10 night Vancouver to Honolulu September 2025 - advice needed

[lozzypop]

So, I did a thing. Completely impulsive. After our blow out trip to Disneyland in May, I made the mistake of telling my daughter that we had money left over. And she was jonesing for a cruise. So she goes online and finds a sweet deal on the Hawaii cruise, knowing that we only need to get airfare one way. And I said yes (after thinking about it for a week), so here I am only 69 days out. This isn’t me, I’m an uber-planner.

We’ve never been to Hawaii, but always wanted to go. Can’t get Palo brunch, but I did get excursions booked out of Hilo and Kahului. I figure we can probably wing it in Honolulu, but Kauai is vexing me. A lot of excursions are booked, and the ones that are available are not appealing. My daughter, a marine biologist, wants nothing more than to go to Po’ipu beach for the day, snorkel, and see sea turtles.

Here’s the thing. I am 55 years old and have never rented a car in my life. I figure Kauai is the one place I could probably overcome my hesitation and actually do it for the first time. Would anyone who has rented a car on Kauai be willing to walk me through the steps, from arriving in port to getting back on the ship?

Also, what the heck do we do in Honolulu after Disney kicks us off the boat at 8:30 am until our flight at 10pm? Most people will be doing a post-cruise stay at Aulani, but that’s just not in the cards for us. What do I do with our bags all day? Does anyone have any experience with what worked for them?

 

[JAM9842]

In Honolulu you can also easily rent a car and drive around. When we got to the port our flight wasn’t until that night so we drove to the military cemetery to pay respects to someone who served with my husband and then drove around the island. When we it was time to head to the airport the car drop off was right there. It was very easy. There are so many things to do and see.

 

[CarolynFH]

I agree, in Honolulu rent a car and visit Pearl Harbor and/or the Bishop Museum or the Palace, or drive around the island to see the big surfing waves at the North Shore, visit the Dole Plantation. At Pearl Harbor if the boats to the Arizona Memorial aren’t running on your dates, the exhibits there are worth seeing, and/or you can visit Ford Island and the USS Missouri.

 

[Flossbolna]

From every thing I have read about Oahu and parking cars, it says to not leave anything in the cars as tourist parking lots are often places where cars are broken into. So leaving your luggage in a car at Pearl Harbor might not be a smart thing to do. There is luggage storage at HNL airport and I would very much recommend using that, even if it adds a step.

Alternatively you could look to book a private tour through Get Your Guide or Viator or Tours by Locals. There might very well be tours especially for people coming off cruise ships and having late flights.

 

[dipdotdarlin']

We did a cruise last year which was last minute like yours. We could not book Palo brunch then either. When we got onboard, we went immediately to where they were making Palo reservations. They had reservations open for it and we got one. We will be on the same cruise with you.

 

[o&smom]

Kauai does have Uber in the south shore tourist areas. It is a ways from the port to the airport. Might simplify things and give you more time to not have to deal with getting a rental car. Have a great cruise!

Yes, do NOT leave things in the car at the Pearl Harbor memorial. Most airports have a locker area where you could store your luggage.

 

[Dznypal]

I also recommend getting a locker at the airport in Honolulu--we were on big family vacation stayed a week on maui but flew in and out of Ohau
our flight wasnt until night like most flights from Hawaii
so we took the inter island flight back to Honolulu stored all of out bags and rented 2 jeeps and drove to Pearl Harbor
totally worth it
it is amazing to see it
when we got back my son was studing Peral harbor so he took all the pamplets and explained everything to his classby the time we were done we returned the cars and picked up our things and headed to the gate
time well spent
Enjoy Hawaii--we were just there last year but on the big island Hawaii
it really wasnt to hard or time consuming renting the car and storing luggage

 

[lozzypop]

Thanks everyone.

I do want to rent a car on Kauai. Was hoping someone could walk me through the basic process.

I definitely don’t want to rent a car in Honolulu. I have a lot of anxiety driving in strange places, and the city is too big. Kauai is smaller and comparable to driving conditions at home, which is why I’m wiling to try there.

I know Pearl Harbor is a major attraction, but we won’t be visiting this time.

I guess I have to travel to the airport to store bags, come back into the city and then go back to the airport later?

 

[mousefan73]

So, I did a thing. Completely impulsive. After our blow out trip to Disneyland in May, I made the mistake of telling my daughter that we had money left over. And she was jonesing for a cruise. So she goes online and finds a sweet deal on the Hawaii cruise, knowing that we only need to get airfare one way. And I said yes (after thinking about it for a week), so here I am only 69 days out. This isn’t me, I’m an uber-planner.

We’ve never been to Hawaii, but always wanted to go. Can’t get Palo brunch, but I did get excursions booked out of Hilo and Kahului. I figure we can probably wing it in Honolulu, but Kauai is vexing me. A lot of excursions are booked, and the ones that are available are not appealing. My daughter, a marine biologist, wants nothing more than to go to Po’ipu beach for the day, snorkel, and see sea turtles.

Here’s the thing. I am 55 years old and have never rented a car in my life. I figure Kauai is the one place I could probably overcome my hesitation and actually do it for the first time. Would anyone who has rented a car on Kauai be willing to walk me through the steps, from arriving in port to getting back on the ship?

Also, what the heck do we do in Honolulu after Disney kicks us off the boat at 8:30 am until our flight at 10pm? Most people will be doing a post-cruise stay at Aulani, but that’s just not in the cards for us. What do I do with our bags all day? Does anyone have any experience with what worked for them?

So we did the cruise in 2022 and 2023.
2022 was kind of weird because that was right when they opened post Covid and it was a pain in the butt to get a rental car on Kauai. The airport is relatively close. It’s like a 15 minute drive.Lihue and there are car Rental rentals there the problem is getting to the airport from the port. The island itself is limited on taxis, transfers etc.. so in 2022 my mom and I were having a panic trying to get a cab to take us back to the port when I drop the car off, but it worked out in the end, but I was getting nervous but again that was when things are just open and they were only half back on track with infrastructure. The following year, I said I’m not dealing with that and so I booked a car via Turo. The car was parked on the street literally like a 10 minute walk away from the boat. It worked out really well. We did the same on Maui. You can Google Turo it’s basically like an Airbnb for cars

The beach area your daughter wants to go to his beautiful and it’s actually not that too far from Port and doable. The entire island is really easy to do, though I would be careful heading north of Lort because traffic can be bad. Just need to plan that in. That’s a great beach where your daughter wants to go to we saw a seal swimming between the crowds with a flip-flop he had stolen in his mouth was kind of cute.

Can’t help you with Honolulu though I would recommend definitely staying there a day or two at least the Waikiki Beach area is interesting if you don’t have a car

 

[mousefan73]

I agree, in Honolulu rent a car and visit Pearl Harbor and/or the Bishop Museum or the Palace, or drive around the island to see the big surfing waves at the North Shore, visit the Dole Plantation. At Pearl Harbor if the boats to the Arizona Memorial aren’t running on your dates, the exhibits there are worth seeing, and/or you can visit Ford Island and the USS Missouri.

Honestly, I would maybe do the math and see if it would make sense just to Uber from the port to Pearl Harbor and then from Pearl Harbor Uber back to the airport. Pearl Harbor does have luggage storage. Just make sure you get your USS Arizona tickets online those seem to sell out.

Because once you get into poor, you have to get to car Rental and that’s gonna require an Uber or taxi anyways plus the car rental, which can be pricey now.

If you’re definitely staying in Honolulu with the car Rental need to also consider the cost of overnight parking, which was like 60 a night for us. I drove around for at least an hour trying to look for public overnight parking on the street. You can forget it.