If you’re just joining us, we have been recounting our Hawaii Cruise on the Norwegian Cruise Line’s Pride of America! Read about Part 1, Part 2, or Part 3 here!
As the sun came up we were on to another Island: Kauai. Neither one of us had been here and we had big plans to check it out. We were so excited to try somewhere new! We rented a car and planned to drive to see as much of the island as we could and then return to do a “Resort For a Day”.
The ship doesn’t arrive in Kauai until around 10am so we did the usual that morning. We went to the gym, back-of-the-ship-breakfast, and then got ready to head into port.
Sitting on the balcony waiting to get to Kaui after breakfast:
Once we came into port we got off the ship ASAP hoping to make the first rental car shuttle. Kauai is set up awesome for car rentals. You walk out of the port building and they have a place marked on the ground where you should line up to get a rental car shuttle. It is so so easy. On the shuttle we were seated near another couple who stated they had been to Kauai before and it had chickens everywhere. We thought that was a strange thing to remember, but they were 100% right. They were EVERYWHERE.
We got to our rental car easily and headed on our way. We turned left out of the airport and headed north to check out some sights in the northern part of the island. We ended up in a place called Hanalei. It has a beautiful mountainous landscape.
After we drove around for a while we stopped off at the Hotel we had rented through Resort for a Day. If you are unfamiliar with this company it is a website that sells day passes to resorts at different cruise ports. The website is of the same name, http://www.resortforaday.com. They have locations at several ports of call. We have used them in St. Thomas, Grand Cayman, and now Kauai. I would be happy to use them in any port they have a site. Which resort amenities you can use depends upon the resort but the “pass” provided by the website spells it out in great detail. One of the drawbacks to Resort for a Day is that at some locations the person at the front desk of the resort is confused and has to ask someone else (manager) if that is a real thing. Once they get it figured out though, you are free to use whatever amenities available to the pass. At this resort (Aqua Kauai Beach Resort) you can use the pools, beach, you have towel usage (don’t have to bring cruise towels) and a 30$pp food credit. This credit cannot go toward alcohol but you can get lunch. Also, the front desk told us we were allowed to stay and use the amenities until the pool closed. It as $79pp for the pass, but $30 of that was toward food so its a pretty good deal at this resort. The resort is easy to find and not that far from the port if you decided to take a cab here instead of renting a car. The pools are very nice and had good chairs to sit in and it was very un-crowded. We felt like we were almost alone there. We ate lunch and it was very good AND covered 100% by the credit!
We stayed there until probably 5:30pm and then decided to head back toward the port. We wanted to go to Duke’s again because momma needed some Hula Pie ;), so we headed to the Marriott where Dukes is located (www.dukeskauai.com). They have valet parking you can use at the resort and there is valet down at the restaurant itself (it is really close to the port).
Outside Duke’s on the Marriott Property 
Inside Duke’s Restaurant
After dinner we headed back to the ship. We had rented the car overnight…so that brings up the question: What does one do with a rental car overnight when staying on a cruise ship? Luckily there are several places nearby set up for that very thing! Very close to the port (walking distance) there is space on the street to park for free along the shoulder. I was worried about doing this but when we pulled up several other families and couples were parking their rental cars in this location. Here is a daytime picture of that to help you visualize it. Imagine parking a car you “borrowed” on the shoulder of this street. I promise, it’s commonly done here and at night there were tons of cars outside the line.
The large shoulder on the right between the road and the sidewalk is an acceptable place to park. The shuttle driver told us this and also we left the car there and it survived!
There are also two shopping centers near by that are less than a mile or 2 but also offer a shuttle back to the port. They charged 20$ for overnight cruise parking.
Anchor Cove – $20.00 overnight parking 
Harbor Mall – $20.00 overnight parking
The next morning we got up and walked out after breakfast hoping our rental car was still there parked on the shoulder. Good news…it was! We hopped in the car and headed out in the opposite direction from yesterday. We were going to Waimea Canyon (https://hawaiistateparks.org/parks/kauai/waimea-canyon-state-park/). We followed the directions on the phone GPS and it took us up a long and winding scenic road. It was a beautiful drive. Yet another time that a convertible might be a good choice for this trip. If you like the wind in your hair a jeep or convertible is the way to go to enjoy the great weather and the breeze.
It was so beautiful near Waimea Canyon and we are glad we got up early to check it out. We didn’t want to wait too long to return the car because the ship left in the early afternoon. We headed to the rental place, turned in the car and took the shuttle back to the ship. Then we boarded the ship the last time. 😦 We decided it was lunch time so we tried the Cadillac restaurant. It is supposed to be similar to O’sheehans on the other Norwegian ships and has a relatively similar menu (for those unfamiliar with O’Sheehan’s, it is mainly bar-type food). We both felt like it wasn’t quite as good as the normal O’sheehans. It has a 50’s dinertheme. It did have outdoor seating so we appreciated that. We loooove a good outdoor meal!
After lunch, we went to the room to get started on one of our least favorite ship activities: packing to go home. We like to get it done early so the rest of the afternoon and evening is free. It was especially important today because this afternoon we had plans. There was a latitudes event on the bow of the ship before the Napali coast line sail-by. This means it was a rare opportunity to experience sail-away from the very front of the ship!!
At the appointed time we grabbed our tickets (they do check these) and headed to the front of the ship. We have never been on the bow of the ship so we were pretty pumped. It was a nice party. Not too crowded and they had champagne and mimosas. I was able to get one of the servers to get me a cup of just orange juice…since my condition left me alcohol free 🙂
For the Napali coast sailing we chose to stay on our own balcony because it was port side. We knew this was going to do a nice “drive-by” of the Napali Coast. The cruise line provides informational narration which can be heard on deck 6 or on the stateroom TV. Our TV was on an arm that allowed it to be pulled out onto the balcony and we could hear the narration from there. It was a nice afternoon sailing through beautiful scenery. What and unforgettable experience.
We originally had Jefferson’s Bistro booked for tonight but we decided we didn’t want to go there again. We couldn’t change our reservation at Cagneys so we decided to try our luck at the MDR. We headed to Skyline and got a seat by the window. We ended up having a fabulous dinner! Our waiter was really good and he even brought me something that wasn’t on the menu (macaroni and cheese). It was a good way to end our cruise meals. After dinner we went to the “gone in 60 seconds” game show. It is similar to the show from TV minute to win it. People did silly tasks and tried to complete them within one minute. It was pretty silly and fun. We headed back to the room for the last time 😦
The next morning we woke up back in Oahu. We debarked from the ship carrying off our own luggage. If I remember correctly we left the ship around 8 am. Our flight out of Honolulu was not until 10:00 pm that night, so we needed something to do the entire day. The cruise line does offer post-cruise excursions…where they take you sight seeing or something of the like and then drop you of either at the airport or a hotel. While those sounded enticing, we wanted to be able to shower and relax before our long journey home, so we splurged big time. We ended up booking a room at the Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort & Spa (https://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/hnlmc-waikiki-beach-marriott-resort-and-spa/).
This ended up being a great decision! We took a taxi from the port and arrived at the hotel at approximately 8:45 am. We were immediately able to check into our room and then went to check out the breakfast buffet. The buffet was crowded but really good! After the buffet we went to the pool until it started to rain. We then walked to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch. After lunch we went back to our room and watched TV until it was time to pack up and head to the airport at around 7:00 pm.
Staying at the hotel all day was a relaxing way to end our trip, I would recommend anyone who has to kill a whole day before the late night flight home to consider renting a hotel room. I know, i know…it sounds totally crazy. But any other adventure pre-flight home would also be expensive, and this allowed us to relax and to shower before heading our long flight home.
Overall, we had an amazing trip! One of the main bonuses of this cruise is that there was so much time in each port. On many cruises, your port time can be short, but there were multiple overnights and plenty of time to explore on this ship. Stay tuned to hear more about the ship itself!!
More pictures from our room.
Lux Travel for Families 
Beautiful!
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