After a 10-month closure, the Polynesian Cultural Center welcomes back visitors

HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - Portions of the Polynesian Cultural Center on Oahu’s North Shore reopened, Monday, welcoming back eager visitors.

Samoan Village was among the sections reopened. They’re hoping to gradually open more of their attractions as they adjust to COVID health and safety measures and accommodating a smaller number of visitors.

“We are ecstatic you know it’s kind of a mixed of emotions because the closures gave us a chance to work on a lot of things to get spruced up and fix many things that we can’t address when we have guests here,” said Delsa Moe, vice president of cultural presentations at PCC. “But it’s been emotional as employees move back and we start getting into the routine rehearsals, setting things up, removing dust covers, this is a really exciting day for us.”

Prior to the pandemic, Moe said they would have between 2,000-4,000 guests a day.

Now they’re only accepting over 250 visitors by reservation only due to capacity limits.

In addition, they have sanitizing stations across the center, masks are required, all parties will be six feet apart and seating is also distanced.

They are also requiring all employees to get tested once a week with PCC covering the cost.

“We felt it was a justified expense, we don’t want employees to feel like they have to cover the expense of this,” said Moe. “Many of them are hurting financially they’ve been furloughed, many of them haven’t received their unemployment insurance yet so money is tight for them and we don’t want this to be another factor for them to worry about.”

Canoe tours are available along with their luau.

Tickets are limited, you can reserve a spot online or call 808-293-3333.