3 days in Oahu pre-cruise

We are looking to book POA for August. They offer a deal with 4 nights and excursions in Oahu pre-cruise. That adds around $2500 to the cost of the cruise for 3 of us (My husband, 16 year old son, and myself). So, should we book our own hotel, car rental, and perhaps an excursion or 2, on our own? It seems like we should be able to do 4 nights and 3 days for under that $2500? Any thoughts or input would be greatly appreciated! We would like to stay on or very near the beach in Waikiki.

You can do all of these easily on your own. Have been to Waikiki for 5 nights, toured all over the island (using public transit) and toured many of the key sites. Didn't spend anywhere near $2500 (not counting airfare).

First of all, you sure do not need an excursion to do things or see things on Oahu. It is very easy to get around even without a car. If you want to travel outside of Honolulu, then a car is necessary. Just go to the library or buy a good guide book and off you go. You easily save $1000-$1500 that way.

Cheers

Len

We are looking to book POA for August. They offer a deal with 4 nights and excursions in Oahu pre-cruise. That adds around $2500 to the cost of the cruise for 3 of us (My husband, 16 year old son, and myself). So, should we book our own hotel, car rental, and perhaps an excursion or 2, on our own? It seems like we should be able to do 4 nights and 3 days for under that $2500? Any thoughts or input would be greatly appreciated! We would like to stay on or very near the beach in Waikiki.

We love cruising .... but Hawaii we do ourselves. We do a land vacation just about every year on one of the islands in Hawaii. We've been to them all and they are all wonderful! Granted we have a vacation club which covers the cost of a hotel, but you can get wonderful deals if you look in advance. One year we couldn't get 2 consecutive weeks in Oahu like we wanted, only one at the Hilton Hawaiian Village and we found a fabulous rental right next door for something like $1150 and that was ocean front ... for the whole week! Go online and look at home away from home or http://www.airbnb.com and put in however many nights you are looking for. I think you'll be surprised! A car rental wouldn't add all that much. Go to Cheap Hawaiian Car Rentals. Once you've got the accommodations and the car, that's all you need! Explore the island on your own without excursions. You can do the Arizona Museum, see the North Shore, the East Side, the Rain Forest, all the beautiful secluded beaches. Eat like the locals ... you don't need fancy high priced restaurants (unless you want to of course) .... walk along Waikiki Beach and you'll find some great places. I would recommend picking up a copy of Oahu Revealed by Andrew Doughty ... great information. I hope you find something ... $2500 is a lot to add to the price of a cruise if you don't have to ... and in my opinion a lot more fun doing it on your own! Good Luck ... Happy Sailing and Aloha! :)

do you belong to Costco they have a travel club.... we got transfer from airport to hotel ... hotel for 4 nite Aston Waikiki beach hotel lei greeting at airport ... transfer to ship an transfer to airport when we return for $875.

they offer all kinds of choices.... is your husband a military veteran..... if so you can get discount on your cruise an hotel..... plus rental cars are cheap thru them...rented one for Oahu Maui Kauai.. hope that helps some.... going in 3 weeks..... can't wait aloha

Thank you so much for all of the great replies! And I will definitely look into Coatco!

There are a lot of cheap or free things to do on Oahu depending on your interests. Beaches are pretty much all free. Free hiking. The Arizona memorial is free, punchbowl national cemetery is free, there's a number of free botanical gardens. If you like to snorkel there's hanauma bay which is inexpensive or if you have your own snorkel gear there are lots of free snorkeling spots, just off some of the beaches. Personally I say book your own room, rent a car, and maybe pick one or two excursion things that are going to cost any significant amount if money, like a luau or a dolphin watch (dolphin star is the one I have done, they guarantee dolphins and you can do just dolphin watching or a dolphin watch and snorkel tour which is what I did. That was absolutely worth paying for) or maybe a sunset cruise.

You can see and do a lot on Oahu for less than $2500.

~Katy

Silly me .... I forgot about Costco, DUH!!! LOL!! BJs is another good one. We actually got a great deal on a whole cruise there once! And, as other poster said, so much is free in Hawaii .... and there is SO much to see in Oahu way beyond just Waikiki! Good Luck and have fun! :)

We sail the POA in August. We considered the NCL land portion too but for four of us the added price was over 3500.

Instead we booked Outrigger Reef in Waikiki beach for 249 a night. As others have said, most of the places to see are free or low cost. I haven't completely figured out what we are doing each day yet but I'm sure it will end up much cheaper over all.

Book your own, a budget hotel a few hundred a night, add a car 50 bucks or so a day...

Beside the traffic being horrid DIY is totally the way to go.

Choose a fancy hotel and along the beach and name brand and of course your cost will go sky high. Willing to walk a bit and you can get a deal, beware of parking costs as they can run easily as much as your car rental.

Pearl Harbor ( sans traffic very easy )

Diamond head ( nice hike with beautiful view, just get there really early )

hanauma bay ( easy, again get their early for parking )

North Shore ( wonderful all day drive with so many places to stop, eat, just hang at one of the many beaches! )

IMHO Hawaii is totally a island hop DIY by car place, no tour required.

You can also book hotel on Priceline name your own price - we got the Aston Waikiki at a super great rate for our 2 nights pre-cruise in May (it is the only 3.5 star listed, so I pretty much knew that's what I was getting). You'd want to go to a site like bidding for travel first to see likely hotels in the 4 or 3.5 star range on Waikiki and make sure you'd be happy with any of them!

4-star Waikiki hotels listed:

Marriott Waikiki Beach

Moana Surfrider, a Westin Resort & Spa

Outrigger Waikiki on the Beach

Outrigger Reef on the Beach

Sheraton Waikiki Hotel

On our cruise out of Hawaii, we flew in 3 days early, rented a care, and traveled around the island, stopping where and when we wanted to. If you have a chance, drive up to the North Shore

Once you get to Honolulu, you will find a large number of publications offering specials. We ordered the Entertainment book,

https://www.entertainment.com/coupon/welcome.jsp

which you can almost always get at a discount, but $35 list, now selling for $14, and use the coupons in that. We used one for a dinner cruise, BOGO, and it more than paid for the cost of the book

Lots of deals for Honolulu, not so much for the outlying islands

We just got back on Monday from 8 days in Honolulu. Any questions feel free to ask. So much cheaper to do it yourself. We did the Catamaran Trip from outside the Sheraton for $32 and it was great.

Hi cruise junky did u do pearl harbor while you were there .... we are leaving in 12 days.... 4 day in Oahu an NCL on may 16th......we were there in 1969 on R&R when my husband was in Vietnam..... So we are really looking forward to being back there again..... thinking doing pearl harbor on our own but not sure if we should get tickets ahead of time... glad u had a great trip...

thanks

Hi cruise junky did u do pearl harbor while you were there .... we are leaving in 12 days.... 4 day in Oahu an NCL on may 16th......we were there in 1969 on R&R when my husband was in Vietnam..... So we are really looking forward to being back there again..... thinking doing pearl harbor on our own but not sure if we should get tickets ahead of time... glad u had a great trip...

thanks

We did Pearl about 4 years ago - we arranged it through Roberts when we were staying at the Hyatt with no car. If we had a car I would have done it ourselves. I'd definitely get your tickets online before you go. It would be super easy doing it on your own.

Thank you for all of the great responses. We booked the POA for 8/1 and are arriving 7/31 in the AM. We are staying in Oahu after the cruise on our own from 8/8 thru 8/11. We haven't done that planning yet, and we would like to find an "inexpensive" hotel the night before the cruise near the port.

I concur with Silverdo. For our upcoming trip in August, I booked on Costco after comparing rates using various search engines. We are paying $760 for 4 nights which includes daily buffet breakfast for two, round trip airport transfers with lei greeting and a room with a kitchenette. You can choose one King bed or two Queens. We will probably rent a car for one day to visit Hanauma Bay and my favorite shave ice place on the North Shore. It may be worth signing up for a one year Costco membership.

As for Pearl Harbor, there are so many different ticketing options nowadays compared to the first time we visited.

I have to look into Cruise Junky's $32 Catamaran cruise suggestion. Sounds like a great deal. Did you have to go to the Sheraton in person to book the trip?

dancecj-

NCL charging $2500 for a 4 night stay is high. However, some hotels can cost upwards of $500 a night.

I concur with Silverdo. For our upcoming trip in August, I booked on Costco after comparing rates using various search engines. We are paying $760 for 4 nights which includes daily buffet breakfast for two, round trip airport transfers with lei greeting and a room with a kitchenette. You can choose one King bed or two Queens. We will probably rent a car for one day to visit Hanauma Bay and my favorite shave ice place on the North Shore. It may be worth signing up for a one year Costco membership.

 

As for Pearl Harbor, there are so many different ticketing options nowadays compared to the first time we visited.

 

I have to look into Cruise Junky's $32 Catamaran cruise suggestion. Sounds like a great deal. Did you have to go to the Sheraton in person to book the trip?

 

dancecj-

NCL charging $2500 for a 4 night stay is high. However, some hotels can cost upwards of $500 a night.

Hi, no. We did it online.

Here's there official site

http://www.maitaicatamaran.net

We booked it through a discounter and got it for $2 off no biggy, I'd just book it direct

Hi, no. We did it online.

 

Here's there official site

http://www.maitaicatamaran.net

 

We booked it through a discounter and got it for $2 off no biggy, I'd just book it direct

They also have groupons frequently that are buy one get one, so look out for those!

~Katy

Please keep the great info coming. I am looking at Airnb and trip adviser vacation rentals. I think we may go that way for the post cruise stay.

Please keep the great info coming. I am looking at Airnb and trip adviser vacation rentals. I think we may go that way for the post cruise stay.

VRBO is another great place to check for vacation rentals. Rentals can be a great idea, and sometimes cost less than hotels. Also gives more options for where to stay, if you happen to want to branch out and stay outside of Waikiki.

~Katy

We just got back on Monday from 8 days in Honolulu. Any questions feel free to ask. So much cheaper to do it yourself. We did the Catamaran Trip from outside the Sheraton for $32 and it was great.

I'd love some pointers and tips on any great restaurants you visited.

My son just finished his Infantry officer course (IBOLC) and is leaving next week as he is going to be stationed in Oahu for the next few years!! Needless to say, my plane tickets are already booked for October.

Since he doesn't know if he is renting a house or condo, I've booked our hotels and rental cars. He will work during the week days but we have nights and weekends with him. Doing 7 nights in Oahu and 3 in Maui.

Any must see's that we can't miss on this visit?

I'd love some pointers and tips on any great restaurants you visited.

 

My son just finished his Infantry officer course (IBOLC) and is leaving next week as he is going to be stationed in Oahu for the next few years!! Needless to say, my plane tickets are already booked for October.

 

Since he doesn't know if he is renting a house or condo, I've booked our hotels and rental cars. He will work during the week days but we have nights and weekends with him. Doing 7 nights in Oahu and 3 in Maui.

 

Any must see's that we can't miss on this visit?

Hi there. We hit a lot of happy hours. For local grocery shopping we went to Don Quixote which is behind the Ala Moano shopping Centre. Good prices.

We really liked Il Lupino outside the sheraton. Happy hour had 2 sliders and truffle fries for $8, a margarita pizza and a giant meatball which was to die for for $8. Down at the Marriott we went to Arancino di mare which was very good. For super casual The Yardhouse on Lewers is good. Also Hula Grill has a decent happy hour. I think a fish taco with taco chips was $6 and it was very good

House without a key is a perennial favourite of ours as is Dukes, both the restaurant and the bar.

Hi there. We hit a lot of happy hours. For local grocery shopping we went to Don Quixote which is behind the Ala Moano shopping Centre. Good prices.

 

We really liked Il Lupino outside the sheraton. Happy hour had 2 sliders and truffle fries for $8, a margarita pizza and a giant meatball which was to die for for $8. Down at the Marriott we went to Arancino di mare which was very good. For super casual The Yardhouse on Lewers is good. Also Hula Grill has a decent happy hour. I think a fish taco with taco chips was $6 and it was very good

 

House without a key is a perennial favourite of ours as is Dukes, both the restaurant and the bar.

Thanks!

I'll also pass along this info to my son since he just arrived there Thursday.

Sure you can do it for under $2,500. I am going on POA in August and staying at Outrigger on the Beach. I booked it at $252 with promo code SPLASH. It's right on the beach in the center of all the Waikiki action. Rent a car for the day for your own island tour. The Hyatt nearby is where you can rent. Book ahead for cheaper rates. Use Roberts for transfers to and from airport/pier or for tours. Lot less that NCL.