A visitor heading to West Maui this summer may see one of Lahaina Harbor’s most familiar signs of life again. The submarines are back, and BOH editors will be stepping on board. But the harbor we’re all returning to is not the Lahaina Harbor many visitors and residents remember.
Atlantis restarted Lahaina tours on June 2, 2026, nearly three years after the fire took almost everything the company had on Maui, from the submarine itself down to its battery chargers. What came back is a leaner operation working around a harbor still under reconstruction. The contrast says a lot about where Lahaina stands; more than any announcement could.
What restarted this week at Lahaina Harbor.
Atlantis is now running three tours daily at 9, 11, and 1, five days a week. The operation is closed Tuesday and Friday for a full day of battery recharging.
The company towed one of its 48-passenger battery-powered submarines from Oahu to make the restart possible. Guests park in a designated area near the harbor, are escorted to a temporary pier slip, and spend roughly 1.9 hours on the tour, including a descent to 130 feet.
The listed price for the experience is $148 for adults and $66 for children, with a minimum height of 36 inches. Atlantis, however, is already running a limited-time summer sale at $128 and $56 for keiki. The dive highlight remains the Carthaginian, which is a 97-foot hull sunk in December 2005 in 95 feet of water, where it now serves as an artificial reef.
Before and after the Lahaina fire.
Before the fire, Atlantis operated six tours daily, seven days a week, and carried more than 2 million passengers over its 32-year history since 1991. That scale is diminished for now, replaced by one submarine, five days, and escorted access through a harbor that is still not ready to function as a full harbor.
The company also says that just 15 of its 32 furloughed employees have returned. Atlantis framed the restart as a sign of life returning. While that’s true, it is also a clear measure of how much is still missing.
Where the harbor rebuild really stands.
The state Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation (DOBOR) said that dredging of the main harbor basin also started this week, the first dredge of the basin since 1966, and that it is largely possible only because the harbor is empty of vessels.
That dredging alone runs well into the fall. The bigger work, the piers and wharfs where boats actually tie up, won’t even start until after this summer ends, and the state doesn’t expect to finish any of it before the middle of next year. The last pieces, including a rebuilt harbor office and the ferry pier, are set to stretch toward the end of 2027.
And every one of those dates comes with one important asterisk. They are subject to funding and permitting. The current best estimate now stretches more than four years after the fire.
No electricity or mooring at Lahaina Harbor.
One of the more striking details is what still is not there. There is no electricity at the harbor. The rebuilt restrooms have been finished and sitting there since December, but are still waiting for Hawaiian Electric to bring power to the harbor.
Mooring inside the harbor remains prohibited. That means Lahaina Harbor is open only in a quite limited sense, not as a full vessel base and visitor hub that once anchored this part of West Maui.
The harbor officially reopened on December 15, 2025, for limited commercial operations, daytime only and for loading and unloading at the dock. Four operators returned at that soft opening, and the state said more would follow in early 2026. It is now June, and no updated count has been published. The number of permitted operators before the fire was 47, and they were said to employ nearly 600 residents. The fire also destroyed 82 boats, according to state figures.
The harbor starts returning to the town that is still waiting.
The harbor is in many ways ahead of the town around it. Maui County’s rebuild dashboard shows that 573 building permits have been issued since the fire. Only 27 of those are commercial, and just 11 of those projects are completed. Homes are going up across Lahaina, but the restaurants, shops, and storefronts that gave the harbor a town to walk into remain almost entirely on paper.
One piece of the new harbor had already been built before the fire. The state had contracted for inner wharf work back in 2021, and the new dock and gangways were fabricated and stored at Maalaea, with the project set to begin in September 2023. Then came the fire. The contract has since expired; the work must be re-bid, and those finished docks are still in storage and are now not expected to go in before 2027.
Visitors this summer will find Lahaina Harbor open and running, but nothing like what they remember. One submarine instead of a fleet. A temporary slip, an escort taking visitors to the boat, restrooms without power, and dredging equipment working this basin that hasn’t been cleared in sixty years. The reopening is real. So is everything around it that isn’t there yet.
We’d like to hear from those of you who, like BOH editors, are planning to be on West Maui this summer.
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I suppose my grandson and friends will no longer be able to use the fenced off pier to walk their surfboards out rather than paddling out. Yeah those local keike along with an unknown haole grandpa going over the fence!
Chris R and Wilma have expressed it well. The whole Lahaina situation is so very sad and tragic, but incompetent politicians and greedy developers/corporations continue to fleece Hawaii and its people.
Nearly three years since the fire and the community still looks like a hellscape war zone. Absolutely pathetic and shameful.
Aloha to all.
Bingo! a Kapuna (5th generation Maui) told me her neighbor in the SMA Zone (coastal zone area about a block up from water total) did Not get a building permit from the “Historical Committee” which voted 6/2 against their home build permit due to “global warming” B$…the tide is not rising here at all…it is called low tide/high tide seasonal currents. She is Very upset and knows she will not get permits for their multiple Lahaina SMA zone coastal homes they lost in fires! Who has been paid off? What is happening ?1? The “Miracle Home” is still standing so all bets are off and “They” cannot stop locals from getting building permits in the coastal zone! I hope these families get BullDog attorneys to stop the land grab…I have not seen any new buildings in the SMA zone 3 years later…
We’re heading over to Lahaina on Wednesday and will be there until July 15th. Flying Hawaiian/Alaska, can’t pre order food yet, per the site that doesn’t start till July 1st, but who knows what it will be like when we get there. The big issue is luggage, if you look at the site it says that you’re allowed only one piece of luggage per person as checked luggage. BUT, if you go into baggage requirements and scroll through the long list you will see that if you use your Barclay’s Hawaiian Mastercard you’re allowed two pieces of luggage per person free. Very deceptive if you just look at the main reservation page, you’re automatically limited to one bag. Last time we flew over, Alaska charged us $50 for the 2nd bag, had to call Alaska and then Hawaiian to have the charge reversed.
It’s my understanding Trilogy has also returned one or two of their outings to depart from Lahaina Harbor.
With the speed the government is working to rebuild – or approve of residents rebuilding, they ought to rename Lahaina “LA-haina.”
This whole lack of performance is representative of a ‘third-world’ country. Hoards of people still come to Maui and the rest of the state. Hundreds of millions of tourist dollars continue to flow into the treasury, and Lahaina is still the desolated landscape that is was three years ago. I just left there last month and shake my head when I see the lack of rebuilding that is displayed for anyone to see: empty lots with burn scarred walls and pads, and weeds thriving. And the harbor, a site that could again be employing hundreds of locals, still sits in dismal unrepair. Why does this continue??? What initiatives have been executed to bring a once thriving local economy back to life? Does Maui gov’t and the State of Hawaii care? I don’t see any evidence they do.
The entire Transcontinental Railroad, all 1,776 miles of it, was built in only 6 years with technology from 160 years ago.
Hawaii can’t even refit a tiny harbor in 3 years.
That says it all…
Corruption aka California….it is 100% heartbreaking that every family that had a home in the SMA/coastal Zone, has NOT received a building permit to rebuild 3 years later…egregious, evil and perhaps planned. Most of these families were way under-insured as well so even if they wanted to rebuild, without lots of assistance (aka loan$ they have to repay the government; which also have very specific very hard to meet requirements) they cannot rebuild. It is so evil what is happening to local families who have lived there for generations….and yes the govenor could care less and local government is equally inept
You are so right………. California /LA…….. A horrible mess of corruption ……..
I am also glad the sub tour is back. I have been on both the Maui and BI tours. It is a very unique tour and not scary at all to go down into the sea. I thought I might get claustrophobic, but it was very comfortable and the guides were great. All of the guides on all of the boat tours I have taken are excellent and you know they love their jobs.
We visited Lahaina last month and stayed at the beautifully reopened Lahaina Shores Beach Resort.
We were disappointed that the
wonderfully flourishing iconic Banyon tree was fenced off.
It was virtually impossible to drive or walk down to the marina. Nearly all streets are still closed to traffic.
It would be nice to visit the harbor once more while restoration is in progress.
Nearly three years since the tragic fires and still no access to the heart of Lahaina.
Who is in charge around there?
Typical Hawaii. Instead of fast tracking building, everyone gets bogged down by the endless permits and regulations. The officials are still lining their pockets
It’s amazing how slow the Hawaiian Government works to reconstruct one of the most beautiful towns in the Islands with all the tourist and Federal money receiving annually and the pain the locals have to endure with no jobs.
Replace the lazy leaders with business minded ones and you’ll have it up and running this year.
It’s nice to hear recovery is still making headway in Lahaina, however slowly. It saddens me to hear how slowly that recovery actually is. One of my favorite things to do was the Reef Dancer, a yellow submarine, that “danced” along the nearby shallows so the sunlight could shine through and make viewing magical. The crew would put on their scuba gear and locate sea life to show at the individual portals. If you bought the extended trip they took you out to sea in search of turtles. I had been visiting over 25 years and I would take that trip every time I visited and one year twice. The crew were great. It saddens me to hear they aren’t able to rebuild. I will surely miss that activity. I’d be interested to hear if any of the other ship tours are returning.
It’s now part of the Royal Complex Project. Which seems mostly intended to funnel money to consultants at this point.