Pride of America: Shore excursion waitlist

[jayfurr]

I stupidly waited just a little bit too long to sign up for the Kilauea Volcano Lava Field Expedition shore excursion for the February 11 sailing of the Pride of America. By the time I got there, only one slot was open, which I grabbed for my wife. I called and pathetically whined to an NCL representative at the shore excursion desk and was told that yes, there's a waitlist, but you can only be added to it onboard.

 

The especially frustrating thing is that walking on the lava fields is the #1 reason my wife and I wanted to go to Hawaii in the first place. I shouldn't have procrastinated, but at least my wife will get to go. (She shouldn't have to do without because I procrastinated, after all.)

 

My question is, can anyone assess the likelihood of slots opening up on this or any other shore excursion? We figured the first thing we'd do upon boarding on the 11th would be to go to the Shore Excursion desk and ask to be added to the waitlist, but obviously, others may have the same thought. Have you been waitlisted and still gotten in? Do they add additional capacity based on people waitlisted? Do people often change their minds and switch shore excursions once they're on board? And so on...

 

Jay

[NMLady]

I hope you have the same luck we once had with being too late to get on an excursion. We went immediately to excursion desk upon boarding and there were two places left. I don't know if they'd added a tour or someone cancelled but we snatched those two places. There hadn't been a waitlist though.

 

Wishing you good luck!

[Da-Painter]

Rent a car for the day.

It will save you a lot of money, time, no shopping stops, HI is quite easy to drive around.

[punkincc]

Have you looked into the possibility booking an independent tour which offers the same service as the ship's tour? I would think with all the land vacation tourists on the island, there would be plenty of companies that offer these tours, and maybe even for less money and with fewer people.

 

Independent tours and rental cars usually = the best way to go.

[Imalismom]

We did all our tours via private "local" people - the cost was much less, and the groups were very small (sometimes just our family). If you look here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=62 you can look to see who people recommend.

 

Hawaii was the first time we did ALL non NCL tours and we really did save a lot of of time and money.

[emeraldcity]

Honestly, the car rental option is an awesome choice for Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. I really hate to rent a car because I'd rather let someone else try to figure out how to find someplace, but for Hawaii I stepped out of my comfort zone and it was a good call. Try hawaiidiscountcarrental dot com. You can get a nice vehicle for under $40 for the day. There will be shuttles at the port to take you right to the airport car rental place and after you return the car there will be a shuttle to take you back to the ship.

 

We explored the lava fields, the Thurston Lava Tube and the museum at our own pace (be sure to take the time to watch the movie). We stopped to wander various sites as they caught our fancy.

 

And when you get to the park, go left on the rim road. Everybody else goes right. We had the Thurston Lava Tube virtually to ourselves, The crowds showed up as we were leaving.

 

Oh, and the car we got? I reserved an intermediate size ... They gave us an unexpected upgrade to a Durango with 137 Miles on it ... very nice.