LAHAINA — It’s hard to miss the picket lines and the worker rallies on the beach, but for fans and teams in town for the Maui Jim Maui Invitational, the strike at the Sheraton Maui Resort & Spa hasn’t dampened the excitement of the tournament.

“There’s been not one hiccup in anything in our itinerary at all, so I appreciate everybody rallying around,” Iowa State head coach Steve Prohm said Wednesday. “This was a great experience. It’s really a dream come true for a lot of us being out here.”

Since Oct. 8, about 2,700 workers have been on strike at five Hawaii hotels, including more than 325 workers at the Sheraton Maui.

Two teams — tournament champion Gonzaga and fifth-place Iowa State — were staying at the Sheraton during the tournament. Runner-up Duke, Auburn and Xavier were staying at The Westin Maui, while Arizona and San Diego State were at the Hyatt Regency, according to officials with each of the schools.

Iowa State junior forward Michael Jacobson said that “hospitality has been great” at the Sheraton.

“It’s been an awesome experience out here, something I never thought I would be able to do,” Jacobson said. “I had a ton of fun with it, haven’t heard them (the workers) too much or anything like that. . . . It’s been good, and I’ve been able to enjoy my trip to the fullest.”

Prohm said that the team didn’t have to change any plans because of the strike, though the “big thing was just, is the food going to be good?”

“Food was great,” he said. “Everything was great. The people over there, I think went out of their way to help us from the day we got there.”

Tournament Chairman Dave Odom said that the players’ party on Saturday night and the coaches’ banquet on Sunday evening had to be moved from the Sheraton to the Hyatt because “it’s tougher to get part-time workers at night.”

“We had such large crowds coming in, 900 or so, and we felt like that would stress the Sheraton management to be able to do that,” Odom said. “So it was better we move those two.”

Odom said the hotel was accommodating, and that “we have nothing but high praise for the Sheraton.”

“We worked shoulder-to-shoulder with the Sheraton,” Odom said. “We understood it couldn’t be exactly the way it’s been, but those that were demonstrating were very cordial. They were nice. The passage in and out was fine. The food for all of the teams that stayed there was tasty and on time.”

Fans, meanwhile, said there were some inconveniences but were happy to be on Maui overall.

Ashley Kooken and her family came from Des Moines, Iowa, to catch the Cyclones in the tournament.

When asked whether the strike had impacted their experience, Kooken said, “yes and no.”

“We’re just excited to be here,” Kooken said. “At first we were bummed not knowing what to expect. But we’re here to watch basketball and cheer on the Cyclones.”

Kooken and her family booked their hotel back in January and didn’t find out until a couple weeks prior to their trip that the strike was happening. She said only two of the hotel’s restaurants are operating and only offer limited menus. But the pool and spa are still open, and guests are still able to rent scuba, snorkeling and other gear.

Workers also have been holding rallies on the beach, which Kooken said are loud, “but it is what it is.”

“It hasn’t been as bad as we were expecting,” Kooken said. “There’s been a lot of great employees from other Sheraton locations coming to help, so that’s been great. But just the inconvenience of the restaurants (being) closed.”

Kay Lynch and Chuck Beckman, “ardent Xavier fans” from Cincinnati, were staying at the Sheraton and said the available services were “surprisingly” good. Lynch said there’s a breakfast buffet but that they have to leave the hotel grounds for dinner.

“The people are very nice,” she said. “The folks that are there, they will do whatever they can.”

Like Kooken and her family, Lynch and Beckman were at the beach when a group of workers came marching by.

“The little kids afterwards when they left, they started doing the chants,” Lynch said. “And it was hysterical. They had no clue what they were saying.”

The couple said they booked the hotel around July and only learned about the strike three days before they were supposed to leave — far too late to change hotels. Their rooms were nonrefundable anyway, Beckman said.

“I support the strikers, and we would not have booked the hotel if we had known there was a strike at the time,” Beckman said.

Cyclone fans and Sheraton guests Rich and Dianna Colgan of Iowa City, Iowa, said the hotel had offered some compensation, such as free parking, a discount on the initial price and credits for food and beverages. They said that regardless of the strike, they were having a great time and loved the island.

“I think the staff has done an outstanding job,” Rich Colgan said. “Service has been great. Everybody’s been very friendly. So we haven’t noticed any issues.”

Cade Watanabe, organizer with the UNITE HERE Local 5 union that represents the hotel workers, said that the union contacted teams ahead of time to let them know about the strike.

“We did reach out to the athletic departments of the teams that we understood were staying here at the Sheraton,” Watanabe said. “Mostly to make sure that they understood what was going on, and if they continued to stay here, that they would understand that we’re doing what we’ve got to do.”

* Colleen Uechi can be reached at cuechi@mauinews.com.