POA trip report with pre & post Oahu stay - 13 days

[DCwom]

A report of our recent trip on the POA, what worked and what didn’t. Since most of our planning came from this board, I'd like to give feedback and thank all who contributed to our trip.

Arrived on Thursday, stored bags at Beachcomber by Outrigger, hung out at beach a bit, checked-in and had simple dinner at the Liliha bakery in the International Marketplace next to the hotel, in bed by 6:30 PM (we’re from east coast). Note that the Liliha bakery provides diner like offerings, simple comfort food good for our whacked-out jet lag stomachs, I had an omelet.  The Beachcomber is very conveniently located and we found a good package through a warehouse club travel agent, that included breakfront at the hotel’s Aloha café, we were very pleased with our choice.

Friday, we visited the HOMA, and more specifically the Shangri Li museum at Doris Duke house, this requires pre-planning as tickets go fast when available about a month prior, this was a worth the effort and a unique Hawaii experience. We took the public bus to HOMA, which worked pretty well, the bus stop was on the street right behind the Beachcomber hotel.

Saturday we again took the bus to visit the Lolani palace first thing in the morning, we were back before the 12:00 check-out time and took an Uber to the POA. The palace tickets do sell out the day or two before, so plan ahead. Two museums in two days were enough for me. We boarded the POA about noon, it was the quickest and easiest cruise embarkation we’ve ever experienced, we walked straight from the Uber to the check-in desks and on to the ship. We had lunch, checked out the ship, unpacked, had dinner and to bed by 7:30. I’m not going to review the POA, plenty of other folks have given their thoughts, we were there for the ports, not the ship, I’ll leave it at that.

Sunday, jet lag had us up early, so we were 2nd in line for the gangplank, we took an Uber to the airport and an Alamo rental car (2 days), we rented a car at all ports. We had to meet the Uber at the Longs Drugs parking lot just outside the port, we also left the car there overnight for the next day. We drove the road to Hana, again there are plenty of reviews on that drive, so go search for them. I enjoyed it, and I did the driving, but it was exhausting, my wife did not like the drive as it was too tense for her. The scenery is amazing, fun fact, all of the rental cars had scratches on the sides, particularly the passenger side, Alamo even gives you a cardboard template with a big cut out and tells you to only report damage larger than the circle. Yes, the road to Hana is a little hairy, you need to be a confident driver and probably shouldn’t rent a SUV. We used the Guide Along app on the phone, or as we called it “Bob in the box”, it worked very well on the road to Hana. We went all the way to the sacred pools past Hana, there is an entry fee for the pools, hint get the 3-day pass if you’re also going to Haleakala the next day.

Monday, the rental car was still there in the morning at Longs, yeah! We drove to Haleakala. Again, we used the Guide along app when we visited Haleakala, we did a number of hikes suggested from the app, it was very helpful and we saw things we didn’t expect. Returned the car and back on the ship, we made it to 8:30 PM this time before hitting the sack.

Tuesday, again up early and to the gangplank line, had to walk out of the port gate to get the Uber, the police had just started ticketing Ubers that morning if they came into the port driveway, the take away is be flexible and ready to go to a different pick-up spot. Note that most ports let Ubers drop off right at the pier but not pick up at the pier. Using the guide along app we went to Volcano national park, this is where Bob in the box can get you in trouble if you don’t pre-plan a bit. The app will suggest lots of things, but you have to have a pre-plan a little with timelines to know if you can afford the time for the suggested stops. We made it all of the way to the end of the chain of craters road, but were sweating out getting back to the ship in time, it turned out that we had lots of time, but we lost track of just how far away we were from the ship and I really didn’t know if it was 1 or 2 hours away.

Wednesday, Kona, tender port. We had no plans in Kona, a rest & recovery day, we took an early tender in and walked around for 45-60 minutes, then back to the ship for a “sea day” sitting around the empty pool area. We found a nice cabana on the higher deck overlooking the pool and parked there for the day.

Thursday, early to gangplank, hustled to Avis shuttle pick up area, Avis/Budget is the only rental with a shuttle at the Nawiliwila port. We grabbed a seat at the front of the shuttle, 2^nd off the shuttle, 2^nd in line at the counter. Note that the 1^st shuttle couldn’t take everyone who was there, and was limiting it to just a driver and one other passenger, if you had a larger party you needed to drive back to the port to collect the rest of your party. The shuttle driver was friendly and made it a point to tell us where it was legal to park the rental cars overnight just outside the port as we drove out. We used the app to visit the Waimea Canyon, again, lots of suggested things to see, we also went to a couple of water falls back near the port before, we parked the car along the road with the rest of the rental cars and walked back to the ship, another long day.

Friday, no “Bob in a box” today, we booked a Mountain Tubing adventure and drove directly to the outfitter. This was one of the real highlights, truly unique to Kawai and I would recommend it, and no the water isn’t cold (if you’re from the east coast 😊). We had a blast and splurged for the pictures since its not real practical to carry a camera/phone in the water. We returned the car, packed up and felt sad the cruise was over.

Saturday, disembarkation, Uber to the Beachcomber again, stored bags and again hung at the beach area, this was our 1^st screw up, we should had planned to ride the trolley or something, our room still wasn’t ready at 3:00, after a lot of searching the desk clerk (all very pleasant I might add) found us something that was ready, room 2500, top floor with a pretty darn good view of Waikiki. I’m thinking we got lucky and maybe got a better room than we booked since we only paid for a “partial view” room, but our partial view was pretty nice because we could see the beach through a pretty wide gap in the beach front hotels. We really liked the Beachcomber for the price, location and service. In any case we kind of wasted a day on the transfer from the POA to Waikiki. We also did a load of laundry, just to make the day even more mundane.

Sunday, Pearl Harbor, we thought about using bus, but did Uber instead. We didn’t see any of buses when we were leaving Pearl Harbor, so I think Uber was the right decision. Also, with timed tickets to the Arizona memorial, the bus is a bit of a wildcard to plan an arrival time. As a history buff the museum and exhibits are a bit of a rehash of what we already knew, we visited the Missouri because of its history of surrender, but we also seen the USS New Jersey and USS Wisconsin, and they are all pretty much the same ship.

Monday, Polynesian Cultural Center, we bought the bus transportation and the Ali’I Lu AU package, yes, it’s expensive, but it was very good. The bus picked us up a block or so from the Beachcomber, in front of the Ross Dress for less store, it was very convenient. The package includes a group tour with a dedicated guide, our group was 6 people, 3 couples, this seems to be about the general size of the groups, the guide will make sure you get through all six villages and see all of the shows, this is no small task, it took us the whole time to see the 6 villages, the guide then delivers you to the Luau. If you opt for self-guided touring, you better have a plan. The PCC Luau was very good, we did see some of the Queen’s Luau which is held in a center court area of the International Marketplace, you can watch the stage from the 2^nd and 3^rd levels for free, the seating looks like folding chairs and I remember seeing plastic cups, I’m not sure about the plates, definitely no in ground pig roast, but maybe it’s less costly. We could hear the drums on our balcony at the beachcomber each night and see the tiki torches below which was kind of cool.

Tuesday, rental car, circle island. Note that there is an Avis location in the International Market place right next to the Beachcomber, you’re probably getting the hint that we really liked the Beachcomber for its location. As for the drive, ugg, Bob in the box failed us, too may suggestions and we didn’t have a plan, seriously bad traffic on the north shore! Your need to time the arrival at the north shore to avoid the afternoon, we did not, it was ugly and unpleasant, we regretted going there. In hindsight a straight drive to the north shore and a leisurely drive back might have made for a better day. We did go Leonard’s Bakery for a Malasada in the morning, yeah, it’s a doughnut. We also tried Penny’s Malasada in the Royal Hawaiian Center across from the Beachcomber, very runny filling, Leonard’s was better. We ate them on a beach somewhere on the eastern shore before our day was soured by the northern shore traffic.

Wednesday, up early, Uber to climb Diamond head, then check out and store baggage with the Bell hop and wait for flight home. We were supposed to climb Diamond head pre cruise, but it was closed due to a rock slide, luckily, we were able to get early tickets for the last day.

[princeton123211]

14 hours ago, DCwom said:

this is where Bob in the box can get you in trouble if you don’t pre-plan a bit. The app will suggest lots of things, but you have to have a pre-plan a little with timelines to know if you can afford the time for the suggested stops. We made it all of the way to the end of the chain of craters road, but were sweating out getting back to the ship in time, it turned out that we had lots of time, but we lost track of just how far away we were from the ship and I really didn’t know if it was 1 or 2 hours away.

When I use the apps I will outline the general route using Google Maps on my phone the day before to get a general sense of time and what it would take if we just drove through vs make the stops. 

 

For example with Hana-- I would Google Map Kahului to the pools the night before and it would tell me about 2 hours. Then you sort of keep that in mind as you go. The day visitor on the Hana drive can realistically stop at around 1/3 of the things mentioned and still make decent time and the other places we've used the guides (all over Hawaii, California 1, a lot of national parks etc) are sort of the same way. Its generally too much stuff unless you are spending several days somewhere (and when we do its even more rewarding). 

[KeepCalmBearOn]

Thanks for the extensive TR and the amusing NJ spellings of Hawaiian place names 🙂

 

 

[DCwom]

15 hours ago, KeepCalmBearOn said:

Thanks for the extensive TR and the amusing NJ spellings of Hawaiian place names 🙂

 

 

Yeah, I had a tough time with the Hawaiian names, I just couldn't remember or pronounce them, I had all I could do to remember to say Aloha & Mahalo. I know the Beachcomber was on a street that starts with a K, but that's about it. I do remember the Likelike highway, the Uber driver said its the leaky leaky because the tunnel leaks.