Island Princess / Honolulu Excursion

[Tom O.]

I am considering booking an independent tour in Honolulu. I am not trying to go independent to save money, the tour is not available from Princess. It is the Grand Circle tour that takes about 9 hours.

The company (Discover Hawaii Tours) I am considering will not pick up from the cruise ship, but will pick up from any major hotel. I noticed there is a hotel near the pier called the Sheraton Molokai Lodge. We could easily walk the two blocks to it and they could pick us up there.

What I am wondering is, is it being realistic to get off the ship and make it to this hotel by 9am? The ship is scheduled to arrive at 7am. I have never heard of anyone tendering in Honolulu, but I suppose anything is possible.

The tour ends at 5:30pm but the ship doesn't leave until 11pm so that shouldn't be a problem.

I welcome any advice and comments.

[cruzr4vr]

On IP last April, we docked in Honolulu; actually have never observed or heard of any tendering there. We were there by 7 a.m. We had no tour as we were doing our own thing. To be off the ship and at the hotel by 9 a.m. should not be a problem. Go for it, sounds like fun.:)

[Tom O.]

Thanks, I just noticed that the hotel I mentioned in post #1 doesn't really exist. It was some sort of glitch with Mapquest. So now I have found that the closest hotel to the pier is the Executive Centre Hotel which about 5 blocks or 1/2 mile away. So, I could probably make that too.

[mii]

Tom I just did a search of the Executive Center Hotel and it said that it is about 3 blocks from Aloha Tower Marketplace and that is where the ship docks is at Aloha Tower. I frankly did not write down the web site but just did a search and found the right hotel and went right to the sight. Also maybe go over to the Hawaii Ports of Call board. You might get some ideas there too.

 

marilyn

[sparkle]

Hi Tom,

 

We are interested in this tour, also because Princess does not offer it. We are on the 2/10/07 cruise. I called Discover Hawaii Tours and the lady I spoke to said to take a taxi to the Ala Moana after we get off the ship to get on the tour. I will have to check a map to see where that is. I see you are going next month, and would appreciate your opinion on the tour, and any other info. I heard from another person on our roll call that we tender into Honolulu, but we did this cruise in 2/05 and docked right by the Aloha Tower. I hope we dock there again.

 

Aloha!

[reteach]

Terry and Clarence,

 

When we did the IP cruise in Feb. '05 we did an all day tour with Ed Kos in his Hummer of /www.koshawaii.com/. He is an ex-Marine, who had been stationed there and was extremely knowledgable about the island. We were quite pleased with his service, his vehicle, and his personality. 4 of us had a private tour of so many places all over the island and thoroughly enjoyed it. You might want to check out his website and contact him for more information. He picked us up at the dock.

 

Judy

[Tom O.]

Hi Tom,

 

We are interested in this tour, also because Princess does not offer it. We are on the 2/10/07 cruise. I called Discover Hawaii Tours and the lady I spoke to said to take a taxi to the Ala Moana after we get off the ship to get on the tour. I will have to check a map to see where that is. I see you are going next month, and would appreciate your opinion on the tour, and any other info. I heard from another person on our roll call that we tender into Honolulu, but we did this cruise in 2/05 and docked right by the Aloha Tower. I hope we dock there again.

 

Aloha!

 

We haven't actually decided yet if we are going to take it. Originally I had a car rented, but I had heard that Honolulu is the one port where renting a car may not be a good idea, because of traffic, parking, etc. But, I had figured that I would spend the whole day outside the city. Anyway when I found out about this tour it sounded like a great alternative. It is offered by several other tour operators as well, but all of the others have earlier start times, which would be difficult.

I also called Discover and talked to that same lady. She also mentioned that Ala Moana Hotel. But I think the only reason she mentioned that one because it was close to their office. Their policy is that they will pick up at any hotel. The Ala Moana is quite a ways from the pier. I called the Executive Centre Hotel, just to make sure it is within easy walking distance from the pier and there are no major obstacles to go around. They said it was an easy walk. As long as Discover says they will pick you up there, I think that is the way to go. But I would call Discover first to see if that hotel is ok.

Meanwhile, I still haven't canceled my car rental yet, and am trying to decide which way to go. If we take the tour I will post a review here.

 

I think tendering in Honolulu is very rare. I have never heard of anyone else having this experience. On my cruise documents it is not listed as a tender port. But anything is possible. Check here to see if there are other ships in port at the same time as you:

http://www.cruisecal.com/dnn3/

[kruisey]

From the internet cafe on board Island Princess September 21 to October 06

Described on board activities and my shore excursions.

I have looked back in CC for my 'Live from Island Princess....and cannot find.

IF some clever person could find these posts....they maybe helpful to future Island cruisers?

[james j feller]

RETEACH,

 

One little correction, there is no ex-marines only marines.

 

JIM

[reteach]

Jim,

 

You are so correct! I appreciate your attention to the honor that should be given.

 

Judy

[sparkle]

Hi Judy, Hope you and Ed are well. Thanks for the info, I will check on that. It would be nice to be picked up at the dock. I will pass this info on on the "local drivers" thread (Hawaii Forum) as other people are looking for this, too. Hope your fall foliage tour went well. I don't want to get too far off the subject here, but you can email me at tburdette19@yahoo and let us know.

 

Tom, I see on the boards alot of people recommend renting a car, but we like it if someone else drives and tells us what we are seeing. More relaxing. (Of course we can be accused of having a biased opinion as we drive about 6000 miles a week in our truck) We will surely appreciate any info on tours you take.

 

Kruisey, I did see that thread and your wonderful updates. It was so nice of you to take the time to do that. To get to it I put the mouse on Kruisey and clicked. It brought up 3 choices, one of which was "see all threads" (or something like that) and I clicked on that. Then I went down to your post on "Live From Island Princess" and clicked on that. You are right, it is helpful to those of us booked on future IP cruises.

 

Mr. James J. Feller, Sir: Happy Birthday 11/10. They recently finished the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico. www.usmcmuseum.org 800-397-7585. I think it opens next week.

[Cruisin' Chick]

unfortunately, Mapquest isn't always correct. My house is placed about a half mile north of where it actually is and I've sent a few emails to them to change it to no avail. Fortunately, my hubby works in the emergency dispatch area for our city and he checked and the city has it right.