see Hawaii on our own when docked?

[cjbank]

Any advice on what we can do on a budget? the ship excursions are so expensive! Saw that you can rent a car. Help please!

[dporter]

Hawaii is easily done on your own. Just watch your time to make it back to the ship on time. Here on cruise critic you can go to the port section and that should give you lots of options on the various islands and tips from others what they have done. Trip advisor is another great source of information.

 

Now the road to Hana in Maui is long and may be best to do as a ship excursion if that is what you want to do so that you are guaranteed to be back on time. Unless you overnight in Maui and then you should have no issues renting a car and driving it yourself.

[txagfan]

Any advice on what we can do on a budget? the ship excursions are so expensive! Saw that you can rent a car. Help please!

 

 

 

Not to be snarky, but in case you were unaware there is a ports of call forum for almost anywhere ships go, including Hawaii. It is a fantastic source of information and that forum along with TripAdvisor (additional reviews/pictures) can make each port stop easy to plan.

 

 

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[restasured]

Car rentals are very easy. Do make sure that you reserve the cars on each island a while before you go on the cruise. I would book them at least 2 weeks in advance or longer if you are absolutely sure. Most of the major rental companies do not require payment until you actually pick the car up. So if you do come up with something else you can just cancel it at last minute. Rental cars are easy to pick up at the ships port. They have shuttles that pick you at the pier. Just make sure you print out the confirmation information from the rent car company to show the shuttle driver that you have a reservation. Driving on the islands is much like driving in the Continental States, except there is basically one main road around the islands. In the major cities like Honolulu it is congested. Most of the outer roads aren't all that congested but they do have some major wrecks and the main road outside the cities can be completely blocked, for hours. On our last day in Kauai, two weeks ago, the ship left at 2pm. Our daughter and son in law had rented a car for the 2 days we were there and planned to return the car at noon. Where the ship docks you can basically go north or south. They went north the first day and south the second day. When they returned the car a lady at the rent car company said their daughter was coming back from the north side and a wreck had happened and they had been in traffic completely stopped for almost 3 hours. There is no other way back, so they just had to wait. I never heard if they made it back in time to catch the ship or not. But the upside, I guess is, it is only about $50 - $100 to fly to the next stop and it is in the US so no passport is needed. So take that in consideration and make plans to allow plenty of time to get back to the ship. There are tons of things and places to see. We rented a car, this time, only on Maui. Went to the other side of the island to Lahaina. It is a really nice place to visit. Lots of things to see and do. Great eating places and a number of historic houses of various nationalities. There are several really great beaches on the way there as well, and usually plenty of free parking. Parking in Lahaina is easier to just pay the $5 - $10 for the amount of time you will be there instead of driving around for an hour trying to find a free place. You can look up the pay parking places and they are easy to find and only a block or two from Front street. If you aren't too tight on dollars, going to Hawaii definitely requires going to a Luau and we actually booked the one on the ship in Kauai. It was much better than the first one we did. It had a story theme, great food, decent drinks and very good entertainment.

The road to Hana is supposedly a must do on Maui, and we may someday, but it is a fairly narrow and twisty road, though is supposedly very well worth it. We have two couples that have done this cruise and both rented a car and did the road to Hana and enjoyed it, though the driver had to watch the road a lot more than the scenery. But if you want to see a black beach that is where you will see it. I don't care how many people you talk to, whatever they did is a "must do". Hawaii is so amazing no matter which direction you go, you can't go wrong. So guess the crux of the story is, if you rent a car, and it is a reasonably inexpensive way to see the islands, make reservations ahead of time, cut your "away from the rent car return place", usually the airport, a bit shorter than you think you need to return the car and get back to the ship. But don't be afraid to rent one, just be thoughtful of time and the possibility of delays. It does not take a long time to go from one side of the island to the other, though the road to Hana is an all day trip, especially because you will stop at several beaches and places like that. The Luau the ship has, at least on the day we went, was reserved only for ship passengers, so booking it direct and driving to the Luau is not an option to save a few dollars. I think the difference from booking it yourself and booking through NCL was about $30 - $40 a person, I think, but they provide a comfortable bus to take to the luau and return you to the ship. Whatever you decide you will have a great time. Have fun.

[Nebr.cruiser]

We rented cars on each island except Maui, where we just walked around Lahaina and then to a nearby small beach; we were ready for a lazy day instead of sightseeing. Much cheaper than the ship excursions and we got to do what we wanted.

[NMLady]

Any advice on what we can do on a budget? the ship excursions are so expensive! Saw that you can rent a car. Help please!

 

Here is the link to the Ports of Call > Hawaii forum which, as others have said, is the best place to get information about DIY Hawaii ports

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=62

[hannibal54]

We also rented a car in each port. The drive to Hana got old to me after awhile. Driving around & around the narrow roads, we made it half way, then turned around. If you are going to rent a car, it was better for us if you joined the rental cars loyalty club. This is free, it helped because sometimes there was a line to get the car. Being a member, they had a line for members only.