Hawaii Cruise

This was the second time on the eclipse and it doesn’t fail to disappoint. The ship was in good shape from the public areas to the cabin. Selected late seating as that was only thing available when booked, the staff wasn’t able to assign a perminate table for two the first night, but they accommodated us the second night and we stayed with the same table for the remaining 10 nights. The head waiter was helping his staff and greeting guests every night.

We found the captain around the ship, he was very visable as well as his senior staff. Entertainment is available in the evenings before and after dinner. The heart of the ship is the Martini Bar and always a great place for a drink. Sky lounge is a nice venue for late night dancing. Casino wasn’t open during the ports days or evenings.

Somethings to do during the days at sea are claim your chair in the saloruim where they also have light breakfast and lunch served. Gym is packed during the morning and early afternoon, plan to work out between 2-4 and 5-8. The Sunset Bar is a great place for an afternoon cocktail and live music on occasional.

A few tips for excursions in the ports of call; Hilo - highly recommend renting a car from Hawaii Jeeps and make sure your a Budget Fast Break customer will save you time. There are a couple highlight must sees; Rainbow Falls, Akaka Falls, Two Step for snorkeling and Valcono National Park.

Maui Hyatt Regency has a Hertz with a free shuttle that will save you time not having to go to the airport. Most popular excursion is the Road to Hana it will take a whole day. I would suggest downloading the GyPSy app and bring an extra phone charger cord. Ohe’o Gulch is not a must do we thought it wasn’t worth the drive.

Kona has a great snorkel at Kahalu’u beach with snorkel rental avalible and accessible by Uber.

Hawaii would not be complete with out a visit to Pearl Harbor, tickets are available online 60 days prior or 24 hours in advance. I would suggest staying in Ko Olina, we stayed at the Marriott Vacation Club and was one of the nicest resorts we have stayed at. Also there is a Four Seasons and Disney has a resort there as well.

If you are not TSA PRE arrive to HNL airport 2 hours early to insure you don’t miss your flight, but if your traveling to another island be sure to look at Hawain Airlines as they mainly do island to island flights regularly throughout the day.

This was a great way to see Hawaii even if you have been before. The ship changes time 1 hour every other day to help get adjusted. 5 days at sea may seem like a lot, but it’s nice to get into vacation mode or unwinding from a jam packed vacation.