Maui (Lahaina)

[scottcaps]

Since it seems to be taking so long for reviews to get posted, thought I would go ahead and post my Hawaii port experience, in case others might find it helpful for planning. Many of the things we did on our April 18-25, 2004 NCL Star cruise were from recommendations and suggestions on this board. Maybe our experiences will now help some others on thier way to Hawaii. This is a little lengthy, but if you are headed that way, you hopefully will find some good info.

 

This was our sixth cruise, our second on NCL, and our first on NCL Star. We are an active, professional couple in our mid-thirties.

 

Lahaina on Maui

This was another tender port and, once again, we didn’t hear any announcement on when tendering started. So, we just walked down to the gangway and waited in line. Once again, we had rented a car from Dollar, and once again, we did not see the Dollar shuttle. But, we called the local office and they said they would send the shuttle. This took about 30 minutes, and during that time we saw two Hertz shuttles, two Budget shuttles, and two Avis shuttles come in and out of the pier area. Also, when we called Dollar, they informed us that they would be picking up a lot of people, and that only the driver would be allowed to ride in the shuttle. We were, of course, not happy about this, as we knew this would waste more of our precious port time. But, once the shuttle did arrive, we were the only people waiting for it, so the driver allowed both of us to go back to the office.

 

Once in our rental car, we set off north searching for some good snorkeling spots. The first spot we tried Hanakao’o Beach Park, recommended in Fodor’s, proved to be a nice beach, but the snorkeling appeared to be far out from shore, where there appeared to be an anchored pontoon platform that we assumed was for snorkelers or divers. In fact, while we were at the beach, two scuba divers did wade into the water and disappeared toward the platform. The undertow there was quite strong, but we decided to give it a try anyway. As we feared, there was nothing to see near shore with snorkeling equipment. The water was very cloudy in some places, and where it was clear, there was merely a sandy bottom. But, we still enjoyed the nice swim in the refreshing water. This park is next door to one of the canoe clubs, so we also enjoyed watching the rowers while we were there.

 

We headed north again and turned off at Napali Road, and drove toward the water till we spotted a Public Access sign at Kapalua Beach, found a parking place along the road, and walked down to the beach. This was a very nice area, including public bathroom facilities. There were several hotels around the beach, and the beach was crowded, but still had plenty of open space. We were encouraged to see several snorkelers in the water and the area did indeed prove to be a good excursion with several varieties of fish. After our snorkel, we walked up to the point to overlook the beach and to also peer over the ocean in hopes of sighting some whales. Timing wasn’t our on side to see any whales, but the view was still spectacular.

 

We headed north again and went to the Kapalua golf course club house, where one of the PGA tournaments (Mercedes Championship) is held each January. My husband bought some items in the pro shop. We had hoped to have lunch at the club house, and there really was a very nice restaurant with gorgeous views of the course. But, we found that the menu consisted of appetizers and large entrees. We were really looking for more lunch-type items like sandwiches, so we opted to look elsewhere. We ended up back at a shopping center at the corner of Route 30 and Napali Road. We had the BEST smoothies at Planet Smoothie and ordered some take-out tacos at Maui Tacos (we recommend the steak – great grilled flavor and very tender). We also wandered into a small art gallery, Napali Art Cetera Gallery, and surprised ourselves by immediately finding some prints of the Napali Beach that we fell in love with and bought. The shop even offered shipping, so we elected to have the prints sent to our home instead of having to carry them with us for the rest of the vacation and risk damaging them. The shop carries originals and prints from local artists, with varying styles. We talked to one of the artists, who was running the shop that afternoon while working on a painting. And, the prices were much better here than the galleries in Lahaina.

 

With our smoothies and Maui tacos in hand, we drove to the next potential sight, Honolua Beach Park. This proved to be the best sight of the day. The beach was not very crowded and was absolutely beautiful. But, there were no bathroom facilities. The snorkeling was wonderful. We even were graced with seeing a green sea turtle swimming and eating. We watched it for quite a while, maintaining our respectful distance, and he never seemed to even notice us. Water was fairly clear and there was a good variety of fish.

 

Regretfully, we had to leave this lovely beach in order to make it back to the Dollar office near the airport to catch the last shuttle back to the pier at 4 pm (otherwise we could have left the keys in the drop box and called a cab, but that seemed a worse option). Once back at the pier, we tendered to the ship, showered, dressed, and went to Endless Summer for our 6 pm reservation. Watched the sunset and viewed Lahaina during dinner. We then boarded another tender (there were only 5 of us on this tender) and went back into town for some shopping and strolling. Had some great ice cream at Scoops on Front Street. This was definitely the “shopping” port of the trip, with a mirage of art shops, jewelry stores, souvenir shops, and clothing stores as well as several restaurants and bars. Many of the bars were open air and had live entertainment. Returned to the pier around 9:30 pm, hoping to make it back to the tender line before the buses of Luau excursion participants returned. We think we made it, but there was still a fairly long line. They were still running several tenders, so the line moved steadily. This was our first time having a nighttime port, and we really enjoyed it.

[spleen93]

Thanks for posting that, scottcaps! Hopefully others will find it useful as well!

 

Spleen

[debiitodd]

Mahalo for the great tips on snorkeling on our own in Maui.

 

Aloha,

Debi :cool:

[suziehmkr]

I found this old thread and thought I would hijack it. I did a search for Maui Tacos and this is the only thread that came up.

 

The reason I searched for Maui Tacos is that they just put a sign up on our closed A&W/Long John Silvers that it is going to be a Maui Tacos!!! So far there are only two in California, and this will be the third - and I do not live in a big town at all.

 

I guess, once it opens we can eat there once in a while to help pass the time until we will be at the real Maui.

[sceptic]

I'm usually not this anal. Really. But the road and town mentioned in the fine review is Napili, rather than Napali. It's a very common bit of confusion, what with the renowned Na Pali coast on Kauai.

 

(and aren't those Maui Tacos GREAT?!?)

[suziehmkr]

(and aren't those Maui Tacos GREAT?!?)

Are they? Never had one, but I was excited to see the sign go up! :cool:

[spleen93]

Maui Tacos is the casual eatery(ies) of chef Mark Ellman who used to operate Avalon Restaurant on Front Street, Lahaina. It's good on Maui. The Oahu ones leave something to be desired (the chips are never fresh when I have them) for some reason.

 

Spleen

[suziehmkr]

I will definitely look forward to trying our local one when they open up... whenever that may be.

 

Thanks!