We booked this Hawaii Cruise over a year ago when there was a really good deal. It started departed from San Diego, cruised out to the islands, visited multiple ports and then sailed back to the Mexico and from there back to San Diego.
Departure
We flew out to San Diego two nights before our departure, intending to spend a day in San Diego. Our hotel room looked out over Petco stadium which was always lit up although we never saw any crowds. We took a Hop On, Hop Off bus tour of San Diego which was really interesting. We hooped off in “Old Town” and had lunch at a Mexican restaurant, which was really good.
On departure day, the weather was predicted to be cloudy with rain possible. We lucked out and were able to get on the ship before the rain started.
Getting on the ship was a less than enjoyable experience. We started by trying to get a taxi from the hotel to the dock but it never showed up. Apparently, the area near the hotel is not as safe as it used to be. We were able to get a Lyft and the driver was great. He got us to the pier with no issues. The porters took our luggage and pointed us across the parking lot to the terminal.
This is where things deteriorated. There were no signs and only one person directing people where to go. The line was over 100 yards long, outside the building. Keep in mind that this is a Holland America cruise so the average passenger age is probably in the mid 70s. So the line is full of walkers, wheel chairs, canes and old people. The line moved ahead into the terminal and and dumped us into one of those maze like queues. So we inched forward to the first security check point were the wanted to see identification and a boarding pass. They only had 3 stations checking people so the line was not moving very quickly. Not that having more people would have helped because once we got past the security check, then we queued up for the screening. Despite the huge lines there were only three metal detectors in operation. People were getting cranky because of the delays. Once through the screening then we once again had to show our boarding pass for the Holland people. Then we had to walk to the end of the terminal, out across the parking lot and up into the ship. Normally I do not mind walking but on this trip I was using a cane because my hip was waiting to be replaced.
Unfortunately, the negative client experiences turned out to be much more common than what we have previously experienced on Holland America Cruises.
We unpacked, watched the safety video, checked into our muster station and went up to the Lido deck for a snack. By evening, the ship was loaded and we left port in the rain.
At Sea
For the next 5 days we sailed and sailed and sailed. On previous cruises I would walk the decks a lot and go to the educational programs. Because of my hip I couldn’t walk and there were nothing but promotional presentations. Very disappointing. (Note: On the return trip they did several new ‘EXC’ talks about Hawaii that had just been made available by corporate. These were interesting and would have been nice on the outbound trip.)
Hawaii
Once we arrived in Hawaii our first stop was in Honolulu. We were not able to get any Holland America excursions but Jae was able to get us booked on a tour of the Arizona memorial, the Battleship Missouri and a driving tour of Honolulul. Pearl Harbor was very interesting. We went out to the Arizona Memorial and from there to the Battleship Missouri. I wore out my hip climbing all over the Battleship so it was nice to recover during the driving tour of Honolulu. The history of Hawaii was very interesting.
The next day we sailed to another island (name?). High winds prevented the ship from getting into port for a couple of hours. By the time we got in there were no tours. The port was away from any attractions so we pretty much just stayed on the ship.
The next day we took a tender into port. That was another big fail for Holland America. It took over an hour to get on a tender only to sit outside the harbor for 20 minutes because they do not have adequate shore facilities.
After that we went to Hilo. Here we were able to book a volcano tour. We were able to see a back sand beach, a waterfall, the volcano crater from two angles and a chocolate factory. The tour guide was very good and provided a lot of interesting information about the islands.
The last day was in Kona. We took a tender to shore. Getting to shore was much smoother than previous tendering. We walked around the tourist areas, had a drink and then headed back to the ship. That proved to be another example of Holland inefficiency. Getting on the tender and sailing out to the ship was smooth. Once at the ship we ended up waiting 25 minutes before we could tie up to the ship. Then it took another 20 minutes to unload because of a long line trying to get through a single metal detector.
At Sea and Home
After that it was another 5 days sailing back to the mainland. We stopped in Mexico and never got off the ship. The next morning we were back in San Diego. Getting off the ship worked fairy well and we caught an over loaded shuttle to the airport. The flight home was uneventful.
