Kilauea volcano viewing from ship

[sboh]

Do all the NCL ships in Hawaii sail by Kilauea? If booking a balcony, is one side better then the other?

[DrivesLikeMario]

Not sure if ALL NCL ships go by the volcano at night, but I do know that the Pride of America and Pride of Hawaii do.

 

When I asked this same question, people told me that it doesn't matter which side of the ship you're on because the NCL ships go by on the starboard side and then turn around and go by on the port side of the ship.

 

For me, it was important to be on the starboard side because I'm hoping that we'll go by the volcano first. I don't want to be up super late waiting for the ship to go past on the starboard side, turn around and then go by on the port side.

 

Hopefully, someone with first-hand experience will reply & help both of us! :)

[cecilterwiliger]

We were on the NCL Wind in 2005 (the one that goes to Kirabiti. In our case, we only made one pass by and viewing was on the port side. That might be different if the ports of call are modified, which they sometimes are. We lucked out and had a balcony on that side. I realized the advantage of a balcony when we cruised Glacier Nat'l Park in Alaska and thought we would be able to see and take photos of the glaciers after leaving the cabin (also port) Turned out there were so many people lined up to watch from the available public areas, such as the buffet dining room, that we weren't really able to see a thing. That was on the NCL Sun.

 

I wasn't able to get photos because I didn't have a tripod and I have a fairly fancy digital Nikon.

 

Enjoy the cruise, seeing the volcano in action from the water is really something to remember.

 

Lady Jag...just saw your 2008 comment. Know the feeling but our son is now a Senior. His requested grad present was the cruise to Alaska. He's in private college as well....each year it goes up....like driving an expensive car off a cliff once a year. At least he appreciates it and takes it seriously. Cruising to N. Europe immediately after his Medieval Reiigion class, was very exciting to see all he had picked up. He kept grabbing my camera so he could shoot things to show the profs that they had talked about in class... not the famous stuff, the obscure things. We got him his own camera for our cruise to Southern Europe this summer.

[PegNRay]

Not sure if ALL NCL ships go by the volcano at night, but I do know that the Pride of America and Pride of Hawaii do.

 

When I asked this same question, people told me that it doesn't matter which side of the ship you're on because the NCL ships go by on the starboard side and then turn around and go by on the port side of the ship.

 

For me, it was important to be on the starboard side because I'm hoping that we'll go by the volcano first. I don't want to be up super late waiting for the ship to go past on the starboard side, turn around and then go by on the port side.

 

Hopefully, someone with first-hand experience will reply & help both of us! :)

We went on the POAM in March and didn't have a balcony room. We went out on deck 6 around 9pm pulled up some chairs and waited. You can actually start seeing the lava way before the 10pm time stated in the dailey. When you get close the captain turns off the outside lights for even a better view. The ship then does a complete turn so that the port side gets the view. We had seen plenty by that time and went back inside.

[sboh]

Thanks for the replies. Ladyjag-I was thinking the same thing-starboard for earlier viewing. Looking at POH for June, 2007 and we're just not late night people, especially with all those port days.

[DrivesLikeMario]

sboh - Neither are we!

 

Glad Peg&Ray gave us their first-hand account! Thanks for that! ;)