princeton123211

LA is pretty difficult to do without your own car unless you plan on staying in one spot for most of the time or willing to spend a lot on Uber/car service etc. Not to mention getting to and from San Diego. Renting a car and bringing my bags with me would still be my preferred method of accomplishing what you are suggesting doing.

Seconded-- this is really a long afternoon. It's tiny compared to most theme parks-- don't think you need the same amount of time devoted to this as you would something larger like Disneyland. Magic Castle is a fun recommendation here as it gives you access to the Magic Castle at night which is a private magician's club and one of LA's quirkier and fun nights out. The hotel, while nice, isn't anything to write home about-- the main attraction is the access it gives you. Would only really do it for one night and only if access to the Magic Castle was of interest (which is should be-- it's a lot of fun). A few others that are adjacent I would add to that is the Sunset Tower Hotel, Chateau Marmont (which is nearly impossible to get a reservation for but they do exist occasionally and it doesn't get more old Hollywood), and the newish Pendry West Hollywood. If money is no object check out The Beverly Hills Hotel a little further afield is spectacular and if you are looking for something more on a budget you can usually get some deals at The Hollywood Roosevelt that are decent for the quality of accommodation. If you are staying in Hollywood a dinner at Musso & Frank is a great night out for some old school atmosphere (and a very stiff martini).

Dial 7 and Carmel are essentially the same thing-- 3rd party car service aggregators. They don't own or operate the cars you are going to be in or employ the drivers so quality can vary significantly. They are fine for a quick trip like this and tend to be a little lower priced than a brick and mortar black car service (which might have somewhat newer cars). The other option here is Uber or Lyft. These you can just call on demand when you disembark and are priced pretty much the same as Dial7/Carmel at around $90 from Cape Liberty to JFK. I usually use Uber for most things but with an exodus of passengers coming off a big ship at once, Dial 7 or Carmel prebooked might be a good option here.

December is definitely whale season-- December 5th you are sort of at the very beginning so can be a tiny bit hit or miss. The whale watching is better on the other side off of Lahaina (where they tend to congregate in the protected channel between Lanai and Molokai) but there will be whales on the other side too.

Which is a fair point-- if you had to leave Bermuda by air because of any sort of emergency you would be at a significant disadvantage not having your actual passport with you.

They are both located within the Halekulani Hotel on Waikiki-- the top hotel in Waikiki in my opinion. House Without a Key is a mostly outdoor (but a little bit of indoor) lounge and bar essentially. There is a dinner menu with a few dinner options, but its mostly appetizers (pupus) and drinks. You're there for the live entertainment and snacks. Entertainment is from 5:30-8:30 every night. Orchid's is their more casual main dining room (La Mer is their formal dining room and is very over the top unless this is a major celebration). Orchid's has a much larger dinner menu than HWAK and if you were looking for a nice dinner out would be a better dinner choice than HWAK. You can't go wrong with either but they just do slightly different things. If you wanted to really make a night of at at Halekulani you could go to HWAK around 6, grab dinner at Orchid's around 730-8 and then grab a night cap at Lewer's Lounge with live jazz after.

I just don't know why you would expect them to guarantee you a car without having a credit card on the reservation.

You'll enjoy Lahaina-- great spot to walk around and have dinner. Make sure to make reservations. Just make sure to take Honoapiilani Highway (30) and don't take Kahekili Highway North from Kahului (Highway 340). That road is genuinely dangerous but to someone who hasn't been there before, departing from where you are, it could look like a fun way to drive around and see the island. All of Honoapiilani Hwy to and North of Lahaina is very safe. You're in an industrial port area adjacent to the airport. There really isn't much at all for tourists immediately by the port. Paia is nice and you could Uber there but finding an Uber back might take a little time. Frankly just keeping the rental for the 2nd day would let you see more but I get where you're coming from. I've gone to Baldwin before but never swam. There is a breakwater there but be warned, on the North side of the island, the surf can be wild there sometimes and be outright dangerous.

Sometimes a nicer full service hotel will store these for you if you are departing and have a confirmed return reservation within a couple weeks. I used to frequently do this traveling to London from New York-- it's nothing official, just something you need to work out with them. I would tip generously and my bags were always waiting in my new room when I returned. Personally I would just rent a large SUV that could take it all and just throw it in the back and drive up to LA. Keeping it with you, even if it's locked inside of a car would most likely be the most secure way. Outside of that all I can really think of is see if you could get a weekly rate on a self storage unit.

It's a fairly standard dinner cruise. You're paying $110 a person for a buffet dinner or $150ish for a plated banquet dinner. We did it years ago begrudgingly at friend's insistence and it met my very low expectations. Its reminded me basically of a half put together luau with more western food (and a fairly strong mai tai). The food ashore at any full service restaurant was much better than what we had here-- this had a distinctly pre-cooked, pre-plated midrange wedding quality to it. $300 for dinner would get you an extremely nice dinner at Orchid's at Halekulani and then you can go listen to some live music at House Without a Key before or after. Personally I think the views from the beach looking out are much nicer than the ones looking back towards the big city.

To an extent-- the Navy Yard can take some big ships with deep drafts-- USS New Jersey and USS JFK being examples. They also never really finished the cruise terminal infrastructure that was promised. And then theres the fact that sailing with a pilot for a significant part of the Delaware River has to be enormously annoying-- you'll have a pilot embarked much longer than you would sailing from NYC. And then theres the fact that NYC is literally an hour from us by train-- its really not difficult for Philadelphians to get there. I think it's a combination of a bunch of things. We still do have occasional ships call-- mostly smaller ones doing East Coast reposition cruises. One of the old Seabourn ships being run by Windstar makes a regular call each year and interestingly enough docks North of the city in an industrial area along the Delaware (which doesn't make any sense to me).

Uber is more reliable on Maui-- Lyft in our experience hasn't been as much. It will depend on where you're coming back from-- there will be plenty near the port and airport but availability will vary by where you are to come back. Don't use a third party discount rental. Book direct from the major agencies like Hertz, Avis, Budget, etc. Rental cars are still difficult and booking through a third party broker like this wont guarantee you that you'll have a rental.

Typically most major carriers will just automatically kick into a $10 per day international plan in Canada without having to enable anything.

Was there 3 weeks ago-- Uber works great. No need to prebook an expensive black car if you don't want to. It was CA$38 from the airport to our hotel downtown.

I agree and second doing it from a boat. We've rented from Somerset Bridge Watersports several times before and had a good experience. https://bdawatersports.com/ Very close to Dockyard. They provide ice/water and bread to feed the fish. The snorkeling near the wreck of HMS Vixen is fun.

As said, MCT can only handle really 3 large ships at a time and even then it's pushing it-- as ships have gotten bigger its become more problematic there. It was really designed with the largest ships in mind at the time being the SS France/Norway or QE2-- 2000-2500 passenger ships. Not the 3000-4000 passenger ships that call there now. Carnival Corp wanted a reliable alternative they could call home for the majority of departures, and not have to compete with other lines for space, which is how we got BCT. Also, there is considerably less maneuvering required for Brooklyn than Manhattan-- ships can arrive and depart much more quickly. Also the QM2 is so long it also juts out considerably from the end of the Manhattan Cruise Terminal into the channel when docked there-- I think someone told me that it required a patrol boat present anytime she was docked at MCT which I'm sure didn't help the argument to keep her in Manhattan.

If it had to be Fisherman's Wharf I would second the Argonaut.

That can backfire though-- booking the day rate will ensure the early check in. Booking for the whole night they could technically freeze you out until the 3-4pm check in time which would defeat the entire purpose. Most high loyalty statuses will guarantee a late checkout but early check in is usually only by availability. The OP is best off here booking the day rate because of how early they would like to check in.

I guess anything is possible but the parking lot surface there is significantly above the waterline. Baltimore is an extremely inland port-- you should be fine. My guess is they wouldn't let you park there if they anticipated any issues. There are plenty of options in town in multilevel garages but you will most likely pay quite a bit more for them. If you're coming from Delaware the other option would be to just take a car service and not worry about having your car there at all.

Unless they want to go to Whalers Village.

At the end of the day though, transportation from Lahaina to this stretch of beach is going to be about $30 total round trip in an Uber. At $150pp, I'm hard pressed to figure out what resort is going to add $270 in additional value. There aren't any all inclusive resorts in Kaanapali so that makes me think that lunch and drinks aren't included. There are cabanas at the Sheraton, Westin, and Hyatt-- the ones a the Hyatt are fairly useless unless for the pool since the beach is eroded away there. The Westin would be the best case scenario. At best you are getting some sort of lunch voucher and at worst you are paying $270 extra for pool access and a beach thats free to go to anyway.

Agree with you on taking an Uber-- its only a 10 minute ride to Whalers Village from where the tender is dropping you off and costs $14 for up to 4 people. You could wait twice that for the bus to show up. You're on vacation-- spend more time at the beach.

It can be significantly more than that if you hit it at the wrong time of day with traffic. It's essentially a medium sized park with a Tar Pits museum-- it won't take you very much time to see. If the trip up was only to see the Tar Pits themselves I'm not sure if would be worth the time invested in travel but... You do though have some great sites nearby that are arguable much more impressive like the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Petersen Automotive Museum, and Academy of Motion Pictures Museum-- all within walking distance. Also for lunch you have the nearby LA Farmer's Market which has great food options and will have something for everyone. Transportation wise you are best off either renting a car of using Uber/Lyft. If you did use a driver there isn't anything I mentioned above that isn't a short walk from the Tar Pits so its not like you would need several car trips-- just the one from the pier and the return.

You could absolutely get a day rate at a hotel that allows early check in and use that as a home base. This could be at the airport or at another LA area hotel that might have more amenities like a pool etc. Typically check in is around 10am (although my guess is they would take you earlier) and checkout is around 4pm-- it will vary from property to property.

Uber and Lyft are the easiest (and most likely cost effective) options for what you're describing-- worth considering downloading either of the apps and giving it a try. Otherwise there should be taxis available at the front of any major hotel along the beach.