The lei greeting here uses shells that do keep longer than the usual flowers and the site on the beach at the Marriot is a good one with nice water views. There's the usual Hawaiian games and crafts and, not surprisingly, hula lessons. The buffet runs to all the standards with more papaya and pineapple than most and interesting side dishes like Korean Kim Chee salad, and baked poi rolls. The chicken is sweet and sour instead of the normal long rice, and the mahi-mahi comes with mainland-style lemon butter. Dishes are more 'hapa-Haole' or denatured Hawaiian/mainland and that's fine with less adventurous eaters. For example, there's chocolate as well as coconut cake and the traditional Haupia, or coconut pudding. An open bar handles libations.

The dance end seems pretty standard with all the island groups -- Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti, New Zealand and Hawaii -- represented with the usual dances. Prices run $57.50 for adults $25.00 for children. Things start to happen about 4:30 and action runs from 5:15 to 8:00