DCwom

Some folks have raved about Leonard's bakery and their Malasadas so I figured I'd add a favorite in Google maps for our upcoming trip in May. Well I noticed that their website says they are closed for construction from now (April 15th until early May), hopefully they will reopen before our trip. I know they aren't the only makers of Malasads, but they are the only one whose name I remember. They do say their 4 MalsadaMobiles are still operating.

We found the mid-week slots (Thur to Thur) gave us the best fares, we are on United booked directly through their website. You didn't say where you're flying from, but check alternate airports if they are viable. For our trip the airfare is about 25% of the total trip cost.

We are on a May sailing and yes more excursion are available now than a year ago. Use NCL's sparse offerings like we did, to start researching (use the Hawaii port of call forum), we ended up only booking a single NCL excursion, the rest we have figured out on our own.

We're also flying in to HNL from the east coast, before our May cruise, have you considered that you will be jet lagged and might be up at 2AM? We're thinking since we'll be awake maybe we'll climb Diamond head 1st thing. There are a lot of things we might do which are reachable by Uber from Waikiki, I'm not sure just yet. There is also the Trolley, which gets you around and might be enough for your limited time. Also remember that you'll have luggage to deal with after check out of your hotel, so you'll need to stow it and retrieve it before you head to the pier.

We usually get some water bottles for excursions, and yes we also have reusable water bottles, but sometime you want to just travel light. We're on the POA in May with ports everyday, so we can probably buy water in the ports from time to time, does anyone know if they give you grief for returning with multiple water bottles from off-ship?

We are dedicating a day to drive the whole island in a rental car, so a 1/2 or more at Pearl is ok. The Missouri is a must, since I've seen the New Jersey & Wisconsin, someday I'll make it to LA for the Iowa.

Post cruise we're staying in Waikiki for a few days, its Memorial day weekend. We've got plans nailed down for all but Sunday and its a choice of whats less painful. We can rent a car and drive the south/north shore or do Pearl harbor, what we don't do on Sunday we will do on Tuesday which ought to be less busy. My 1st thought was get out of Waikiki on Sunday, but maybe a bus ride to Pearl and spending the day there would be better than driving the single lane road up the coast. Thoughts?

Could be Nāwiliwili Park on Google maps? Looks like parking along the water also?

We're on the POA, and yes I heard it may not be the best NCL ship. We've cruised other lines and I'm usually right on it for reservations, etc, but not for the POA, I've been spending time planning the land portion and have neglected ship planning. It looks like a number of venues, including Cagneys are booked out already.☹️

1st NCL cruise and we have a "2 meal dining package". What does this mean in context to the "Cover Charge Applies" and "A la carte" restaurants? Also this might sound dumb but does 2 meals mean 1 mean for 2 people or 2 people for 2 meals?

We're in the same situation we have a 5:15 flight and don't to waste a day sitting & waiting, particularly if the weather isn't nice. There is the palace and HOMA museum downtown, and maybe ride around on a trolley, we don't know yet, it might depend if we see those earlier (we're staying 3 days post POA cruise). I don't see the allure of shopping while on vacation, but there is supposed to be "good" shopping in Al Mona? We're looking for ideas as well.

I just received an email that the NCL Volcano National Park excursion will no longer stop at the Jagger Overlook. No explanation why, could this be a closure by the NPS? I found something about the demolition of the Jagger museum being demolished in early 2024 due to the last eruption in 2018.

We are staying a few days post cruise and we're planning our disembarkation day. My question is if its different than international cruises, i.e. no customs, etc. Do they still take all your luggage into a big room and you pick it up? I assume self-disembarkation is an option, but were not in that much of a hurry for that hassle. I'm thinking we ought to be off ship mid morning worse case, say 10-ish? Travel to hotel, stow our luggage and be on our own by noon? Is this reasonable, too much or too little time? What we do for the afternoon is TBD pending how much time we have.

We're in the planning stage for a May POA cruise with pre & post cruise stay for a few days. There seems to be a lot of car rental places in Waikiki, but their hours are 8:00-12:00, 9:00-4:00, etc. I'm thinking this mainly is for pick up with after hours drop-off, but I've never rented a car anywhere besides an airport, so I'm unfamiliar with how this works from a hotel.

I agree, valid points that one should consider, myself I hate just sitting on a beach, while others love it. Personally I find the the history & engineering of the ditch/tunnels interesting and unique to Kauai, we also did cave tubing on Belize in the Caribbean, which was pretty fun. There are a lot of pictures on the Kauaibackcountry website that might give a feel.