Log 58: Four Seasons Sensei Lanai

There are two hotels on the island of Lanai - both of them are Four Seasons. One, is the Four Seasons Lanai, which is a deluxe beachfront resort. The other, is the Four Seasons Sensei Lanai. The Four Seasons Lanai has rooms starting at $1800 a night, and the Four Seasons Sensei Lanai has them ending at $25,000. Needless to say, most people opt to stay on Maui, and take the two hour ferry from Lahaina to Lanai City for $30. But not me.

Mid-March, I was hanging out with a couple girls at Hakuna Matata for a few days before they left for the other side of the island. A week or so after they left Lahaina, I got a text from one of them. Apparently, they made friends with another girl at the hostel on the other side of the island, and that girl had just started working at the Four Seasons Sensei Lanai. Not only that, but because there's so little real estate on the island, she's living in one of their suites! So, she invited them to come stay there for a night, and I’m just along for the ride.

Coincidentally, the two girls who invited me, Lissie and Hemena, are an Aries-Libra duo - just like Natalie and Alissia, if you recall. And even more odd, “Lissie” is short for Alissia. Hopefully they're a little less… disorganized than their predecessors, I chuckled to myself.

The night before our excursion to lanai, Lissie and Hemena arrived at Hakuna Matata. I was a little bit surprised by this - I had assumed they would take the bus down to Lahaina the next morning. “Where are you guys staying?” I knew Hakuna Matata was all booked out for the night. They both grinned. Hemena shrugged. With Daniel's blessing, the two of them ended up spending the night in my tent in the hostel’s front yard. 

The next morning, the three of us got up, had breakfast at a cafe on Front St, and boarded the ferry by 11AM. The ride there was reasonably smooth and enjoyable - we even saw a couple whales! 

When we arrived at the dock, we were met by Cherokee, who works at the Sensei. She took us to the beach, where we spent the day relaxing and exploring tide pools. Around 5PM, we decided to head up to the Sensei. As we went to board the shuttle, a man stopped us. “Who are you guys?” He asked, sternly. I work at the resort,” Cherokee said. The shuttle man looked at us, then back to Cherokee. “What about them?” Cherokee looked caught off guard. “They… don't work here?” Shuttle man escorted Hemena, Lissie, and I away from the shuttle. 

As we went back down to the beach to discuss our options, I turned to Lissie. “So like, did Cherokee ask the Four Seasons if we were allowed to stay in her room?” There was a brief pause. “I mean, no, not really,” she said. “And we thought they would just let us walk in?” Both girls shrugged. “We figured they would just assume that we were guests,” Hemena supplied. “Right!” I laughed. The Four Seasons Sensei has ten rooms total. I think it’s safe to assume the staff knows who’s staying there by name. Ironically, Cherokee actually later confirmed that indeed, she is encouraged to call guests by their name.

Anyways. Lissie, Hemena and I now had a choice to make. We could: walk/take a cab to the Sensei, and hope that the shuttle man didn’t get the word out that a couple of girls were trying to sneak into the resort. Or, we could: cut our losses and take the ferry back to Lahaina. The main problem was, the last ferry to Lahaina was leaving at 5:30, which meant that we would 100% miss it if we went to the Sensei, got turned away, and came back to the dock.

In the end, we bought three ferry tickets back to Lahaina at 5:23, and returned to Hakuna Matata for the evening. Still a fun day, and got to see some cool tide pools.

Highlight: The return trip to Maui was significantly more turbulent than the ride there, and I spent most of the journey pale faced, gripping the seat in front of me and trying not to puke. Unfortunately, not all the ferry passengers were able to avoid the worst. Halfway through the ride, the woman across the aisle from me jumped up and ran for the bathroom. Someone's kid threw up in a bag. From what I’ve heard, the ferry never makes it to Lahaina without a few people getting seasick.