- Hilo, Big Island - Kailua Kona, Big Island - Kauai - Honolulu.
I liked this cruise because the ship stands at Maui from 8 am to 6 pm of the next day, and at Kauai - from 8 am to 2 pm of the next day. So there are a lot of opportunities to explore the island during 1.5 or 2 days. As a result, we had a week of the cruise.
I registered on the Norwegian Cruise Line website. Then, I printed all the documents for the cruise from that site. You can also book the tours there, but we took a car on each island and explored it on our own. We planned the route at home aiming to visit almost all of the most interesting places and attractions! The only thing I ordered from the site was a bottle of wine and chocolate covered strawberries. And when we came to a cabin, this pleasantry was waiting for us.
I also considered flights from island to island, but the flights and accommodation in hotels for a few days were significantly more expensive than the cruise. And we wanted to see more islands to decide which island we liked more and where we would like to come back in the future.
We were pleased with the fact that checking in on the liner went very quickly, without lines, although, there were always lines before. All men got necklaces of shells, and women - garlands of orchids. We even got a flower to put behind the ear. Everyone wanted to take photos with a man and a woman wearing Polynesian clothes.
A few words about our liner - Pride of America.
It was built in 2005, in 2008 it was renovated.
Number of passengers: 2138.
Number of team members: 900.
The ship was designed as the first liner sailing under the US flag.
The ship has a lot of restaurants, bars, swimming pools, a gym, whirlpools, spa, a theater, a cinema, a night club, in short - everything you need for a good rest and entertainment.
Our cabin was on deck 10, with a balcony. The size of the cabin is the same as on the Carnival, it's a bit cramped, but the bathroom is more comfortable. Cleaning was very good, we found out that our cleaning woman was from the Philippines. We told her that we visited the Philippines, she was very happy and asked us to leave her tips. Though, tips are already included in the price.
By the way, you're not going to get envelopes to leave tips to employees you liked. We did tip that lady, though. She was happy!
Moreover, on this ship, you are not attached to any certain restaurant for dinner, you can go wherever you want and at any time during open hours. But you had to pay at the main restaurants ($20 per person), so we did not go there. We were quite satisfied with a buffet - there was a great variety, the food was delicious, and there were not too many people. Usually, we had dinner at 8-9 pm because we came back from the islands just before the departure, an hour before. There are a lot of paid restaurants: sushi, steakhouse, Italian food, etc. Breakfast is standard, same as everywhere. There's grill at the pool in the afternoon, it's quite tasty, but that space is full of smoke.
You are allowed to smoke on the balcony of your cabin or at the bar on the outdoor deck at the stern of the ship.
We did not visit different performances. We got up at 6 am and at 10 pm we were already asleep because from 8 am to 5 pm we were exploring the island. Our son visited the show a couple of times and went to the night club, but he said there were almost no young people, the audience was mainly 50+ years old.
All the days at sea were quiet, the ship was not rocked!
Here are several pictures of the liner:
This is Honolulu in sunset colors.
And this is the sunset we saw before the departure.
We sailed from Honolulu at 7 pm. We arrived on Maui at 8 am, the departure was the next day at 6 pm. We spent the night on the ship. We planned such a route that would allow us to see the biggest part of the island. The main points of the plan were to visit
. Here is a map of the island and our route marked with different lines. Maui is the second largest island of the Hawaiian archipelago. It is a part of the State of Hawaii and the largest island in Maui County. The other three islands are the islands of Lanai, Kahoolawe, and Molokai.
The ship stopped in the port of Kahului. We booked the car in advance. We took the Jeep Wrangler and went down along the red line - to see the beautiful scenery and get to the beach. At first, the weather was not very good, it was gloomy. Later, there were also many clouds, but the sun peeked at least occasionally. We were driving along the coast, then a little further from it, because there were hotels and private areas. We passed a lot of golf courses. Our destination point was Makena Beach. We stopped a couple of times along the way, but the scenery did not impress us, because it was cloudy, and small coves with yellow sand and frozen chunks of lava also did not cause any euphoria.
We managed to take pictures of Molokini Crater. Molokini Atoll formed about 15 thousand years ago by lava erupted from the crater of the volcano. You can come there on a tour for scuba diving and snorkeling.
Finally, we arrived at Makena Beach. There is good parking, bio-toilets on the way to the beach, and one of them is wide, for the disabled. Of course, they are clean, smell like an air freshener, there is a lot of toilet paper. There is a lifeguard's booth at the beach, and warning signs of currents, waves, and other dangers. The beach is also equipped with a picnic area with tables and benches, barbecues. The beach is huge, there were not a lot of people. Because of the clouds, wind, and waves, no one was swimming. I didn't see anything special here, just the beach... And I don't even want to come back there.
We went further, and we saw this beach in front of a huge lava field, a couple of people were snorkeling there.
The weather got better on our way back, and we stopped at Kamaole Beach Park.
It is a fully equipped space, with parking and a playground. The ocean has hues pleasing to the eye.
This is our car.
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