I just can’t go to Hawaii without doing a luau! After Covid, most of the luaus bade done changes, so I basically looked in detail at all of them. First of all, the prices increased dramatically, so expect this to be a major expense. Most of the pre-luau activities (tattoos, lei-making, etc) were eliminated from most luaus so that was a bummer for me, as we really enjoyed that stuff. I have a couple of picky eaters, so the menus were important (and sadly ruled out Feast at Lele, which sounds amazing). I also have a very short DD who adores the show, so upfront seating is important. The cool upfront mat seating and the perennial great reviews pushed me toward Old Lahaina luau, but the lack of a fire knife dance is a dealbreaker for me. MUST HAVE!
And I really wanted one in the Wailea area so we could walk or take the hotel shuttle, so that narrowed it down. The menu for the Andaz luau sounded great, but it turned out to be the most expensive one on all of Maui. So we actually ended up choosing the Te Au Moana luau at the Wailea Beach Resort by Marriott (the night before we checked in there, actually). I knew I wanted premium seating ($275 each—ouch!!) and tables are assigned in order of booking. So I watch that thing every day until it opened; they open the bookings a month at a time, about two months in advance. Evidently my Disney ressie stalking training paid off, because we were literally front row center, and the other four from our 8-person table had double-booked and cancelled. So that worked out amazing, because we had food for 8
Not that we needed it, but you can bet we ate all the poke and pineapple LOL Out server said the leftovers go to the pig farm where they purchase the pigs for the luau, so I thought that was a fantastic use of all that uneaten food.
In short, we thought the food ranged from ok (Italian dressing on the salad??) to good (they were grilling the steaks right there by the bar!) to quite tasty (grilled mahi with pineapple salsa, the poke, and the purple sweet potatoes all stood out). But the entertainment was amazing. It was a small group (like 10), plus a four person band and the hostess, and they killed it. First off, props to the band who did indeed perform Tiny Bubbles in the pre-show. Bold move and they pulled it off LOL Our seats were so close that we could smell the flowers in the hostesses haku lei (and all their flowers were actually real). As part of the “warm up” show, while we ate, they did onstage all of the demonstrations that you’d normally watch at different stations before being seated. So we saw coconut husking, kapa cloth making, etc. from our comfortable seats; it was actually better that way. And then when we got to the actual main show, the dancing was just AMAZING. And a couple of those girls could let out some blood-curdling screeches—I mean, they had the Māori intimidation thing down to an art! I just can’t say enough about how good the performance was. Coupled with really good food overall and amazing spot right on the beach, I’d highly recommend this luau, even at that price. Couple of shots here from my phone; I’ll try to remember to edit and update with actual camera pics.
