Hawaii Honeymoon Help Please!
 

My fiance and I are strongly considering the Pride of Hawaii cruise with an additional 3-4 days on Oahu for our honeymoon next August 27-September 6. We got engaged on a cruise and neither of us have been to Hawaii so we'd like to explore the islands cruise-style.

I've read quite a few postings and have very mixed feelings about our plans. I'd appreciate any thoughts/suggestions you have about:

-The Pride of Hawaii cruise for a honeymoon: is it couple friendly or occupied primarily by families with kids?

-Where is the best place for a couple to stay in Oahu? We'd like a place that is close to the beach and within walking distance to the hotspots.

-For our honeymoon we're looking for adventure and relaxation. What can we do to have a balance of both on each island?

-Is it absolutely necessary to rent a car on every island?

Thanks so much!

I saw on your other post that you're coming round to the idea that a cruise isn't the ideal way to see Hawaii.

I definitely recommend staying on one or two islands. For adventure you could hike around the active volcano on Big Island and relax on the beaches of any of the islands...

Stay in Waikiki, any hotel will be close to the beach and hotspots. You don't need a car on Oahu.

If you can at all afford it I'd ditch the ship and concentrate on one or two islands as mentioned above. Check out the ship's reviews on www.cruise-addicts.com and www.cruisecritic.com, not the message boards but the actual reviews. I have a friend that took the Pride of Aloha and he's sworn off NCL. There is a huge influx of employees walking off the ship and you can see when the problems are by checking the dates of the reviews.

If you are trying to balance your budget I'd consider using Priceline or Hotwire for hotel stays, you can see a list of winning bids at www.biddingfortravel.com for Priceline.

Honestly Hawaii is too beautiful to experience by ship alone, there's nothing like the smell of the fresh flowery air. While the cruise is more economical I think you'd be missing out on a lot by only staying in one port for 10 hours per day visiting several islands. Hope this helps.

I'd stay a week on Oahu, and a week on Maui. For sure a car on Maui, optional on Oahu.

Do you absolutely want to cruise?
I would fly to one island, stay and relax a few days, and then go to another. I whole-heartedly agree with the above post, Hawaii is not the place where you would want to run around for a few hours and have to meet the deadline of getting back to a ship. I think you'd have a much better time ditching the cruise.

Thanks for the suggestions. We really appreciate it.

For our stay in Oahu we're considering the Hilton Hawaiian Village or Waikiki Beach Marriot. Which would you recommend for best location and ideal for honeymooners?

ooo good choices. I think most people will tell you the Hilton Hawaiian Village. I guess it depends; HHV is more expensive than the Marriott. But the setting is much more romantic. You can go watch Jerry Santos perform on Friday/Saturday nights. There's fireworks every Friday night off the HHV. and, it's right on the beach.

It can pretty congested in Waikiki, if you don't mind it being a little busy we stayed at the Hilton HV and enjoyed it. Watching the penguins was the best attraction for us. We are more quiet types so we stay away from the city, usually at the Ihilani or the Turtle Bay hotels.

Ps, I also wanted to tell you that I love cruising and have been quite a few cruises but for Hawaii I just feel it's better done by land. If you decide it's too costly to stay on both islands by land I would consider another cruise line that departs from Hawaii. Surprisingly many of the foreign registered cruise lines have equal prices for 10 - 14 nights as an NCL 7 night cruise. I'm doing the Carnival Spirit Hawaii in late April for 12 nights $1149 per person. We are going to disembark in Hawaii and just pay the $350 per person penalty. It still ends up being cheaper than the NCL ship.

You can always go on a Hawaii cruise, but this is your honeymoon. Do you want to walk hand-in-hand on the beach at sunset, sleep to the sound of the waves, smell the flowers and hear the birds? Forget the cruise. Find a beachfront hotel. For your honeymoon, it's far far better than a stinky old cruise ship filled with drunks.

So...twinkee, are you going to cruise for sure? And, are you married to the idea of NCL? I will admit, I don't know much about the price differences between cruise lines although I work right here at the pier where you will disembark.

I'm looking at the cruise ship schedule for 2007 and in August, your only cruise line choice is NCL (unless you take the Regal Princess). In September, you have a choice of NCL, Princess, or the Royal Caribbean lines.

I've sailed on the Pride of Hawaii and it is a VERY nice, new ship. However....the food was not that great! I think the passengers are a wider range than other cruise lines, though. For example--Holland America lines' average passenger age is often 71! So if you're looking for more people your age, NCL would be the one. Or, you could join travelinwifey on the Carnival Cruise, those people tend to be younger.

Aw Melissa:) Unfortunately that sailing is mostly sold out at this point. Good choices you mentioned for a Sept. cruise, I bet Princess would be nice. There's a group going from another cruise website for the April cruise. Knowing this crowd it will be wild! It's our first time on Carnival. Really the only reason we chose a cruise was the chance to see a lava flow from Hilo. I prefer the land as mentioned but wanted to mix it up for a try:) You're lucky you get to live in paradise. My spouse's best friend lives there too and he is here visitng us in Las Vegas for Thankgiving, isn't Las Vegas Hawaii's 6th (or 7th) island?:D

I would strongly recommend NOT going on cruise around the Hawaiian Islands, mainly because your freedom of choice in tours and activities dwindles to the point of being non-existent. It is not too bad for the stops in O’ahu, but it gets pretty difficult for the other islands, especially Kaua’i (trying to get transportation to and from Nawiliwili pier is a major pain). What happens is that many of the tours are either not able to pick you up from the pier itself, and there goes some of your valuable time being wasted at a rental car counter, or they will not be able to get you back in time for the ship’s departure. Instead of being able to find tours and activities on your own, i.e. online, through guidebooks, etc…, you will end up having to purchase them through the ship’s concierge since they contract out tours tailored to the time constraints of shipboard guests, but these tours are also ridiculously over priced in comparison to comparable tours.

If you are planning on staying at the Hilton Hawaiian Village (a great honeymooning hotel by the way. It has a lot of nice little places to meander around to and the random penguins and turtles are a nice treat) while on O’ahu, you may want to try to go on the Atlantis Submarine Dive if you have a chance (the pier is located right on the beach in front of the hotel). You are underwater for about an hour and it is just a really cool experience :-D Also Oahu Nature Tours provides some really nice hikes and they pick up directly from your hotel also. Actually, all tours on O’ahu that provide transportation pick-up from there so at least you won’t have to worry about being stranded (^_^) My boyfriend and I just went on a tandem parasail and jet-ski combo with X-Treme Parasail and that was really amazing. Being like a 1000 feet up in the air with your hunny by your side is way awesome and the view is just incredible! Those would be my recommendations for the “adventure” part of your stay, as for the “romance”, I think you can probably figure that out between the two of you ;-)

Stay on land and pick a couple of islands.

Both HHV & Waikiki Marriott are nice. HHV is better.

But there are lots of other chi=oices, especially if you are on any kind of a budget.

Lots to do on Oahu:

http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...p;tid=34812564

www.visit-oahu.com Free brochure. They have over 400 websites of hotels, condos, restaurants & attractions in the brochure & on the site.

www.visitmaui.com free brochure

www.mauihawaii.org

www.bigisland.org free brochure

www.kauaidiscovery.com free brochure

www.kauai-hawaii.com

Get all of the brochures you can & then make a decision about a cruise or staying on land & what islands to choose.

In about 10 days, you have time for two islands.

I am from Hawaii, Oahu to be precise, and can tell you Oahu is the best bang for your buck. Diamond Head, Honolulu, North Shore, Lanikai Beach, Chinatown and plenty of others all within a 45 mile radius. Come on! The other islands do NOT compare.

twinkee- Did you decide to go on the cruise or visit the island(s) on your own?

To be completely honest, the purpose of my original posting was not to decide whether or not we should take the cruise but rather to get thoughts about the specific questions I had posted and feel better about our plans.

I have always found the forum to be helpful (particularly you suze--we had a great time in Puerto Vallarta thanks to your helpful tips) and really appreciate the suggestions that frequent vacationers post. In this case, there are sentimental and practical reasons as to why we'd like to cruise Hawaii for our honeymoon. We live in California so Hawaii is close and convenient for future trips. We know we will go back to Hawaii after our honeymoon and will spend more time on the islands then. Perhaps for our anniversaries!

Our honeymoon is booked and I think we're set. I'm sure everyone's tips will come in handy at some point or another. Thanks!