Princess Maui Excursions

[LucyDiamond]

This coming February I'm doing Princess's R/T LA to Hawaii. I travel solo and prefer to take the ship's excursions. My plans on Maui are to take two tours, Whale Watching in the morning (9:45-11:45) and Iao Valley & Maui Tropical Plantation in the afternoon (12:30-4:30). Maui is a tender port so I'm hoping that we'll meet up with the tours on shore and NOT on the ship. If this is true, will my plans work? They give me 45 minutes in between tours when I hopefully can grab a bit to eat. Has anyone gone on more than one tour in a port?

 

TIA

 

Paula

[Cruise Raider]

This coming February I'm doing Princess's R/T LA to Hawaii. I travel solo and prefer to take the ship's excursions. My plans on Maui are to take two tours, Whale Watching in the morning (9:45-11:45) and Iao Valley & Maui Tropical Plantation in the afternoon (12:30-4:30). Maui is a tender port so I'm hoping that we'll meet up with the tours on shore and NOT on the ship. If this is true, will my plans work? They give me 45 minutes in between tours when I hopefully can grab a bit to eat. Has anyone gone on more than one tour in a port?

 

TIA

 

Paula

 

Those are my 2 favorite things to do in Maui. You will meet up with your tours onshore unless the early one is right after you drop anchor. When we did the whale watching, we did the 2 PM one and it definitely met onshore and it is likely the same will go for the Iao Needle tour. Sometimes the tours get back in a little late and there are lines like crazy for places to eat in Maui and you won't have time to tender back to the ship in between cruises, so I would suggest taking something sealed with you (ie: granola bar) just in case you don't have time to grab a quick bit on the island. We've done two excursions in one port in the past but we found it is not our style so don't do it any more. A bit stressful when one is running a little late.

[skf]

If the Maui Tropical Plantation tour is the same as we took in 2011, the plantation has a gift shop/ café. Had a mini red banana there for 99 cents...it was freshly picked and wonderful.

Steve

[framer]

Mid February has the maximum amount of whale in that area from what I've been told. We were there at that time a few years ago and rented an airplane and flew around the island @ 500 feet. We spotted schools, pods or families of humpbacks everywhere. More than we could count. Lots of baby whales. I plan on doing whale watching if I ever get back there in the future. We also had rented a convertible and drove the Hana Hwy partway to Hana. Later in the airplane I over flew the Hana Hwy to see what we missed. I would love to have enough time to have driven it, maybe next time.

 

There is so much to see and do it's where to start. Renting a convertible is a great start. Do watch out for traffic going back to the ship it can take an extra hour or more with traffic jams.

 

framer

[Mrtwo]

We did these same two excursions this past March off the Star. We booked the Whale watch independent of the ship, booked with Ultimate Whale Watch. Smaller boats with smaller groups that will not disappoint.

 

Back to the dock with plenty of time to shop and have lunch before the Iao Needle / Plantation tour.

 

 

 

[LucyDiamond]

Thanks everyone for your comments. I feel confident I'll have time to do both tours. I'm really looking forward to whale watching but that tour is only 2 hours long and I wanted something to do in the afternoon. Plus, I enjoy the tours. I did a whale watching tour in Alaska and am really looking forward to seeing some breaching in Hawaii.

 

Paula