Pride of America-Precruise Hotel

[jessandtwo]

We are arriving 3 days early for our cruise on Pride of America. We have narrowed down our hotels to either the Hawaiin Village or the Marriott on the beach. At the Hawaiin village we are not sure if we should just stay in a regular room or for $150 more (for the entire 3 days) book the Alii tower. Is the Alii tower worth the extra money? Or should we book a room at the Marriott on the beach through NCL and have the pre-cruise check in?

 

Any advice?

 

Thanks so much,

Jessica

[milolii]

Aloha Jessica! Always stay as near to the ocean as possible when in Hawaii. You will remember it forever!

 

Mahalo for asking

 

Milolii

[Aloha Gal]

Hi Jessica, I live in Honolulu and can tell you that both hotels are nice and well located. I would say the Hilton Hawaiian Village is more upscale than the Marriott, but the Marriott is certainly nice enough. The Hilton has beautiful, sprawling grounds with penguins, etc. - a more resorty feel. If you stay at the Hilton, I would use the $150 for a nice dinner. There are a number of great restaurants closeby. Both hotels are in close proximity to the beach. The Marriott houses 2 of our favorite restaurants - Sansei (awesome sushi) and DK's Steakhouse (fabulous dry-aged beef).

 

If you have any more questions that a "local" can answer, feel free to ask.

 

Aloha, Logan

[cruiseman40]

Dear Jessica,

 

I too am goin to hawaii and staying 3 nites in honolulu prior to June 11th 7 day cruise around the Island aboard the Pride of Hawaii ship. I've decided to stay across from the Hawaiian Hilton (1 block away) cause I didn't want to pay for the ultimate 4 star hotel price. I'm staying in Aqua Palm and Spa resort which is considerbly less than the Hawaiian Hilton. I'll spend a lot of time at the Hawaiian Hotel though and it's beaches. I've heard great reviews on the Aqua Palm and Spa for the price that's why we're staying there (2 rooms and 4 adults, 2 children) decided to stay there!!

 

Good luck,

 

Pete

[MM27]

We stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village and were given a handicapped accessible room (didn't need it and didn't ask for it, but certainly didn't complain about it) It was huge!! There were three of us, and it was so spacious. I am a strong believer though that if you plan to spend a lot of time in the room, spend the extra money. We are on the opposite end of the spectrum. We are rarely in the room and would rather have lots to do outside, which is definately the case at the Hilton.

[jrobinso]

Spend the extra $$$ for the Ali'i tower. The tower is away from the construction going on right now, and is right out front on the beach. There is a doorman out front (extra safety..somewhat...I always feel a bit more secure there if I am alone) pool on the 2nd floor for Ali'i tower only, as well as small gym. Each evening they serve some appetizers which is often all I need for dinner. The rooms have free coffee and tea and some bottled water. Turn down service every night. ( with a chocolate!) I think the garden view rooms are nice, just be sure you ask for a room with a view of the pool. The other side does overlook a nice park, but there is a driveway right there that sometimes gets a lot of traffic.

[jrobinso]

Another thought. If you stay in Ali'i tower with a pool view. On Friday nights you can watch the Hawaiian show and fireworks from you balcony.

[maggiek]

When planning our trip, I agonized about which hotel to stay in prior to the cruise. I read countless reviews and looked at many different hotel booking websites. We finally decided to stay at the Outrigger Waikiki and we not disappointed. We booked a "City View" room for $450 for two nights on Hotels.com (which is amazingly inexpensive for Waikiki) and we were upgraded for no charge to a partial ocean view room. We had four in our group (my DH and my two teenage daughters) and the room was very spacious.

 

The location was great too, since it is right across from the International Marketplace which is a cool place to look/shop. Also, Duke's is right inside the Outrigger and that food there was really delicious (not to mention the awesome view) And the people at the Outrigger were so nice and so committed to service, bar none. We would go back there again.

 

The thing to keep in mind is how much you will be doing while in Honolulu. We got into Honolulu at 3 p.m. on a Thursday, so we had that evening to enjoy the hotel. But we did the PCC on Friday, so we were gone most of the day, only returning at 10:30p.m. We checked out on Saturday and took a Circle Island tour so we weren't just hanging out at the hotel that much.

 

We had seriously considered the Hilton Hawaii (which is a gorgeous property) but we decided that we could use that extra money for other activities and tours on our cruise.

 

Hope that helps!

[Montcruiser]

MaggieK, We are staying at the Outrigger next Sat. before our cruise on the POA. How close is it to the beach? It there lots of places to walk around when we get in rather than renting a car?:) Thanks

[maggiek]

Montcruiser,

 

Yes, the Outrigger Waikiki is on the beach. There are other Outriggers but this is the one Kalakaua Avenue. We didn't rent a car because traffic in Waikiki is horribly busy! We took a limo from the airport and then basically walked around the area when we weren't doing a tour.

 

The good thing is that if you are going to the PCC or another tour, all the tour operators will pick you up right in front of the hotel. Hope you enjoy... I miss it already!

[Ladyarli]

Aloha!

The Marriott is not really on the beach, but is right across the street from it. I don't know if that matters to you, or not, but I thought it bore mentioning, just in case. I stayed in the Hilton, in the Rainbow Tower, the last time I was there. It was very nice, and we enjoyed the Fri. night hula show and fireworks. I must say the best chinese food I've ever eaten was at the Golden Dragon at the Hilton. YUM! The room at the Hilton was very nice, but I was surprised that they charge you if you use the coffee maker! For what they charge for the room, couldn't they throw in a couple of cups of coffee! I mean, really! There is a tour company called Blue Sky Tours, which only books Hawaii, and has just about every hotel. They also book airfare, transfers, rental cars, and tours. They have good contracts, and can usually get really good prices. They only book through travel agents, though. I've had good luck with them.