Our first port was Maui. It was an overnight port and whale watching was my top priority!
I booked some tours through an off-ship group called Roberts Hawaii. I had seen good reviews and they offered a guarantee to get you to your next port of you missed the ship. My kind of guarantee! They were great and we enjoyed all three tours. We also booked through them for our shuttle to/from the airport and pier.
Our first excursion was sunset at Haleakala Crater. It was a drive to 10,000 feet in elevation to watch the sunset. We left 80+ degree weather and landed in 30 degree weather. It was also a VERY windy road! Our driver gave us such great information about the island during our drive. Unfortuntally it was really cloudy so you couldn't see much.
We could see our shadows on the clouds though so that was fun.
We also had a slight clearing where we could briefly see the crater!
Sadly, just in the last moments of sunset though the clouds rolled in and we were robbed of our photo and viewing opportunity.
I had done plenty of research ahead of time and decided we would do a sunrise whale watching tour through Pacific Whale Foundation on our second day in Maui. This is a non-profit research based company. It was fantastic! I highly recommend this company if you are ever in Maui. We booked through the one in Ma'alaea. Our ship captain and crew were very knowledgable and we saw many whales!
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| Hard to see but that is a dolphin right under our boat |
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| A sea turtle |
I did get a short video that I had hoped to share with you. However, I am having trouble getting it into the blog. I will keep working on it.
I have to put a shout out to William at Maui Taxi for providing our transportation to the whale watching tour. We had to be picked up at the pier at 5:15am. The taxi I had made previous arrangements with was not reliable. I called William at 7:45pm the night before and he was agreeable to meet us at the pier the following morning. I really appreciated it!
Despite our early wake up time after our late bedtime, we hopped on the the bus and went to see some of Lahina, on the other side of the island. It was a beautiful port town and very commercial! Shopping! Shopping! Shopping! There was a Princess ship tendered on that side.
Thankfully we took the early bus back to the ship because road construction turned our hour bus ride into two and a half hours!
On to the next port we go!
You can read more about my Hawaii travel:
Hawaii: All Day Travel
Hawaii: Pearl Harbor - USS Arizona
Hawaii: Pearl Harbor Part 2
Hawaii: Dole Pineapple Plantation
Hawaii: North Shore
Hawaii: The Food
Hawaii: NCL Pride of America
Hawaii: Pride of America - The Entertainment
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