Today we visited the Kilohana Plantation, a former mass sugar grower and producer, born from the historic agriculture boom of the early to mid 20th century. Sugar cane was the original crop of Hawaii, brought to the islands by ancient Polynesian voyagers in their migration from the south pacific. Commercial sugar production operations in Hawaii were first established in 1835, on Kauai, in the town of Koloa, not far from our port. The initial harvest in 1837 produced just two tons of raw sugar.

During the peak years between 1967 and 1980, Hawaiian plantations produced nearly 1.2 million tons of sugar per year. Surprisingly, there is no commercial sugarcane produced in Lanai (or anywhere in Hawaii) anymore, as the last sugar mill in Hawaii (on Maui) closed in 2016, ending large-scale production due to global competition, high costs, and land use changes. However, small amounts of sugarcane might still be grown for specialty products like rum.

Now, the Kilohana Plantation is a mass tourism enterprise. There is a train to take you around the 120 acres of the former plantation. There are the tasting room and general store, a truck tour and a pineapple ice cream shop. And in the former plantation home, there is a fancy restaurant. We were not fans. The whole experience felt like a big sales job. While we thought the rum was actually really nice, we would not recommend this destination.

And while we’re being frank, getting a cab at the port was not a great experience either. This is a shady situation, where certain cabbies get preferential treatment. As we were only going 5 miles, we had to wait until a cab came that was not a “preferred” cab. Even our cab driver complained about it and then yelled at us for not giving him a big enough tip on a flat rate fare. What? Not a fan.

We ended the day at Duke’s, a popular restaurant made famous by Jimmy Buffet’s “Duke’s on Sunday” hit. The vibe was wonderful with a view of the ocean, great service and food, a nice Mai Tai and live music. We walked back to the ship and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

Tomorrow: Kahului, Maui, HI