The island breeze luau was a pretty middle of the road experience for us. I had planned to give 3…read morestars, but the friendliness of the staff bumped it up to four, so good on you!
We got premium seating at $730 for three people. We had our own table at the front of the show, leis included ($10 if you do not purchase premium seating), and first service to the buffet. That's pretty much all of the bonus that comes with premium seating.
We got our family photo taken, and it was a very beautiful photo. $25 to download the image without a watermark, $35 to get it printed. If you do choose to get the image, download it for $25 and get it printed at Walmart or CVS for $2.
The staff who checked us in, seated us, and served us were all very friendly, chatty, and kind. They did a wonderful job. The dancers and band were wonderful, and I appreciate the dedication to describing what a luau resembles; an ancient Hawaiian royal feast.
The pork was delicious, and being able to see it taken out of the ground was a really neat experience. Be sure to check in early (5pm for premium, 5:15 for standard) and be first in line to everything, because the line for the bar, tattoos, games and activities, and crowd around the pig build up fast.
They have a wide variety of traditional Hawaiian dishes, familiar food for kids, seafood, pork, chicken, beef, sides, and desserts at the all you can eat buffet. Their drink menu is extremely limited; for $750 I would have expected access to Piña Coladas and dacharies, something blended. The teriyaki beef had good flavor but was very tough.
Our session ended at 8. At 7pm, the event was called off because the rain was too heavy. This makes sense; there's a lot of danger for the dancers to be on such slippery floors, the buffet food had been soaked, no fire dancers could perform, etc. I understand they can't control the weather. We reached out and asked for a refund, and they offered for us to come back on Tuesday. That is not possible, as we fly out tonight (Monday). They say they do not offer refunds if rain causes the event to end early, and we are now in contact with management. Their choice to completely cancel the show instead of moving it inside or something of the sort was very disappointing, and our experience was not at all worth the almost $800 we spent.
Review update; they gave us a 2/3 refund for the rain, which was much appreciated! Mahalo for the wonderful time. And yes, printed is $30 not $35, I had read the numbers wrong.
We had a good time, but it would have been much better if a few tweaks were made. Mahalo for the friendly staff, great dancers, great band, good food, and education about Pacific Islander history! I hope to see some adjustments made for future guests to make the most of their time and money.