A cruise around Hawaii turned out to be even more than the Hawaii I had dreamed of since childhood.
As a child I imagined palm groves on white beaches, coconuts, garlands of white and lilac flowers, loud birds, tanned and cheerful people and beauty everywhere you looked. I never doubted that such a place had to exist somewhere on our planet. When I grew up and first stood on a surfboard, I learned that the place had a name: Hawaii.
I had no doubt that these were fairy-tale islands of fierce volcanoes, roaring waterfalls and inviting beaches. Yet their beauty proved so endless and so unusual that it never stopped surprising me, all through the holiday.
Now, home again and with some of it settled in my mind, I can say with confidence that no other tropical island on Earth has come anywhere close to the Hawaiian Islands.
I was lucky enough to cruise around Hawaii on Pride of America, a ship of Norwegian Cruise Line, and this story is about her.
Choosing a cruise around Hawaii
There is no shortage of Hawaii cruises.
I spent a long time comparing itineraries, how much time we would have ashore and all the details. Having sailed on Pride of America, I came to the conclusion that this is the best Hawaii cruise for anyone who wants to be on the move and see the islands.
She is the only ship whose route begins and ends in Hawaii, in Honolulu, and never leaves the United States.
There are Hawaii cruises from Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego. They last twice as long, yet spend less time in Hawaii itself, only four or five days; the rest goes on the crossing, because 4,000 kilometres is no small distance. They also call in Mexico, and they cost more.
Besides, I would not want to spend four days in a row at sea with no chance to go ashore, if only because it is very boring. Better to fly to Honolulu and spend those same days there, before or after the cruise on Pride of America.
Pride of America and how the cruise works
- The cruise lasts one week, from Saturday to Saturday.
- Capacity: 2,186 passengers.
- 14 decks and 16 restaurants.
- Renovated in 2016.
- Port of departure: Honolulu.
- The price included one night in a Honolulu hotel before the cruise. You can fly in earlier and spend more time on Oʻahu, or stay on after the cruise ends.
What I liked about the cruise
1. An excellent route. This is both my own conclusion and the verdict of many American friends, for whom Hawaii is not such an unusual or distant destination and who travel there fairly often.
| Day | Island (port) | Arrival | Departure |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oʻahu (Honolulu) | 19:00 | |
| 2 | Maui (Kahului) | 8:00 | overnight |
| 3 | Maui (Kahului) | 18:00 | |
| 4 | Hawaiʻi (Hilo) | 8:00 | 18:00* |
| 5 | Hawaiʻi (Kona) | 7:00 | 18:00 |
| 6 | Kauaʻi (Nāwiliwili) | 8:00 | overnight |
| 7 | Kauaʻi (Nāwiliwili) | 14:00** | |
| 8 | Oʻahu (Honolulu) | 7:00 |
I was pleased with how much time we had on Maui, the Big Island and Kauaʻi. Knowing that cruises usually stop for five or six hours, often in remote ports that are hard to get around, I had worried that we would see very little. The worry was unfounded. Thanks to the overnight stays on the islands, we managed to watch the sunrise on Haleakalā, fly over the Big Island and Kauaʻi by helicopter, rent cars and cover a lot of ground. Maui has its own story.
If I were planning the same days now, I would book the Haleakalā sunrise first; this guided sunrise tour with breakfast collects guests from Maui hotels and condos, so confirm the pickup point from the ship with the operator. The helicopters leave close to the piers: this flight from Hilo heads for Kīlauea and the new lava fields, and on Kauaʻi this waterfall flight from Līhuʻe takes in Waimea Canyon, Mount Waiʻaleʻale and the Nā Pali cliffs.
2. The ports on every island are very conveniently placed. You step off the ship, walk for five or ten minutes and find yourself among ordinary island life: supermarkets, cafés, restaurants and metered taxis. Kona is the one exception: there the ship anchors offshore, and a short tender ride brings you to Kailua Pier.
3. Plenty of chances to swim and sunbathe. If you would rather spend more time in the sea and on the sand, there are many opportunities. Lovely beaches lie close to where the ship stops.
4. The route includes stops in some remarkable places, so do not miss them.
After leaving Hilo, you could watch from the starboard side as red-hot lava flowed down into the ocean. By then it was already dark, so the bright red streams showed up very well.
On the penultimate day, after leaving Nāwiliwili, the magnificent Nā Pali Coast appeared on the port side. Our cabin happened to be on that side, so we enjoyed the view from our balcony.
5. All meals included. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are included, drinks are not. A pleasant surprise was that drink prices were quite reasonable: slightly higher than in a supermarket but lower than in restaurants ashore. A glass of champagne on board, for example, cost $10–15, against $15–20 in restaurants on the islands.
6. Plenty of daytime entertainment on board. It did not matter to me, because we spent every possible moment on the islands and came back to the ship in the evening to have dinner and rest in our cabin. But anyone who prefers to take it easy would not be bored on board. A Hawaiian ambassador teaches lei making and hula, and there are ukulele lessons and talks on the islands’ history, with a closing ceremony for the class at the end of the week. There is also a sports court for basketball and pickleball, a Wild West saloon called the Gold Rush, a Napa wine bar and shows in the theatre, which you may watch but not film. And if you lose your way in the long corridors, look down: as on every Norwegian ship, the fish on the carpet swim towards the bow.
7. We barely felt the ship move. We were lucky. The channels between the islands, the Alenuihāhā above all, can be rough, so anyone prone to seasickness should pack something for it.
8. The time difference. This has nothing directly to do with the cruise, but I noticed that it worked in our favour. Hawaii never moves its clocks, so it sits five or six hours behind New York and ten or eleven behind London, depending on the season. You wake up early: by 3 a.m. you are wide awake, and there is time to watch the sunrise, sit on the balcony with a coffee and breathe the sea air, and have breakfast without hurrying. By 8 a.m., with no effort at all, you are ready to leave the ship and set off on the day’s adventures. In the evening you come back at five or six, just as it grows dark, have dinner, and by about nine you can go to bed.
What to know before you board
To be honest, I liked everything. The “cons” I am about to describe are less faults than features and unavoidable rules of cruising. Knowing them in advance can spare you some disappointment.
Most of them disappear if you book a cabin in the Suite category. Suites come with many other perks as well, which I describe below.
So, the “cons”:
1. Queues. With more than 2,000 passengers some waiting is inevitable, but it gathers at a few predictable moments: check-in, disembarkation in the mornings, the tenders and baggage collection. Around the ship itself, in the restaurants, bars and on the pool deck, there is usually room for everyone. We skipped even those few queues: suite guests go everywhere without queuing.
2. No bringing drinks aboard. You may not bring drinks on board, not even water. Not even water you bought on the ship and decided to take ashore with you: they will not let you back on board with it.
Officially, you may bring no more than two bottles of alcohol on board, paying a fee for them. We did not know this, and two bottles of champagne slipped aboard in our luggage.
The tap water on the ship is perfectly good to drink.
3. No drones. Drones are not allowed on any Norwegian Cruise Line ship.
This was the saddest rule for me, and my own fault: I had not read the rules carefully. There is not even a storage room on board where you could leave a drone and collect it when going ashore. In other words, leave your drone at home if you do not want to lose it. There is no left-luggage office in Honolulu where you could keep it until you return, either. The only option we were offered was to post it home.
And do not even try to bring it aboard in a suitcase. Security in Honolulu might miss it, and you might easily take it ashore with you on an island. But you will certainly not get it back on board from the island.
4. The food. This verdict is subjective; everyone expects different things from food. Those who are not especially fussy need not worry. But because I love gastronomic discoveries, tasting local dishes and other such adventures, the food struck me as so-so, both in the main restaurant and in the specialty ones.
The ship has restaurants and bars included in the fare, and specialty restaurants with a fixed cover charge or à la carte prices. You can buy a dining package of three or more meals; we, for example, had a package covering three restaurant visits during the cruise, with a total discount of $69.
We had lunch on the islands; breakfasts and dinners were on board.
For dinner, we went to four specialty restaurants:
- Japanese (Teppanyaki);
- French (Jefferson’s Bistro);
- Brazilian (the churrascaria);
- the steakhouse (Cagney’s).
Of these, I liked Cagney’s best.
On the third day of the cruise we discovered that suite guests could have breakfast and lunch in this restaurant. From that day on our breakfasts were far tastier and more pleasant than at the Cadillac Diner.
For comparison: above, breakfast at the Cadillac Diner; below, at Cagney’s. In fairness, the diner was open around the clock.
Of the other restaurants, the Brazilian one could still hold its own, but the cruise has nothing to boast of in its Japanese and French restaurants. I have heard that cruise-ship food is a genre of its own, adapted to life at sea and usually cooked from frozen or from pre-prepared ingredients. But Royal Caribbean has probably spoiled me a little.
Among all the specialty restaurants there was not a single Hawaiian one, which surprised me.
5. The cruise website and choosing excursions.
Although we rented a car for every day, I needed to book one excursion: sunrise on Haleakalā. The other companies were fully booked, and we had missed out on the parking reservations. That is a story for another time; it is not the point here. The point is that I could not find this excursion on the NCL website (and on the whole, the tours offered there looked uninteresting), and I did not manage to book the sunset tour on Haleakalā either. Whatever I did, I could not select two people. Once we were on the cruise, there was a briefing on the very first day about all the tours. It turned out that the sunrise excursion was offered after all, and the leaflets listed different, more varied excursions. But I no longer needed it: I had booked with another company.
Is it worth saying anything about the excursions sold on board? Yes, they are quite decent. And yes, they include a lot of tourist shops, farms and plantations where someone will try to sell you something.
The summit of Haleakalā still works on reservations: every car needs a sunrise permit, released on Recreation.gov 60 days ahead and again two days before, and the popular dates go within minutes. A guided tour takes that problem away.
6. Entertainment. There is not much to do on board in the evening and at night. Night owls will be bored.
Our cabin: Suite 11508, a penthouse with a large balcony
The cabin was spacious and very comfortable. There was a living room with a sofa and coffee table, a coffee machine and everything for tea and coffee, a double bed, a large and very practical walk-in wardrobe, and, most important of all, an enormous balcony with two loungers and a table.
The bathroom had a bath, and the shower was one of the best I have used in any American hotel, with excellent water pressure. There were Bvlgari toiletries, bathrobes and slippers.
The real advantage of a suite is its perks on board:
- Check-in is private, with no queue. A concierge meets guests in the suite check-in area and makes the whole procedure quick and comfortable.
- Champagne awaits you in the cabin on arrival.
- A large bowl of fruit was refilled every day, and light snacks were delivered.
- There is no need to book a tender in advance; you can use one to go ashore at any time, without queuing.
- Disembarkation and baggage collection at check-out are faster.
- You can have breakfast and lunch at Cagney’s Steakhouse, which is much better than the main buffet, the Aloha Café.
- Room service is free.
- Concierge and butler services are included. Our butler appeared at the slightest question, helped us book and change restaurant reservations, and was happy to arrange whatever we asked.
If you want to keep some of the welcome bottle for the following evening, a champagne sealer will be useful.
All in all, the suite was certainly worth the money and made the time on board much better.
Internet on board Pride of America
Of course, the simplest thing is to disconnect from the outside world for the week and not think about where to find a few extra megabytes. But that is not always possible. Besides, I was quite unable to keep so much beauty to myself. So the internet became a sizeable part of our spending on the cruise.
These were the internet packages on board:
- unlimited internet for the whole cruise: $250 (the next day the price fell to $180, and by the third day the offer had disappeared altogether);
- a package of 250 minutes: $125;
- a package of 100 minutes: $75;
- one minute: $1.
Renting a car in Hawaii
A Hawaii cruise on Pride of America has one incomparable advantage: long stays on the islands. That encouraged us to rent cars and explore the islands on our own.
Which car to rent in Hawaii
Any car will do, whatever the island. The roads are excellent everywhere, so there is no need to take a 4×4 for that reason. But a Jeep or a convertible is undoubtedly more pleasant: you can take the roof off and admire the beauty around you, and the ride is more comfortable, since the distances are considerable.
Everywhere except Hilo, on the Big Island, we took 4×4s. Only on Maui was ours replaced with a Mustang, which turned out even better.
Which rental company to use in Hawaii
We rented from Hertz. Most rental companies work the same way. The location nearest to the port is usually at the airport, and a shuttle runs there. You arrive, find your car’s number on the board and take the car. Quick and simple. All that is left is to find somewhere to park overnight. Some of the finer points we learned only once we were there.
Here are the advantages and drawbacks we came across:
- Maui: besides the airport, Hertz had a location at the Maui Beach Hotel, a ten-minute walk from the port, which is what won us over. A mistake. The car they gave us was dirty and was replaced with a different type. On the other hand, they let us leave it overnight in their car park (a sign in the supermarket car park opposite the port forbids overnight parking, and there was nowhere else). When we returned the car, they drove us back to the ship in a shuttle.
- The Big Island (Hilo): the location is a ten-minute shuttle ride away. Everything went well, without a single complaint.
- The Big Island (Kona): the only location was at the airport, and you have to get there on your own. A taxi cost $35 each way and took 30–40 minutes. Inconvenient. I did not see a shuttle from any company, but some had a location at the Courtyard Marriott hotel within walking distance. It would have been better to rent from them.
- Kauaʻi: here everything went wonderfully. We were given a brand-new Jeep at the airport location, ten minutes away by shuttle. For overnight parking we played it safe and left the car near the Anchor Cove shopping centre, a 15-minute walk from the port. In the morning we discovered that everyone else had parked right along the road, much closer, and nobody’s car had been towed. I do not know how things ended for them with the fines, but a threatening note on our car said that our number had been taken.
Of the companies whose shuttles I saw everywhere (some even had an office at the port), the one that kept catching my eye was Enterprise Rent-A-Car.
That is the practical side of it. Now come with me to the islands.
The Hawaii cruise begins!
Maui: two days by car, from the Road to Hāna to Haleakalā
