Aloha!

Our first port after five sea days was Honolulu.  The islands were visible at some distance around 7 AM.  At first we could see Molokai, and finally Oahu.

At 7:30 AM, Kinoa, the leader of the Polynesian Cultural Ambassadors, started his Sail-In commentary from the Crows Nest.

MOOR AT PIER TWO

I assumed we would be mooring at Aloha Tower and was surprised when we slowly came to a stop alongside Pier 2.  This is normally the pier for NCL’s Pride of America, which suspended operations during COVID but is scheduled to resume its operation as the only US Flagged cruise ship in April 2022 from Honolulu.  I don’t know if other cruise lines will continue to use Pier 2 or return to Aloha Tower.   They are about 1 mile apart, with Pier 2 being closer to Waikiki and other major shopping areas.

Hawaii required us to register with their Hawaii Safe Travels website and HAL verified we had completed this during our San Diego Check-In.  The ship said we should have our paperwork ready, but there wasn’t anyone inspecting arriving passengers, either for agricultural, medical or anything else.

A Ship photographer at the bottom of the gateway is normal, but today they had a large box of flower leis available for using in our photograph.  These leis were made from fresh flowers and were ours to keep after they took our photograph.

WHAT TO DO IN HAWAII

Having lived in Hawaii early in my Navy career, and visited many times over the years, we have compiled a list of our favorite spots to visit, trails to hike or places to eat.  You can find a copy HERE.

Our Plan for today was to rent a car and visit:

• Waikele Premium Outlet Mall in Waipahu – more HERE About Waikele Premium Outlets® – A Shopping Center in Waipahu, HI – A Simon Property
• Dole Pineapple Plantation – A fun plant maze! Pineapple Plantation – Best Attractions in Oahu – Dole Plantation
• Clark Little Gallery in Haleiwa – Great pictures Clark Little Photography, Hawaii | Official Site (also next door to a tourist favorite – Matsumoto Shave Ice)
• Haleiwa Beach House for dinner – Haleiwa Beach House, Hawaiian Seafood, North Shore
• Waimea Bay for sunset photo opportunity on the North Shore – Waimea Bay – Wikipedia

Here is a map that shows the location of the places we visited over our 2-day visit.  This is an embedded Google Map that offers standard Google Map functionality.

DRIVE HUI RENTAL CAR

First things first, find a rental car.  During our past cruise ship visits we would either take a taxi to the airport or Waikiki where the national brands have locations.  Those both involve a certain amount of hassle as we had to take a taxi/Uber to the rental location and then try to find and pay for overnight parking.  During my pre-cruise research I discovered a new (to me) service on Oahu called “Drive Hui”.   Car Rental in Waikiki, Honolulu, Oahu | $10/hr | Free Parking | Cheap | Hui (drivehui.com)

Dive Hui offers cars at Aloha Tower for $10 an hour or $100 a day.  This includes gasoline and insurance.  While this is more expensive than other options, I decided that the convenience was worth the extra expense.  I needed to sign up in advance, send them a copy of my drivers license and I needed to have a smart phone with cell service (and know how to use it for Bluetooth).  My smart phone IS the key to the car and is required to open the doors and start the engine.  The cars are required to have at least a quarter tank of gas when they are picked up and must have a quarter tank of gas when I returned the car.  A DriveHui credit card is in the glove box to purchase gasoline.

Finding the car was easy in the well-marked spots near Aloha Tower.  Opening the Hui app on my phone I could unlock the doors and start the car.  If help was needed, there were representatives immediately available by phone.

HEADING TO THE NORTH SHORE

Our first stop was the Waikele Premium Outlet Mall in Waipahu.  They have a Tommy Bahama outlet store and we found some great shirts and shorts on sale for 70% off full retail price.

The Dole Pineapple Plantation is in the center of the Island and we enjoy stopping by whenever we are in Hawaii to run the maze and see the wide variety of pineapples and pineapple-related products.  We started the maze but it was hotter than expected and our fun factor dwindled.  We decided to abandon the second half of the maze and enter the air-conditioned store to shop.

Clark Little’s Gallery in Haleiwa was our next stop.  Clark Little takes amazing surf photographs – check it out here.  Next to Clark Little’s Gallery, there was a massive line of people.  I decided to see what they were in line for.  It turned out they were in line for Matsumoto’s Shave Ice.  People in line told me it would be about a 30-minute wait but well worth their time and money.    We took a pass but will give it a try next time we visit if the lines aren’t so long.  Others told us there is another place across the street where the lines are shorter but the shave ice is just as good.

We enjoyed a pre-sunset dinner at the Haleiwa Beach House.  The food and service were very good.

After a brief stop at a nearby Surf N Sea Haleiwa to shop for T shirts we headed over to Waimea Bay Beach Park to get the sunset photo seen at the top of this post.  Our timing was perfect and everything worked out – here is the result.  We also saw a Green Flash – which we see frequently when we are at home in Imperial Beach.  More about the Green Flash HERE.

About 1 hour later we parked our car back at Aloha Tower and were soon back on the Zuiderdam.