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Hawaii...cruise or hotel? Just do both!! Here is our photo intensive review


cruisinskier

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Hello fellow cruisers. First let me apologize that this review is long overdue but I am just now getting around to posting it. There has been lots said about whether Hawaii is best seen by land or by cruise. I cannot answer that question but in the end we were lucky enough to do both so I hope this will help some of you with your Hawaii decisions. Overall it was a great trip, we enjoyed both the cruise and the land portion and each offers something a little different....it all depends what you are looking for.

 

We are a couple in our mid 40's, this was our 5th cruise, first cruise with NCL and our first time to Hawaii. It was also the first cruise we had taken alone together with no kids, no other family members, etc. We were not really planning a Hawaii trip this year but an opportunity came up that we could not pass up so off we went.

 

Our itinerary consisted of 3 nights pre-cruise at Turtle Bay Resort on the north shore of Oahu, 7 nights on the Pride of America, 2 nights at the Kahala Resort near Honolulu, and then we flew back to Kauai for 1 night at the St Regis Princeville on the north shore and 3 nights at Koa Kea Resort on the south Shore of Kauai.

 

What follows is a breakdown of our 17 days in Hawaii. Hope you enjoy it...we certainly did!

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We were up early for our flight (Toronto - Vancouver - Honolulu) with Air Canada. For those Canadians who take this route, you pre-clear U.S. Customs in vancouver (you do not need to pickup your luggage). Our flight was uneventful other than our cennecting flight from Vancouver leaving approx 30 minutes late.

 

We arrived in Honolulu, grabbed our luggage and headed for the rental car shuttles. It was about a 3 minute shuttle ride to get to the rental car offices with most major rental companies represented here. We had a reservation with National simply due to their rates being slightly better. By 7:00 pm local time we were heading out of the airport on our way to the north shore. Our Garmin GPS from home worked great and we were on our way to Turtle Bay Resort.

 

On the approx 50 minute drive, there were limited spots to stop for food without leaving the highway. We arrived at Turtle Bay Resort feeling a little tired and hungry. We checked in, dropped our luggage in the room (a deluxe oceanview room with king bed and balcony overlooking the bay) and headed out in search of food. We ended up going for pizza in “The Bay Club” at the resort. Given it was now after 2:00 am EST and we had been up for 20 hours, we asked if we could just get pizza ($18) in a box to go....they said we should have done room service and that they don’t do that in the restaurant...but then said she would do it as long as we didn’t tell. To thank them for taking care of us, we forced ourselves to have a local beer (Big Wave Golden Ale by Kona Brewing Co) while waiting for the pizza ($6)...oh the things you force yourself to do :D

We took the pizza back to the room, sat on the balcony for a while eating half the pizza, listening to the waves in the bay and we realizing we had actually arrived in Hawaii! We put the other half in the fridge in the room, and headed to bed at approx 9:00 pm local time.

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We were up early (4:00am) given the time change. Let me say there is not much going on around the resort at 4:00 am. I wandered around for a while just checking out the resort (their website indicates the resort is 880 acres) and watched the sunrise. There is nothing open before 6:00 am which is when the gym opens as well as a coffe shop in the lobby ("The Turtle Den"). I was first in line at the coffee shop (with other East Coasters arriving quickly), grabbed 2 large tea in the lobby to take back to the room which we drank on the balcony. Normally they put 2 tea bags in a large however I only wanted one tea bag so they only charged me for 1 tea ($3)....this would become a morning ritual while we were at TBR and what other resort would only charge you half price?

 

We had breakfast in the Palm Terrace which offers both a buffet option and a la carte. We avoided the buffet given we knew there was a week of that ahead. :D After breakfast we decided to drive around the north shore some to see the area. We went to Sunset Beach to watch the surfers, found the green sea turtles at Laniakea Beach, and went into Haleiwa to do some shopping. Given we had a fridge in the room, we were able to buy some snacks and of course....POG! I must say that I am a POG convert.

 

We had lunch in Haleiwa and headed back to the resort to check out the beach and do some snorkelling. We like to snorkel and it was pretty good right off the shore at the resort however we would find better spots to snorkel on the trip. We spent the afternoon at the beach. Dinner that night was in the room. We decided to split what was left of the pizza along with ordering a Kobe burger from room service ($18). After dinner we again went for a walk around the resort before another early evening as that time change (6 hours for us) takes a few days to get over....

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We "slept in" until 5:00am this morning so slowly adjusting to the time difference. We headed to the gym for the 6:00am opening and then we walked over to the golf course club house for breakfast. They have a limited menu but lower prices than the Palm Terrace the day before. Turtle Bay has two 18 hole golf courses (The Palmer course and the Fazio course). Unfortunatley we did not have time to golf this trip but looks like this would be a great spot for golfers...

 

After breakfast, we decided to rent bikes and tour around the area. Our first stop was at the far end of the Turtle Bay property to snorkel at another bay. We pretty much had the beach to ourself. We could see the turtles sticking their heads out of the water but unfortunately the water was very murky so not great for snorkelling. We did enjoy the swim and the nice beach before heading out on the bikes. We rode to a nearby market, bought some fruit and banana bread for breakfast the next day. We then rode back to the resort and got ready to head out to the Polynesian Cultural Centre.

 

I have to say we underestimated the number of attractions and time required for PCC. We arrived around 3:00pm and later wished we had more time. There are numerous "villages" representing each of the Polynesian cultures, each with their own shows and displays. We were able to see a couple of the shows before it was time to go to dinner at the luau. After that we saw the main show "Ha: Breath of Life". I have to say that overall we really enjoyed our time at PCC. Having said that, we did a backstage tour prior to the main show and were referred to as "cousin Jerry" & "cousin Patti". It just seemed a little creepy at times....

 

We did the Ambassador package which at $120 pp is expensive but overall is worth it. The displays are first class and informative, the luau and buffet meal was good, and the show in the main theatre was very good. With these tickets we were seatd in the 2nd row of the show so that was also a nice benefit. Probably the best way to describe the PCC is via some photos so I will post them shortly....

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Hi cruisinskier! Glad to hear you had a great time in Hawaii! Turtle Bay looks beautiful, do they still have an all-inclusive option? I read a while back that it was the only all-inclusive resort on the islands. The Pride of America was my honeymoon cruise last year and we also arrived 3 days early and spent the time on Oahu. It was well worth it, that 6 hr time difference kicked our butts! But, we stayed in Waikiki at the Aqua Aloha Surf and Spa. We'd love to go back to the islands as a land vacation some time and Turtle Bay looks like a really nice place to stay. We'd prefer Maui or Kauai, though, so I'm looking forward to the Kauai land portion of your review!

 

BTW, DH and I are just a couple of hours down the 401 from you :)

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Hi cruisinskier! Glad to hear you had a great time in Hawaii! Turtle Bay looks beautiful, do they still have an all-inclusive option? I read a while back that it was the only all-inclusive resort on the islands. The Pride of America was my honeymoon cruise last year and we also arrived 3 days early and spent the time on Oahu. It was well worth it, that 6 hr time difference kicked our butts! But, we stayed in Waikiki at the Aqua Aloha Surf and Spa. We'd love to go back to the islands as a land vacation some time and Turtle Bay looks like a really nice place to stay. We'd prefer Maui or Kauai, though, so I'm looking forward to the Kauai land portion of your review!

 

BTW, DH and I are just a couple of hours down the 401 from you :)

 

 

Hey Spacepotatoes, great to hear from you. Turtle Bay does not have an all inclusive option that I am aware of. I know they have various packages and an "all you can golf" package but I am not aware of a true "all inclusive". We did very much enjoy our time there as we did everywhere we went. If I had to pick only one spot for a land vacation, based on what we saw, Kauai is the place fro us but we will get to that in due course...stay tuned.

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We woke up around 6:30am so we were starting to adjust to the time difference. First we went to the gym and then grabbed our $3 tea in the lobby and headed back to the room for breakfast on the balcony with the banana bread we purchased the day before. Finished packing up and left around 11:00 am. We made a couple of photo stops along the way as we drove down the east coast of Oahu.

 

We had selected our rental car from National as they had an office close to the dock. We found the office no problem around 1:00pm and we were the only ones on the free shuttle from the car rental office to the cruise port. Arrived at the port around 1:30 after paperwork for the rental and traffic to get there. Check in was very quick as we dropped our luggage, did our check in and were onboard by 1:45. First stop was the Aloha Cafe (buffet) for some lunch. As usual it was crowded the first day as it was the main option for lunch on embarkation day.

 

After lunch we headed out to check out the Pride in detail. We typically start at the top and work our way along getting to know where things are located. Around 2:30 the cabins were available so we stopped by to drop off our carry-ons. We were in cabin 10066. Overall our cabin size was similar to all our other cruises and there was more than enough storage space for the 2 of us. The luggage was sitting in the hallway by 4:00 so we just pulled it into the room once we saw it.

 

We unpacked and then walked around some more, continuing our tour of the Pride. Somewhere along the way we were going to book a few specialty restaurants and we were told about the Culinary Passport which would allow us to eat in 4 of the specialty restaurants for $60 pp. We felt this was a good deal so we signed up. We completed our walk around the boat and headed back to the cabin to get ready for dinner. We had decided to go to one of the specialty restaurants, Jefferson Bistro. I have to say this was a great choice and probably the best meal we had during the week. Service was very good (although the restaurant was half emnpty), the food was excellent and this was a great start to the cruise. After dinner we spent a bit of time up on the decks before another relatively early evening so we could be ready for a full day in Hilo....

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Boy am I missing Hawaii right now. Great review so far and pictures. We stayed at the Marriott on Waikiki Beach could see Diamondhead from our room. The time change was hard and I'm glad we got there a couples early also, made the cruise part more enjoyable as we were getting used it by then. Please keep the review and pictures coming.:D

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We were up early and headed to the Aloha Cafe for a buffet breakfast. We always like to sit outside if possible and there is a great outdoor area at the aft of the ship. For those coffee drinkers, they had coffee pots on every table so no need to worry about trying to carry cups and spilling, etc. However for us tea drinkers, we did have to find the hot water and walk it to the table. No big deal, we always bring travel mugs anyway.

 

Once we received the all clear, we were off the ship and onto the shuttle for the car rentals. The shuttle takes you to the airport with all major rental companies there. Our reservation was with AVIS, our new preferred rental company but we will get to that shortly (note....brain cramp ahead :)).

 

Once in the car, we were off to Volcano National Park. I have to say that this is a must do for anyone coming to Hilo. We saw most of the park including the Visitor Centre, Crater Rim drive, Jagger Museum, walking the laval flows and the Thurston Lava Tube.

 

We then left the park and headed towards the town of Kalapana. While it was a longish drive to get here, we had heard that this area had been covered in lava in 1990 and that the locals had rebuilt their homes on top of the laval flows. They have no power and running water however they have above ground pools / cisterns to collect water for their use. This district of Hawaii is Puna, and some of the locals who refuse to move out have earned the nickname "Punatics". It was interesting to drive along areas where the road had been completed covered in lava where they have paved over it and there are still areas that are only one lane. At night they have a lava viewing area here as it is the closest spot to the still active lava. During the day we could see steam rising in the distance but not really any of the lava flow.

 

We also found a path leading down to a black sand beach...while it wasn't the best beach it was neat to see the black sand and also interesting to see some vegetation starting to come up through the lava....20 years later!

 

After a day of driving and adventure, we dropped the rental car off and headed back to the Pride. We decided to spend some time just sitting on our balcony. My wife decided to get out the binoculars we had brought and she found 2 whales just off the coast which continually breached for upwards of an hour or so....so we just spent the time on the balcony watching as we sailed out of Hilo. When she noticed the whales, I had ran to grab my camera (brain cramp time!) and noticed that it was missing.....yep, the camera was gone. Just about that time I also noticed that our room phone indicated a message. When I called they indicated they had something of mine and I needed to come down to the front desk to pick it up. When I arrived, they had my camera. It turns out that in the period we dropped off the car, we either left the camera in the car or at the Avis rental booth. Avis had located the camera and made arrangements to deliver it back to the ship before we left. Now that was going way above and beyond and we had dropped the car only about 45 minutes prior to sail away. I was not really worried about the actual camera but the pictures from our trip to date we memories that could not be replaced. So Avis (sorry for the commercial here but they earned it!), you are now my preferred rental car company and I have joined the Avis Preferred Service and I will use Avis whenever possible. Thank you letters have been sent to acknowledge the staff involved.

 

That night we were off to another specialty restaurant for dinner, the Lazy J Steakhouse. I have to say the food was good, the service not so much. I think "J" himself was taking care of us and we figured out how he got his lazy nickname! It was hard to believe this was the same ship where we had such great service in the Bistro the night before. But overall the steak was good (not as good as the one we had on Chops on Freedom of the Seas) and seems to me we still managed to clean our plates :D Food is subjective so I won't linger on this....

 

After dinner we wandered the ship walking off dinner but we were tired from a busy day so we headed back to the room to get a good nights sleep.

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