This video is all about our September 2018 vacation to the island of Maui in Hawaii...
And even though we usually do our vacations on cruise ships, this time we did a regular land vacation instead.
We stayed at the Sheraton Resort on beautiful Kaanapali Beach.
Later on in this video, I'll make some comparisons between this land vacation and a cruise...
Tell you which one we think is a better vacation value...
And tell you about what we're going to be doing different on our next vacation.
Our vacation began with a flight out of the new terminal at the San Luis Obispo county airport...
Which is the small regional airport near our house.
They just completed this new terminal at the airport at the end of last year...
And this was our first opportunity to fly out of it.
It's way better than the outdated old terminal, that's for sure.
Because I use the United Airlines mileage plus Explorer card for just about every expense in my life...
And because I book all my cruises through Cruises.United.com...
I build up a lot of frequent flyer miles all year long...
And then use them to get us very inexpensive upgrades to first-class on many of our flights.
So, the five-hour flight to Hawaii from California was pretty painless for us in our first-class seats with a meal and cocktails included.
And when you sit for five hours it's great to have the wider first-class seat and more legroom, too.
We stayed at the Sheraton Resort on Maui...
Which has a fantastic location on one of Maui's best beaches: Kaanapali Beach at Black Rock.
It's a tradition for people to climb up the rock and jump off from the top into the deep water below.
And there's some great snorkeling in this little cove, too... with lots of fish...
As well as frequent visits from some very large sea turtles.
There are always a lot of people playing in the water here at Kaanapali Beach and the turtles are totally used to it being that way.
So, it's not at all unusual to be standing in four or five feet of water just a few feet from the shore and have a turtle swim up by you.
The turtles aren't afraid of the people and most of the people know not to touch the turtles and not to get in their way.
The first time I brought my wife to Maui was two years ago...
And we rented a car and explored quite a bit of the island.
When we stumbled onto Kaanapali beach and I went snorkeling and ran into sea turtles...
We made a vow right then and there that the next time we came to Hawaii we'd stay at the Sheraton...
So I could snorkel with the turtles every day, if I wanted to.
Another nice feature of the Sheraton resort is a beautiful large swimming pool and an extensive lazy river feature...
With all sorts of little hidden nooks for people to relax and hang out in.
It just winds around and there are all these little places where you can stop and spend time relaxing.
It's a great place to stay cool on a warm Hawaiian day.
We visited during September, and the overnight low temperatures were around 75 degrees most nights...
And the daytime highs were in the upper 80s.
Great weather for spending time in and around the pool.
The resort's property is absolutely beautiful .
Green and lush and gorgeous with lots of beautiful plants and flowers.
And there are all sorts of little landscaping details that just make it a pleasure to walk around and enjoy all the beauty.
We booked what is known as an oceanfront room, and...
From the balcony of our room on the fourth floor...
We had a fantastic view of the beautiful hotel grounds, the beach, and black rock.
We spent hours just sitting out on our balcony and enjoying these views.
The Sheraton Resort has a casual beach-side bar and restaurant that overlooks black rock.
It's fun to sit there and watch the people jump off the rock...
And therefore this little venue is known as the Cliff Dive Grill.
It has a limited food menu, suitable for a light lunch or light dinner.
For a larger menu, you want to visit the other restaurant on the resort's property...
It's open for breakfast and dinner, but not lunch.
They serve a fantastic breakfast!
That's my favorite meal of the day, so...
When I find a restaurant that offers a great breakfast like this one does, I'm a happy guy.
But here's the thing you need to know about the Sheraton, and...
And really, from what I've seen, a lot of the hotels on Maui.
The food in their restaurant is insanely expensive. Insanely!
The breakfast buffet is 31 dollars per person, plus tip.
So, sixty two dollars per couple, plus tip... just for the breakfast buffet.
Personally, I just won't pay $70 for breakfast. I won't do it!
So, instead of the buffet, we ordered off the regular menu...
And that brought the price of our breakfast down to about fifty dollars.
But that's still an awful lot of money for breakfast every day, and...
Lunch was in that same price range, too...
And dinner was even more expensive.
So, since we're staying here for six nights...
We explored some of the other restaurants that were within walking distance.
There's a shopping mall called Whaler's Village...
That's an easy walk along a nice walking path along Kaanapali Beach.
And Whaler's Village has several restaurants...
As well as places you can get ice cream, gelato, and frozen yogurt.
The restaurants here are just as expensive as the ones at the Sheraton, though.
But at least, by eating some of your meals here, you get some different menu choices.
The closest thing we found to bargain-priced food...
Was at a little strip mall along the highway, less than a 10-minute walk from the Sheraton.
There's a little restaurant there called CJ's
That had a lot of personality, a lot of menu choices...
And slightly more reasonable prices than the other nearby restaurants.
And then the real bargain lunch that we had was in that same little strip mall at Round Table Pizza...
My favorite pizza chain, which I've been going to since the early 1970s.
Of all the meals we had on Maui, this lunch at Round Table was the only genuine bargain.
It seems like food is always an issue for us on a vacation.
On cruises, the challenge is to find a ship that offers a variety of foods that suit our tastes.
Some cruise ships, like Norwegian Bliss, excelled at that...
And others, like MSC Seaside, failed miserably!
Now on this Hawaiian land vacation we had no trouble finding delicious food that we enjoyed eating...
We just hated the prices!
So, I think maybe a cruise is a better vacation for us because...
That all-inclusive aspect of a cruise is something that we really like.
When we book a cruise, that price we pay upfront includes all the food already.
So, when we're in the restaurant, we can just enjoy the food and not think about what it's costing us.
Now our next vacation, coming up a couple months from now...
Is also going to be a land vacation, not a cruise, but...
It will be at an all-inclusive resort in Cancun.
I think the all-inclusive aspect of that one will probably be a big plus compared to our Hawaii vacation.
One interesting aspect of a land vacation versus a cruise is that you can bring along your own alcohol to a land resort.
I brought a bottle of Malibu rum with me from home...
Bought some Diet Pepsi at a little convenience store near the resort...
And I was set for the whole week.
That was hugely less expensive than buying drinks on a cruise ship.
Any steam train fanatics watching this video probably know that Maui has had a tourist attraction...
Called the Sugar Cane Train.
I read conflicting reports about whether it was still operating or not...
So, we walked over to the Kaanapali station to see for ourselves.
And sadly, everything's been neglected.
And I'm told that the trains only run at Christmas time now.
Comparing the overall vacation experience here at the Sheraton on Maui compared to a cruise vacation...
I'd say this was a lot slower-paced vacation that I came back from very relaxed.
On a cruise, you're visiting multiple different destinations and it can be a lot more active.
There is certainly a lot more to do on a cruise, and a lot more entertainment.
Here on Maui, there was swimming...
There was eating, drinking...
And there was a whole lot of sitting around enjoying the view.
We took a lot of walks...
And we had days and days to talk to each other and not be distracted by our normal lives.
If we needed entertainment, there wasn't much of that, but...
They did have a very high quality television in the room with lots of HDTV channels, pretty much like at home.
Much better access to television shows than you'd have on a cruise.
And really good internet access, too...
Although to get the best quality Internet required a 15 dollar fee per day for their high-speed Internet service.
They had a basic Internet plan available for free, but...
I ended up buying the high speed plan, so that was about $100 that I hadn't expected for our six-night stay.
On a cruise ship, you pretty much have to turn off your cell phone so you don't get hit with roaming charges.
On Maui, the cell service was no different than being at home.
All things considered, the six nights at the Sheraton cost us about three thousand dollars.
About $2500 of that up front and then about five hundred dollars at checkout...
To cover their resort fees, Internet fees, taxes, and that kind of stuff.
And then on top of that, don't forget the cost of airfare...
And all the restaurant expenses, which was quite a bit.
I think there are a lot of cruises that we could have done much less expensively...
And which would have offered a lot more entertainment and things to do.
I'd say without a doubt that a cruise is a much better value for the dollar.
But I certainly enjoyed our stay at the Sheraton resort!
LOVED swimming with the turtles...
Watching people jump off black rock...
Staying cool in the lazy river...
And enjoying those great Hawaiian views.
If you're interested in booking a trip to Maui...
And you don't want to just do it all yourself... you want a travel agent to help you...
Write to me at james.zimmerlin@gmail.com
And I'll refer you to my travel agent that can take care of everything for you.
Our visit to Maui was in September, and that's hurricane season!
Now I like vacationing during hurricane season because I like swimming in warm ocean water...
And it's those warm water conditions that makes the formation of those hurricanes possible.
Now when you cruise during hurricane season...
Your cruise ship can easily divert from its planned itinerary, if need be, to avoid a hurricane.
But on a land vacation you better hope you don't get unlucky and find yourself staying on an island that gets hit by a hurricane!
And that brings our story to Hurricane Olivia...
And how she formed in the warm waters off the Pacific just east of Hawaii...
While we were right there on Maui.
And the projected path of that hurricane took her directly to where we were!
In my next video, I'll show you what happens when you find yourself on vacation...
At the exact spot where a hurricane ends up coming ashore...
On the exact day she does it!
I'm Jim Zim. Taking a break from model train videos for a little while here...
To share our vacation experiences with you.
We'll get back to the trains, because I can't vacation forever!
For now, here are some links to good cruise videos I've made.
And be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel...
So you don't miss that upcoming video where I reveal how our vacation ends!
Did Olivia roll in like a wrecking ball? Or more like a pussycat?