Pride of Aloha Review 12/12-22 Pt 4 (wild horses ...)

[Floppy McTurnriver]

continuing on...

 

Day 8 (Day at Sea):

- first time in 4 cruises I couldn't wait for land again. Normally I treasure the seadays and really look forward to them. On this ship it was like watching a clock tick. (Gives you a clue what's in store for the final part 5 of this review)

 

Day 9 (Lahaina, Maui):

- since this was suppose to be a short port stay (8am-2pm) and a tender port, we didn't bother with a rental car. The plan was simply to walk around town a bit, maybe take the bus to Whalers village if time permitted. Guess what? - they changed the schedule again and we got a 4 hr extension. We would not be leaving till 6pm! Bonus city!

 

- tendering was no problem. It was a straight walk down to the 3rd deck, no waiting, no line-up affair. We were onshore by 9am. Wifey decided to break away from the pack and try whale watching. She was dithering between booking thru the ship which uses PWF (infact it was all the PWF lectures thru-out the cruise that enticed her to go whale watching) or simply go ashore and then try her luck at the PWF counter at the pier. She chose the later. Good thing too. The PWF counter is about a couple of dozen steps from the shore tender. She walked up and paid around $37pp. NCL was charging around $67?. Many of her tour group were from the ship. I would have been livid if I had bought this excursion from the ship. Almost a 100% markup! There was no extra transportation involved, both kinds of purchasers needed to walk the same two dozen steps.

 

- the rest of us found the local bus and paid $1 each to go to Whalers village. The bus was jammed with most everyone from the ship (poor locals) and they run only every hour. We were very lucky to be able to squeeze on. It's a short ride to Kaanapali. We walked Whalers Village for a bit, visited some of the resorts and stumbled into the Hyatt which had a spanking brand new Subaru Imprezza (just 36 clicks on the meter) available for rent thru Hertz. $43 per day and we could return it back in Lahaina. Sold!

 

- so we all hopped in and headed north to Honolua Bay where they hold the Womens surfing championships. The views from the cliffs are nice and you can see people surfing below. We then headed back south, dropping by the Ritz Carlton resort but they were closed. Looks like they're switching the whole complex to timeshares and expensive residences. We continued back south to Whalers Village and ate at the Hula grill (same chain as Dukes and other restaurants). This is a good chain with consistently good food at reasonable prices considering they're all in touristy locations. Had my first Mai Tai here as they made it with fresh squeezed fruit juices. Recommend. After lunch by chance we ran into wifey who had by then finished her whale excursion and had headed up to Whalers Village also. Did a bit more window shopping and then headed back to Lahaina to return the rental to Hertz and shuttle back to the pier. The tender lineup was long so we strolled around Lahaina for a bit and caught the last few tenders back onboard.

 

Day 10 (Hilo, Hawaii):

- got picked up by Thriftys automatically as usual. Got our car quickly with BlueChip and we were on our way to Volcano National Park. It's only about 29 miles from the ship. We went to the visitors centre first, asked the usual questions, got oriented then did a clockwise loop around Crater Rim drive. As previously stated in other posts. Most people and large tour buses do it counter clockwise. A few of the smaller outfits also did it clockwise, trafficflow was great as a result.

 

- 1st stop was the Thurston lava tube. Interesting but quite short, was expecting more there. We had brought flashlights to go into the unlighted part but found our Walmart disposables to be useless in that room. You really need a quality flashlight or lantern to navigate that special area.

 

- 2nd stop was driving down Chain of Craters road. Very cool. Lots of old lava fields & scenic viewpoints. Traffic was almost non-existent (Fri morning around 10:30am). Got to the end (sea level). Saw some folks then continue on foot pass the barriers and ranger booths. I believe it's a 1/2 mile hike in. Don't know what there was to see, but I had my elderly dad and I was in shorts with improper shoewear. I was told by the rangers at the visitor centre it's not any heat from lava that damages the shoe (they wouldn't let you get anywhere that close) but some of the lava rocks are very sharp like tiny shards of broken glass and could damage your shoes. Good to know. We left shortly after, back up Chain of Craters to rejoin Crater Rim.

 

- 3rd and 4th stop was crater and sulfer viewing. 5th stop was the Jaggar museum. Didn't bother with the displays. The most crowded of all stops. Many large tour buses here (because of restrooms). Different view of the main crater. 6th stop was at Volcano house directly across from Visitor centre. Grabbed a quick scenic lunch here. Cafeteria style (hot dogs, sandwiches, chili & salads) or full sit down service available ($16.50pp for full buffet).

 

- after lunch we headed back to Hilo with a final stop at the Mauna Loa Mac nut factory. You come here for more choice but not better prices. Walmart has the best price. But you can try many free samples here and there are many flavours to try. It's located off the main highway back to Hilo from VNP so it's not out of the way at all. Finally back to Thriftys to return the car and shuttle back to the ship.

 

Disembarkation Day (Honolulu, Oahu):

- disembarkation process was a breeze. We were off around the time designated for our deck (8:45am). Kudos to NCLA for the embarkation/disembarkation process. Very smooth and unstressful. You could stay in your cabin till you stepped off if you wanted to.

 

- we had 5 people and our flights weren't till 10pm. Our plan was to get a day rate at a hotel in Waikiki and let the parents crash there till after dinner. So we needed to get everyone and everything to Waikiki and then again from there to the airport later that evening. We figured the cheapest was a Jeep Grand Cherokee again but alas they were not available. So between a premium category vehicle ($108) or two compact vehicles ($43) we chose the later from Thriftys again. This worked out great as by this time wifey and sis had increased our luggage complement. No problem though with 2 cars. So off we went to the Wyland hotel. Day rate was $99. It's basically old apartments/condos converted to a hotel. They can't do too much to the outside but the inside was clean & modern. Would recommend this option. Location was also very good for those that prefer to walk. So we dropped off the folks, all the luggage, and then one of the cars at the Ala Moana shopping centre for free parking while the 3 of us headed around town.

 

- wifey had multiple shopping stops she wanted so the day itinerary was arranged according to that. The stops worth mentioning were Leonards bakery for malasadas, lunch at Ono Hawaiian Food restaurant (wow! - genuine home cooked Hawaiian food), then it was onto Ala Moana shopping centre and Wards shopping centre. After that it was back to the hotel where we walked to a nearby underground food court (International Market?) and had dinner at a Japanese ramen bar. Pretty authentic as all customers were Japanese. Tasty and cheap. (Foodie Sidenote: for those in the know, the best I've had so far in Canada is in Vancouver at Kintaro's. That's the real deal.)

 

- finally time to collect luggage, check out of hotel, return cars and shuttle to airport. Once again took the great United Airlines option of Economy Plus for the extra legroom. Got back to T.O. the next afternoon, met with freezing temperatures and a two foot snow barrier blocking the driveway. Spent 1 hr clearing the driveway to get the car out. Welcome home.

 

to be continued (worst for last) ...