I just wanted to send you a quick note to thank you again for all of your help with our Maui trip. We followed all of your tips, and we had an amazingly wonderful time. We loved the Maui Adventure Cruise (Lana'i was so beautiful and we ended up seeing 75+ dolphins from the boat). The captain said to tell you "hi." And thanks again for the Quicksilver hook up...it was great!!Note: The image here is Annette Rawlings and Melissa McCoy out on a Maui Cruise.
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from our adventure to the Hawaiian Islands. We want to thank you so much Hiapo for putting the trip together for us. My wife and I had to put off our honeymoon 10 years ago due to family and financial limitations. Patience is a virtue and this trip met those expectations and more. We spent the first two nights in Oahu at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in the Rainbow Tower overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Pearl Harbor was a very moving experience and we enjoyed the step back in history. The city tour allowed for us to get a better grasp of the Hawaiian History prior to islands becoming a state. We spent the remaining time on the island of Kauai. It was so beautiful with the tourquios water and mountainous landscape. We stayed at the Sheraton on Poipu Beach. We spent our days taking a helicopter tour of the island, a boat tour of the Napali Coast, multiple snorkling trips and a luau at Smith's. It was a great time and we will never forget our gettaway . We have already had some friends ask about the trip and they have expressed desires to make the trip as well. We plan on sending them your way. You guys have got it down to a fine art with a flawless system. Thanks again for all that you guys did for us. Hope to stay in touch.
B&C. Cooley
Ellisville, MO
We had a fabulous vacation on Maui! It was really hard to leave, and even harder to arrive home to the daily grind. Next time (and there will definitely be a next time), we are going to need something closer to 2 weeks to really bask in the relaxing pace of it all. Here are some of our thoughts on the places, and please be sure to let us know if you have questions:
Honua Kai - was a beautiful place - spacious, comfortable rooms, huge lanai, nice facilities, lovely grounds, good restaurant. The kitchen could use a bit of shelving for food as the dishes took up all the cupboard space.
Kea Lani - What can I say? It's the Kea Lani. We love it. Absolutely love it. Beautiful rooms, grounds, pools, beach. Impeccable and friendly service. Fantastic breakfast buffet. No wonder we keep going back. We loved them when they put us in that Villa four years ago, but we also love their regular suite! :) We love almost everything about the Kea Lani. The ONLY downside is that they no longer have a reasonably priced restaurant to have dinner with your kids.
The beaches at Wailea and Makena are sooooo great, and they were much more accessible to our children than Kaanapali. I was surprised by this, as I vacationed for years on Kaanapali with my own parents and siblings when I was growing up. I remember playing in the ocean all day, every day. But the ocean in front of Honua Kai was too rough for our kids the first few days, and was too immediately deep for them to play in safely. There's no sand shelf. The Wailea beaches have that (a soft, sandy, gradual bottom), plus the snorkeling, so our kids were able to boogie board, body surf, and snorkel all day. We saw a huge (probably 5 ft) sea turtle down there - totally awesome!
We had fantastic meals throughout the trip, did part of the Hana Highway, went to Haleakala, and just all around enjoyed ourselves. I really can't wait to go back. We were sorry not to get to see you and give you a squeeze. Next time, okay? If you have any questions about any of my comments, please feel free to call me. Thanks again Lori, we had a fantastic time! :)
Mahalo,
L. Hubbard
Bend, OR
Thanks so much for checking in. We had a wonderful time. Our son got to practice snorkeling with the boogie board that had a face hole in it - he could float on the board and use his snorkel to watch the giant turtles, He loved it! He also liked the fire dancer at the luau.
Thanks again- we had a great time!!
M. Ross
Portland, OR
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We both had a great time on the Fiji trip, thank you so much for the arrangements. The 7 day Blue Lagoon cruise was a delight we were very lucky to have had the B.L. CEO on board during the cruise that may have made things even better. The crew on the ship could not have done more for us, 1 crewman for each 3 passengers. This was truely a Birthday Trip to remember. The stay at the Westin was again great & Rosies Travel Service was outstanding. We had them arrange 2 day snorkling trips from Denarau Harbor that were outstanding. I would have to say that the best thing about the trip was the friendly & and helpful people we met in Fiji, the staff at Rosies, the Hotel staff, the ships crew as well as people on the streets.
Matamanoa Island Resort was amazing. It is exactly what we wanted. The beach was perfect, the snorkeling was out of this world (Bekki said it was better then the Great Barrier Reef), the staff couldn't have been more friendly, the bures were perfect, and the pool was awesome. I would suggest that people do a la cart rather then a meal plan. The food options are way better. Other then that, I would highly recommend this resort. Bekki and I had the time of our lives. Thank you so much for all your help. You really made our honeymoon go smoothly and without any hitches. The only bad thing was it only lasted a week.
Thanks again.
I. Herzon
Burbank, CA
Hi Tish,
We just returned home to Chicago....we had a wonderful time and the activities you assisted us with were fantastic. The Feast at Lele--was a quality show, the Zipling was fun and the day trip to Lanai was good.....snorkeling not so good due to high tide....but we still had fun in the boat and at the beach over there.
Thanks again, let stay in touch and I will be sure to pass along your contact info to friend s planning a trip over to Maui.
Aloha,
M. Manning
Oak Brook, IL
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Bula Melissa,
The trip was fantastic. Many, many things done right. Mike was great, tolerating my frequent mind changes in the planning process. His suggestion for Raffles for a day room was good too – they just opened a new pool which is actually pretty nice for a “crash pad” level room.
Diving had to be the highlight, although the accommodations are a close second, followed by the quality of snorkeling around Davui.
We were more or less the only divers there at the time so we had essentially a personal boat driver and dive master. Even if there were a few more people, it beats the cattle boats from the big dive resorts. Mini, the dive master was excellent and a lot of fun to spend time with. The night dive just off the island reef was a highlight. Definitely a different set of critters out at night, and a couple sharks in the dark… Did the big fish encounter – good, checked the box, a bit like a zoo under water, without bars. Glad we did it, but the small reef sharks appearing out of the darkness and disappearing just as fast on the night diver were more impressive/a little unnerving. On a related topic – snorkeling is amazing – the colors in the coral are innumerable, throw in the vertical wall dropping down to about 30 feet, cool shells and I spent hours just kicking around the island.
The rooms at Davui are great. They do have a resort map now with locations. If I had that to overlay with sun/shade times of each, it would have been the ULTIMATE. We started with an upgrade Mike arranged (Valle 3) that for our time of the year, great sun/shade mix and evening sunsets. Then moved over to 6, which turns the corner and only got sun on the splash pool for about an hour – not a huge deal and since I picked it over Valle 1, oh well (1’s pool overlooks the boat area and thus a little less private). Bottom line though, the rooms are great and for the rainier season, we were lucky enough to have perfect weather right up the day we left, which rained and made it just a hair easier to leave, but only just.
After reading reviews, we had already determined that we weren’t the kind of people likely to write a disaster story review and nothing changed after the trip. It was a little humorous to see how some of the things people thought disastrous weren’t (at least to us). Mosquitoes, yes, we got bit. Inside and outside the netting, sometimes at dinner – its tropical. We had very, very strong repellent we brought with us – it helps a lot but still… the mangers were in transition but seemed to recognize that and went a little extra to make sure they weren’t missing an element we needed. They were good about setting some expectations up front as well – such as letting us know if there was ANYTHING we needed to ask, and yet reminded us that we were on an island and although they would always do their very best, sometimes they would not be able to accommodate certain food requests, etc. They had a smoked tuna breakfast sandwich that they never got the tuna in for, but they did know I had inquired about it a couple times and seemed to genuinely try and get it but could not. They substituted with smoked Salmon they were able to get. On the topic of food, it was amazing. In particular the fish, which seemed available at every meal in some form including the breakfast sandwich I mentioned. I read a very contrary review online about them never having fish before going so who knows why when that happened. It was definitely NOT an issue and it always seemed extra fresh.
One other pleasant, and not minor surprise, all drinks (except alcohol) WERE included. They don’t list it as that on their website that way (I think they say tea, coffee and water is). Probably saved us a little bit and kept us more hydrated than we otherwise may have. It also means that with a bottle or two from duty free in Nadi and the minibar stocked with coke, tonic, club soda, etc – we didn’t have to have drinks delivered, ordered, etc.
Staff was very friendly and mostly fast. We learned that if you get to know them a little better, ask them questions, etc, they seemed more at ease and more in tune with what you liked – by the end, they knew that I LOVED the fresh baked bread (they made a pesto bread, kind of swirl of pesto inside – to die for…), and got a kick out of keeping me well stocked at meals.
Airline was good – upstairs in the air pacific 747, bulkhead seat was KEY on the way there. The little commuter 3 seater plane Davui used was a kick. If you have any fear of flying or small plans though, watch out. I have great photos from the plane, including out the front window landing. But then I like flying, and small planes. If they have any reservations about it, a car from Nadi takes a little longer – but you do get to see the country and I think is a little cheaper, and does offer more options for departure/arrival time. I’m sure they like to keep boat trips from Davui to Pacific Harbor to a minimum so if multiple people arrive on the same day, the plane is a charter. We enjoyed it as I said. On the way back, we were on a United plane – luckily had economy plus so leg room was tolerable there too. Upgrades on the united plane was crazy expensive despite plenty of room. US air lines – Oh well.
Have I left anything off? I could probably go on for a lot longer...
Thanks again for a wonderful vacation.
J. & A. Lunzer
Hermosa Beach, CA
Hello Holly,
I have meant to send you this email since our return…we had a blast!! We did not want to leave!! All the excursions that you booked for us were perfect. We had perfect seats at the Luau, a wonderful sunset on the Dinner Cruise with great entertainment, and the Van Tour was one of our favorites…great guide…he even stopped at a couple places not on the itinerary for us!! I do think that the Kids had great fun snorkeling and zip-lining. The day of our departure we went to Lahaina and booked one of those blue water whale watching tours for the 6 of us…mom and dad did not go…and that was tons of fun also.
The most spectacular thing was where we stayed the Fairmont Kea Lani was absolutely beautiful and the service there was impeccable…second to none!! Everyone was so helpful and nice!! Scott and I walked hand in hand into the Ocean the morning we were leaving and that was one of the most touching memories that I will ever have considering that I almost lost my best friend before we left!!
I will write more later…just want to say THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!! We will be using you and McCoy Travel for future trips for SURE!!!
Aloha,
L. Grimes
Enid, OK
Aloha Melissa,
Our trip was great! Once again Sue Michailidis did a wonderful job! Our flight went well. The weather in Kauai was nice with an occasional shower. The Grand Hyatt was awesome and beautiful! The staff was outstanding and the free breakfasts turned out to be a great bargain.
We went on a great sunset cruise Friday. A luau for my 50th birthday on Sunday. A kayak trip Tuesday and a Zodiak raft to the Napali coast on Thursday. Thanks to Tish Carreira for scheduling this all.
The rest of the time we spent snorkeling with Chris from the Captain Andy's hut at the hotel and we became good friends with him. One last note: the pool at the Hyatt is one of the best Ive seen. It took us the whole vacation to discover them all.
Mahalo,
J. & J. Borg
Pennington, NJ
Aloha Melissa,
We had a great time. Our condo was perfect—relatively small, close to the ocean, clean and attractive. Everyone enjoyed the pool and hot tub. We had a visit from a monk seal and lots of whale sightings.
We went to Molokini and Lanai for snorkeling--saw lots of spinning dolphins and whales as well as reef fish. The Old Lahaina luau was lovely—delicious food and strong performances.
I’ll try to get to TripAdvisor to rate accommodations too.
Thanks for your help!
Hello,
Happy New Year to you and your staff. First of all, forgive my late response…coming home from the trip of a lifetime and following it up with Thanksgiving, Christmas and the New Year is a bit daunting, and believe me—takes up A LOT of your time!
I do want to let you know that the service that Michael Byrne provided us was paramount. He answered every stupid little question I had, and trust me—I had a lot of them. He had us set up with a great hotel—we stayed at the Hyatt in Maui and thought it was just lovely. The absolute only problem was one, little cockroach…but hey, we’re in the tropics and that happens, right? Other than that, I thought I was a queen. The staff there, the food there---all of it—absolutely beautiful. Our plane ride was uneventful…which is the best you can ask for in a plane ride—we even arrived a bit earlier than we were supposed to, so that was great as well.
Michael put us in touch with Brenda LeBrun (to help us reserve activities) —who was absolutely WONDERFUL!! Brenda and I hit it off like two old friends. She is great—and she knew the island inside and out. She recommended and booked awesome things for us to do. We ziplined, went horseback riding, took a road to Hana tour, went snorkeling—just about every great thing you could do on Maui. She booked us with a great snorkeling tour…never in my life did I see so many beautiful fish! Not to mention swimming around with the turtles at turtle-town…that was a real treat, something that will always be remembered! I’m not sure of the tour company that took us through Hana, but our guide…her name was Pu---was absolutely fantastic! She shared so many great facts and stories with as she drove us through the beautiful scenery. We learned so much about the island and the native Hawaiian people from her, it really was so much more than we expected.
I will be sure to log onto TripAdvisor.com and share all my experiences with your staff and suppliers…and believe me, as soon as we can---we will be contacting Michael again and coming back to Hawaii for another visit!
Thank you very much!!
M. McKenna
Whitman, MA
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Aloha Tish,
I have just arrived home after a fantastic visit to Maui. Your expertise in providing me with the correct snorkeling equipment, including prescription glasses, ensured that I would have a fabulous time swimming with the turtles and snorkeling in the ocean. Thanks once again for making my holiday so memorable.
With kindest regards,
B. Spinks
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