We arrived in San Diego several days ahead and stayed across from the cruise pier at the Residence Inn by Marriott. It was fun to wake up with the ship arrived outside of your hotel room window.

With six trips on Holland America ships, including the Nieuw Statendam in 2019, and great memories from previous trips to Hawaii, we thought that this would offer a perfect winter getaway. This round trip from San Diego to Hawaii required seventeen days with only five actually in Hawaii but we hoped to make the most of those by selecting detailed tours several months in advance.

Still, our first indication of a problem occurred a few days before we departed when our trip to the top of Haleakala was cancelled. Not all of the guests were cancelled, just some of them, due to unforeseen capacity issues. And there was no way to replace it with anything similar. We boarded only to find a note in our cabin with a second tour to Kohala cancelled. Again, there was no way to replace it and the folks in guest services seemed unconcerned. A delayed arrival into Nawiliwili Harbor resulted in the cancellation of all longer trips including ours to the Waimea Canyon. Again, we were left with nothing to do and no recourse. All cruise lines face changed and cancelled plans but, in our experience, HAL seems unique in leaving passengers boxed in without any alternate recourse. Read more