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526 thoughts on “Hawaii Travel Upheaval: Stakeholders Livid As Adversaries Now Concur”

  1. Ty

    Aloha!
    As we sit here, poolside, In Maui, I few so bad for the residents in Kauai. While we don’t love mask wearing, or the stress from waiting for test results prior to leaving CA, we are enjoying the paradise here! Hopefully the government realizes what they are doing to hurt their people under the guise of protecting them! I honestly hope they reopen so the residents can resume their lives! Thank you for keeping everyone updated!

  2. Evan C

    Arrived at Honolulu airport with all required tests and documents uploaded and copies in hand and was threatened with quarantine because the “trusted provider” I used didn’t print my test result on the right stationary with the state of Hawaii seal, a fact explained nowhere on the state travel site. This system is set up for people to fail. It’s a train wreck that is only providing a false sense of safety.

  3. Jo C.

    I canceled our trip to Hawaii in December. There is no way, I am going to subject myself to this lunacy.

  4. Rick K

    I love Hawaii and especially Kauai but your politicians have made it impossible to schedule a trip to Hawaii with any sense of reliability or confidence. I am afraid your politicians are dooming all of your businesses to absolute failure. It’s soooooo dad!

  5. Zach

    Yep was planning a Maui trip but even the current negative test proof was too much risk and now the Kauai mess. Nope will take my family of 5 and 6k-10k elsewhere. Hawaii politicians have ruined Hawaii economy. Peace out.

    1. S

      All the Mayors and Governors of HI, CA and NY trying to outdo each other. Who can screw up their State the most!

  7. Morgan M

    Thanks for the great write-up. I’ve canceled my inter-island trips to Lihue several times this year. Now Xmas with my 89 year-old Grandmother, who lives alone without assistance, is up for grabs.

    I thought California government was bad. Hawai’i leaders, shame on you. First the train mess, now this?

  8. Martha J

    We had 6 week vacation planned for the Big Island. The 72 hour preflight negative Covid-19 test requirement was impossible, living in a small rural town in Washington State. It’s become too complicated and risky to our health. We cancelled our trip.

  9. jennifer w

    As a resident of the Big Island, I can personally testify to the inept “leadership” from our government that has resulted in an economic disaster. We haven’t begun to see the consequences yet.
    Meanwhile, not one government employee has had to grapple with a pay cut. Instead, our DOE is talking about how they will have an enormous budget shortfall and will have to cut programs, like special ed. Meanwhile the administration and the teachers are receiving their full salaries.
    I haven’t been able to earn virtually any income since March 15 and have been denied unemployment with no explanation. No one at the unemployment office answers an email or the phone. Completely inept government “service”.
    I think a class action lawsuit is in order.

    1. Lana K

      I totally agree and I also think all the hotels and business’s should all get together on a class action law suit and if they don’t they should fail.

  10. Kevin J

    Thanks as always for bringing the news and perspectives to us! We bought a second home on Maui just at the beginning of the pandemic (we didn’t know it yet!). We waited for a pre-travel testing program but finally came over in early-August and did our quarantine. We knew we had to…no surprise. We stayed for 3 months and had an amazing time! The essential workers are heroes and we appreciated them. We returned to California three weeks ago to attend to business. We are retuning to Maui on Sunday and we have found the state travel website to be accessible. We used the new Hawaiian Airlines testing partner in San Francisco, who guaranteed results in 36 hours. We received our (negative) results within 25 hours. We have set up our accounts on the state’s site and uploaded our results. Tomorrow we do our health questionnaire and get our QR code to expedite things at the airport. Folks, I go into this detail because it can be done and it can be done in a low-stress way. Read up, know what the requirements are, and follow them. It works. And, if you can, take the voluntary test a few days after arrival. We are signed up. The second test ups the safety margin a great deal and it makes you a good neighbor!

  11. Kristin B

    Our family of 4’s Flight from SF to Kauai was cancelled by United today. We had Kaiser COVID test set up prior to departure and planned to stay with family. We live in CA but I am a Hawaii taxpayer (I work for a local company). It’s incredibly unfair that people willing to follow the rules are essentially banned from visiting, even if virus-free. I believe the damage the Mayor is doing to the island by imposing such restrictions will far exceed the health damage from this virus.

  12. Simon a

    We were going to Kauai in a few weeks. Now we have changed to Maui. The testing requirement to fly was actually the reason we decided to book hawaii vs mexico (where we normally go). We are much more confident we will be safe on the plane and island if everyone has to test vs the previous situation where people would say they were going to quarantine and then go out and party on the island illegally.

  13. Wayne D

    Changed our week at Kauai to the Big Island. Not sure if we’ll even use that this year. Hope things will change and will go to a 96 hour time frame for getting the covid test back. We’re still in hopes of going to Hawaii!

  14. jeff l.

    We own a condo there. Now we can’t even visit our own condo. We will be selling and do not want to support a tyrannical government. We’ve been coming to Hawaii for 25 years and planned to retire there. Unfortunately Mr Mayor we will be making other arrangements. You are living in a world of lunacy and I promise when you look back you will see that more people died and suffered from your tyrannical rules than ever would have from covid.

    1. Aliali P.

      Yeah, we are all really sad to see you leave with all that Aloha bruddah. Well, at least you’ll make money on your place. Try FLA, it’s much better suited for guts like you. Bye bye

  15. Marla

    We had reservations for 5 weeks from February-March 2021. Our plans included going to three islands (Maui, Kauai and Big Island). This is a trip we take every year and have for the last 18 years. Initially the mask mandate was not great news but we love our visit to Hawaii so much we were willing to “mask up”. Then all the Covid testing confusion started and sent up red flags that concerned us. The final straw was the 14 day quarantine in Kauai despite a negative test. Even though we love the resort we stay at, we have not intention of being locked up in it for two weeks. So, sadly our trip is canceled.

  16. Shanna

    We did cancel once the mandatory quarantine went into effect. We would have been willing to quarantine at our rental, but that isn’t allowed. There is no I would pay for two places and be locked in a hotel room for 2/3 of our time on the island. Thankfully the new rule caused our non refundable reservation become a credit for a future stay.

  17. Chari H.

    We had planned to visit but cannot find any covid testing facility in the Bay Area that can guarantee a turnaround test time before we fly that is approved by Hawaii. Even CVS pharmacy pulled out. We come every year except this year because we don’t want to be kept inside a hotel and not enjoy the island if we get on the plane without our tear results that could literally arrive while in flight.

    1. Valerie C

      I’d suggest you look into CityHealth Urgent Care. As of yesterday, their facility near the Oakland airport had open appointments. Cost is $20.

  18. Ted L.

    I support Mayor Kawakami 100%. My wife and I are visitors staying 6 months and will spend more than $100,000 while here.

    A safe and Covid free island will attract 1000s of super rich visitors from all over the world establishing Kauai as a destination like Ibiza and the French Riviera, free from riff raff and trashy redneck tourists from Trumpland. I applaud Derek for his vision of a better Kauai attracting more lucrative visitors.

    2. Lana K

      Please if you like the french so much maybe you should go there or the ca.bay area.
      We in Hawaii don’t want to be like them.

    3. Barbara M

      TED L>
      Dang but I hope you meant that sarcastically!!! But you did say you will be spending $100,000 so maybe not. How many ways can you spell “snob”?

  19. Heidi G.

    My friends and I (4 total) canceled our Maui trip due to not being able to secure testing within 72 hrvwindow in WA state. Don’t want 14 day quarantine

  20. William G

    Planned on going to Kauai on Dec.4th and had to cancel my vacation because of the new mandate. This after having to reschedule in July do also in part because of quarantine rules. I get the reasoning but no one is going to pay the amount of money to go on vacation and quarantine. Its very disappointing our family couldn’t go under these circumstances.

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