O2bnsxm,

We celebrated both our 40th and our 50th with trips to Hawaii and the 50th included the four island cruise on the Pride of America. It was incredible. On our 50th we went top shelf all the way with 1st class air tix (thanks to AA air miles) and one of the deluxe balcony suites on the ship. It was huge and the private balcony was just that - huge and totally private. We even had our own butler and my DH was totally disappointed when, at the end of the cruise I told him “No! He couldn’t take her home with us!”

But I digress.

We did three nights in HNL before the cruise and booked both the Arizona and a helicopter tour through the hotel concierge desk where we stayed. The Arizona was the most incredible tour I’ve ever done and I highly recommend it. I didn’t really want to do the helicopter tour but in retrospect I’m so glad we did.

I’m a nervous Nelly and was afraid to book many cruise tours on my own, fearing we might end up missing the ship or who knows whatever else might go wrong. We really enjoyed the ‘Road to Hana’ and did the most expensive one because I was leery of being with a bunch of whiners and opted for the smaller group and the more comfortable ride. It was great and I’d do it again in a heartbeat including our lunch at Hana. I know it’s just a road to another beach but it’s incredibly beautiful and our tour guide was the best.

This was pre-Covid and I’m thinking NCL should probably be offering more perks now than we got. It’s been a few years since we did this (56 coming up…..) so things may well have changed but we felt the upgrades on the cruise were well worth the money we paid for them. I’m not a cruise fan but thought this the best way to see more of the islands.

Don’t know if any of this helps but if you have any specific questions I’ll try to answer them.

One other thing we really enjoyed was our trip to the Hawaiian Ccultural Center - again, we upgraded to a deluxe tour and were glad we did. One big mistake we made in town was renting the dream convertible while we were in HNL and would NOT do that again. Once out of HNL and out on the more rural parts of the island it was great but a waste of money in the heavy traffic of HNL. Cabs or the city buses should have been our choice.