We are very happy to see most of our displaced crew and reservationists return to work. Some have made the decision to move on. Training our new vessel crew and office staff to the highest level of competence and professionalism takes time, rest assured that proper training that ensures your safety is our highest priority.
We remind you that we lost our office, all of our computers, servers and all of our records. Our phone service has been restored. Contacting reservations and the booking process is flowing as smoothly as it did pre-disaster. We are still working on upgrading our current reservations system ability. We have purchased new equipment and are continuing to work out the bugs.
We continue to ask for your patience and understanding as not only our Lahaina offices were lost in the fires, our warehouse was lost as well. We lost our vessel Expeditions Two in the fires. Our vessel back up parts inventory were lost. At this time, we still have limited and slowly expanding accessibility to our reserve fleet of boats that provide back up in the unlikely event that we have any mechanical issues with Expeditions Six. As opposed to having immediate access to these boats in the Lahaina roadstead, our backup vessels are moored at Sugar Beach in North Kihei, approximately three miles from Maalaea Harbor.
We are continuing to restock our back up parts and supplies that insure the reliability and consistency of our services. That resupply has been further delayed by the supply chain issues that have proven to affect all businesses, especially those in transportation. The supply issues are further complicated here in Hawaii. Moving forward at a careful pace is still a high priority for us at this stage of our recovery. Our crew, office and reservations staff availability are still limited as our displaced employees recover, return to work or move on.
Our ticket kiosk/reservations office and terminal at Maalaea Harbor has proven to be a great success. We are continuing to grow there and are doing our best to become more efficient and passenger friendly.
Please again be advised that due to the boarding configuration at Maalaea, once a passenger has boarded the boat, they will not be permitted to disembark. This policy is also in place at Manele to help us to better manage a stressed luggage bay. In consideration of this, we are still permitting DeWalt style rolling toolboxes, hand trucks in the upright position and large coolers on board. These types of oversized items are permitted on a space available basis only, reservations are no longer accepted. Four wheel wagons of any type, furniture dollies and hand trucks folded into a four wheel position are prohibited. We have been pressed into this policy to ensure that all of our passengers are able to safely secure their luggage and items on board.
Oversized items are charged according to PUC tariff and will be permitted on a first come-first served basis. Oversized items may not be carried if we do not have the available space onboard or if the item presents an unsafe condition per USCG regulations.
We have resumed our service available to Maui and Lana’i residents in transporting large household items that we are unable to carry on our scheduled passenger ferry. This service is available on every other Monday (loading at Manele at 8:30am) and every Friday (loading at Maalaea at 1:00pm). As before, approval, advanced reservations and payment are required before these items are transported. Please contact reservations at 808 661-3756.
We will continue to work toward carefully expanding our services with great consideration of the demand on Maui’s stressed harbor infrastructure. Harbor access and availability have been extremely limited after the fires. Please be advised that all Lahaina operators have been moved to Maalaea. Rest assured that community demand has and will continue to play a big role in these decisions.
Expeditions will continue to work tirelessly to return our services to their pre-disaster levels but there will continue to be growing pains, changes and delays associated with our return to “normal”. Once again, we ask for your patience and understanding as our staff and business recover from this tragic event.
Mahalo,
The Staff of Expeditions