Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary Visitor Center — Attraction in Maui

I love coming to this place, unfortunately this last time was different. There was 1 worker that was very rude and unprofessional. There was a group of us watching the turtles all standing at least 20 feet away, I moved away from the group maintaining my distance if not further out just to try and get a different angle to get the head of the turtle in my picture. He came over and told me that I couldn't do that, that I was only allowed to stand where everyone else was, which didn't make sense to me because it is a beach and I maintained my distance as recommended. I didn't argue I said ok but he continued to tell me off with an attitude stating my camera had zoom. I looked at him and said ok. I didn't understand what his problem was but if it is his job to make sure no one is harassing the turtles he should have said something to the 2 kids that were splashing water on them and their mother accidently stepped on one, that is how close they were but I was the only one told off. Then he sat on the beach just staring at me making me so uncomfortable that I just left and as soon as he saw me walking up into Menehune Shores he went inside. It was very creepy and...

We visited this small sanctuary yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed our visit. Doug gave a knowledgeable, relatable and interesting presentation at 10 am. Suzanne welcomed us wholeheartedly with a smile as she assisted the children already in attendance; And Joanne pointed out the sea turtles, provided us with binoculars, and even recommended the perfect place for lunch. All three were perfect at, and enthusiastic about, their work at the sanctuary. No tickets, no admittance fees, no parking is required. Verify hours of operation before stopping by. (Although we saw three monk seals there on the sand when the center was closed on Sunday. It was awesome!) So arrive with a smile, and if you can't do that ... Doug, Suzanne, and Joanne will make sure you depart with one....

We came here on our last day of vacation. Thought we were expecting more, it was still worth the stop and a great experience! It's free. The volunteers are definitely passionate about what they do and were very informative. It was educational and we learned a lot! We like this kind of stuff and definitely recommend it to those that do. It's right next to turtle bay and we didn't go at peak time when most of the turtles are there, but we did catch one! Only because one of the volunteers pointed it out to us. We never would've known otherwise. It looks...