calling all Hawaii pride of america experts !

[punkincc]

I'm gonna go ahead and take advantage of this thread because calling all the experts sounds exactly what I need :)

 

First of all congrats on booking and researching so early! the lava thing sounds awesome! we are also looking forward to see that!. Our cruise is in 20 something days and all I have is one dinning reservation hehehe

 

So this is our first cruise, my first time in Hawaii (and I'm in charge of planning for the whole group of 8 people!) so I want to know what can we do that is not crazy expensive to enhance our cruise experience :) so far I just figured about a hop on hop off bus in Hilo that is $20 each. The group is my husband's family so ages from 60 to 25 :p

 

 

Sorry, no way around it, Hawaii takes a lot of research, but it is so fun and easy to do! Just google each island and you will find lists of sights and tons of info on what are the "must see" things for each. Fortunately, most of the most scenic sights like Waimea Canyon, Haleakala, Volcanoes National Park to name a few, can easily be seen via your own very inexpensive rental car.

 

You are going to miss "Hawaii" if you do nothing but hop on hop off shopping shuttles like the one you mentioned in Hilo, which is the port where Volcanoes NP is located. You need either a car or a tour to see the really fantastic sights. Most of the locations where the ship docks are industrial and very little is near by.

 

Find the Hawaii Board under the Ports of Call section here on Cruise Critic. Lots of info there on cars, tours, things to do.

[amychita]

WOW! thanks everybody for your feedback, you guys are awesome! I'll definitely check all that info over the weekend and get the planning on!

[marathonrunner123]

I do recall that one of the highly recommended tour companies promises to fly you to your next port if they do not get you back to your ship in time. They claim never to have had a client miss their ship departure. Unfortunately I do not recall which company this was but it is something you can look for if you go tha route.We rented cars at each port (except Kona) and that was very doable(and more affordable).

[VideoTech]

I do recall that one of the highly recommended tour companies promises to fly you to your next port if they do not get you back to your ship in time. They claim never to have had a client miss their ship departure. Unfortunately I do not recall which company this was but it is something you can look for if you go tha route.We rented cars at each port (except Kona) and that was very doable(and more affordable).

 

I mentioned missing the ship on non-ship excursions only on the off chance that the OP didn't know this could be an issue.

 

In point of fact, no reputable tour operator is going to risk having their customers miss a ship - it would ruin their business, also in as much as most of them do business providing ship's excursions as well.

 

Missing the ship becomes more of an issue if you rent a car and do your own touring, which I agree is the best thing to do on any of the islands. Roads are mostly 2 lane highways, and traffic can be unpredictable. There's so much to see and do that you can easily run out of time. And you also need to account for the time needed to return the rental car and make your way back to the ship.

[tempus137]

I do recall that one of the highly recommended tour companies promises to fly you to your next port if they do not get you back to your ship in time. They claim never to have had a client miss their ship departure. Unfortunately I do not recall which company this was but it is something you can look for if you go tha route.We rented cars at each port (except Kona) and that was very doable(and more affordable).

 

The tour company is Roberts. They have a website set up for shore excursions (rhshorex.com) where they actually coordinate the excursions with your cruise.

[amychita]

do PoA have the dinner with the captain?