Have you always dreamed of visiting Hawaii, but you are looking for a budget-friendly option to see more than one island in only 7 days? If so, cruising the Hawaiian islands with Norwegian Cruise Line might be the perfect choice for you!
My husband and I were looking for a cost-effective way to celebrate our 10-year anniversary while also checking off a new destination on our bucket list – Hawaii fit the bill perfectly!
To start off on our adventure, we flew into Honolulu one day before our cruise. Our overnight stay was at the historic Moana Surfrider, a Westin Resort. This is actually one of the highlights of our trip! I thoroughly enjoyed this resort, even though we were only there for an evening and morning. We arrived just in time to see the sunset and to catch dinner at the Beach Bar underneath the gorgeous banyan tree they have in the courtyard. There were musicians playing music, and it was such a beautiful and relaxing setting!
The next morning came early for us with the time change, so we ventured out to find coffee. There is a delicious coffee shop right outside the entrance of the Moana Surfrider called Honolulu Coffee – so good! Perfect for catching a quick bite before heading out for excursions or getting on a cruise ship.
Once we checked out of the resort that morning, we found a ride to the cruise port and went through the boarding process relatively quickly! Upon entering the ship, we were able to eat lunch while we waited for our room to be ready – they open up the rooms one floor at a time and announce when you are able to head to your room. While we were waiting, they had entertainment throughout the ship, including hula dancers and musicians playing the ukulele – Such a great way to start off our Hawaiian vacation!
Our first impressions of the Pride of America:
- The ship is older, but maintained fairly well!
- Guests onboard are mostly retirees and empty nesters, which was totally fine with us! However, it’s good to keep in mind that crowds form a line very early for dinner, so make sure you plan accordingly.
- We purchased the More at Sea package, which includes alcoholic beverages, water bottles, etc. – highly recommended! This allowed us to load up on water bottles for excursions, which were very much appreciated!
- There are a lot of large groups that are traveling together on the ship, so the first couple of dinners on the ship were a bit chaotic as those groups were seated in the dining rooms. However, after those initial nights, a routine was established for each group, and the dining staff ultimately handled everything with ease.
Maui:
Our first port of call was in Maui. We scheduled a “Road to Hana” tour with Roberts Hawaii through Project Expedition. Our tour guide, Bjorn (“the Hawaiian Viking,” as he lovingly referred to himself), was wonderful! He told us all about the Hawaiian vegetation on our drive and was attentive to all of the guests throughout the entire trip. There were so many breathtaking views of waterfalls, and he even purchased produce (apples, bananas, papayas, etc.) for us to sample!
Hilo:
We didn’t have an excursion planned on this day, so we decided to venture out on our own. The Destination Hilo group (a.k.a. their “Hawaiian Greetings Program”) offered a free shuttle to the Farmer’s Market in town, so we used that service to do some shopping and then returned to the ship. Apparently, there is also a Hoppa On Hoppa Off bus service that you can use to get around the islands while you are there, but we never used that service – this was recommended to us by one of NCL’s dining staff members, and several other guests utilized this service.
Kona:
Our tour scheduled on this day was to the Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park and the Punalu?u Beach. Our favorite excursion! Along the way, we stopped at the Paradise Bakery, where we purchased malasadas (Portuguese donuts) – so good! The tour guide was fabulous and was also very attentive to our group’s questions, etc. She drove us to see the K?lauea volcano, which
was erupting steam – very cool to witness! We also walked through a lava tube and visited the steam holes on the other side of the volcano. This was an 8-hour tour, and was totally worth it! We were very fortunate enough to have beautiful weather and gorgeous views! We were told that this port of call is the best place to shop if you don’t have any excursions.
Side note:
NCL’s excursion team recommended that you schedule the Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park tour while in Hilo, instead of Kona, because it is a shorter drive to the park and you can squeeze something else into your day. Our tour was already scheduled (prior to boarding the ship) for our stop in Kona, so we weren’t able to follow this advice. It was an 8-hour-long tour from Kona, though (we were the last tender back to the ship!), so this tip is good to keep in mind!
Kauai:
Unfortunately, on this day, the weather was not conducive to taking port, so we had an unexpected sea day. We also had to cancel our luau as a result – big bummer, but we’ll just have to come back!
The staff pivoted beautifully from this disappointing news to sailing around a beautiful part of the islands that are usually not visited by tourists, but appear in movies. They had a staff member narrating information about the island over the intercom. It became an unexpected tour! Since we were there during whale season, we did spot some whales from the ship on this day at sea!
Honolulu:
After we disembarked the ship, we had one final excursion, the Pearl Harbor Memorial. It was a great way to fill in the time leading up to our flight home! A tour bus picked us up at the port and also dropped us off at the airport following our self-paced tour. Pearl Harbor is a sobering experience that you will never forget. If you are able to add this to your itinerary, I would!
Final thoughts:
Overall, this was a fantastic trip, and I highly recommend it! Due to the rough weather we experienced, I probably wouldn’t plan this trip during January (as we did), but as a whole, it was a wonderful way to see so much of the Hawaiian islands in just 7 days with an all-inclusive component!
