Maui Sands

They should’ve at least got cited for trespassing. The front door was open, but there was a sign posted. It’s just as crazy as these people who make it over to Disney’s Discovery Island, and document the whole experience on video.

Chuck I wouldn't say so. I enjoy their content because seeing these old abandoned buildings (although it seems clear Maui Sands isn't abandoned) is fascinating, and there is some sort of Urbex code where they don't take anything but pictures. I've never seen them intentionally break anything just take footage/pictures, documenting history if you will. And since I'd never go explore Maui Sands myself I can see its current state by proxy, along with many other buildings. It's certainly illegal but at the same time they have many videos showing that they just want to document things, and if it was a building I owned in that condition I probably would let them off with a warning. I actually think the owner did an interesting thing by having them put out that warning to their followers via the video and letting them off work a warning, it's not a bad idea.

As to the actual state of Maui sands. Some of the deconstruction looks recent, not many people seem to be working on it but it does make me think that there is a serious attempt going on to do something with the property. I think that mold problem is going to leave many rooms gutted to the studs though which is going to make for a ton of work to rebuild and restore. And I'd never noticed before but from the sat images as well it looks like there a three parts to the building, the old holidome, the maui sands water park and tower, and what looks like an old holiday in express on the other side of the water park? Does anyone remember what the property(s) looked like before the Maui Sands was built?

The original Holiday Inn out front was constructed and opened sometime between 1969 - 1971. It started out as four separate buildings, with the outdoor pool in the center courtyard. Eventually, a roof was built covering the courtyard connecting all buildings, adding miniature golf and other rec activities transforming into a Holidome.

HI Express got built sometime in the mid 1990s and operated for a period of time along with the original hotel. Eventually, both hotels were connected by the indoor water park in the mid 2000s. I’m not sure if the water park ever operated with both hotels under the HI name?

I’ve never stayed at this location, just remembered seeing the HI signage with the water park from Rt. 2 west on my way to Put-In-Bay, circa 2007. May have been during a transition period?

While the videos do involve trespassing I do enjoy videos and pictures of vacant places and sometimes I think having the photos or videos available for others to see may actually cut down on the number of people who feel the need to trespass themselves. There used to be an "abandoned castle" right around the corner form my house but in a hard to access area. I had seen the place from a distance for years and after moving here it became a goal of mine to put the hiking boots on, cross the freeway and check it out myself until I saw a large group of well taken photos that cured me of my curiosity. The photographer did such a good job I really didn't need to see it for myself anymore and his pictures were so detailed I could see what a mess of poison ivy the place was covered in which also turned me off to the adventure of doing it myself. I'm also glad he did it because what was left has finally collapsed completely a few years ago. It's nice that it was documented so well before it came down.

Paisley said:

I think having the photos or videos available for others to see may actually cut down on the number of people who feel the need to trespass themselves.

Kind of like since the parks put out POVs of their coasters why would anyone feel the need to get their own POV with their phone???

It's trespassing, plain and simple. You can try and "justify it" however you want. "The door was open.." "I didn't know any better" but it's illegal.

It's private property and you're not allowed in/on it. Plain and simple.

Paisley said:

I think having the photos or videos available for others to see may actually cut down on the number of people who feel the need to trespass themselves.

This is basically equivalent to saying that it's good that someone burned down a house, so that no one else would feel motivated to do the same thing.

Except that taking pictures or video of an "abandoned" structure is nowhere near the same as burning it down.

Which is why the police let them go with a warning. No harm, no foul. Everyone has the option of a warning by the police if the infraction isn't anything serious. God knows I've been given enough warnings.

It all seems pretty douchey and entitled to me.

Go to https://perkinstwpoh.glyphreports.com/ and type "Maui Sands" into the *I want to search reports by person last name (or business name)* search field and look at the number of trespassing, suspicious vehicle, and breaking and entering police reports that occur on a frequent and routine basis at the Maui Sands site. If you read through - some of the reports indicate the various suspects mentioned seeing TikTok videos filmed from inside Maui Sands. So those videos enticed other people to 'break the law' - monkey see, monkey do style. For some people - having access to a POV video just isn't enough. And some of the police reports are not of the "no harm, no foul" variety.

Rusty said:

And some of the police reports are not of the "no harm, no foul" variety.

This may come as a shock to some but Sandusky has more than a few unfavorable characters. I did find it funny that during a check of the building an officer noted an alarm going off. It was stated in the report that the alarm had been going off for months...lol

Actually, the area he first thought was the arcade that had the rooms overlooking it was the holidome section.

The area where the rooms overlooked the slides is a totally new addition. Both those rooms and the slide area were added when the waterpark was built.

The express and holidome were only connected when maui was built. The waterpark building and the hotel / lobby building were the middle additions connecting them all.

The express still to this day has seperate coloring and a seperate roof...

Always thought that was a weird design.

Haha nothin a lil duct tape wouldn't fix