Island Breeze Lū‘au - He 'Ohana Kakou — Attraction in Hawaii

I hate to write this but I can't say our experience the night of our luau was all that great. We've been to another luau across the bay from this one and found it to be a much better experience overall. Here is the TLDR:

While there were elements to this event that were a lot of fun and very enjoyable, overall, I wouldn't say it's worth the cost at all--between the super short timeframe they hold it in (1.5 hours), the lack of family interaction, and some of the very simple planning issues they had, we'd go back to the one across the bay if we ever did a luau again and wouldn't come back to this one.

First, let's start with the positives: The food was fantastic overall and was plentiful. You will not leave this event hungry, I promise you! The dancers and the narrator were all excellent and very energetic. It rained about mid-way through the dinner for about 10 minutes and I will say that they handled the rain itself with the audience very well. They had poncho's available for everyone and the narrator made light of it, pointing out that rain is a big part of being in Hawaii.

Now for the downsides that really made my wife and I leave feeling like it really wasn't worth the price we paid (north of $500 for a family of 4).

Because of the rain (again, not their fault), they removed all of the desserts to keep them dry. When it stopped, we asked about the desserts and they said they wouldn't come back out. All of the other food was out, just not the desserts. I know for a fact that we weren't the only ones asking, so given that they refused to bring them back out just tells me they didn't want to hassle with it. Second, at the start of the dinner, the narrator was mentioning to everyone to try the different, traditional Hawaii dishes. He specifically mentioned Poi, which is one of my favorites for it's uniqueness, and about half-way through, he was told that they didn't have Poi that night. When you only hold this event 3 times a week, how do you screw this up?! Even the announcer jokingly said, "What? No Poi? Then I'm out of here..." Third, and this is a big one, at no point in time were any families or children invited to dance with the dancers. No one came off the stage to interact with the crowd at all. Given this was our experience at the other luau across the bay, we had already told our daughter she would most likely get to dance with the dancers, something she was greatly looking forward to. Given the fact that the show is focused on " 'Ohana" or family, this was very disappointing overall. Next, upon checking in and entering the event, I found out that in order to get lei's for the family, I would have to spend $10 each to get them ($40 total) and on top of the $500+ I had already spent for the family. At the other luau we attended, these were part of the price, which makes sense. If I'm going to spend what I spent on this affair, then adding $10 per ticket so that it includes a lei isn't going to scare me away. This was the case at the other luau given that I recall that 100% of the families there had them on at the start of the event. They mention that drinks are included in the ticket price, and that is true. Just keep in mind that they only put 2 bartenders on the single bar for the first 30-45 minutes and then drop to one after that. So if you are thirsty, expects some waits and, in our case, a very grumpy bartender who complains about the line a lot. Finally, and this really rubbed me the wrong way, everything on their website and in their emails and voicemails said the event would go from 5:30 to about 8 pm. They had our evening done and the lights up by 7 pm sharp. When I mentioned going for desserts after the event above, we were out of this location and in another restaurant by 7:30 pm they had us out of there so fast. I have no idea what happened to that last hour they were talking about, but this show is done at 7 pm sharp in our one experience!

Overall, the negatives balance out the positives of our event, so this is one of the few 3-stars I've given--and not...

This place is a joke. The food was decent, and one of the performers had an amazing voice... we still can't figure out why she's wasting her talents and time at this place. I've been to several Luau's on several of the other Islands and I can say without a doubt that this was not only a waste of money, but a major disappointment... like, to the point of where it's pretty much insulting. The line to get in was just an unstructured mass of people being herded through to buy a lei (something that was given at the other luau's I've been to), then herded onto take a photograph... we were told to stop about halfway between the two main picture staging areas by someone who didn't seem to know what they were doing, then a guy snapped our picture that also seemed to have no clue what he was doing, and we were further herded on to where they tried to sell us this trash picture (LOL, we took better selfie pictures with our cell phones throughout the evening). Then they just kind of shove you out a door and into an outside corridor that has no real direction and a bar located in it to further add to the "are we going the right way?!". Then we got to the Luau and it was very unstructured and lacked any hospitality when being "greeted"... we were half-heartedly pointed to some seats at a table so we just sat where we thought they pointed us. We walked past the covered food on our way to grab some drinks... again- no real structure and the bartender seemed overworked as a result (I'm really wondering how long employees put up with this place). We walked back past the covered food on our way back to the seats and sat down for a considerable amount of time before anything started and/or the food was finally uncovered and allowed to be eaten. By the time I finished my first plate- they were already packing up massive amounts of uneaten food and the bar was closing up... not like any of the other Luau's I have ever been to, so I scrambled to grab a second plate of my favorites and the staff seemed to act like I was acting out of bounds or in their way. The show had more talking than an actual story being told and seemed to jump around with no real flow...it had the feel of a really bad high school talent show where the guy just really loved seeing himself behind a microphone, more than a Luau. When the show finally ended, it was like a sigh of relief and a "thank God this is finally over", rather than any feeling of satisfaction or enjoyment. I had a better time talking to some people that were 20-30 years older than us and didn't share much (if anything) in common with us as we walked out. I don't even eat Mcdonald's and cringe at the thought, but I think I would have rather gone there. I don't even know that after all this typing, that I'm even effectively conveying how bad this place was and what a waste of time and money it was, but I really hope people stop going to...

We are apart of a timeshare and for our honeymoon we decided to celebrate in Hawai'i on the Big Island. Its our first time here so our Concierge highly recommended this Lu'au, claiming it was the best in the area and great way to start our week here. The experience was gifted to us in the package.

Since for us it was 'free' I won't complain a great deal but I know how much people paid and it's simply not worth the cost until they address a few things:

Seating: You will be grouped at long tables with about 10-12 other ppl. There were about 20 tables so you're looking at well over 100 people crammed into an outdoor seating area near the hotel's bay with the live band and stage in front of you. The seats are basic folding chairs and water and rolled napkin utensils are already placed.

Atmosphere: This event is outside. That wouldn't be an issue IF nature were accounted for, in which at this event it is not. Bugs, bugs, and more bugs. Make sure you wear pants, close toes shoes, and either long sleeves or a light jacket because if not you're going to get bit up. Case in point, remember that water I mentioned already sitting on the tables at each seat, well I had a dead bug already floating in mine before even sitting down.

Food: Was it covered? No. Do they serve it? Also no. I understand a buffet is more efficient trying to shepard over 100+ people to eat. They get your tables up like a wedding. A few at a time. When we finally reached the food: gnats, mosquitoes, and flies were getting their fill too. We skipped the entire cold section. Fruit, salad, tuna etc had either gnats on it or trapped moving in the sauce. We only ate from the hot plates. This issue could have easily been fixed. Just COVER THE FOOD. (Side note if you look in the main hotel's breakfast area they had empty food pans with covers sooo im not sure how this ball was dropped)

Performance: the performances were fine. Between them, the host crowd work, and live band (yes, I understand the dancers need to rest and time to change between numbers) but keep in mind you're still outside with bugs everywhere and this event lasts almost 3 hours.

Overall: A very commercialized event made for efficiency not cultural accuracy. I would do a Lu'au again IF it were intimate with maybe 20ppl or less, with covered managed food (with actual seasoning and non-watered down drinks), and bug repellent tiki torches. Other than that I can't say I enjoyed this experience. The 3 stars is purely for the dancers and fire dance. Other than that, I could have streamed the performances in my hotel room, had room service (hold the insects) been comfortable not getting bit up, and would have had a waaaay better time.

For a 'free' event: meh. But for the tons of families that paid what they did, not worth it...