Live Review Koningsdam Feb 17-March 23, 2024. Hawaii/Tahiti

[canadianbear]

6 minutes ago, d9704011 said:

I don't have a better strategy for Hawaii excursions for my trip next year so I've pretty much decided on a monkey see, monkey do approach.  So, how was your excursion to Volcanoes National Park? I'll be interested in knowing whether you enjoy today's excursion.  Judging from the prices I've seen for the HAL excursions, it won't be any problem whatsoever to use up the $100 credit per excursion they've offered as part of the HIA package!

Yes we used up our HIA excursions in these 2.  
 

We had a fellow named Robert who was our driver to the Volcano National park & he was excellent-a fountain of information & very personable which made for a better experience.  We had never been there before so although I think the excursions are overpriced it was a good excursion.  
 

I’ll try to remember after today’s to check in.  

[crystalspin]

15 minutes ago, d9704011 said:

Judging from the prices I've seen for the HAL excursions, it won't be any problem whatsoever to use up the $100 credit per excursion they've offered as part of the HIA package!

Just FYI, it is $300pp to spend on however many (or few) excursions you pick. We had booked the Polynesian Cultural Center for ~$290, leaving $10 which was taken off the Grand Canyon of Pacific.

 

There will be no problem spending it!

[Hogladyrider]

1 hour ago, canadianbear said:

Arriving in Kauia!  We are doing the HAL tour called the Grand Canyon of the Pacific.  Never been to this Island so looking forward to the tour.  We used our HIA excursions for Hawaii.  

 

Lucky you!  We were on the previous Koningsdam Hawaii sailing and we were not able to visit this port due to high winds and seas, so the Capt took us on a cruise along the coast which was beautiful and stunning as seen from our balcony with adult beverages in hand!

Looking forward to hearing about your day in port!

[d9704011]

29 minutes ago, crystalspin said:

Just FYI, it is $300pp to spend on however many (or few) excursions you pick. We had booked the Polynesian Cultural Center for ~$290, leaving $10 which was taken off the Grand Canyon of Pacific.

 

There will be no problem spending it!

No problem at all!!  I just booked some excursions in Hawaii and the $600 credit we had (2 x $300 each) disappeared lickety-split leaving a $960 excess to be paid off.  I'll think about the rest of the Pacific a little later....

[highscar]

Sorry we missed Kauai.  Many years ago we spent 2 weeks on the island and did all the interesting locations including the tour we had when DH drove the car through a pineapple field and we ended up at the beautiful Nappali coast.  shhh. Don’t tell.  Hard to do a U turn in that location. 

[danogg]

On 2/22/2024 at 7:13 PM, d9704011 said:

I booked this cruise for 2025 and am keeping an eye on this thread.  It will be my first time on HAL.  I don't know how, exactly, the HIA works;  when excursions and dining open up for booking can you do it all ahead of time on the understanding that there are excursion and dining credits to be applied first before they come looking for your credit card?

We are on the 2025 sailing.  All the shore excursions have been available on the website and app for several months now.  

[d9704011]

11 minutes ago, danogg said:

We are on the 2025 sailing.  All the shore excursions have been available on the website and app for several months now.  

I booked three for Hawaii earlier today.  I'll wait a bit for other ports of call.

[sunviking90]

Enjoy Kauai! It’s our favorite Hawaiian Island. Very “South Pacific” vibes. The canyon that I think your tour is going to is lovely. Hopefully you’ll have clear enough weather up there. There are chickens all over the island, and when we drove to the top of the canyon, we were amazed that they were there too!

[danogg]

33 minutes ago, d9704011 said:

I booked three for Hawaii earlier today.  I'll wait a bit for other ports of call.

We booked all our excursions for the South Pacific and just a couple so far for Hawaii.  I’m really finding the Hawaii tours to be over priced and not really anything that catches my eye.  We’re thinking of perhaps renting a car in Honolulu and doing some sightseeing.

[canadianbear]

@d9704011

 

We are back from the Grand Canyon of the Pacific.  The bus ride was long there & back.  As beautiful as it was up top seeing it, to us it was overpriced & just too long a ride.  We aren’t bus type people.  Perhaps renting a car and going there & doing other things would be better. We also stopped at the spouting horn blowhole.  I’m glad we used HIA at least. 
 

oh…and I’m not in a good mood because I offered to take a photo of a couple there & MY phone dropped & the screen is cracked in several spots 🤦‍♀️. Chatted with Apple (my phone is still under warranty but we are Canadian) who made an appointment for tomorrow at the Apple Store in Ala Moana at 4:30.

 

@zelker  I think in need quarters 😂

 

Edited February 26 by canadianbear
Add stuff

[crystalspin]

1 hour ago, danogg said:

We are on the 2025 sailing.  All the shore excursions have been available on the website and app for several months now.  

Wow that is WAY earlier than the cruise underway now. Thanks for the heads up, I will have a look soon.

[crystalspin]

On 2/20/2024 at 10:40 PM, julia said:

Ok... what the heck?!  This EXACT same cruise last year was NOT deemed "legendary" (hence, no fancy bags),

I think the Legendary Voyages is a new thing? 

[d9704011]

1 hour ago, danogg said:

We booked all our excursions for the South Pacific and just a couple so far for Hawaii.  I’m really finding the Hawaii tours to be over priced and not really anything that catches my eye.  We’re thinking of perhaps renting a car in Honolulu and doing some sightseeing.

Maybe we should move our conversations for 2025 to existing  Roll Call for that cruise.  I very much appreciate reading and seeing comments from all the folks on the current cruise but I don't want to sidetrack them.  Thanks for your commentary and photos @canadianbear  

 

[BermudaBound2014]

29 minutes ago, d9704011 said:

Maybe we should move our conversations for 2025 to existing  Roll Call for that cruise.  I very much appreciate reading and seeing comments from all the folks on the current cruise but I don't want to sidetrack them.  Thanks for your commentary and photos @canadianbear  

 

Thanks! It’s easy to derail me :). I’m also on the 2025 so if you have specific questions and tag me I’ll be sure to answer directly in the 2025 roll call also 🙂

 

I do need to catch up. I will do that in a bit. The Last few days have been spectacular.
 

In the meantime, I do want to post the menus and planner for those that asked. 
 

Tonight’s menu-

 

Edited February 26 by BermudaBound2014

[BermudaBound2014]

Todays daily (Kauai) 

[BermudaBound2014]

Kauai port shopping map. There is a free trolly to take you to a strip mall type place that’s a few blocks away. I don’t believe it goes into to town but someone can correct me if I’m wrong. 
 

 

[BermudaBound2014]

I’m not sure if this Happens every cruise but we keep getting invitations via messenger in the app. 
 

These two were for lido dinners and also an invite to an open bridge for viewing.

[canadianbear]

@BermudaBound2014 we do too & I don’t know how to delete them.  

[BetsyS.]

canadianbear - Thanks for your reports and beautiful pictures. I'm sorry to hear about your phone. Good luck at the Apple store. 😊

[sunviking90]

1 hour ago, canadianbear said:

@d9704011

 

We are back from the Grand Canyon of the Pacific.  The bus ride was long there & back.  As beautiful as it was up top seeing it, to us it was overpriced & just too long a ride.  We aren’t bus type people.  Perhaps renting a car and going there & doing other things would be better. We also stopped at the spouting horn blowhole.  I’m glad we used HIA at least. 
 

oh…and I’m not in a good mood because I offered to take a photo of a couple there & MY phone dropped & the screen is cracked in several spots 🤦‍♀️. Chatted with Apple (my phone is still under warranty but we are Canadian) who made an appointment for tomorrow at the Apple Store in Ala Moana at 4:30.

 

@zelker  I think in need quarters 😂

 

 

 

 

Your pictures are lovely! Glad you made it up there. I agree about bus tours. Definitely not for us. We try to rent a car or just do our own thing when in the ports. At least you got to use your HIA credits though.

If you return to Kauai one day it is a good one to rent a car in as it is pretty small and you can see a lot. 
Good luck with your phone!

Edited February 26 by sunviking90

[BermudaBound2014]

Let’s see if I can catch up yesterday. The morning started with a little excitement. I got up super early to watch sail into Maui. Took a shower, walked out of the bathroom and was promptly greeted by these two fellows in a tug boat. Eye level. 25 feet from my window. I’m sure my cabin was the only one with the blinds wide open and lights on. Whoopsie- 

 

[NCTribeFan]

I think I did that ship excursion in Kauai way back on my first HAL cruise on Zaandam.

 

I guess I should think about excursions for next January but first I have a Virgin TA & Med coming up in April/May, then the Carnival Bahamas, then the Nieuw Amsterdam western Carib and haven't done any real planning for any of those.  The challenge will be the Virgin sailings.

 

It wouldn't hurt to go ahead and book some for Mexico/Hawaii using my HIA.  I can always change my mind later but it would be smart to lock in what I think I might want.  Typically, I'm not a fan of ship excursions but since I have the HIA credit, makes sense to use it.

 

That menu looks pretty interesting.  I see a few dishes I'd like to try.

[BermudaBound2014]

As I’ve mentioned, we have an amazing roll call and there were about 60 of us who elected to go on the 11:30 pacific whale watch. Some folks took cabs, some Ubers, some rented cars, a group of about 15 of us walked to the bus, but we all met on the boat for a fantastic whale watch experience.
 

It’s hard to go wrong during whale soup time, but we had quite the show-

-4 different sets of mom/calf/escort.

- one full out adult breach 

- multiple calf pickle breaches

-3 peduncle throws

- a 5 whale competition pod. 

- 1 mugging (where the whales got so close we had to turn off the engines.)

 

I believe everyone was very happy with the experience and since I had talked it up a great deal I was thrilled the whales cooperated. 
 

Unfortunately I only took whale video and cruise critic doesn’t like that format, but here’s a few shots of most of our group at the harbor
 

Other than accidentally flashing the tug boat crew and a near miss with my phone, it was an excellent day on Maui. I’m excited to return after the cruise. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 26 by BermudaBound2014

[BermudaBound2014]

Today I elected to do the Hollywood in the movies tour offered by HAL to use up some onboard credit.

 

Side note- most of us paid $179 for this tour. It almost doubled in price to $279 in October. It was likely worth $179 (even though the tour guide was a bit a dufus for my taste), but there is no way this tour is worth $279. Hire a private guide for the day. All the spots on the movie tour are well known and open to the public.

 

The scenery was beautiful and the weather cooperated; even in Princeville and Hanalei; which are almost always a bit 

misty. 

There are literally 100s of movies filmed on Kauai. On this tour they would show a movie video clip on the van and then take you the exact location where that clip was filmed.
 

We saw Jurassic Park, fantasy island, Raiders of the lost ark, Gillian’s Island, Blue Hawaii, South Pacific, and Donovan’s Reef to name a few….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 26 by BermudaBound2014

[TableGirl]

On 2/24/2024 at 12:04 PM, Mary229 said:

At 6:10 DH left to eat in the lido, at 6:20 when no food arrived I did the same.  

Can I suggest you write a note to the Food and Beverage Manager to ask for a meeting about a problem in the MDR?  Apparently, it has been an ongoing problem according to others.  I can't imagine HAL doesn't have people who read these threads.  Maybe they don't.  I'm scheduled to be on this ship for a 22 day Hawaii trip but I'm not sure it's wise after reading this.  My traveling friend won't be happy with such service.