Ala Moana Regional Park is open again, as of 6:45 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 10, after high surf from Hurricane Lowell left sand more than an inch deep in places on its roads and sidewalks. We ride out to Ala Moana regularly on a Waikiki stay, so we read the three city releases line by line and then had to admit this changes nothing about our own days. For anyone whose plan actually involves the park, one corner of it never got named in writing.
What happened
The full-reopening release came from the Honolulu mayor’s office — the park was “fully open as of 6:45 a.m.” — and the Star-Advertiser attributes it the same way, to the City and County of Honolulu, with the closure starting Tuesday.
What closed it was water, not wind. After “high surf and storm conditions associated with Lowell,” the city’s Sept. 8 release says, “in some areas, more than an inch of sand was deposited across roadways, sidewalks, and other areas of the park.” The same release puts the park’s traffic at roughly 4 million visitors a year, about 11,000 a day.
The reopening came in stages:
| When (HST) | What the city announced |
|---|---|
| Tue., Sept. 8 | Park closed; city hoped to reopen portions Wednesday, all of it by week’s end |
| Wed., Sept. 9, afternoon | ʻĀina Moana (Magic Island) and its parking lot reopened; the Magic Island Lagoon “expected to remain closed until Friday while cleanup work continues” |
| Thu., Sept. 10, 6:45 a.m. | Park fully reopened |
City crews brought in heavy equipment for the roads and pedestrian areas, per the Star-Advertiser; the mayor’s office says DPR crews worked throughout Wednesday and that the Department of Facility Maintenance added a street sweeper early Thursday. That release calls the reopening “quicker-than-anticipated” and credits “the hustle and hard work” of park staff, DPR’s specialized maintenance crews and DFM — DPR is thanked in it, not doing the thanking.
Oahu as a whole came out better than the forecast allowed for: the city’s separate island-wide Sept. 8 update has Blangiardi “incredibly grateful” that Oʻahu “appears to have been spared the worst of Hurricane Lowell,” and it is that update — not either park release — that notes a “Flash Flood Advisory and High Surf Advisory remain in effect.” When we read the Sunday advisories before the storm arrived, the item pointing at Oahu was water rather than wind. Water is precisely what shut this park for two days.
What it changes for a Waikiki stay
Open again means open on the normal schedule. The DPR park closure hours list has Ala Moana Regional Park closed from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m., so the park is yours 4 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
Parking is back, which matters to drivers more than to us. The Magic Island parking lot reopened Wednesday afternoon. The master plan on DPR’s page for the park says “currently 950 stalls exist within the park” — the whole park, not that lot alone.
The lagoon is the loose end, and it is a small one. Wednesday’s release had the Magic Island Lagoon “expected to remain closed until Friday while cleanup work continues” — due back by Friday, not shut through it. Thursday’s release then calls the park fully reopened and carves nothing out, which on its face covers the lagoon a day early, but it never names it, and as of our Sept. 12 check we found no later release that does. If that flat, protected water is why you were walking over with kids, confirm it at the gate rather than assume.
One closure has nothing to do with the storm. The same DPR page says the Lester McCoy Pavilion “was initially closed in late 2019 to begin several renovation projects”; the auditorium, office and multi-purpose room were finished near the end of 2025 and now host permitted activities, while “the projects for the Banyan Courtyard and its portico are on-going.” On timing DPR offers a wish rather than a date: “Our hope now is to have the courtyard projects finished in Spring 2027.”
“Open” is not the same as “clean water.” Whether the gates are unlocked and whether the water in front of them is under an advisory are separate questions run by separate agencies, and none of these city releases speaks to water quality. That side belongs to the state Department of Health’s Clean Water Branch, whose page refused our requests outright on Sept. 12 (HTTP 403); the data portal that did load for us wants a sign-in. Try the first from an ordinary browser before deciding the water is fine.
What we would do — and what we wouldn’t
Our honest answer: we would not do anything differently, and we would rather say why than dress it up. Our Ala Moana routine is narrow: the Pink Line trolley out to Ala Moana Center, a loop of the food court, something salty for the afternoon, then back to Waikiki before the drinking starts. The park sits right across Ala Moana Boulevard from the mall and we rarely walk on into it. We also barely go in the ocean; a long stay can pass without either of us getting wet. A reopened beach park is not what moves our week.
What it does change is how we think about that block. When a shark sighting put warning signs on that beach in August, we tried to picture where the signs stood and neither of us could manage it — we know the mall store by store, and the strip of park across the street barely registers. Learning that two closed days, heavy equipment and a street sweeper were what it took to give it back is a fair nudge to walk past the crosswalk next time.
Two branches that are not ours:
- If you drive, this release genuinely changes your day: the park lots are open, Magic Island’s first.
- If your dates include Sept. 26, the Aloha Festivals Floral Parade still runs 9 a.m. to noon, Ala Moana Park to Kapiʻolani Park via Kalākaua Avenue; our rundown of the free Aloha Festivals events has the rest of the week. Storm sand to parade starting line inside the same month is the quietly impressive part.
Before you plan around this
Everything above comes from city releases dated Sept. 8, 9 and 10 plus the Star-Advertiser’s Sept. 10 report, checked Sept. 12 (Sept. 11 in Honolulu). The visitor figures — roughly 4 million a year, about 11,000 a day — are the city’s own and we did not find them in a second source. The accounts also disagree on one small thing: the Star-Advertiser puts the street sweeper on Wednesday, the city’s release on early Thursday. We used the city’s.
A reopening announcement describes one morning, not a month, and nothing in these releases promises the next south swell will not put sand back on those roads. If you are planning a specific afternoon here, re-verify at DPR’s park page and the park closure hours list, which is where a fresh closure would show up.
The short version: the park is back, the lagoon is the one line nobody wrote, and the only people who need to act on this are the ones already planning to be there.
