93yearsyoung

Things must have changed dramatically or you were very lucky. Covid decimated the ranks of Uber and taxi drivers on Kauai. There are not many left on the island. In October 2022, the cab line was an hour when the ship first docked and stayed that way for almost two hours. My daughter tried finding an Uber, but the only one she could find was not available for an hour. Maybe because it was Sunday, who knows. She wound up calling a friend from our Kauai church who came and picked us up for the service, and kindly returned us to the ship after we bought her and her husband a nice breakfast/brunch. The cab line was still long, just not an hour, when we returned.

There is Ali'i Car Rentals, walkable from the ship for the young ones, or if you call them, they will send a shuttle. Kauai Rental Cars | Lihue Rental Cars | Jeeps | Wranglers (aliirentalcars.com)

I would do a luau outside of cruise and excursion time.

Yes, all good points, words like 'best', 'reasonable', 'affordable', etc are all way too vague.

My DH is retired U.S. Navy so we love going to the Hale Koa Luau. It isn't 'the best', but we loved our days in the Navy (which took us to Hawaii in 1958) so we love being around the young military families. We've also done the Royal Hawaiian show and didn't like anything about it. The food wasn't Hawaiian, it wasn't a luau atmosphere and it was priced higher than the best restaurant on Oahu. We really regretted going. We have also done Paradise Cove, which we liked and The Chief's Luau, but not since they moved to Ko Olina. We saw it at SeaLife Park.

I'd go to Michel's at the Colony Surf, especially if I wanted to see the fireworks. It is pricy but it is an experience you'll never forget.

We used the Walmart bus and it was the best excursion of the cruise. The driver pointed out landmarks, discussed Hilo and Hawaii and even sang a couple of songs. 😄

The best cruise line to Hawaii is Matson; lovely service, delicious food and menus so colorful you can collect them. I hear a rumor they've stopped Hawaii cruises though. We've done Princess to Hawaii a dozen times because the port is 40 minutes from our home, Holland America twice because San Diego port is 90 minutes. We also did Celebrity once from Vancouver and while we like Celebrity, we didn't like doing Hawaii one way. We prefer the round trip.

Kalapaki Beach, in front of the Royal Sonesta.

The question came up not long ago in these forums. Someone asked 'what is walkable from the Lahaina pier?' There was a large discussion of how far is 'walkable' when someone asks. From my perspective, something less than two miles is walkable. Personally, at 93, 94 on my next Hawaii cruise, I am down to less than a mile. But even in my spryest days I don't think I'd walk 4 miles to someplace and back. I could have, I just would not have wanted to in Hawaii's humidity. Waikiki is only three miles from Pier 2 and I'd never consider walking, again, even in my spryest days. I'd always use a cab (or nowadays, an Uber with one of my great-grandkids using my phone) or maybe The Bus. So when you ask for 'walkable', what is your max distance, 1 mile, 2 miles, 3, more?

I found posts #2 & #7 very helpful. I also thought several of Princeton123211 helpful. I am not sure if you've been to Hawaii before, but walking 8 miles (4 miles each way) in the heat and humidity is very different than walking 8 miles in a cooler climate. Even in my youngest days (I'll be 94 for my next Hawaii cruise) I would never have walked from the Pioneer Inn to Whaler's Village, or vice versa.

I'd consider San Pedro very safe, especially in the cruise terminal area.

We took BART once when we were younger (in our early 70s) but now we would Uber if we were in the East Bay.

By the time for the cruise to depart, the fog should not be an issue. The worst fog I've seen is in the morning.

Uber or taxi is the best, easiest thing to do.

I am sure they appreciate the comments.

Do they do cruises to Hawaii from LA in July? If they do, I'd expect it to be warm at the start and end and hot in the middle.

I started the topic to ask specifically about tipping the wheelchair assistants in San Pedro who would take me from the curb, onto the ship, and the question wasn't "should I", but "how much". There was no doubt I was going to tip them. People, instead of answering my question, foamed at the mouth and decried all tipping. We also tipped the porters who took our four bags for our 15 day cruise, just like we tip the curbside porters at airports. I am amazed at how many people from certain cultures are so "tight with their brass" as James Herriott would say. We feel so lucky to be able to travel on cruise ships and we share a portion of what we have with those who help us along the way.

It depends on the port. If you are stopping in Lahaina and it is your first time, I just like staying in Lahaina, shopping and eating.

All I can say it that there were shuttles for Avis Rent-a-car in Oct of this year. There were also shuttles for Hilo Hattie's and the Anchor Shopping Center nearby. Walmart did not a shuttle a Kauai in Oct, but Hilo did.

No way to answer any of those without knowing more about the make-up of who is cruising; will this be your first Hawaii trip; do you have plans to return to Hawaii and more. I live in So Cal so I am always going to use LA ports. If I took my great-grandkids, I might pick Carnival (while wincing, not my favorite CL), Princess would be good for them as well (and better for me). I'd also consider the 8 Day from Vancouver on the Quantum of the Sea for the great-grandkids, but all 8 live in So Cal so it seems silly when we all go to Hawaii a lot and we can do great family ships in LA. I've cruised from San Francisco and going under the Golden Gate Bridge is great, but SF is always cold (as in "the coldest winter I ever experienced was summer in San Francisco"). The trips from Vancouver are one way, 8-14 days and I like Celebrity, Norwegian and Royal Caribbean, but I can get their ships easier in CA or WA.

Hana would be very low on my list of things to do when on Maui for just one day. When you are staying two weeks or longer, as we have often done, it is nice to do at your own pace. I would never do a tour.

It is NOT easy to get to the airport unless they pick-up at the port. We used Avis (same shuttle bus as Budget) in Oct and had no problem. Taxis are not expensive, but getting one is hard. The ship docks in Lihue, which has less than 10,000 people. The whole island only has 75,000. There are very limited numbers of cabs and Ubers. When we were there, the line for cabs at 9AM was about an hour long.

In ports like Honolulu and San Francisco with gangways, yes, 24 hours; sometimes not in tender ports (Cabo, Lahaina, etc).

The free bus to the downtown Farmer's Market had a long wait during our port stop. I don't recall it going to the airport, but maybe I wasn't paying attention. If I had a car at the airport I'd just get a cab to the airport. The "free bus" could take more than an hour to get there (if it goes there).