Expeditions Maui-Lanai Ferry — Local services in Maui

Great ride across the channel and a helpful and friendly staff. Seas can get rough though, and I am susceptible to seasickness, so I ordered the nausea patch from my doctor (Rx only) and it worked well for me.

The views are spectacular along the ride. We rode in the open air, which was great until we started getting soaked from sea spray, haha. We were able to move into one of the indoor seating areas, so we were able to stay mostly dry after that.

My one gripe is the parking, but I think that's the harbor's challenge and not the ferry, so I didn't factor that into my review, but I will warn you about it.

Short version: If you're staying on Lana'i for longer than 24 hrs, use a ride-share or taxi to get to Maalaea because parking is weird.

Long version: If you're bringing your own vehicle or a rented one and staying longer than 24 hours, you'll have to renew the parking after the 24 hrs is up. We didn't know that because it was not mentioned in any of the communications.

The app only allows payment for up to 24 hours, so we figured we'd extend the meter time from the app when we need to. The app failed miserably and we couldn't renew but were already on Lana'i, so we called the parking company to help sort it out. They told us to contact the harbor. The representative at the harbor was extremely unhelpful and just told my partner to try it online, which we had trying already several times, so zero help from them.

To resolve this on our own, we discovered that if we went back to the website (not the app) to fill out a 'new' parking spot, we were able to renew. We wound up double-paying for a few hours because we were going to be exploring without cell service, so we had to renew a few hours before our last payment ran out. Not a big deal as it's only $1 an hour, but very frustrating to think that if you can't renew your spot, you'll get towed over just a...

I highly recommend a full day in Lanai - be on the first ferry out of Lahaina and the last one back. Boats offer two indoor spaces and one outdoor space uptop but you need to be among the first in line if you want a guaranteed outdoor spot. Lanai is sparsely populated and has a lot of dirt roads and we understand that it is way cooler if you have access to an off-road type vehicle.....however, even if you don't manage to get an off road vehicle, like us, you can still have a full day. We had breakfast at Blue Ginger (Cash only!!), Poke lunch from Richards' Grocery. Hiked the Koloiki Ridge Trail, Enjoyed the Lanai Cat Sanctuary and finished the day snorkeling Hulopoe Bay where we saw an abundance of large fish - and apparently just missed a pod of dolphins. My friends who have snorkeled throughout Maui and the Big Island said this was the best snorkeling they've done in Hawaii. Cooled off in a Tide Pool and then changed in the beach side restrooms and headed home. Next time we will plan better and get a Jeep (none were available for our visit though we passed the rental place several times during the day and there were plenty in their lot the entire time were were there as if someone rented them but never actually picked them up for some reason), and to hike some of the trails only accessible via jeep. We rented a local's car for the day via 808 rentals and it was clean and perfectly met our needs - but they were clear no dirt roads or pay a hefty fine and we found it easy to comply with that ask and still have a wonderful day. Highly...

Ferry is convenient and easy to book online, but was very disappointed by the friendliness and professionalism of the staff boarding the ferry. We were confused about the ticket situation, since we had booked them online and didn’t realize you had to pick up physical tickets from the booth. We checked in, and as we tried to board the employee said nothing and stepped in front of us to block our path. He didn’t ask for tickets, just stood there and smirked at us. When we finally said “sorry, we don’t have physical tickets,” all he did was point to the booth without speaking. And yes, he could speak. When we got the tickets and gave them to him, we thanked him and tried to step forward to board and he again just stepped in front of us to block us without saying anything. When we asked if we could board, he responded: “i’ll tell you when you can board”. It was just rude quite honestly and we didn’t see other people being treated this way, probably due to the fact that my brother and I are young and traveling alone. We understand why we needed tickets and why we needed to wait to board, but he should’ve just said those things instead of trying to intimidate us by physically blocking our path. If he had just communicated and tried to be friendly (as the other staff member had done) it would’ve been a much better experience getting...