They really know what they're doing in Vancouver to make embarkation as easy and as painless as possible. Think i messed up by calling this the first port and now it's too much to redo it. Have to say the real last port was Honolulu and while it sucked our 2 days on our own after leaving the ship were excellent in Waikiki before flying home on the red eye.....don't do a late night flight; it's a killer after becoming so spoiled on a 12 day cruise!
The only inexpensive thing to do was take the free shuttle to Hilo Hatties which was about a 30 - 40 min.bus ride each way and apparently $70 if you miss it and need to come back in a taxi.Less than an hour there was not enough time to check out the other stores in the shopping center and i was afraid to even wait in a lineup at Starbucks. Found out too late theres a nice beach within walking distance of the ship. Second day rented a car in order to go to Lahaina as that's the in place.Found out again too late that many people could share the taxi ride or rental car but at the time did not know the ropes. Live and learn; i still love Maui but not as much as my new favourite Oahu.
Kauai was not prepared for us but had a good rustic old fashioned farmers market with interesting handmade items otherwise not a great place to spend the day with nowhere to sit and rest. It was long walk to get a cab but where's all the nice hotels, scenery and shopping?
Tenders were late and slow coming and going to drop us in Kona which used to be a favourite place but we were nowhere near that part of Kona and too far to walk without enough time to go for it. Been there done that to the volcano so didn't want to pay to see it again.
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