Anyone done NCL's Best of Oahu Grand Finale Tour?

[mianmike]

Here’s my dilemma, although we will be staying on Oahu three days prior to our Pride of America Hawaii cruise, there are so many things to do on Oahu we can’t seem to fit them all into our allotted time. So I’m thinking of adding the 12 hour Best of Oahu Grand Finale Tour on our disembarkation day. That way we can move our Pearl Harbor and PCC days from pre-cruise to the post-cruise and do more things on the pre-cruise days. My question is this: given the limited time at PCC, will it be too brief to really understand the entirety of it all? (I suspect so, and that will be my excuse for a return trip.) However, will it be enough to at least give our teenagers a good time? Moreover the most important question, is the Horizons show included in the Grand Finale Tour? They say a luau is included, but I understand the Luau and Horizon show or two separate entities, with the Horizon show being superior. I’m worried we may not see the Horizon show seeing that the Grand Finale tour appears to end too early to allow attendance at the Horizons show. Could it be PCC has an early Horizons show for the NCL POA tour day?

[flashdog_1]

If no one answers, please call NCL Shore Excursions. Someone there will be very knowledgeable.

[MTV43]

Originally Posted by mianmike

Here’s my dilemma, although we will be staying on Oahu three days prior to our Pride of America Hawaii cruise, there are so many things to do on Oahu we can’t seem to fit them all into our allotted time. So I’m thinking of adding the 12 hour Best of Oahu Grand Finale Tour on our disembarkation day. That way we can move our Pearl Harbor and PCC days from pre-cruise to the post-cruise and do more things on the pre-cruise days. My question is this: given the limited time at PCC, will it be too brief to really understand the entirety of it all? (I suspect so, and that will be my excuse for a return trip.) However, will it be enough to at least give our teenagers a good time? Moreover the most important question, is the Horizons show included in the Grand Finale Tour? They say a luau is included, but I understand the Luau and Horizon show or two separate entities, with the Horizon show being superior. I’m worried we may not see the Horizon show seeing that the Grand Finale tour appears to end too early to allow attendance at the Horizons show. Could it be PCC has an early Horizons show for the NCL POA tour day?

I am not sure what is included in the grand Finale tour, however I can answer the question about PCC, Luau and Horizon show. PCC opens at noon, Luau between 5 - 7:30 pm and Horizon show is from 7:30 to 9:00pm. We stayed in Waikiki, it took 1 hour to drive back to our hotel. Each island show starts from noon - 6:30 pm. We had not only few but 8 teens with us, not all of them are mine, but they all called me Mom after the vacation. They really enjoyed the cultural presentations at each islands at PCC. Make sure don't miss Samoa and Tonga islands.

MTV

[mianmike]

Originally Posted by flashdog_1

If no one answers, please call NCL Shore Excursions. Someone there will be very knowledgeable.

Just got off the phone with NCL excursions. They haven't a clue what kind of show is included in the "Grand Finale" Tour. They have never heard of the PCC "Horizons" show.

I sent an email to the Polynesian Cultural Center and asked how the NCL excursion show compares to the Horizons show.

I will post the results.

[mianmike]

Originally Posted by MTV43

Make sure don't miss Samoa and Tonga islands.

MTV

Thanks for the tip!

[nlooser]

Hi, all.

I was truly curious to know more about this excursion in the months and weeks leading up to my POA cruise. No one seemed to have any info about it. Well, I'm going to try and help by providing info about it as I was on this excursion yesterday (Saturday, September 12, 2009).

There were basically four main stops:
1) Pearl Harbor/USS Arizona (approx 2.5 hours)

2) Lunch Break/Souvenir Shopping (approx 45 minutes)

3) Scenic photo op near Chinaman's Hat (I think it was Kualoa Beach Park but can't remember). (approx 10 minutes)

4) Polynesian Cultural Center (approx 5.5 hours)

The rest of the time was spent on the bus driving.

At Polynesian Cultural Center, we had time for the following:
* Take Canoe Ride
* Watch Rainbows of Paradise Canoe Show
* Visit Hawaiian Village and show
* Visit Tahiti Village and show
* Visit Samoa Village and show
* Visit Aotearoa (New Zealand) Village and show
* Ali'i Luau

For the Luau, we entered at the Ambassadors/Super Ambassadors entrance and were seated a little bit away from the stage but close to the buffet and we were the first people allowed to go to the buffet. When the luau entertainment ended, we were given 10 minutes to visit the restroom and return to the bus.

Overall, the 12-hour tour went by very quickly and we enjoyed it. The only part we didn't like was that there was a sudden, torrential downpour at PCC for about 2 hours while we were there and we ended up soaked, in the clothing we were planning to wear on the airplane home! The PCC folks were selling rain ponchos for $3 but by the time we found someone selling them we were already 100% soaked. So, no one's fault but our own.

At the end of the excursion, we were dropped at the airport around 7:45pm with our luggage.

Hopefully this helps out. If anyone has any other questions, please let me know.

-Nels

[Sarasa]

Hi Nels,

How big was the bus? Was it one of those big motorcoaches or a smaller shuttle-sized transport?

[nlooser]

The tour was on a large motorcoach (city-bus size). We had somewhere between 45 and 55 people on the tour, all on the same bus.

-Nels

[mianmike]

Nels, thanks for the info. I could never get an an informative answer either from Norwegian excursions or PCC. Piecing together info from both sources I concluded the new show "HA: Breath of Life" was not included in the NCL tour. Your post confirms that is the case.

Now I have a dilemma. I really wanted to do the NCL tour on our last day immediately after the cruise, but I also really want to see the new show, "HA." So I have to decide do we do PCC twice or skip the "Best of Oahu Grand Finale Tour" and rent a car and do something on our own disembarkation day? Hmmmm . . .

[nlooser]

For what it's worth, at least one couple who was on the Grand Finale excursion with us was making their second visit to PCC.

Keep in mind that in addition to the "HA" show, there are a total of 6 villages to visit as well as an IMAX. With the time alotted on the NCL Grand Finale excursion, the most you'll see is 4 villages plus the canoe show. So, if you did 1/2 day at PCC to see HA, IMAX plus a couple villages and then returned on the Grand Finale excursion, you'd be able to see everything.

So, I wouldn't rule out going twice. Plus, you'll get the added bonus of the USS Arizona Memorial.

-Nels