redheadwahine's activity reviews | Book tours, activities & fun things to do on HawaiiActivities.com

Meh. I think it's misleading to call this a lantern ceremony sail.

The sailing was pretty, the views were gorgeous during sunset, and the boat was nice enough. The crew was great. But I don't think it was worth the almost $200 we paid to go as a couple. The drinks were fairly weak, and of course they talk you into buying the $8 souvenir cup under the pretense that you'll get a bigger drink for the same price as the small cups... but they just use more mixer and ice and the same amount of liquor. We expected that and weren't expecting much of the food either since most touristy things like this aren't the best in either department. I'm mostly bummed out that this was advertised as a lantern ceremony sail which is the only reason we booked it. We've wanted to see the ceremony for the past 4 years but didn't want to deal with the huge crowds on shore. I understand that with the surf, you can't get too close, but we hadn't realized just how far away we'd be. It was just distance lights far away against the shore that blended in with he city lights and traffic. I had my extreme zoom telephoto lens and even I could barely tell when the lanterns hit the water. People opted to pull up the live streaming of the ceremony on their phones, which honestly was kind of a cool mixture to be out there live on the water and get a closer view digitally, but not worth $200 for the experience. Overall kind of disappointed, but still a cool way to see a different view of the island. Just not the lantern experience we had expected.