transportation to old lahaina luau from carnival dock

[jdemps]

The luau offered by Carnival seems to be pretty cheesy so I'm looking at others and the Old Lahaina Luau comes up as highly recommended but the tours don't seem to offer transportation to and from the Luau.  I have just begun research though.  Does anyone have experience on a tour that offers pick up from the dock area or somewhere close by or would we just need to add the cost of a taxi into the price of the tour?  Carnival docks at Kahului Harbor so it looks like it's about 45 minutes away.  Thank you.

[CruiserBruce]

Only aware of cruise ship excursions that might do that. No private tours.

[KeepCalmBearOn]

4 hours ago, jdemps said:

The luau offered by Carnival seems to be pretty cheesy so I'm looking at others and the Old Lahaina Luau comes up as highly recommended but the tours don't seem to offer transportation to and from the Luau.

 

If the luau offered by Carnival is still Drums of the Pacific, there is barely a dime's worth of difference between the Old Lahaina Luau. You can easily find YouTube videos of both. Below are two examples.

 

Drums of the Pacific

Old Lahaina Luau

 

If you still want OLL, rent a car for the day or use Uber.

[princeton123211]

57 minutes ago, scottca075 said:

If the luau offered by Carnival is still Drums of the Pacific, there is barely a dime's worth of difference between the Old Lahaina Luau.

Agreed-- have seen both (actually broadcasting live from Kaanapali as we speak). If you can get Drums of the Pacific with transportation included, go for it. 

 

If you want to see OLL, you can Uber back and forth-- about $60 each way. Might actually come out to a wash given the markup the cruise lines have on the per person costs of the luaus. 

[Silver Sweethearts]

4 hours ago, princeton123211 said:

If you want to see OLL, you can Uber back and forth-- about $60 each way. Might actually come out to a wash given the markup the cruise lines have on the per person costs of the luaus. 

 

We might add that instead of arriving at the luau with a bus full of people, if you have your own car or do Uber you can set your own schedule.  On your way back you also don't have to wait for everyone to get back on the bus.  Don't know what the availability of Uber will be after the luau though.

[princeton123211]

15 hours ago, Silver Sweethearts said:

Don't know what the availability of Uber will be after the luau though.

We come out here every year-- this has been the best year so far in terms of availability for Uber that we've experienced. It used to be that they were available at night but not that much in the daytime. Now they're available all the time which is nice. 

 

After the Luau in Lahaina at night you wont have any issue getting an UberX. Could be a longer wait for an UberXL (if you needed that) and will be a longer wait for an UberSelect (nicer cars). 

[lovebears]

If OLL ends at 8:45pm is it hectic leaving and finding an Uber at that time? All aboard would be 10:30 on Carnival

Edited July 18, 2019 by lovebears
Misspell

[princeton123211]

5 hours ago, lovebears said:

If OLL ends at 8:45pm is it hectic leaving and finding an Uber at that time? All aboard would be 10:30 on Carnival

You should be fine. Just got back from Maui for the past two weeks and Ubers in Lahaina/Kaanapali area were 3-4 minute waits which is a significant improvement over years past. They clearly have had a lot of new drivers get on the app. 

[PCWalton1]

An hour and 45 minutes to get from Lahaina to the cruise terminal in Kahului , at night? Yeah you will probably make it but I wouldn't want the stress. One accident on Hwy 30 and that's it. 😲

[lovebears]

Thanks for input, I think we will book through cruiseline. No need for added stress about getting back to ship on time for sure!

[Pylea]

14 hours ago, PCWalton1 said:

An hour and 45 minutes to get from Lahaina to the cruise terminal in Kahului , at night? Yeah you will probably make it but I wouldn't want the stress. One accident on Hwy 30 and that's it. 😲

It's less than 45 minutes from Kahului to Lahaina according to google maps.

 

My hubby and I are renting a car to get around on the island. We booked OLL 🙂 

[jdemps]

I think they decided to do the Luau in Honolulu instead.  thanks everyone.

[KeepCalmBearOn]

49 minutes ago, Pylea said:

It's less than 45 minutes from Kahului to Lahaina according to google maps.

My hubby and I are renting a car to get around on the island. We booked OLL 🙂 

 

It is 45-60 minutes to drive to the cruise port once you get started, but if you are talking about getting out of the OLL when it ends, get to your car, drive to Kahului to a rental car agency to drop the car and then getting to the cruise terminal, add-in all that time and it sounds tight to me.

[Pylea]

23 minutes ago, scottca075 said:

 

It is 45-60 minutes to drive to the cruise port once you get started, but if you are talking about getting out of the OLL when it ends, get to your car, drive to Kahului to a rental car agency to drop the car and then getting to the cruise terminal, add-in all that time and it sounds tight to me.

 

The car rental agency is just outside the port and it's after hours, so all we have to do is drop the keys in the slot and we're done. I'm sure it'll be fine. I'm a big time worrier(if I'm 20 minutes early I feel late) and I'm not overly concerned lol  

 

 

[PCWalton1]

Having traveled that highway a lot and experienced more than one extended delay due to accidents I would not be comfortable cutting it so close. Hope it works out for you. 

[Pylea]

I should also note that we're booked for October when OLL ends at 8:15. So that's over 2 hours to get back to port. 

[Silver Sweethearts]

4 hours ago, Pylea said:

 

The car rental agency is just outside the port and it's after hours, so all we have to do is drop the keys in the slot and we're done. I'm sure it'll be fine. I'm a big time worrier(if I'm 20 minutes early I feel late) and I'm not overly concerned lol  

 

 

 

Sounds like your car rental agency will be Hertz in the Maui Beach Hotel.  If so, don't forget to factor in time for a walk of about 6/10ths of a mile from the hotel to the port pedestrian entrance and then several blocks after that from the entrance to the ship.

[PCWalton1]

23 hours ago, Pylea said:

I should also note that we're booked for October when OLL ends at 8:15. So that's over 2 hours to get back to port. 

If you have time after your trip please stop in here and let us know how it went.

[Pylea]

On 7/19/2019 at 3:30 PM, Silver Sweethearts said:

 

Sounds like your car rental agency will be Hertz in the Maui Beach Hotel.  If so, don't forget to factor in time for a walk of about 6/10ths of a mile from the hotel to the port pedestrian entrance and then several blocks after that from the entrance to the ship.

Actually it's Enterprise. Less than a 15 minute walk from the pier. 😊  

[Pylea]

On 7/20/2019 at 12:41 PM, PCWalton1 said:

If you have time after your trip please stop in here and let us know how it went.

 

Just to let you know how it went -

As soon as we left the Luau it took us less that 45 minutes to pull back into the Enterprise parking lot - that's with us leaving the Luau at 8:15 pm and putting gas in the car at Costco. We were on our way back to the Ship by 9 pm(we walked back). That strip of road is so smooth to drive. I loved every moment of the Maui coastline! We loved Maui and the Old Lahaina Luau! 

 

There were a lot of cruise people there and not a person missed the ship. 😊

[PCWalton1]

3 minutes ago, Pylea said:

 

Just to let you know how it went -

As soon as we left the Luau it took us less that 45 minutes to pull back into the Enterprise parking lot - that's with us leaving the Luau at 8:15 pm and putting gas in the car at Costco. We were on our way back to the Ship by 9 pm(we walked back). That strip of road is so smooth to drive. I loved every moment of the Maui coastline! We loved Maui and the Old Lahaina Luau! 

 

There were a lot of cruise people there and not a person missed the ship. 😊

Fantastic, good to hear. 😀

[lovebears]

On 11/7/2019 at 10:50 AM, Pylea said:

 

Just to let you know how it went -

As soon as we left the Luau it took us less that 45 minutes to pull back into the Enterprise parking lot - that's with us leaving the Luau at 8:15 pm and putting gas in the car at Costco. We were on our way back to the Ship by 9 pm(we walked back). That strip of road is so smooth to drive. I loved every moment of the Maui coastline! We loved Maui and the Old Lahaina Luau! 

 

There were a lot of cruise people there and not a person missed the ship. 😊

Which cruise port did you drive back to?  Thanks!

[CruiserBruce]

6 minutes ago, lovebears said:

Which cruise port did you drive back to?  Thanks!

Carnival docks at Kahalui...that's the reason for all the 45 minute drive comments in the thread. If they tendered into Lahaina, it would be a 5 or so minute drive to the tender location.

[lovebears]

1 minute ago, CruiserBruce said:

Carnival docks at Kahalui...that's the reason for all the 45 minute drive comments in the thread. If they tendered into Lahaina, it would be a 5 or so minute drive to the tender location.

thanks for clarifying!

[amyj23]

On 11/7/2019 at 10:50 AM, Pylea said:

 

Just to let you know how it went -

As soon as we left the Luau it took us less that 45 minutes to pull back into the Enterprise parking lot - that's with us leaving the Luau at 8:15 pm and putting gas in the car at Costco. We were on our way back to the Ship by 9 pm(we walked back). That strip of road is so smooth to drive. I loved every moment of the Maui coastline! We loved Maui and the Old Lahaina Luau! 

 

There were a lot of cruise people there and not a person missed the ship. 😊

Even though this post is several years old, it answered my EXACT question. I'm going to wait and see if others in our party are interested and then we could price a car rental. The one thing that made me nervous was it said it could end between 8:15pm and 9:15pm. If we were able to leave air 8:15pm, I wouldn't be worried at all. But 9:15? We'd barely make it back on board. 

Carnival is still offering the Drums of the Pacific luau and the reviews are DISMAL. I'm not spending close to $500 for my husband and I for something with such poor reviews.