Port Questions?? Hawaii...Help!!

[making waves]

I need some help. We have always cruised in the Caribbean. There are always people on the pier just waiting for cruise passengers. You can usually book an excursion or a taxi for a fraction of the ship's excursion rate.

What is it like in Hawaii? We will be on the Pride of Hawaii in July. Are taxis available on the piers? Are you able get a last minute excursion when you arrive? Are shuttles available?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[lambs2]

Rental cars are really the way to go on the Hawaiian islands. I did see a few taxis, but they were not EVERYWHERE as I remember. Even in Honolulu you needed to call ahead to get a taxi. I did see some excursion vans from time to time, but since we had everything planned ahead, and we only used one ship excursion - the Captain Zodiak raft and snorkel adventure in Kona. i really have no additional information about them. Like I said; we booked rental cars on each island, got the Revealed books and planned the days excursions ourselves. We could do far more per day than what the typical tour bus did! We never paid more than about $33. to rent a car for the day, and that included all taxes. In addition we needed to fill the car back up with gas which ran another $30-$40. each time because we typically put a couple hundred miles on each car we rented! We also paid a few admissions for parks, etc. from time to time. but that never amount to big $$'s. I think we saved a bundle doing things on our own. We even pre-booked a flight over Kauai and saved lots of money plus they picked us up right at the pier. We found that deal on the internet by just searching for what we wanted. Ask on this board if you want to know about a specific company to do business with. There is LOTS of help and expertise available here and some of the respondants actually live right on the islands!! Pretty great!

[Keith1010]

In terms of a taxi, be sure to negotiate a fee up front if they will let you negotiate. On our recent cruise we spoke with an older couple who took a cab on one of the islands and didn't talk price up front and were shocked with the cost. So, talk it through ahead of time.

 

As the poster said, it is easy to rent cars there and the rental car companies provide their own transportation from the piers to the rent car parking lots.

 

Keith

[making waves]

Thank you for your help! Was it much of a hassle picking up and dropping off a rental car? Do they shuttle you from the pier to the airport pickup location and then back to the pier? Are there any car rental locations near the port?

Any info is appreciated!

 

[bearette]

I have a similiar question for Honolulu. I didn't want to rent a car since I thought it would be too much of a hassel with the short amount of time we have. We have a flight at 3:30pm the day we disembark and we were hoping to do a tour to see some of the highlights like the Dole plantation. Does anyone know tour operators that would pick us up form the pier and take us to the airport after we were done? We wouldn't have our luggage since we would use the baggage program through NCL and only travel with some carryons.

[spleen93]

Probably not, bearette. Given your limited time, you'd probably be better off doing a post-cruise tour through NCL ...

 

Spleen

[Bubbaloo311]

Lambs2,

 

I would really appreciate any more info you have on finding such great rental car rates. I haven't found anything close to $33/day and would love any tips you might have.

 

Thanks.

 

-Ann

[Jenninhawaii]

I have a similiar question for Honolulu. I didn't want to rent a car since I thought it would be too much of a hassel with the short amount of time we have. We have a flight at 3:30pm the day we disembark and we were hoping to do a tour to see some of the highlights like the Dole plantation. Does anyone know tour operators that would pick us up form the pier and take us to the airport after we were done? We wouldn't have our luggage since we would use the baggage program through NCL and only travel with some carryons.

 

Oahu has a wonderful bus system! It goes almost everywhere!!! Go to http://www.thebus.org/ for their schedule. It is cheap and will save you the headache of driving. The only this is you can't take luggage on board, which I see is not a problem for you. Jen

[CruisinMK]

Hey Lambs2, I loved your cruise review.

 

As someone who lived here most of my life I wanted to point to your experience as someone who really researched and did things well. Reading your review was like a checklist of following everything I tell people to do on a cruise here. You even did my favorite shore excursion, captain zodiac on Kona. :)

[CruisinMK]

Oahu has a wonderful bus system! It goes almost everywhere!!! Go to http://www.thebus.org/ for their schedule. It is cheap and will save you the headache of driving. The only this is you can't take luggage on board, which I see is not a problem for you. Jen

 

For those who hate driving, they have a bus (#57)that goes to sea life park, you can catch it at Ala Moana or various points in Waikiki.

 

Few things you can do on this bus

 

1) get off at koko marina stop (lunalilo home road) and walk up the hill to spectactular Hanauma Bay. Fair bit of a walk to get there and down into the bay but an amazing sight and good snorkeling (can rent gear there). When you are done, go back to Koko Marina shopping center for great restaurants, shave ice, also has movie theatres.

 

2) Go to end of the line at sea life park (Makapuu). You can see hangliders and paragliders above, nice view of little islands off the coast. Often big waves there with surfers too. A very good hike right up the hill is to the Makapuu lighthouse (and down the other side if you are a good hiker). Sea life park itself is a nice aquarium attraction with Dolphin swims and a luau. The rocky makapuu beach is not safe for swimming with the big waves, but off to the left towards the pier is a safer swimming beach.

[bearette]

So my best bet would be to take the bus and use a taxi to get back to the airport? Can I take a carry on one the bus? I am worried that I will plan to take the bus and discover that my carry on is too big. If that is the case I want to know so I can check it and use a smaller backback I was planning to bring along as my carry on instead.

 

I was also looking at the bus routes and I am a little confused. Does anyone know which bus stop is the closest to the port and which route to take to waikiki beach? Without a lot of time we thought we might just hang out at the beach and have lunch there before going to the airport.

[Lady Anna & Sir Troy]

Wondering if I can take the bus to the following locations:

 

Pearl Harbor

Hanuama Bay

 

Also, if it is an easy drive from Hilo to Volcano National Park to do the Cater Rim driver and thurston lava tubes, maybe a hike.

 

L.A.S.T.

[CruisinMK]

The #22 bus goes right to hanauma bay and on to sea life park.

The #58 does sea life park also but skips hanauma bay.

[bearette]

Which bus stop and line is near the port and goes to Waikiki beach?