POA Hawaii

I’m needinginput from anyone regarding what we are planning. But first let me say a few things to help cutdown on people putting work into a response that won’t work for us:

1) Wehave never been to Hawaii. I will alsopost this on the Hawaii board…

2) Wewill not be renting a car or ride sharing with a nice couple we meet onboard!

3) We aretired, working much too hard and the focus on this trip will be to relax, so weare not jamming our trip full of excursions.

4) Yes, there are cheaper excursions that arebetter, and we typically do not take ship excursions, but…. But we are tiredand it is the simplest thing to do it this way. However, if there are cheap hop on and hop on type busses, or it’sbetter to take a taxi and going on our own, we would be fine with that as longas easy forms of transportation are explained. We have 4 ports where we can use$50 off.

Here’swhat we are thinking…

Maui

Lahaina On Your Own - Round-trip…. It’s $59 a piece for transportation andwe have $50 credit so it would nearly cut it in half. Is there a better way to do this?

MauiPlantation Tour ….good, bad…worth it?

Best ofMaui…..good, bad….worth it?

We wantto snorkle…. Molokini Express (will be open in Oct. whenwe are going) or Lanai Snorkle Sail…any experience with either one of those?Both NCL

Hilo

Anyonehave experience with Volcano and Rainbow Falls or Hilo oast & BotanicalGardens… NCL excursions….worth it?

Kona

How aboutGold Coast & Cloud Forest NCL? Wouldbe wasting our money?

Kauai

WailuaRiver & Fern Grotto….anyone done that through NCL? Worth it?

Just jumping onto this thread as we are considering a Hawaii cruise and would be interested to see any tips on planning.

Tony

It is over 15 years since I have been on a Hawaiian cruise (NCL wind) so I have no updated information except we loved all of the snorkel trips, Fern Grotto, and Mauna Kea Observatory which was fabulous. I did get sick after Mauna Kea because aside from the rest stop going both up and down to adjust your oxygen it was so very cold even with the heavy coats they gave us to wear up there. The experience was truly out of this world. We left the the warm sun to go to snow and ice all in a few hours. Yep, I might do it again. My DD and I are taking my DGD on POA next year. Just checking the promos before we bite the bullet.

Just jumping onto this thread as we are considering a Hawaii cruise and would be interested to see any tips on planning.

Tony

If you haven't done so already, have a look at the CC Hawaii message board - and/or even the CC Pride of America roll calls (even if you aren't sailing with them in Hawaii). Lots of information there.

If you haven't done so already, have a look at the CC Hawaii message board - and/or even the CC Pride of America roll calls (even if you aren't sailing with them in Hawaii). Lots of information there.

Thanks.

Have started looking in the Hawaii boards and will look at the POA roll-calls as its probably going to be that ship.

It would be nice to do the other lines but by the time we have done the TA flight then a two week cruise, with probably pre or post cruise stay it means we're spending an awful lot of time and money to do just three days in Hawaii.

We did Hawaii around Christmas time a few years back. All the excursions we did were through NCL.

In Maui day 1 we did the Haleakala Crater at Sunset Tour which was great. The sunset was beautiful all the way up the mountain. Pictures were worth the $90pp IMO

In Maui on day 2 we did the Atlantis Submarine and Lahaina on your own. The submarine was sooo cool! We saw all kinds of great sea life, including sharks and pufferfish. This made our city tour shorter than it could have been, but I honestly don't remember much about the town, which says a lot about how the submarine stuck with me. This was my favorite thing.

In Hilo we did the Volcano and Rainbow Falls excursion. This took us to Volcano National Park, Rainbow Falls, Akatsuka Gardens, and Maura Loa Macadamia Nut Factory. I felt like we were herded through. We saw beautiful places and the factory was a lot of fun, but this tour had at least 4 bus-fulls who each went to the attractions in a different order. It was fun but not in a "we are on vacation, no need to rush" way. Each venue felt crowded.

On Kona we did the Big Island Snorkel. The waters here were so very clear. The fish were beautiful. They even had suits for SCUBA and the motorized propeller units for a few people at a time. There was a little bar on the boat. We saw dolphins and some kind of whale. This was easily my fiance's favorite thing we did on the cruise.

As for Kauai I don't think I will be much help. On the full day we rented a car. On the half day we took the bus to town for shopping. It was a cute little town. Very touristy for shopping.

I hope this helped! Have fun. Hawaii was beautiful. Make time the visit north shore on Oahu. Fresh shrimp from the little stands on the side of the road on your way there.... to die for! Turtle Cove was very cool. We did two luaus. One was at Paradise Cove, the food was authentic and amazing! Also if you like hiking, Diamond head is challenging but also by far the best photo I got on my entire vacation!

Hi,

We did this cruise a few years back and aside from the Hawaii boards on Cruisecritic I also got a lot of information from Tripadvisor for each port of call.

We did not use any NCL excursions but between cruisecritic and TA I came up with several options to book directly myslef, such as The Road to Hana, semi private and super easy. They picked us up at the ship and dropped us back off there.

We did rent cars on each port, which was easy and for us a much better option so we could see and do want we wanted when we wanted to.

I know you want to relax but trust me, this is a very busy port intensive cruise and we were exhausted but had a wonderful time!

We did do 3 days before and 2 days after the cruise in Oahu.

I would second the rental car option. With a good tour book you get see and do so much more than with a guided tour. The only guided tour I would suggest if one for the Road to Hana. The road is so narrow and winding that your driver will be too busy concentrating to see anything If you like para sailing, the ones that offer it in Maui go went up higher than any other place we have been.

I’m needinginput from anyone regarding what we are planning. But first let me say a few things to help cutdown on people putting work into a response that won’t work for us:

 

1) Wehave never been to Hawaii. I will alsopost this on the Hawaii board…

 

2) Wewill not be renting a car or ride sharing with a nice couple we meet onboard!

 

3) We aretired, working much too hard and the focus on this trip will be to relax, so weare not jamming our trip full of excursions.

 

4) Yes, there are cheaper excursions that arebetter, and we typically do not take ship excursions, but…. But we are tiredand it is the simplest thing to do it this way. However, if there are cheap hop on and hop on type busses, or it’sbetter to take a taxi and going on our own, we would be fine with that as longas easy forms of transportation are explained. We have 4 ports where we can use$50 off.

 

Here’swhat we are thinking…

 

Maui

 

Lahaina On Your Own - Round-trip…. It’s $59 a piece for transportation andwe have $50 credit so it would nearly cut it in half. Is there a better way to do this?

 

MauiPlantation Tour ….good, bad…worth it?

 

Best ofMaui…..good, bad….worth it?

 

We wantto snorkle….Molokini Express (will be open in Oct. whenwe are going) or Lanai Snorkle Sail…any experience with either one of those?Both NCL

 

Hilo

 

Anyonehave experience with Volcano and Rainbow Falls or Hilo oast & BotanicalGardens… NCL excursions….worth it?

 

Kona

 

How aboutGold Coast & Cloud Forest NCL? Wouldbe wasting our money?

 

Kauai

 

WailuaRiver & Fern Grotto….anyone done that through NCL? Worth it?

One caveat about the Molokini Express excursion through NCL: we did this when we went last May, and while run by a great non-profit (Pacific Whale Foundation) conditions were not conducive to going to Molokini, something of that sort, and where we wound up snorkeling there was barely any sea life.

I brought my GoPro specifically to get some great photos, and in that regard I was disappointed. However, if you're ok with a nice catamaran sail, some decent food, strong drinks and an informative staff, then it's a win,

We did POA last September and had a wonderful time. It can be as quiet or busy as you choose. We rented cars for at least one day on each island because it was easy, inexpensive, and gave us freedom to do as little or much as we liked. We snorkeled on Oahu, Maui and Kauai. We did a tour to Molokini and really enjoyed it. It was the only place we saw sea turtles while snorkeling. We did a lot of hiking and swimming so that's probably not what you're looking for. I highly recommend a trip to Volcano National Park even if you don't get out of the vehicle. Also a drive through Waimea Canyon. We did the Jurassic Park helicopter tour and absolutely loved it.

If you want relaxing beach days, I can't stress enough how much having a rental car will help. Get a rental car and find a beach or two or three and enjoy. Kauai is a great place to have a rental car to see all the waterfalls and find beaches. I took a fixed wing plane tour (private) in Kauai and that is a day to remember. It was awesome & worth the money and cheaper than a helicopter.

When I went in 2011, I did a private tour in Hilo that went to the botanical gardens, black sand beach, macadamia nut farm and really enjoyed it. Kona is one my favorite places and did a snorkeling trip. Getting a rental car there is not really an option and not much else to do without an excursion or taxi except shop and eat a shave ice. In Maui we got a rental car and drove to Lahaina and just explored, ate lunch, parasailed, shopped. Another trip we did the Molokini snorkel trip but private not thru the ship.