Car rental in Oahu pre-cruise

[cruiserjoe315]

We are on a Celebrity cruise from Oahu to Vancouver in April next year, arriving in Honolulu on Sat. night with the cruise boarding on Monday, but not sailing until Tuesday evening. We are planning on renting a car on Sunday, probably returning it on Monday. Some questions-

1) Does anyone know what car rental agencies have shuttles to the pier?

2) What time on Monday are we able to get on the ship?

3) Are we better off just renting the car for Sunday and then taking a cab or Uber from the hotel in Waikiki on Monday to get to the pier?

 

Since the cruise does not sail until Tuesday evening, we will get off again after boarding and will Uber to any place we want to go. No sense in keeping the car until Tuesday since there is no convenient place to park it.

[Beachiekeen]

3) This is what we are doing.  We will be there 3 nights but will only have the car for our 2 full days, dropping it off Friday evening, and taking a transfer to the ship Saturday morning.  We just didn't want to hassle with it the day of the cruise.

[princeton123211]

54 minutes ago, cruiserjoe315 said:

We are planning on renting a car on Sunday, probably returning it on Monday.

Where are you planning on going or doing with it? Might help make some timing or pickup/dropoff suggestions.

 

55 minutes ago, cruiserjoe315 said:

1) Does anyone know what car rental agencies have shuttles to the pier?

None that I know of but there are several locations of all major rental companies in Waikiki that will then be a short Uber to the pier or back to your hotel.

 

55 minutes ago, cruiserjoe315 said:

2) What time on Monday are we able to get on the ship?

Generally around noon even though your documents might say later on in the day. You might have a wait if you show up early. 

 

56 minutes ago, cruiserjoe315 said:

3) Are we better off just renting the car for Sunday and then taking a cab or Uber from the hotel in Waikiki on Monday to get to the pier?

Most likely, but again, not sure what you are trying to accomplish so not totally sure. Parking, especially at hotels on Waikiki, is expensive so the fewer nights you have the car the less expensive it will be. 

[TwinMamainMN]

We are staying 4 days pre-cruise in Oahu. We are only renting a car for about 36 hours of that time when we want to explore the island. We rented through Discount Hawaii Rental Cars and found a rental location right across the street form our condo, which is super helpful. Payment isn't due until you pick up the car, so reserving it now didn't cost us anything. We will return the car the night before we sail and take Uber in the morning to the cruise pier. Easy!

[Firepath]

I've not done this myself yet (cruising next week) but I've been told that the only rental company at Honolulu airport with a location for drop off that shuttles to the port (Pier 2) is Enterprise. I did confirm with the drop off location that the have a shuttle that goes through the gate to the port. They are only open until noon and I believe the last shuttle is 11:45am, but it's also close enough to walk supposedly. The drop off location is called Kakaako Alamoana (not to be confused with the Alamona location) with address 677 Ala Moana Blvd. #100. Google Maps says it is a 5 min. drive or 8 min. walk. 

[banzaii]

Have you considered turo?

https://turo.com/us/en-us/car-rental/honolulu-hi

[pink845]

This is what we did.  Arrived at 4 pm or so on the first day.  Rented with with National.  Spent our first night at the Doubletree Alamona. Boy is the parking expensive.  Must have been $25 for the night!!!  Next day we drove and  hit all the beaches on the Eastshore, lovely, lovely lovely and made our way up to the Courtyard Marriott in Laie.   Spend the next day at the North Shore beaches, fabulous, next day moved on for the night at the Turtle Bay Resort and went to the outlet mall and to Dole Plantation.  Following day hit Hananau Bay on our way back to Honolulu, dropped off our bags with the porters at the cruise ship, returned our car to the airport and then with only our backpacks took the city bus back to Honolulu $2.00 per person, checked into the cruise ship just prior to dinner and then were off again for an evening of enjoyment.  The next day we spent the entire day first climbing Diamond Head and then walking on Waikiki Beach (not the best of sand - actually hate it, East shore beaches so much better) and then back to the ship and and off the ship left to tour the other islands.  We had already been to Oahu several times prior on land vacation but it was nice to hit all the good spots one more time.