seattle_sarah

You are going to have a hard time with this.  The oily beans are from dark roasts - all the beans I saw in Kona were dark roasted. I have a similar machine.  You need to look for a light roast.  Medium roasts are often too oily too - the definition of medium is a bit nebulous, so I find that they tend to the oily side.  So look for a light roast.  Then ask if you can open the package to see the beans. 

We used private tours - there isn't much advantage to going with the ship.  Maybe on the second Kauai day, when all aboard was 1:30 - it was tight getting back in time. 

We rented a car in each of the ports.  It was pretty easy to get the car rental, and we had lots of flexibility.  I didn't try Uber, it should be available, but it might cost a lot depending on what you plan to do.  Some things are a significant distance from the port.

For Volcanoes NP, I recommend signing up for a tour.  There were 3 rangers on staff in the whole park, from what I heard.  So having a guide will be very helpful. 

I want to say it cost us $25.  The taxis were plentiful - you shouldn't have a problem. 

We were just there on Pride of America last week. 

It was open.  Well, most of it is closed because of the eruption back in April.  No lava is flowing anywhere in the park.  There are a few trails that are closed because of the shutdown.  There were only 3-4 trails open at all right now.

The visitors center was open.  They had a skeleton crew working there.  The bathrooms at the visitors center were open and clean.  There was a sign by a trash can asking visitors to pack out their trash - no trash collection.

My recommendation is to go on a tour.  Most the people were on tours - which probably helped a lot.  I heard a rumor there were 3 rangers in the whole park. There were volunteers working.  If you want help, it is better to have a guide there. 

I think he's looking for a cheaper option. 
We signed up for this tour, for exactly the same reasons you were looking.  I'm paying for them to handle my luggage and get me to Pearl Harbor and the airport.  Other ports, I looked at other providers, but getting off the ship is going to be messier to meet up.
However, does anyone know what the tour involves, since the Memorial is going to be closed through March?  We signed up, but now I don't know whether it is worth going.  Will they cancel the tour?

Every other port was easy. You walk off and wait outside (very industrial area) for the car rental's shuttle to come. They zip you over there and we were in and out with our car quickly in both Kauai and in Hilo. We ended up doing the ships excursion in Kona b/c of the tender situation and we wanted to snorkel there.

 

Kauai parking was no problem, you just park in the Harbor Town? Center parking lot and this lady collects $20 and gives you a window tag. There is a shuttle that will run you the block to the port, or you can walk. We were off before the shuttle began running the 2nd morning, so my husband and I walked over there and then drove back to pick up the rest.

 

We just made sure to be off the ship early and promptly and we had full days in the cars.

 

If I may make a suggestion, if you are renting cars in all of the ports, look into the "Gypsy Guide" app. I purchased the package from the app store for $25 and it had a guide for every island. We were SO glad we did...the guy (the kids named him Bob Shaka) was great in guiding us and telling us very interesting things. It was totally worth it. We plugged the phone into the car with a cord and could hear it over the car speakers. (Only once did we have to google how to use the system, the rest of the cars it connected automatically.)

Thank you! All good information, and I'll check out the app too.

Hi. I had a similar question. We are thinking about getting rental cars in Kauai, Kona and Hilo. I am a bit worried about the Big Island because we don't have the overnight there, so how fast are the rental counters? I worry about waiting on "Island Time" and losing out on activity time. Also, what is the overnight parking like at the port in Kauai?

Oh! That makes sense.. the 2 reservations caused the count to go up.. not sure why we were able to make a reservation for 3 without the third person being charged.

Thanks in advance. First time on NCL. We are going on POA and I'm trying to figure out how the dining works - but this seems way too confusing. I'm wondering if I'm just missing something.

We have the SDP for the two adults for 3 meals with our reservation. My teenage son has nothing yet - but I plan to buy him a package.

I would prefer the specialty dining for dinners when possible. I am trying to figure out the correct number of nights to buy ahead. I figure there are 5 nights (2 nights in port, we'll dine onshore).

I went onto the NCL site to see about reservations.

There are no reservations available for the first night. This may just be booked up. But then I realized that sail away isn't until 7PM - so I have no idea how dinner is handled the first night. 7PM our first night seems pretty late, given the timezone changes. Should I be just grabbing what I can and not worry about that night?

Next, I was able to make a reservation at Jefferson's Bistro. I actually accidentally made 2 for different times the same night. I have no idea how to cancel one - there wasn't a button for that. Am I going to need to call to cancel?

Then I looked to make a reservation at Teppanyaki. They wanted me to pay for that reservation. Why do we have to pay ahead for one but not the other? Since I have the SDP, so I don't want to pay ahead. I haven't paid for my son's SDP yet, since I am trying to figure out how many days. Is it not possible to reserve ahead with the SDP? In which case, how do I know we can even get in to use the days we pay for?

Thanks!