We Go Cruise Brah

To add a bit more detail to this:

 

It is not impossible for another legitimate site to offer ETAs for less than AUD 20. This is because the charge for the ETA itself is zero. A travel agent who's prepared to do this for you could, in theory, do it for you for zero cost.

 

The AUD 20 charge is the service fee for getting the ETA for you. As you can imagine, many agents (including cruise lines) will not want to do the work for free, because it does involve some work. Of course, an agent does not have to charge as much as AUD 20 if it doesn't want to.

 

So the other site might be legitimately doing this for USD 10. But how do you know it's a legitimate site? And if you don't know who operates the site, would you trust it with a whole pile of sensitive personal information, including your passport details? How much time and effort are you prepared to spend investigating whether it's legitimate and safe? Why not just pay the AUD 20 to the Australian government's site, which is bound to be legitimate?

 

I'm not saying that Kharvavad's falls into this description, but in some of the other discussions that I see about this issue, I am frankly amazed at how much time and energy is spent, and how much risk is incurred, by some people who seem obsessed with the need to save ten bucks.

And its less than a $10 USD difference when taking into account exchange rates :p

Good Morning Everyone :-)

 

I am gradually making my way through our "to do" list for this cruise and am about to secure our travel Visas for Australia. Hubby called Delta and they said to call our embassy, but this seemed a bit silly. I am seeing good feedback on EasyETA, but before I go any further thought it would be a good idea to check here for advice? Really looking forward to this trip :-)

 

Robin

No need to call the embassy, sounds like a bit much. I think Delta is clueless on the matter. Just go to this site and pay the $20AUD and you're all done. I've never used EasyETA and I see its slightly cheaper, but the link I provided is the actual government site. The ETA will be linked to your passport number, so you don't even need to bring any paperwork.

https://www.eta.immi.gov.au/ETA/etas.jsp

Is there an alternative place to park and walk to the turtle beach, or is it completely not a possibility now? We will have a few days on the north shore this summer and would like to check it out.

There are places to park further up and down the highway, you'll just have to walk a bit more and get lucky with a spot. The barriers were a stupid idea (IMO) they didn't do anything to improve the situation. People want to see the turtles. What they should really do is shift the highway off to the side and have the parking lot on the beach side of the street! Problem solved!

Just ran across your map when searching for Oahu info on the boards. This is a great resource...thank you for taking the time to make it!

 

Looking forward to our visit this year...we're spending a week post cruise on Oahu (in November), and have never visited Hawaii before.

 

Mahalo!!!:):):)

Thanks! Glad it may help you. Feel free to ask any questions.

Side note, they did in fact put up barriers by the Turtle Beach so cant park there anymore! :(

These pictures bring back a lot of good memories of our Australia/New Zealand cruise. Still can't believe I actually climbed to the top of the bridge.

Quite a climb! I had a hard time deciding whether to spend $600 for me and my wife to do it. Now that you mention it I was just playing around with this photo I took that relates:

Opera House the night before departure. The views while we were docked in Sydney were unparalleled. Harbor Bridge on the port side, Opera House on starboard. Such a prime location in Circular Quay.

Beautiful photo in a beautiful city , thank you :)

Thank you! You do have a beautiful city, albeit very expensive :)

Your compliment encourages me to post another pic, one where you can actually tell where the ship is.

From my Nov cruise.

I also wanted to add.

 

Have a wonderful cruise.

 

Keith

Thanks so much Keith, we have been looking forward to this for a long time!

Thank you, we were just wondering if its an arduous process to get back on the ship, or if its much simpler after you are checked in already. Is there a certain time you have to be back on the ship or are you able to get back on until the ship leaves port? We are cruising newbies and we leave in two days!

Our boarding day is Thursday and the ship spends a day in port, leaving on Friday. Are we able to get off the ship once we get on, or is that not recommended?

Puka Dog is still open in the International Market Place, I walked by it today.

It is no longer Puka Dog, it was bought out and is now called Hula Dog.

We've been back about a week & want to say Thank You. Your map is great & was VERY helpful.

 

a

I'm so glad it was of use! Hope you had a good trip

Remember that on average the 10,000 foot summit of Haleakala is about 30 degrees cooler than at sea level. And it can be quite windy so with the windchill it may be in the low 40s to 30s. Also arrive at least 30 minutes prior to official sunrise because the most spectacular part to me was seeing the 1st golden rays of the sun piercing the dark sky like a sunrise in space. I'd also suggest calling in advance in case there are any issues & parking (particularly at the highest point of the summit) is limited & another reason to arrive early. I'd hate to view the sunrise from my car while looking for a parking space. :eek:

YES, dress warm. It can be 80 degrees at the bottom and drop to the 40's at the top. You'll never knew what hit you! Also if anyone in your party gets tired easily, the 10,000ft altitude can be taxing on your lungs. Just going up a flight of stairs can leave you out of breath!

Puka Dog as it was on tv is no longer there.

You didnt miss much however as I have eaten there in the past and it really is just a hot dog.

If you dont have to stay by the airport, dont, as its not a very nice area. A trip into Waikiki in good traffic is only 15-20 mins.

It really depends on how much time you have. If you only have a day AND you plan to do Haleakala sunrise, its going to be a very long day as you'll need to be awake by 3:30-4am just to make it up to catch the sun rising.

Thanks! We live in the great plains of Texas, therefore ocean is a real charm and makes us want to try it out with the road to hana. However I was reading somewhere that roads get very winding and twisting right out of the town of Haiku that made some people carsick, which scared me a little since we have grandparents and baby in the car. That I think is around 10 miles along the ROH. If it doesn't get bad until halfway, maybe it's still doable for the first 10/15 miles! We'll keep our eyes and minds open and turn around if it does get uncomfortable.

The great thing about Hana highway is that there are SO many places to stop along the side of the road and just take in the view. If someone is getting a little queasy, just pull over for a bit!

Great pics and great weather CRUZBUDS. And you really scored on that Benz!!!

The thing about Haleakala is that no matter if you choose to see the sunrise or sunset, either way you'll be driving in the dark one direction. The road is wide however, and there are not steep dropoffs as the road winds around itself. Driving canyons in California are much more nerve-wracking.

The Hana highway is extremely windy (wine-dee) as Im sure you've read, and there are some nervous spots. Plus its very narrow in some places, like one-lane narrow. Not for the faint of heart honestly.

This is great, thanks much for this. Will be there in a few weeks!

We will be spending 4 days in Oahu after our cruise in January, this will be very handy since neither of us have been to Hawaii before... Thank you again:)

You're welcome! Saw another post on the 1st page asking for a trip map so I'm using you as an excuse to bump this again ;)

Thanks!

This is probably a dumb question but is there a way to print your map and the details you've listed for each point of interest? I'd love to take this with me in January.

You know I'm not sure if there's a decent way to print these out. I cant find any obvious way. Of course if you have a smartphone you can always pull it up through Google maps?

I posted this on my Roll Call and decided that this would be of interest to the people following this thread:

 

This was in the local newspaper tonight.

 

http://www.kitv.com/news/hawaii/emergency-bridge-work-to-affect-scenic-byway/-/8905354/22325282/-/15m594nz/-/index.html

 

This will impact anyone going around the island between Hanauma Bay and Sandy Beach. Road work will restrict lanes and that means slowing traffic. Work is expected at least to the end of the year.

 

Sights along the way: the Blow Hole, Makapu'u Lighthouse, Sandy Beach Tide Pools, etc. Beautiful scenery and it will be a shame to miss but you can get around it by going up and over the Pali.

Ahh thats too bad, yes this will impact some of the sights, but you dont have to go through Pali to bypass this, you can just cut inland through the valley by Koko Marina and come out by Sandy's.