Private dock-side tours on Islands

[swalkr]

I've done a search on this board and can't seem to find any information on how prevelent private dock-side tours are while cruising the Islands in Hawaii. The ones through NCL don't seem to fit our schedule. We have booked the road to Hana on the first day on Maui, and the Luau (through NCL) on Kauai. We are interested in a 1/2 day snorkel tour, either on Maui for the second day or on one of the other islands. I found one through http://www.hawaiitravelnetwork.com last week with an 800#, but since then the site has been down and the 800# is constantly busy, so don't know what that means:confused:. Our cruise time is getting close and I'm a little nervous about not having much booked at this late date. Thanks for you help.

[sparkle]

Hi Swalkr,

 

We were on Maui last month (Island Princess), and docked by Lahaina and tendered in. Right at the dock area they had many booths where you could get snorkel and/or whale watching tours or fishing charters. Is that where you will dock? (There is another place ships dock on the other side of the Island) I'm sorry I don't have any names or websites, as we were on a ship tour to the Haleakala crater. Maybe there is a web site for the Maui tourist bureau/info center.

 

Have a great time!

Aloha!

[beachchick]

Except for Hilo, where there were many private vans advertising island tours to various places, there really aren't many private tour operators waiting at the piers and hoping for pax.

 

The Lahaina tender pier is right at the Lahaina harbor, so you do have all those boat tours right at hand (assuming that they're not booked up for the day).

 

Assuming you'll be docked at Kahului (NCL usually is), you'll need to either rent a car or make sure that the tour company you book with provides transportation to the snorkel boat. The snorkel/dive companies themselves do not send shuttles across the island to Kahului, so you must find your own transportation to and from. The snorkel companies all leave from the west side of the island. Some excursion companies are selling only the excursion (basically acting as the "middle man"), while others sell you a "package" that includes transportation (and perhaps other amenities), kind of like the ship's excursions. Of course, the packages will cost more because they include more.

 

You could look into a snorkel excursion on your Kona day, but that's always a challenge because of tendering. The snorkel boats leave early and will not wait for cruise pax (except the Captain Zodiac, which is the company used by NCL's shore excursions).

 

There are no snorkel excursions out of Hilo, and I've not seen any in Honolulu/Waikiki. I know there are some snorkel excursion companies on Kauau which do the Na Pali coast, but again, you would have to get to the snorkel boat departure location on your own (unless any of them have started sending shuttles to the pier, but I don't think so because it's a long drive).

 

The bottom line is that there aren't tour taxis, tour vans, or other independent operators lined up at the ports when the ships pull in. You'll need to make your arrangements in advance. If you want to rent a car at any port, reserve it NOW. Often, the rental companies sell out (sometimes well in advance) because cruise pax are competing with land visitors for the cars. This is especially true at the smaller ports, such as Hilo. In fact, at a couple of ports, the car rental shuttle drivers were only taking pax who had reservations and were on the rental company list for the day.

 

I know there are other Hawaii excursion companies, so you might want to google for something like "hawaii snorkel excursion" or similar and see if other websites pop up. I don't know anything about the one you mention. I think Tom Barefoot's has a website, and I think they might do packages in addition to just selling activities separately.

 

beachchick