"at your leisure" car rentals through NCL

[scottyo72]

Are the prices for NCL's "at your leisure" car rental excusions priced per person or per vehicle? If it's per person, how do they know who rides in a car?

[hawaiilvr]

rent on your own. Rates in Hawaii are CHEAP and ships dock near the airport (except in Kona) and the rental car vans are waiting when the ship docks.

[scottyo72]

Thanks. I was wondering about that, but I wasn't sure how much time that would eat up or how far the rental place would be from the dock.

 

rent on your own. Rates in Hawaii are CHEAP and ships dock near the airport (except in Kona) and the rental car vans are waiting when the ship docks.

[beachchick]

Thanks. I was wondering about that, but I wasn't sure how much time that would eat up or how far the rental place would be from the dock.

 

This is not even a consideration. Renting a car through the cruise line is essentially exactly the same as renting one on your own. The cruise line rentals are not waiting for you at the pier. No cars are waiting for pax at the piers; it's not possible in terms of space, personnel, security, and logistics. If you rent through the cruise line this is what you will do:

 

Get in line for the rental car company shuttles that come to the pier. Then you will take the shuttle to the rental location. In most ports, this is at or near the airport. This is usually a 5 to 10 minute shuttle. The exceptions are Kona, Lahaina, and Honolulu. (Please do a search on this forum for rental car info or even just scroll back some pages looking for titles that include "rental car" because we've recently discussed the various rental locations in detail several times.) At the rental counter, you will get in line with everyone else and wait for your turn to rent.

 

As you can see, renting through the cruise line offers you no priority or time savings at all. It really is easy and usually cheaper to book on your own. Check online for the best rates. You can reserve easily with no credit card required. And do rent in advance because the locations sometimes run out of cars, especially the King Kamehameha Hotel location by the Kona tender pier.

 

beachchick