Shore Excursions Pride of Aloha

[Joan & Ed]

?How do you book shore excursions independently? We would like to rent a car in Maui and go shopping in Lahainaand then take the Sunset Sail from Lahaina so need to know how to get those tickets. Bank of Dad?:)

[chatisfaction]

It has been a while since I visited Hawaii but I was able to find contacts for quite a few excursion on the internet. There was a site - Hawaiiweb.com - I think that had links to lots of info for all the different islands.

 

There are other site's too but I don't remember their names anymore. You could start with that one or do a search for info.

Maybe someone with more recent experience could help.

 

You could also go to the ports of call section of cruise critic for Hawaii and ask your question there.

[orcatek]

I contacted the vendor's directly. Almost all of them have websites and 800's. Had a great time and no problems at all with the tours..

[cruizluver]

I just read that you have done some booking over the internet for excursions in Hawaii. What happens if the ship is late or you can't get there for some reason---any problems with that? I have read that sometimes NCL has had problems being on time docking at some of their ports. We are sailing Mar. 9 on the Wind (our first time to Hawaii) and are thinking of renting cars or planning our own itinerary on the islands instead of doing the ship excursions.Which tour lines did you use? Any info would be helpful!!

[bankofdad]

I contacted the vendor's directly. Almost all of them have websites and 800's. Had a great time and no problems at all with the tours..

 

We booked all of our tours directly as well, with the exception of the Paradise Cove Luau on Ohau which we attended pre-cruise (and we wished we would have been late or missed that one:eek: ), and had no problems at all. We would have booked that one directly, too, but we could never get the reservation to process (I gusess it was a sign that we unfortunately ignored:eek: ). There is SO much more available to do that the ship does not offer, and even when they do have something that interests you, I found that there are other operators (and lots of them) out there that can offer something that could be more to your liking, and at a lesser cost.

 

When we started planning our trip we purchased the Wizard Publication "revealed" guide books for Kauai, Maui and the Big Island. We read those books to get an idea as to what interested us on each island, then we started looking at the individual websites for each operator that offered something we were interested in. We also searched these boards and found even more operators out there than were listed in the guidebooks and tons of reviews from past cruisers. In addition to the NCL board, the Hawaii board helped an awful lot.

 

We then decided upon what fit our interests best and booked directly with the operator. We also booked are rental cars direct with the car company as opposed to through the ship. We used a lot of input from these boards in all of our decisions.

 

Before we left, we made sure we had all of the local phone numbers for each operator and rental car office. We also made sure they had our mobile phone numbers, and in the case of the tour operators, I received a call every time from the operator the day before the tour to confirm. In the case of the car companies, we called them the day before we were to arrive just to make sure our name was on the shuttle list. Most of the operators, and all of the car companies were made aware that we were sailing on Pride of Aloha as well.

 

We never had any problem getting to the tours on time. We were at each one with at least an hour to spare. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong on this, but POA does not have a habit of being late to Port. I know there were weather problems on one of the December sailings (weather can be more iffy in Hawaii during the winter), but other than some tendering problems in Kona during the start-up cruises last summer, I don't remember seeing any other comments about being late into port. My experience on this and other cruises is that late port arrivals are the exception, not the rule. If you have some reason to believe the ship might be late, or not in at all (like the December sailing I'm refering too) call the tour operator as soon as you know in order to discuss it with them.

 

FYI - in Kauai if you need to take a cab anywhere, make an advance reservation for a pick-up before you go. This was the one port with very limited cab service waiting upon arrival. We made the reservation, and were really glad we did. Just as we did in Kona, we had the cab company meet us at the operator's office upon return from the tour.

 

I hope you have a great time!