Trilogy to Lanai, enough time?

[dbarlag2]

We are considering the Trilogy to Lanai out of Lahaina, we are renting a car from the pier to Lahiana. Then hopping on the Trilogy. The trip leaves at 6am and returns at 3:30pm. According to Trilogy, it is usually on time. We have to drive back to Kahului, return the car to Thrify (Blue Chip) and be back on the POA by 5:30. Is this timing too tight? If need be, we can take a taxi from Thrifty to the ship.

[swifs]

I am not sure which Trilogy cruise you are taking. We did the Trilogy snorkel and sail through the ship and we left early in the morning by buses provided by the tour and did not get back to Lahaina until around 6 or so. They gave us a wonderful barbeque on Lanai but that started around 3. The good thing about doing it through the ship is that we were delayed through no fault of Trilogy by a road closure due to a wildfire so NCL had to take care of getting us back onboard. Since everyone missed their restaurant reservations that day, NCL did not charge anyone the cover charge on the speciality restaurants. I would recommend doing it that way and save yourselves the worry of getting to or from Lahaina on your own.

[dbarlag2]

Thanks swifs, we wanted to take the Trilogy sunRISE tour, 6am-3:30pm (not done by NCL) our second day on Maui. NCL does the Trilogy sunSET tour the first day on Maui 9am-7pm. Per Trilogy both tours are the same, just at different times. Reason why we wanted to do it the second day was we would do the Feast of Lele Luau the night before and stay in Lahaina. If we did the NCL Trilogy tour we would miss the Luau. So we wondered if the timing was too tight to get back if we did the sunrise tour on the second day?

[swifs]

Gotcha. It looks possible but if you can find another way to do it, I would take the worry out of it. Have you asked Trilogy if they would pick you up? After we took a taxi to Air Kauai in Kauai for our helicopter ride, we learned that they would have picked us up.

 

BTW, the luau on Kauai that is booked through the ship at Gaylords is fabulous. While we booked through the ship, we had a car on Kauai and drove to Waimea Canyon during the day and then drove straight to the luau. Just in case you might be interested in an alternative luau suggestion.

[beachchick]

swifs: Highly, highly unlikely that Trilogy would send a shuttle over to Kahului. That's almost an hour's drive and almost no companies (for any excursions on the west/south-west) will shuttle that far; although some will do pier pickups for a Ma'alaea departure, but that's only 15 to 20 minuts from the pier. (Whereas the heliport on Kauai is less than 10 minutes by shuttle from the pier.)

 

dbarlag2: I think that as long as you're back in Lahaina by 4 you should be okay. Even with the afternoon traffic, you would be back in Kahului at the airport between 5 and 5:30. It's doable. However (and this is an important caveat), if there is an accident, construction, or other slow down, it can take more than 75 minutes to get from Lahaina to Kahului. If the boat is late returning to Lahaina, you could have a time crunch. These things don't happen often, but are things that you'll need to consider. We would go ahead and book the Lanai trip, but that's just us. OTOH, we also always, always have travel insurance, which would normally cover us if we missed the ship. Even if it didn't, we wouldn't consider it a major issue to have to find a place to stay for the night and then grab an early morning inter-island flight to "catch up" with the ship. We always have the basics with us for day trips and could manage. Shoot though, we might have to buy new aloha shirts so we have clean clothes for the next day--what a shame.

 

It's entirely up to you, but I would say go for it.

 

beachchick

[swifs]

I was thinking about you the other day and I was wondering about the car rental aspect. Will you already have the car on the day you are taking the Trilogy. If not, are you sure you will be able to pick one up that early? We rented from Thrifty in Kona and the agent did not get to the desk in the hotel until 8am.

[simonv]

It sounds tight. Can you do luau on other island and do the NCL tour on the first day? I've done Trilogy to Lanai a few times and it's a great tour. Be warned that it's COLD when you leave at 6am. They usually arrive back as scheduled, but if they encounter interesting things along the way such as dolphines or whales, they take their time watching them, so return is more like between 3:30 and 4. Unlike most other ships they don't have afternoon schedule to meet. Traffic around Lahaina is terrible as there's only one highway - one reason we gave up staying in West Maui any longer.

[seansmum]

Beachchick, "OTOH, we also always, always have travel insurance, which would normally cover us if we missed the ship. Even if it didn't, we wouldn't consider it a major issue to have to find a place to stay for the night and then grab an early morning inter-island flight to "catch up" with the ship. "

Does most travel Insurance cover this? We purchased insurance when we booked our cruise and I have booked an independant fishing charter in Kona. If this is the case I would feel much more secure. Thanks.

Sue

[beachchick]

Beachchick, "OTOH, we also always, always have travel insurance, which would normally cover us if we missed the ship. Even if it didn't, we wouldn't consider it a major issue to have to find a place to stay for the night and then grab an early morning inter-island flight to "catch up" with the ship. "

Does most travel Insurance cover this? We purchased insurance when we booked our cruise and I have booked an independant fishing charter in Kona. If this is the case I would feel much more secure. Thanks.

Sue

 

I can't say whether most travel insurance covers missing the ship (due to a late return of a independent excursion). There are so many policies with so many various levels of coverage offered by so many insurance companies that it's just impossible to say. We usually buy the highest coverage (but not always), which almost always covers far more than the "bare bones" policies. That's actually why I said that if the particular policy we had for that trip didn't cover such an event (it's not something we've ever had to consider) that we'd just deal with it on our own and not worry about the extra cost of an overnight and inter-island flight. However, if we were on a cruise that involved going to the mainland or someplace like Fanning Island, I wouldn't take the slightest chance of missing the ship if the particular port was the final port before heading across the ocean. That would be a very expensive deal.

 

I doubt that insurance would cover it if we simply didn't leave a reasonable amount of time to get back to the ship. It might cover it if the excursion operator was late returning, but I don't really know. It might cover it if a traffic accident delayed traffic to the point where it would be impossible to return on time. It might cover it if weather or a natural disaster caused the delay. It's hard to say. That's why I can't recommend to someone else whether they should or should not risk an independent excursion with very tight timing or any risk of missing the ship. I just don't know what is or is not covered.

 

You'll need to read your policy in detail and then call your insurer for answers about your specific policy.

 

beachchick