newbies are in the place

[jrsrosey]

hi everyone, very happy to join your community as we are so excited to go next january in Hawaii onboard of the Pride of America.

We are french family with 7 y old daughter, we live in China, at Beijing. We love to travel, did one cruise before in mediterranean sea that was a great great souvenir. Our daughter was 8 months old.

So this was quite a while ago and I consider us to be totally new again to this wonderful experience we are heading to.

Hawaii was on my wish list forever and we will do it for my 40th birthday.

 

Does anyone have tips about the kids activities onboard the pride of america, how much it costs to go to the kid club...

 

We can find so much information on this forums but I am kind of pulling my hair off as this is too much! :D

 

We are planning on using lots of the shore excursions proposed by NCL as we don't really want to bother having a car rental and exploring on our own.

But, first is the price difference so big? second, what do we do once back to the ship as some of the excursions don't last long!

 

thank you for your help!

[paul929207]

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

 

I haven't sailed much on NCL, so I will leave the questions about it to others.

 

When you complete your shore excursion, if there is time, you may want to wander around the port area. Often there will be shops or booths selling things. There will probably be restaurants where you can get something to eat or drink. You can also re-board the ship. Lunch will be served, probably at the buffet, maybe other places. You can eat, go to the pool, or just relax.

[cb at sea]

A car rental on the islands is the best way! The roads are good, well-marked and you can go at your own pace! Get a guidebook, decide on the things that YOU want to see/experience...then, if no excursions go there, get that rental car and do it on your own!!!

 

Hawaii has SO much to offer...a rental will help you see more of it!

[NMLady]

There is no cost for your 7 year old daughter to take part in Kids' Club activities.

Take her the first evening to register her and get a list of next day's activities.

By being there the first night you can get the schedule and other info. She can meet some of the other children.

[cruisead]

January is not a popular time for families to cruise, especially as far away as Hawaii, because children are in school, so you can expect the average age of the passengers to be quite high, probably 65 to 70 and up. If there aren't a lot of children on board, there may be a limited kids club.

 

I don't blame you for not wanting to drive a car. Traffic on all the islands is bad, but especially Oahu. I think you're wise to stay with the ship tours.

[Cruisin' Chick]

If you're going from the second week of January or later, there could be less kids (some school systems in the US have the first week of January off). You may want to see if you can check out the frequency asked questions area (if there is one) on the NCL website. Have never been on that line (and probably won't) but I always read up on my upcoming ship and cruise line (even when repeating a cruise on the same sip) before each cruise.

 

See if you can get a guide book on Hawaii (is there a French language part of Amazon -- if so, see if there's a guide book in French). There's many, many tourism sites for the different Hawaiian ports that will have a lot of great info for attractions to see.

 

We have done the round trip Los Angeles to Hawaii cruise on Princess three times and have never rented a car (that is my hubby's number one rule for cruises). So tours are a good way to see Hawaii without doing the driving yourself (we did rent a car on Kauai when we stayed there for our honeymoon). There are also ways to see the port towns without a planned toured. In fact on our second cruise to Hawaii, we didn't do any excursions and my daughter (then 13), husband and I came up with things to do.

 

But you don't have to get back on the ship after an excursion until the time indicated (usually a half hour before sailing). But if you feel iffy about getting lost, you can stay close to the port if you do the planning.

[jrsrosey]

oh thank you so much for all those answers there are very useful!

 

thank you Paul, I read somewhere that the port areas were not that great that's why I was wondering. If we come early, will it still have taxi you think to drive us to a beach may be.

 

cb at sea thank you. I am going to study the best way in every port of call, compare the NCL shore excursions we chose vs the rent of a car. I am the only one able to drive and speak English, except my daughter but she can't drive :D and with that 12 hours jetlag I'm a bit concerned on my vigilance...

 

NM lady: great that's exactly what I need to know. I'm surprised it's free as everything seems to have a cost :D

 

cruisead: yes you're probably right but this is the only time of year when I can get days off and my daughter goes to an international school in Beijing and their rare holidays are also at that time for the Chinese spring festival (new year), but it does not matter, it's just in case we need it as we will do all our activities together. I read that about traffic jam, I am really curious to see if it is really worse than Beijing, I doubt it :D

[jrsrosey]

cruisin chick: thanks for your tips. I do have a guidebook in french, and checked the FAQ of NCL but there is not much to get out of them.

As I said we go end of january our cruise start the 24th and we arrive the 21st with nights in the Marriott Waikiki resort hotel.;)

 

I just need to gather the thousands of notes I took and come up with a plan A and B :D

[Krazy Kruizers]

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

I would not rent a car -- traffic can tie you up plus you will be doing the driving and not seeing much.

When our tours are short -- we always try to book morning excursions -- we do get out and walk around the port area. Many of the ports have free shuttle buses that will take you to Hilo Hatties -- clothes, candies, souveniors, etc.

[jrsrosey]

thank you krazy kruisers! and thanks for caring for me, I think the same way :p

I'd rather spend time on the beach than shopping but my husband would rather spend time shopping than on the beach! but with what you say we might find easily a way to go in some places then.