Honolulu shore excursion question

[LuvTheSea14]

We are going on the 15 day Hawaii cruise on Miracle in January. My husband wants to see the Pearl Harbor Memorial. I was good with that until I saw the whale watching excursion. Seeing whales is on my bucket list. Is there another whale watching excursion available on this cruise at another port or is this it? There does not seem to be a lot of excursions available. Will more be added to list as we get closer? Do not even see a luau!!

[jenng1976]

I thought Maui was a better port for whale watching.

 

And you might want to consider private tours for the cruise ... Would probably save you some money and give you more options! Check the Hawaii board in Ports of Call for more ideas.

 

We are doing a Disney Hawaii cruise this fall and booking privately. :)

[Donray]

We are going on the 15 day Hawaii cruise on Miracle in January. My husband wants to see the Pearl Harbor Memorial. I was good with that until I saw the whale watching excursion. Seeing whales is on my bucket list. Is there another whale watching excursion available on this cruise at another port or is this it? There does not seem to be a lot of excursions available. Will more be added to list as we get closer? Do not even see a luau!!

 

What time of year are you going? Whale season is December through March with Jan and Feb being best times. Also Maui is the best island for a whale tour.

[LuvTheSea14]

We are going in January.

[Hawaiifrank]

We are going on the 15 day Hawaii cruise on Miracle in January. My husband wants to see the Pearl Harbor Memorial. I was good with that until I saw the whale watching excursion. Seeing whales is on my bucket list. Is there another whale watching excursion available on this cruise at another port or is this it? There does not seem to be a lot of excursions available. Will more be added to list as we get closer? Do not even see a luau!!

 

The luau's are typically at night so if you're back on board before 6 pm I don't think you'll have that option. Other posters are correct, Maui is usually considered the best for whale watching. Ninety % of the population is on Oahu so the surrounding waters have a lot more boats and ship traffic than any of the other islands.

 

Be sure to research getting tickets to the Arizona Memorial. It's supposed to be first come - first served but there was a minor scandal recently when someone was discovered selling tickets to tour group operators illegally. I don't know how it works now.

 

Also, consider Hawaii is the US and there is no reason not to rent a car and make your own excursion. Aloha Tower Pier is only a 15 min taxi ride (or 30 min on the bus even) to the airport car rental pick up lots. For a $50 to $75 car rental you can see a lot of the island.

Edited May 9, 2015 by Hawaiifrank

[love my grandkids]

If you go to pearl harbor to see the Arizona privately get tickets early as cruise lines buy them up.

[kona_wahine]

We spent a week in kona in February and saw so many whales it was to the point, "eh, another whale." ;) my point is you will see them at each island. Figure out an island with least interest in an excursion and do a whale watching there. I would definitely not miss the Arizona. Been there a couple times. Very sombering experience. Not to be missed.

[LuvTheSea14]

Will there be more whale watching excursions offered by Carnival or should we book them ourselves? Any suggestions on how to do that? What companies are good and how do we get to them from the ship? Thanks for any help

[Lurkyloo]

We are on the Legend to Hawaii in Sept. Here is a link to the Carnival Maui excursions:

 

http://www.carnival.com/shore-excursions/maui-kahului-hi

 

And here are a few I found from google:

 

http://www.gohawaii.com/en/maui/guidebook/topics/whale-watching

 

http://www.viator.com/tours/Maui/Maui-Whale-Watch-Cruise/d671-3774WW?pref=204&aid=m2885

 

http://www.viator.com/hawaii/d278-ttd?pref=204&aid=m2248

 

Have a great cruise! :)

Edited May 9, 2015 by Lurkyloo

[Budget Queen]

Will there be more whale watching excursions offered by Carnival or should we book them ourselves? Any suggestions on how to do that? What companies are good and how do we get to them from the ship? Thanks for any help

 

The whale watch tours, are mostly out of Maui. I believe this cruise does NOT go to Lahaina- which is simple for walk up whale watching. Doing the Carnival whale watching is the better option for transportation- if you aren't renting a car. Also depends on your port time.

 

With Pearl Harbor- you do need to get the access passes in advance. These also are in very short supply so, get them, when they come available. If that is all you want to do during the day, getting a later morning, afternoon access- can allow you to get there and back with a cheap city bus- The Bus.

 

As mentioned, Luau's are in the evening.

 

More excursions will be added, you are too early for the full list. Be aware it is very simple to drive yourself to most tours, booking independently.

[kona_wahine]

The place I've used in the past is toms barefoot tours. I'd check them out to see what they offer. I've never cruised Hawaii, always done land vacations there, so not sure what they offer for cruisers. I've been to Hawaii over 20 times and have done many excursions.

[N7786W Flyer]

My wife and I did this same cruise this past January.

 

Yes, more tours will be added...

 

As several have indicated, finding whales is really not an issue. You see them at times just coming into and leaving the various ports. Also, while docked in Maui, there is a tour offered for Lahaina (we took it) where you can spend a couple of hours either on the water front or wandering through the town....I think the tour is referenced as 'on your time in Lahaina' or similar.

 

There will be a limited availability of luaus...maybe 2 or 3, but they are all pretty prepared to be heavily attended as most of the passengers choose one or the other. My wife and I tried Germaine's and it was good...a little long, but good. I think most of the luaus are about 45 minutes from the actual port, so there is a little bit of a ride to get there.

 

Also, you will see several different tours offered for Pearl Harbor. We did NOT go to the Arizona, but opted to go to the Pearl Harbor Museum and then jump over to the USS Missouri which is moored in Pearl Harbor. Both the museum and USS Missouri are literally 300-400 yards from the USS Arizona memorial. So, while we didn't literally step foot on the memorial, we were pretty close and were able to get all the photos we wanted...plus on the USS Missouri, the tour guides included the USS Arizona in their spiel.

 

Garnett

[N7786W Flyer]

One other bit of advice I'll add...

 

When going out at night, you might want to take a light sweater of similar. We were surprised how chilly it got in Hawaii during this time of year. It wasn't downright cold, but at times, a light jacket or similar was pretty welcome.

 

I remember sailing into Hilo and seeing snow on the mountain tops...don't know if that's common or not though...

[LuvTheSea14]

Thank you

[Cruisin' Chick]

All three of our Hawaiian cruises were during the holidays. We took a snorkeling excursion off of Maui (booked through Princess) and we saw many whales doing their mating dance for the females (the boat actually stopped and the guide told us about it). Since Princess tenders off of Lahaina, we saw plenty of whales all three cruises just from the ship.

[Rebel54]

To reserve your Pearl Harbor tickets go to:

 

http://www.nps.gov/valr/planyourvisit/feesandreservations.htm

 

You don't need a tour to do this. You can rent a car and make this part of your day. To go over and see the USS Missouri, you hop on a shuttle bus that will take you to Ford Island for that. If you want to go to the air museum I believe you can do that on the same shuttle.

 

We took the same cruise in Jan and we had a balcony cabin. I saw whales just sitting on my cabin.

 

We do have whales off the coast in January and if you are driving around the island you will see various points where people are set up on lawn chairs to watch/count them.