What Tours Are Available For Kauai on Hawaii Cruises

[mcrcruiser]

Our Hawaii cruise is not until Jan 30 ,2024   . We have been yo Kauai once before .Now we would like to go to the Smiths river cruise with Hawaiian music down  the river to the Fern Grotto & also do Waimea Canyon   .does HAL offer such a tour  on the Hawaii itinerary ? 

 

TIA / Mahalo 

 

 

Edited January 22, 2023 by mcrcruiser

[Torquer]

We have been to Kauai many times, but never on a cruise.  It is doubtful, you will find a HAL tour that does both the Fern Grotto and Waimea Canyon, since they are in two different directions from the port of Nawiliwili.  To get some ideas of what HAL tours might be available in January 2024, you could look at what tours are available for a January 2023 sailing to Kauai:

https://www.hollandamerica.com/en_US/find-a-cruise/H3H18A/K314.html

 

There may also be private tour operators that would do both of those sites in a one day visit.  You could also do it yourself by renting a car, but that might be a pain since you will likely have to take a taxi to/from the Lihue airport to rent the car.

[mcrcruiser]

Did not think that the Hawaii tours would be available this dar out but they were out ,so  it is not necessary to list the HAL tours here .We found them on their web site

 

 Aloha 

[mcrcruiser]

9 minutes ago, Torquer said:

We have been to Kauai many times, but never on a cruise.  It is doubtful, you will find a HAL tour that does both the Fern Grotto and Waimea Canyon, since they are in two different directions from the port of Nawiliwili.  To get some ideas of what HAL tours might be available in January 2024, you could look at what tours are available for a January 2023 sailing to Kauai:

https://www.hollandamerica.com/en_US/find-a-cruise/H3H18A/K314.html

 

There may also be private tour operators that would do both of those sites in a one day visit.  You could also do it yourself by renting a car, but that might be a pain since you will likely have to take a taxi to/from the Lihue airport to rent the car.

The last time we went to Kauai via ship we did rent a car & drove  to  Princeville  plus the waterfalls  .Lots of wild chickens crossing their roads  .LOL  .Don't want to rent a car this time . Hard to get a tour company to respond from Kauai . Think that they are too laid back . Still we can book a ships tour if we want to go to the Grotto & the river cruise  .HAL's prices are way high  because I know how much Smiths charges for the river cruise & grotto  .Have lots of time to keep searching for private tours 

[OlsSalt]

We loved the Movies Set in Kauai tour - if they are still offering it.  Small tour bus, shows videos of the movie clips, and then you get to see the actual locations all over the island.

 

Fascinating insights into movie production, as well as how versatile the island is for various other "tropical" location. Learn that Gilligan's Island was in fact a close-cropped beach shot right next to some condos.  Underscores how the "magic of Hollywood" really works.

 

One of my favorite movies shot in Hawaii remains The Descendants (George Clooney) and you see where the Kauai shots were filmed. But Elvis Presley's foot print on Kauai gets attention too.

[IDLnyc]

We are currently on the Koningsdam’s R/T from San Diego to Hawaii.  Yes, HAL offered a tour that combined the river trip and fern grotto, with the Waimea Canyon.  
Unfortunately we had strong winds the morning of our Kauai arrival and docking was delayed almost two hours..  Some of the longer tours (including the fern grotto/Waimea Canyon combo) were canceled.

We were booked on this tour and wish they had run either half (say, Waimea Canyon only) with a partial refund for the missed portion.  But that wasn’t offered and the excursion was fully refunded.  We ended up taking an Uber to Lihue and visited the island museum on our own- nice but hardly the long scenic day we had envisioned.
We had a lot of disappointments with the shore excursion department on this cruise. Our Maui excursion was canceled by HAL about five days before the cruise, our Kona excursion was canceled by HAL the day we embarked, and then the Kauai excursion was canceled when our docking was delayed. 

Edited January 25, 2023 by IDLnyc

[mcrcruiser]

43 minutes ago, IDLnyc said:

We are currently on the Koningsdam’s R/T from San Diego to Hawaii.  Yes, HAL offered a tour that combined the river trip and fern grotto, with the Waimea Canyon.  
Unfortunately we had strong winds the morning of our Kauai arrival and docking was delayed almost two hours..  Some of the longer tours (including the fern grotto/Waimea Canyon combo) were canceled.

We were booked on this tour and wish they had run either half (say, Waimea Canyon only) with a partial refund for the missed portion.  But that wasn’t offered and the excursion was fully refunded.  We ended up taking an Uber to Lihue and visited the island museum on our own- nice but hardly the long scenic day we had envisioned.
We had a lot of disappointments with the shore excursion department on this cruise. Our Maui excursion was canceled by HAL about five days before the cruise, our Kona excursion was canceled by HAL the day we embarked, and then the Kauai excursion was canceled when our docking was delayed. 

Sorry to   hear that so many of your tours were cancelled .Really is a bummer😔

[mcrcruiser]

On 1/22/2023 at 11:41 AM, OlsSalt said:

We loved the Movies Set in Kauai tour - if they are still offering it.  Small tour bus, shows videos of the movie clips, and then you get to see the actual locations all over the island.

 

Fascinating insights into movie production, as well as how versatile the island is for various other "tropical" location. Learn that Gilligan's Island was in fact a close-cropped beach shot right next to some condos.  Underscores how the "magic of Hollywood" really works.

 

One of my favorite movies shot in Hawaii remains The Descendants (George Clooney) and you see where the Kauai shots were filmed. But Elvis Presley's foot print on Kauai gets attention too.

That is a interesting type tour 😃

[mcrcruiser]

On 1/22/2023 at 8:50 AM, Torquer said:

We have been to Kauai many times, but never on a cruise.  It is doubtful, you will find a HAL tour that does both the Fern Grotto and Waimea Canyon, since they are in two different directions from the port of Nawiliwili.  To get some ideas of what HAL tours might be available in January 2024, you could look at what tours are available for a January 2023 sailing to Kauai:

https://www.hollandamerica.com/en_US/find-a-cruise/H3H18A/K314.html

 

There may also be private tour operators that would do both of those sites in a one day visit.  You could also do it yourself by renting a car, but that might be a pain since you will likely have to take a taxi to/from the Lihue airport to rent the car.

Right  now car rentals are very pricy do to the pandemic shortages  .Well over $200  & we are there in Kauai  only 8AM to  6PM  with the cars at the air port .Trying to get some sort of tour company to do the river /grotto & Waimea  Canyon  

[julia]

This specific topic should be discussed on the "Hawaii" ports of call board.

[Torquer]

2 hours ago, julia said:

This specific topic should be discussed on the "Hawaii" ports of call board.

Agreed for general questions about Kauai tours, but HAL-specific shore excursions are also being discussed which is more appropriate here.