Car rental & how long to disembark/re-board?

[Victorian]

I will be on the Pride of America out of Oahu in March and am trying to plan my day with rental cars in most ports. Here are my questions:

 

1. If the ship arrives at 8am, what is the earliest I should expect to be allowed to disembark (without a ship bought shore excursion)?

 

2. Once ashore, how much time should it take to get picked up from Thrifty and go through the check in process (I am a Blue Chip member)? I have reserved Thrifty in Hilo, Maui (2 days) and Kauai.

 

3. In Kona we, of course, have to tender. what is the earliest I should expect before I disembark, get to the King... Hotel, and go through the check in process at Dollar (again, I am a member of their fast check in program)?

 

4. On Maui and Kauai we spend two days. How early are you allowed to disembark from the ship on the second day?

 

5. How much time before ship departure time should I leave when I arrive at a car rental agency to allow for the car return and shuttle back to the ship?

 

I really appreciate reponses to my questions.

[electricron]

In Hawaii one would figure without customs, the disembarkation will start quicker, so I would say up to an hour for the ship's shore excursions. You should be off the ship within 2 hours, if not 90 minutes.

[Chopper Chick]

I will be on the Pride of America out of Oahu in March and am trying to plan my day with rental cars in most ports. Here are my questions:

 

1. If the ship arrives at 8am, what is the earliest I should expect to be allowed to disembark (without a ship bought shore excursion)?

 

As long as you are not tendering you can pretty much get off the ship whenever you want to. We were on Pride of Hawaii in December and if they said you could begin getting off at 8am you could usually walk off around 7:45am with no problems.

 

2. Once ashore, how much time should it take to get picked up from Thrifty and go through the check in process (I am a Blue Chip member)? I have reserved Thrifty in Hilo, Maui (2 days) and Kauai.

 

We had decent service and no blue chip or anything else like that. We just walked up, took care of paper work, got the car and left. Depending on the island your on depends on how long it takes. The key here is to remember that everything in Hawaii runs slower. They call it Hawaiian time and they're not kidding! It's not to bad. I think the longest wait we had in a line for the car rental was 15 minutes. We had to wait quite a while, 45 minutes or so to get picked up by the car rental company in one port but in the end it really wasn't a big deal.

 

3. In Kona we, of course, have to tender. what is the earliest I should expect before I disembark, get to the King... Hotel, and go through the check in process at Dollar (again, I am a member of their fast check in program)?

 

I would say that was our slowest day to get on and off the boat but that was due to the tenders which seemed to take FOREVER! To get back onto the boat we ended up waiting for an hour and a half. I would just make sure your back with plenty of time to spare so you can get in the long line, if they have one.

 

4. On Maui and Kauai we spend two days. How early are you allowed to disembark from the ship on the second day?

 

You can get on and off the ship as much as you'd like, whenever you'd like. We got off in the morning really early and spent the day driving around doing stuff and came back later in the evening to crash and do it all again the next day. We saw some people getting on and off at all hours of the night. Each time you get on and off you have to clear the security which is not big deal either. I think the longest wait we ever had for that was 5 minutes and we were there at the busiest time of the year...Christmas and New Years!

 

5. How much time before ship departure time should I leave when I arrive at a car rental agency to allow for the car return and shuttle back to the ship?

 

I would give youself at a bare minimum of an hour but I tend to play things on the safe side. I think we usually gave ourselves an hour and a half and never had any problems! For the most part the car rentals are pretty close to the ships. On Kauai you have to ride to the airport, check in, get back on the shuttle, ride to the car pick up place, and then your on your way. We also rented cars on Maui and Ohau and those were pretty close to the ships. On the big island of Hawaii we did shore excursions through the ship so I'm not sure for Hilo and Kona.

 

I really appreciate reponses to my questions.

 

Enjoy your trip! We had a great time and are still smiling everytime we think about it!!

[Victorian]

Thank you Chopper Chick. Your answers were a big help!