Paradise cove

[aiellestad]

Next trip we are considering the paradise cove luau. What do you like or dislike about it? We have already done the Aulani luau and would like to try something new. We are not renting a car so the appeal of walking back and forth is nice. For those of you who have done it, would you do it again?

 

[cgattis]

I’ve posted this before, so not meaning to cast multiple votes, but yes, I’d totally do it again. There were so many activities and we really enjoyed them. Kids loved the tattoos and spear throwing, daughter really enjoyed the lei po’o making (which I should’ve done too but was running around taking pics lol). I LOVED the canoe ride because the ones I’d planned in Waikiki AND Kona had fallen through, and my kids and a handsome kane paddled me around like a Hawaiian princess Also enjoyed the “pre-show” of the pig coming out of the imu and several hulas in a cute little amphitheater. Pics down on the beach at sunset were great (esp with the fire knife dancer!). We did vip, so we got some free pics and some trinkets from the shop (I got a nice set of sandstone coasters and idk what else) and done nice insulated lunch bags. I felt like the entertainment was top notch. The food was fine , as were the mai tais (nothing extra), but overall we had a great time. And the five minute walk back to Aulani was awesome.

 

[Littlelulu01]

We recently returned from a wonderful Aulani stay over spring break. We went to the Paradise Cove luau and I would not recommend Paradise Cove Luau to my worst enemy. The Pork was was actually really good but the rest of the food was pretty typical mediocre at best deli fare. The biggest offence I felt was that we spent that much money to be treated like unwanted guests. I guess the joke is on me because they got our $800 in advance. We walked over from Aulani, easy walking distance and got there after the big bus arrivals but plenty of time to enjoy the pre show festivities. Many staff were down right rude and surly. The lines for drinks were pretty long. I am guessing about 1000 guests in attendance and two drink stations. So even if you only want a soda you'll wait in line at least 45 minutes. Easier to just bring your own drinks from Aulani. We were standing over on the beach by the parrot picture opportunity and their machines to process payments went down so the guests who had waited in line for over an hour were out of luck. An out of luck family in line was standing about 30 feet from the parrots and asked if we would take their picture with parrots and beach in the background. They were in no way near or impeding the parrots nor the kiosk nor the staff of the now shut down kiosk. The staff manning the kiosk started aggressively yelling at me and the guests saying I had no right to take a picture with their parrots in the background. They wanted to see their phone to delete the picture and the staff pretty much kept escalating the yelling despite no response to them. I was not going to dignify a response to that crazy behavior. The family who owned the phone didn't either as you could tell these luau staff were loaded for bear and looking for trouble. We ate and watched a little of the show which was about 1/2 hour of clapping for different groups of birthday, anniversary..... At that point my family was wondering if the show was ever going to start and when the "lets give a hand for...." would not stop we just left. The following morning we walked to Paradise Cove beach area to see the turtles in the water there. As we left my daughter sat on the curbing in the parking lot that borders the luau from the public parking spots just to put one flip flop on. A female security guard came over and started yelling at my daughter to get off the property. Anyway, couldn't wait to get away from Paradise Cove property and will never go back or recommend anyone to do so.

 

[pinkxray]

We recently returned from a wonderful Aulani stay over spring break. We went to the Paradise Cove luau and I would not recommend Paradise Cove Luau to my worst enemy. The Pork was was actually really good but the rest of the food was pretty typical mediocre at best deli fare. The biggest offence I felt was that we spent that much money to be treated like unwanted guests. I guess the joke is on me because they got our $800 in advance. We walked over from Aulani, easy walking distance and got there after the big bus arrivals but plenty of time to enjoy the pre show festivities. Many staff were down right rude and surly. The lines for drinks were pretty long. I am guessing about 1000 guests in attendance and two drink stations. So even if you only want a soda you'll wait in line at least 45 minutes. Easier to just bring your own drinks from Aulani. We were standing over on the beach by the parrot picture opportunity and their machines to process payments went down so the guests who had waited in line for over an hour were out of luck. An out of luck family in line was standing about 30 feet from the parrots and asked if we would take their picture with parrots and beach in the background. They were in no way near or impeding the parrots nor the kiosk nor the staff of the now shut down kiosk. The staff manning the kiosk started aggressively yelling at me and the guests saying I had no right to take a picture with their parrots in the background. They wanted to see their phone to delete the picture and the staff pretty much kept escalating the yelling despite no response to them. I was not going to dignify a response to that crazy behavior. The family who owned the phone didn't either as you could tell these luau staff were loaded for bear and looking for trouble. We ate and watched a little of the show which was about 1/2 hour of clapping for different groups of birthday, anniversary..... At that point my family was wondering if the show was ever going to start and when the "lets give a hand for...." would not stop we just left. The following morning we walked to Paradise Cove beach area to see the turtles in the water there. As we left my daughter sat on the curbing in the parking lot that borders the luau from the public parking spots just to put one flip flop on. A female security guard came over and started yelling at my daughter to get off the property. Anyway, couldn't wait to get away from Paradise Cove property and will never go back or recommend anyone to do so.

Thank you for your review. We just returned from Aulani too. We walked over to Paradise cove and the luau location looked so beautiful I thought we might try it next time. Right before we were leaving Ds cut his foot and was bleeding. We couldn’t get the sand out and DH had him sit on the grass right off the beach to clean it out. A female security guard came over and started yelling at Dh to get off the grass. I understand they have rules and it their property but she could clearly see DS dripping blood and we just needed a minute. She didn’t want to hear it.
We will skip it now.

It is a very beautiful location though

 

[Littlelulu01]

Sorry about your experience. It is a simply beautiful location ruined by a pervasive get off my lawn staff attitude. At Aulani cast members are nice, they are proud of and happy to talk about their Hawaiian culture. At Paradise Cove I felt like an unwelcome trespasser who was begrudgingly given some food to eat and a bare minimum of access to their land. If it was just a security guard or just the parrot picture people id shake it off as an isolated event but it definitely felt like an overall angry vibe towards tourists imo. There’s plenty of aloha spirit in Hawaii and I’d rather give my dollar vote to those willing to treat me with a minimum level of decency.

 

[cgattis]

Both of these are totally unlike any experience we had there. I wonder if there is new management post-COVID or if there has been some kind of incident? The folks there couldn’t have been nicer to us at the luau and we had zero issues with anyone when we went over to the cove looking for turtles.

 

[PalmettoPath]

Strange for me to see the negative experiences as well, as we had a great time there. Although, we have only been once to Paradise Cove and it was just before Covid. Our experience was excellent nonetheless -- the whole family really enjoyed it. Everyone was quite nice and the food was okay. We would do it again on our next visit. Now I'm curious to see what kind of experience we will have the next time around.

 

[buzzrelly]

Well, now I'm conflicted. I booked this after reading good reviews on here, but after reading these reviews, I went over to Trip Advisor and, Oh my goodness! I'm 99% sure I'm going to cancel unless someone can convince me otherwise. I really wanted to do the luau at Aulani but I was dumb and waited to long to book. We may be Luau-less in Hawaii next month! (Side note...I may have just come up with the name of my next trip report )

 

[SueInBoston]

I'm conflicted as well for my August trip, now I'm going to look into Chief as recommend by other posters.

 

[kkayluvsdis]

Well, now I'm conflicted. I booked this after reading good reviews on here, but after reading these reviews, I went over to Trip Advisor and, Oh my goodness! I'm 99% sure I'm going to cancel unless someone can convince me otherwise. I really wanted to do the luau at Aulani but I was dumb and waited to long to book. We may be Luau-less in Hawaii next month! (Side note...I may have just come up with the name of my next trip report )

We might skip the Luau as well. We also waited too long to book at Aulani but I have to admit I was dragging my feet about booking it due to the cost. Would we be breaking some unwritten rule by going to Hawaii for the first time and not attending a Luau?!

 

[mort1331]

So we have seen both good an bad reviews,,,we are heading for 1st time end of July. Just with the cost alone we will try PC. Hoping for a room at Aulani overlooking the show and get best of both. We were thinking of Chiefs, but I dont want to drive if I am having a few drinks. Hoping the bad reviews are a glitch in service and things pick up.

 

[buzzrelly]

We might skip the Luau as well. We also waited too long to book at Aulani but I have to admit I was dragging my feet about booking it due to the cost. Would we be breaking some unwritten rule by going to Hawaii for the first time and not attending a Luau?!

I kind of feel like we might be, but I also really don't think I would like that menu much under the best of circumstances anyway. I might save that money for something else...will definitely have to talk to DD and see if she has her heart set on going to a luau.

 

[Littlelulu01]

We've had Island Garden view rooms that overlooked the luau in the past and caught a little of the Aulani show. I would recommend placing a request that overlooks the Aulani luau lawn, spend some $ at a nice dinner out at Aulani or even Monkey Pod where they have live entertainment. Aulani had some impressive things available for free. Hula dancers, live entertainment... This year we had room 164, a dedicated two bedroom island garden view room on the ground floor facing the luau. We loved the ground floor that was walk out to the grass area. If you requested this or similar location room you would get pretty great seats to the show. Villa 164 also had the continuous patio which was nice for group seating area outside. Granted, we did not attend the Aulani Luau but we did see the pre show activities and some of the show from our patio. Hands down the experience seemed so much nicer and relaxed. They have a fraction of guests in attendance at Aulani. I am guessing a couple hundred at Aulani vs. over a thousand at Paradise Cove. The extra add on's were a little much. The $ coupons they give you are not good for many things. For example, they could not be used at the craft huts. Those are additional credit card purchase. Same with the parrot photos. Those start at $25 and go up from there with credit card only accepted. No cash. The lines for activities are pretty long so I would recommend picking just one and getting in line as soon as you are seated. We gave up on the lines for drinks and never used our $. I gave them to a table near us as we left. Granted we did not stick around for the main attraction. It was dark when we left and the actual show had still not started. Dinner was long finished and shut down and the announcer on stage was still giving a hand to the various birthday groups. There had been a couple teaser acts but the actual show had not begun. I had read reviews prior and was not expecting great food. I was interested in having the family together for an evening out doing something fun. I was not expecting to be treated so poorly. My kids are young adults. They are easygoing, pretty oblivious and not fussy. I can say that not one of them wanted to stick around any longer and everyone was glad we walked out when we did and wished we had sooner. So it was not just me getting unvalidated vibes. The behavior of the security guard the following day cemented my opinion as a pervasive problem rather than just an off night. Aulani is able to find quality staff who are kind to customers. Paradise Cove Luau should ask someone in HR at Aulani how they do it.

 

[Paul Stupin]

We too have had quite a negative experience at Paradise Cove. The security staff are unfriendly and get mad at the slightest transgression. The luau itself is a crowded, pricey, unfun, nickel and diming tourist nightmare, with mediocre entertainment and genuinely awful food. If we were going to do another luau, we’d just stay at Aulani and do theirs.

 

[scoobdoo]

Well, now I'm conflicted. I booked this after reading good reviews on here, but after reading these reviews, I went over to Trip Advisor and, Oh my goodness! I'm 99% sure I'm going to cancel unless someone can convince me otherwise. I really wanted to do the luau at Aulani but I was dumb and waited to long to book. We may be Luau-less in Hawaii next month! (Side note...I may have just come up with the name of my next trip report )

‘I’m so sorry! The luau at Aulani is so good!!