, which I thought was really cool. We stuffed ourselves so much that there was literally no room for dessert, and I am good at being able to stuff in dessert ;) TOTALLY worth the money we spent.
Blue Hawaiian Helicopter Tours - A++ Probably one of the coolest things I've ever gotten to do. We took a tour of all of Maui and Molokai. SO much fun, we saw so many beautiful things, but expensive. Worth it, though.
Goofy Foot Surfing School - A+++++++ We happened to do this on my birthday, it was probably the best present ever!!! I SO did not think I was going to be able to surf. It seemed like there were so many things to try to remember, and I was scared because they said you have to belly flop forwards or backwards to fall because of the reefs, so you dont hurt yourself. omg! But, it was totally fine, after the first go around i couldnt wait to have another turn with the surf instructors (who were SO truly 'surfer dudes' they were hilarious).
Old Lahaina Luau - A+ This was a great luau. From the moment we walked in, we were handed mai-tai's and given lai's. The scenery was gorgeous, we took SO many pictures, you're right on the water. Food (buffet style) was great, you dine 'family style' with 6 other people. We got to meet lots of neat people from all over the world.
Hula Grill - B- This restaurant was located in Whaler's Village. I was not blown away by the food in the least bit. Our creme brulee dessert was lumpy and cold, BOO.
I/O Restaurant - A. This restaurant was located on the waterfront in downtown Lahaina. The food was delicious!
Road to Hana - F- - - If someone had warned us that we'd be spending 8 hours feeling like we were going to die, I would have laid on the beach all day instead. The Road is glamorized like this thing you MUST do, but to us, it was so not worth it. The road is narrow (width for two cars: about 1.5 lanes of our roads here), there are MANY places where there are signs telling you to yield to oncoming traffic (because it's too narrow for two cars to both go through at the same time), and so many people just blew right through them without stopping to see if anyone was coming, we saw SO many near-misses (including ourselves). There were TONS of blind curves, where you're going around the side of a cliff on a very narrow road, not knowing if someone is coming from the other direction. The speed limit on this road is 15. We were doing 15 the whole way, and had SO many people (I guess locals) tail us, blowing their horns, angry... so it was pretty stressful, because there are so many times you have to worry about finding somewhere to pull over to let these people by, so you cant enjoy the scenery at these moments. Most of the time it was like being in a jungle of sorts, what we saw wasnt that great, a lot of brush and overhead trees. We took "maui revealed" with us, but the way the author tries to describe the little "hidden" places where you are supposed to pull over was sooo vague. ("There is a gravel overlook 3/8 of a mile past mile marker 15 by the telephone pole"). Uhhhh, what?? So we're trying to find all these little places, and by the time we thought we saw it, we'd already passed it, and you really cant turn around on this road. Anyway once we passed through Hana (which is just a tiny little town with nothing there), it started pouring, and about 10 miles of road going back to the hotel was not paved, so if you're going 15MPH, you can imagine how exhausting that was... and through the rain. Plus, most of the little "secret" pull-offs that we did manage to find had big gates and "no trespassing" signs, I guess the land owners got ahold of "Maui Revealed" and closed off the little secret pathways. Some people love taking this excursion but we hated it, plus we saw a lot of people pulled over with carsick passengers, I cannot stress enough how windy the drive is.

Re: Honeymoon in Maui - review

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    Did you go to the "seven sacred pools" its the only thing to me that made the trip to hana worth it. Its a bunch of waterfalls that fall into eachother and you can swim in them.
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    All the traffic made this drive a waste.  So was the guide we used Maui Revealed.  We couldn't figure out their directions.  The only clues we had were the cars bunched up along the road with tourists all over the place.  Signs were even posted that read don't use this book.  We liked the town of Lahaina where our hotel was but we'd never go go Hana again, it took up one whole day.
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