Open dining tips and car rental in the Hawaiian Islands

eugene32 · #1 (**permalink**) January 8th, 2008, 04:37 PM

Going on HAL in April and have open dining for the first time. Would like any comments or tips on that as well as car rental on any of the islands. Thanks...

dcsmac · #2 (**permalink**) January 13th, 2008, 11:04 PM

Which Ship are you going on in april. We are leaving April 3rd from San Diego. I am also curious about booking tours off the ship and what is the
best bang for the buck. I was also not aware of the open dining. That will be interesting.

AngelFish · #3 (**permalink**) February 8th, 2008, 08:26 AM

We didn't rent a car but we booked a few island tours with Hawaii Cruise Excursions the rates were pretty good and I didn't have to worry about getting lost and missing our ship:-)

wanda2 · #4 (**permalink**) February 27th, 2008, 12:55 PM

We sailed Zaandam in Febuary to Hawaii and rented a car twice. On Maui because the tendering took so long and then waiting for the transfer to the car rental place, it was 10.30 a.m. before we could start touring. Having to be back on board by 4.30(getting the rental back around 3 p.m. to be on be on the safe side), it didn't leave us a lot of time.

We also rented on Kauai and was well worth it - it was our favourite place to visit.
On Oahu we just took took the local bus, cost us $2.00 each, we wanted to climb up Diamond Head, and that worked out extremely well for us.

In Hilo we did the Pele tour and thoroughly enjoyed it and friends did the snorkelling in Kona and had a great time on that tour.

I do hope your shore days are longer than ours were!

richstacy · #5 (**permalink**) March 4th, 2008, 09:17 PM

Wow, more than 100 days on HAL and I didn't know they had started open dining.

richstacy · #6 (**permalink**) March 4th, 2008, 09:49 PM

DW and I have spent several months on Maui over the years, and have driven over 7,000 miles there, but if you only have one day there you will be hard pressed to get much use out of a rental car. If you tender in to Lahaina that's great, then you could rent and drive north through Kapalua and Napili to the blowhole etc with no problem, but the road between Lahaina and Kahului can get very slow and fairly jammed at rush hour, so be very careful about going in the other direction so as not to miss the ship.

Also if you tender in to Lahaina, (as almost everyone but NCL does) You will have the opion of a whale watching cruise (although April is a little late for that) within walking distance from the tender pier followed by a n interesting walking tour of Lahaina or a short bus ride to whaler's village. Remember "Maui no ka oi' Maui is best!

If You dock in Kahalui, you may be able to drive part way or even all the ay up Haleakala, but you may not have time to go to West Maui, (Lahaina).

In any event enjoy and come back to Maui when you can spend much more time!

Bon voyage