First Hawaii Cruise on the Pride - Excursions???

[vmbaskets]

We are planning our first cruise on Norwegian Pride of America. Need help booking excursions. We are flying in a few days early and need help as to where and how to book excursions. This is all new to us so any help at all would be much appreciated. Can I get tickets directly from Pearl Harbor and what would a taxi cost? Also, is Diamond Head a must see or do you recommend a different volcano elsewhere? What about luaus - would like recommendations. Looking forward to hearing all your advise. Lots of details PLEASE

[Sauer-kraut]

Spend a day at the Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC) fantastic way to see multi polynesian cultures! They also have a dinner show and a night show too. https://www.polynesia.com/

[Mom2B&Z]

Go to the Hawaii boards and start reading. Each port has so many things to do, you’ll want to narrow it down. We rented a car in each port, it’s very easy to do and much cheaper than excursions. Bring a gps or use your phone maps app and away you go!

Personally we loved Waimea Canyon on Kauai, it was an amazing hike. One of the highlights of our trip. So was Volcanoes national park. We did Road to Hana after reading all the reviews, but found it somewhat underwhelming. It’s a place you need to know what interests you and how to get there.

 

 

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[ColinIllinois]

Here is a link to the forum Mom2 was referring to. Great info on things to do in the 50th state.

 

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

[Crazy planning mom]

Go to the Hawaii boards and start reading. Each port has so many things to do, you’ll want to narrow it down. We rented a car in each port, it’s very easy to do and much cheaper than excursions. Bring a gps or use your phone maps app and away you go!

Personally we loved Waimea Canyon on Kauai, it was an amazing hike. One of the highlights of our trip. So was Volcanoes national park. We did Road to Hana after reading all the reviews, but found it somewhat underwhelming. It’s a place you need to know what interests you and how to get there.

 

 

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We arrived 4 days early for the cruise and stayed at the Outrigger Reef. It was a wonderful hotel near the heart of everything but yet on a quieter stretch of beach. Outrigger is a big chain and has many hotels in Hawaii at different prices ranges including condos. https://www.outrigger.com/

You can reserve tickets for Pearl Harbor 60 days in advance at https://www.recreation.gov/showPage.do?name=landing&landing=/htm/pearlharbor/home.jsp&contractCode=NRSO&parkId=72369

In Maui, Haleakala at Sunset was a great excursion. In Kona, you can just walk off the ship and explore the town.

I agree with mom about seeing Waimea Canyon. We didnt rent a car at every port but did in Kauai and were glad we did.

Reserve your car ahead of time. Everyone at the Hawaii Port board recommended Discount Hawaii Car Rental and were were happy with them.

We used an app called Shaka Kauai which was a travel guide in addition to gps directions. https://www.shakaguide.com/kauai

[CruisinChills]

 

You can reserve tickets for Pearl Harbor 60 days in advance at https://www.recreation.gov/showPage.do?name=landing&landing=/htm/pearlharbor/home.jsp&contractCode=NRSO&parkId=72369

 

 

Just a warning — if you want to tour the USS Arizona Memorial you need a timed ticket which are free but must be reserved. So I dutifully logged in at exactly 7am Hawaii time 60 days out from our desired visit date only to discover there were no more available. When contacted, the person I spoke with admitted that it’s really “more like 61 days”, although the website clearly states 60. So, now we’re waiting to try to get some of the tickets released 24 hours prior. We’ll be very disappointed if we don’t get to see it because their system is wrong!

 

 

 

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[robbinsca]

Pearl Harbor is a very moving experience.

 

We had a great time at Volcanoes National Park- just rented a car for that day.

 

We took the Blue Hawaiian Helicopter tour over Kilauea as well. Best chance to see molten lava in your lifetime.

 

Finally we went on a snorkeling tour with one of the naturalist societies. Sorry can’t remember the name if the organization now.

 

 

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[gmazz]

We stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village for 2 nights before our cruise. We loved it. Saw them filming Hawaii 5-0 while we were there.

 

We did hike up to Diamond Head, the view from the top is stunning! If you plan on doing that I recommend you do it earlier in the morning. We went about 9:30 and it was pretty warm by the time we go to the top.

 

We did mostly ship tours while on the cruise. Maui we did a whale watch and waterfall hike. Kona we did snorkling and Kaui we bombed with the Waimea Canyon, it was fogged in. While in Hilo we did a private tour with Marylous and loved it!

 

When we got off at the end of the cruise we did a tour through NCL at Pearl Harbor. It was the shorter one so we made our flight home. The tour ended with a drop off at the airport which was very convenient.

 

Happy planning!

[jdvmd]

We stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village for 2 nights before our cruise. We loved it. Saw them filming Hawaii 5-0 while we were there.

 

We did hike up to Diamond Head, the view from the top is stunning! If you plan on doing that I recommend you do it earlier in the morning. We went about 9:30 and it was pretty warm by the time we go to the top.

 

We did mostly ship tours while on the cruise. Maui we did a whale watch and waterfall hike. Kona we did snorkling and Kaui we bombed with the Waimea Canyon, it was fogged in. While in Hilo we did a private tour with Marylous and loved it!

 

When we got off at the end of the cruise we did a tour through NCL at Pearl Harbor. It was the shorter one so we made our flight home. The tour ended with a drop off at the airport which was very convenient.

 

Happy planning!

 

When we were there, Baywatch was filming and then a few weeks before Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen were filming one of their movies.