POA 7 day Hawaii cruise any tips?

[CindyP1954]

Hi, we are cruising on July 26 on Pride of America for the 7 day Hawaiian Island cruise. We've booked several excursions through the ship already, waterfall and rainforest hike, Kilauea Volcano biking, Captain Zodiac snorkel and raft and dolphin adventure and Mokihana helicopter ride. Has anyone been on these excursions and have any useful tips for us (what to wear, temperature etc)?:)

[punkincc]

The best suggestion I can give is to get over to the Hawaii Message Board here on Cruise Critic and read all the helpful info and POA trip reviews you can find. There is a great Hawaii Cheat Sheet thread with some good info. We will be on the POA in August. We only booked two tours for the cruise and neither of them were through the ship. Most people just pick up a rental car, easily done from the pier, and drive where they want. And IMO, if you are going to book tours, you are better off going with local tour companies booked in advance than through the ship both for price and comfort.

 

Dress of course will be very casual in Hawaii. It is Freestyle on the ship. Hawaii is about the same temperature year round, in the 80s.

Edited July 13, 2014 by punkincc

[Ilovesailing]

You can easily save 40% by doing off ship excursions, there are a few reputable companies out there.

Robert's Hawaii is one of them, we have used them for 3 cruises as well as used them for land tours. They are very good at what they do and there are a lot of positive reviews on them.

There tour guides have been doing the same excursion for years so they know it inside out they also know the way around traffic jams as there is usually only one main road in and out on the islands. They also only use small mini vans/buses.

[CindyP1954]

Thank you so much! I'm still learning how to get around Cruise Critic, so I appreciate your advice!

[puddles99]

Booking the Zodiac snorkel (it's awesome!!) through NCL makes sense - if for some reason you can't tender into Kona, you'll get a refund. Otherwise, I agree with the posters who suggested booking private tours.

 

I would suggest packing a lightweight hoodie or sweater, extra sunblock, and water bottles for most excursions. Have a wonderful time - we LOVED our POA adventure.

 

 

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[CindyP1954]

Thank you so much! Still trying to find my way around Cruise Critic so I will have to look for the Hawaii Message Board.

[puddles99]

One more note about Helicopter tours - wear black or another solid dark color. This will reduce your reflection on the glass and improve photography (if that's important to you). We took the Jurassic Landing Adventure through Island Helicopters on Kauai & would highly recommend!

 

 

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[CindyP1954]

Wow, great advice. Thank you!

[punkincc]

Thank you so much! Still trying to find my way around Cruise Critic so I will have to look for the Hawaii Message Board.

 

When you log into Cruise Critic, go to Community, and then look for Ports of Call. You'll find Hawaii listed there. You can also look for your Roll Call under the Roll Call section, and post there to talk to others on your specific cruise. If you don't see one, you can start one yourself.

[kcfoxy]

That was a great helicopter flight, and earlier part of the day was best, less wind, or worries getting back to the ship if you pick day 2. Unfortunately, although we did recommend darker and non-patterned clothing for the flight, (on our CC Roll Call discussion), the gal who sat in front next to the window seat wore whit shorts, a high contrast white and black tank top, resulting in an unfortunate per centage of DH's photos, filmed from rear left seat, show the glare from her clothing/bare skin and camera. A very nice person, but this was a once in a lifetime excursion for us and very pricey, as we paid a 'hefty' surcharge :(

 

Light clothing, or tank tops if very light-complected, even a silver gimme camera or that bright yellow safety pouch we all carried, some glare unavoidable, but most can be minimized for otherwise lovely shots.

 

 

 

Another thing, I would not overplan. We loved a half day privately booked excursion viewing farms in Upcountry Maui, but some of the full day events were a bit much, especially with every day porting and jam packed events :rolleyes:.

 

We ended up making one day a leisure one...the second in Maui or second on Kauai both work well there, and didn't end up as exhausted by our 'vacation' as many others apparently were. Have an excellent time!

Edited July 13, 2014 by kcfoxy