135 thoughts on “Maui Adds Mandatory On-Arrival Testing As Rules Change”
Steve S
To Quote Dana Carvey’s Church Lady: “Isn’t that special!”
Fingers crossed that they implement this AFTER April 22, as that’s our arrival date. Mahalo BOH for posting this so quickly. I saw this story on my Google News feed yesterday.
NJ –>> Maui here we come! No worries locals, we’ve had our 2nd Pfizer vaccine and it will be 2 weeks later when we fly to your Paradise in the Pacific.
Beat of Hawaii
Hi Steve.
Thanks for the levity. Have a great time on Maui.
Aloha.
Irene S
I’m a little speechless.
I will have both doses of the vaccine completed, had already scheduled a covid test 72 hours prior and now will need to take another test upon arrival. My vaccine CDC card means nothing because the state will not accept it until June or July or whenever. The restrictions are more than when we traveled in November 2020. We abide by the rules – just so much undue stress.
Michael T
Please, does this testing include those who have received the vaccine? Thanks
Beat of Hawaii
Hi Michael.
No exemption for vaccinated travelers at this time.
ALoha.
Matt L.
Pardon me if this is obvious, but will visitors who pull a positive test upon landing in Maui be required to quarantine?
I ask, because the rapid tests, while useful as an initial screen, tend to have a comparatively high rate of false positives. Even at a low 2% false positive rate, that adds up to several hundred people being put into quarantine every day as travel resumes, even though they were not actually sick. These are all people who were able to pass the more accurate PCR test before they took off. A pretty high percentage will already have been fully vaccinated as well.
I have a trip to Maui planned for late May. I’m already disappointed that my vaccine will no longer let me skip the pre-trip travel. But now I may have to weigh the risk that I or a member of my family get unlucky on the arrival testing and we spend the trip in quarantine (and, presumably don’t get any refunds on the thousands of dollars we’re laying out for the trip).
This is ill conceived and poorly thought out by mayor Victorino.
Bobby
So…. I get vaccinated, get a pcr test 3 days before, and now a rapid in Maui. I am sure Kauai will do the same. It’s going to be difficult enough processing all the tourists this summer through the safe travels program. I have no idea how they can manage this with thousands of arrivals.
Ron L
Well, I think the negativity has finally got to me. I will be cancelling my long planned trip that I postponed due to my respect for the island. I am fully vaccinated and should not have to be subjected to the time and chaos at the airport after traveling g for over 12 hours already. I am checking into the legality of such mandate as the federal government has deemed travel safe for the vaccinated. Enough is enough with corrupt politicians.
Kyle M
Sounds great in theory. In reality, based on our experience last week, even with the majority of arrivals being pre-approved prior to arrival, those of us flying American Airlines, etc who didn’t have pre-approval had to wait about an hour just to be checked. This is fine. Worth the wait. However, if now you are going to test EVERY arrival, I cant imagine this going well. Going from checking paperwork on 20% to testing 100% of arrivals will be a logistical nightmare. Maui was extremely overloaded last week. It was spring break so hopefully things slow down a bit. The island wasn’t ready for the influx of visitors. Hope they have learned from that experience and will be prepared to test everyone but I tend to doubt that the ones making these decisions have the knowledge or capability to operationalize them. End result though is our visit to Maui was worth waiting an hour to have paperwork checked. And it would have been worth waiting many hours to be tested so dont be disheartened. Just a shame that Maui is making things more difficult with minimal value.
I know this takes money out of pockets so it would never happen but if you really want to reduce the threat of spread then you need to reduce the overcrowding. Hotels and rentals are not reduced but restaurants and tours are. This resulted in lines everywhere. Crowding at pools and beaches, lines for food. To me it would make more sense to cap the hotels at 80%. Maybe they are hoping with the extra tests it will deter some from visiting and reduce the crowds that way????
Mel P
Well this seems to be going backwards isn’t it? With vaccines coming and becoming more pervasive, it seems like a lot of setup for nothing. This will definitely dampen tourism on Maui, just like it has on the other islands.
Any idea how vaccines will impact Maui’s decision?
Mahalo!
Beat of Hawaii
Hi Mel.
It would seem that vaccines will fit into this somewhere. But that is up to the state. For now, Maui wants to get a handle on the positivity rate of arrivals.
Aloha.
Rod W
Unbelievable.
Laura Y
From what I am reading those coming from another island won’t be tested? We are flying home from Maui but only plan to stay there one night but may consider just transferring through the airport because I was hoping by now they would have vaccine exemptions.
Comments are closed.
Aloha!
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To Quote Dana Carvey’s Church Lady: “Isn’t that special!”
Fingers crossed that they implement this AFTER April 22, as that’s our arrival date. Mahalo BOH for posting this so quickly. I saw this story on my Google News feed yesterday.
NJ –>> Maui here we come! No worries locals, we’ve had our 2nd Pfizer vaccine and it will be 2 weeks later when we fly to your Paradise in the Pacific.
Hi Steve.
Thanks for the levity. Have a great time on Maui.
Aloha.
I’m a little speechless.
I will have both doses of the vaccine completed, had already scheduled a covid test 72 hours prior and now will need to take another test upon arrival. My vaccine CDC card means nothing because the state will not accept it until June or July or whenever. The restrictions are more than when we traveled in November 2020. We abide by the rules – just so much undue stress.
Please, does this testing include those who have received the vaccine? Thanks
Hi Michael.
No exemption for vaccinated travelers at this time.
ALoha.
Pardon me if this is obvious, but will visitors who pull a positive test upon landing in Maui be required to quarantine?
I ask, because the rapid tests, while useful as an initial screen, tend to have a comparatively high rate of false positives. Even at a low 2% false positive rate, that adds up to several hundred people being put into quarantine every day as travel resumes, even though they were not actually sick. These are all people who were able to pass the more accurate PCR test before they took off. A pretty high percentage will already have been fully vaccinated as well.
I have a trip to Maui planned for late May. I’m already disappointed that my vaccine will no longer let me skip the pre-trip travel. But now I may have to weigh the risk that I or a member of my family get unlucky on the arrival testing and we spend the trip in quarantine (and, presumably don’t get any refunds on the thousands of dollars we’re laying out for the trip).
This is ill conceived and poorly thought out by mayor Victorino.
So…. I get vaccinated, get a pcr test 3 days before, and now a rapid in Maui. I am sure Kauai will do the same. It’s going to be difficult enough processing all the tourists this summer through the safe travels program. I have no idea how they can manage this with thousands of arrivals.
Well, I think the negativity has finally got to me. I will be cancelling my long planned trip that I postponed due to my respect for the island. I am fully vaccinated and should not have to be subjected to the time and chaos at the airport after traveling g for over 12 hours already. I am checking into the legality of such mandate as the federal government has deemed travel safe for the vaccinated. Enough is enough with corrupt politicians.
Sounds great in theory. In reality, based on our experience last week, even with the majority of arrivals being pre-approved prior to arrival, those of us flying American Airlines, etc who didn’t have pre-approval had to wait about an hour just to be checked. This is fine. Worth the wait. However, if now you are going to test EVERY arrival, I cant imagine this going well. Going from checking paperwork on 20% to testing 100% of arrivals will be a logistical nightmare. Maui was extremely overloaded last week. It was spring break so hopefully things slow down a bit. The island wasn’t ready for the influx of visitors. Hope they have learned from that experience and will be prepared to test everyone but I tend to doubt that the ones making these decisions have the knowledge or capability to operationalize them. End result though is our visit to Maui was worth waiting an hour to have paperwork checked. And it would have been worth waiting many hours to be tested so dont be disheartened. Just a shame that Maui is making things more difficult with minimal value.
I know this takes money out of pockets so it would never happen but if you really want to reduce the threat of spread then you need to reduce the overcrowding. Hotels and rentals are not reduced but restaurants and tours are. This resulted in lines everywhere. Crowding at pools and beaches, lines for food. To me it would make more sense to cap the hotels at 80%. Maybe they are hoping with the extra tests it will deter some from visiting and reduce the crowds that way????
Well this seems to be going backwards isn’t it? With vaccines coming and becoming more pervasive, it seems like a lot of setup for nothing. This will definitely dampen tourism on Maui, just like it has on the other islands.
Any idea how vaccines will impact Maui’s decision?
Mahalo!
Hi Mel.
It would seem that vaccines will fit into this somewhere. But that is up to the state. For now, Maui wants to get a handle on the positivity rate of arrivals.
Aloha.
Unbelievable.
From what I am reading those coming from another island won’t be tested? We are flying home from Maui but only plan to stay there one night but may consider just transferring through the airport because I was hoping by now they would have vaccine exemptions.