Pride of Aloha Review

[Wattle]

We sailed on the Pride of Aloha of the 27th of May. We had a fantastic time and I will now outline what we did, and how we did it. I will also mention some of the things we were also told about but did not do ourselves.

 

We hired cars in all ports through Thrifty. We were not Blue chip members and this made no difference at any ports. As you can probably tell we are from Australia and were very concerned about driving on the 'wrong' side of the road, but this was not a problem.

DAY 1: Nawiliwili, Kauai. We got off the ship and straight onto the Thrifty shuttle. We then drove to Smiths Motor Boat Service and did a tour to the Fern Grotto, $20.00 per person. This was excellent. Very informative, relaxing and entertaining. The crew gave us a lovey informative talk on the way up the river and then sang to us at the Grotto. On the way back we were entertained with music and the hula.

After this we drove to Wailua falls, beautiful. We then drove onto Princeville and Hanilei. We went to the Lighthouse but it was closed due to the public holiday. A very beautiful place, but very busy due to the public holiday. We went back into town for a late lunch and a little shopping...... We returned the car and caught the shuttle back to the ship.

 

We met some people who went to the Waimea Canyon (missed this one) any way they said it was great, but the traffic was really bad on the way home. It could have been the public holiday.

 

Day 2: Still in Kauai. We walked to the nearby shops and had a look around.

 

Day 3: Hilo, Hawaii. Today we again hired a car, straight off the ship, onto a shuttle to Thrifty. Not as organised here, but our reservation was ready and we did not wait. We went to the Volcano National Park. $10.00 per car. We drove the crator rim road. Beautiful. We were cleaver and missed the tour busses at each stop. You can spend as long or as little time as you like here. We didn't rush, but didn't linger either. We also stopped at the Larva Tube. Very interesting, very busy with tourist busses, and hard to find parking but worth it. From here we went to Akaka falls. A beautifull walk to the falls. We stopped at a little town we passed on the way to the falls, very quaint. It was getting late, so back to Thrifty and a shuttle back to the ship.

 

This evening we sailed past the Lava flow. Best view is deck 11, front of the ship. Unfortuntly my photos didn't work our. HINT learn to use your camera before you go, not in the dark sailing up to the lava flow ......:p

 

Day 4: Kono, Hawaii. Today we had decided on a 'lay' day. We caught the tender to shore and walked around to town. Lots of local shops. We also took advantage of the free shopping shuttles.

 

Day 5 Maui: By far we loved this island the most. We hired a car for two days here. Thrifty is very organised here. Today we did the 'drive to Hana'. Very windy, very, very, very busy, and with not very good (actually very bad) drivers. We stoped at the gardens ($10.00 each!) beautiful, yet expensive. We stopped a lot along the way. Lots of photo ops.... Unfortunatly when we got to Hana we were not impressed. (we were told when we got back to the ship the best bit is past Hana, but we did not know this and any way had had enough by now). On the way back we stopped at Ke'anae. A beautiful little village, worth the detor. We had a smothie and banana bread.

 

After some shopping we got back to the ship around 4.00pm. We got one of the last car parks in the closest parking lot near the ship. When we went back to the car the next morning there were cars parked everywhere, all the way back out to the main road!!!!!

 

Day 6: Still in Maui. Today we drove to the Ioa valley. Beautiful, really beautiful. We then drove onto Lahaina. This was a very beautiful place. Don't forget to pay for parking (even on weekends). I couldn't work out the pay thingy, and we had a fine on the car for $10.00. (it should have cost $5.00). We spent a lovley morning walking around the shops. When then drove back towards the ship and shoped till we dropped......We took the car back to Thrifty and got the shuttle back to the ship.

 

We met people who did the Haleakala ranch zipline, and they loved it. We also chatted to people who did the Haleakala bicycling at sunrise, and they loved it, but it was very, very cold.

 

Day 7: Back to Honolulu: We chose to walk off the ship. We just walked off....bags and all. We were one of the first ones off the ship, then into a cab and to the hotel for two more nights.

 

NOTES: There are lots of free shopping shuttles at every port, good idea to take advantage of these. The Thrifty shuttles were at the port to meet the ship, and they were able to take you back to the ship when you drop the car off. No waiting for us. If you are going rent cars at each port plan what you want to see. With Thrifty they gave us a tourist booklet at each port. Before you set off on your day have a look at the local info, and add any additional things you might want to see.

 

We also met a lot of people who did a lot of snorkling, and of course loved it.

 

Actually we did not met anyone who did not love Hawaii or any of the tours or individual things they did. Not bad for a ship full of people. And we chatted to a lot of people, or they chatted to us, we stood out a bit with these funny accents......

 

So we had a great, if not very busy, time. I have kept all the information I gattered along the way so if you have any questions I will try and answer them, even if I didn't actually do it myself, I can hopefully point you in the right direction. In all I think we needed more time and will just have to go back again......;)

[DebraDot]

How was the Thrifty rental process in Kauai? I have read about some problems here using them, so I am thinking of switching. Please tell me your experience in that port.

[Wattle]

How was the Thrifty rental process in Kauai? I have read about some problems here using them, so I am thinking of switching. Please tell me your experience in that port.

We had no problems at this port or any others, and we were not blue chip. We got off the ship, turned right out of the port and got straight onto a Thrifty shuttle. At the thrifty office there were three people working at the counter. Our reservation was there and the car was ready. When we picked up the car another staff member checked it over with us and off we went. When we returned a staff member was waiting to go over the car again with us (to check for any new bumps). They processed our credit card. We then got back on the shuttle and straight back to the ship, they didn't wait to see if anyone else was comming. We had no problems, but maybe not many on our cruise used Thrifty I don't know, for us Thrifty were easy to use, very professional in every port, and very helpfull with local information. I hope you have a great time.

[CC Help Michell]

Thanks for the shore ex review, Wattle! I've enjoyed your posts, and your ship review on the NCL board as well. I think it's awesome that you had a memorable cruise, have shared a balanced view of what you experienced, and that you haven't dwelled on the (truly awful) situation with the A/C on POAl during your cruise. You'll be my role model should anything as serious as that happen during our cruise! :)