Conference abbott::cruise_travel

    Pam,
    
    I hear it is great; but just a quick word on the Monterey.  It's
    parent company filed for Chapter 11 according to Cruise Travel
    Magazine.  Having spent three years in the islands, we still want
    to go back, and we believe the cruise is the best way to see the
    most of the islands.  With as much as there is to see seven days
    would be hectic.  I would tack on a couple of days in Honolulu at
    a hotel.  This is a good way to see the culture and differences
    of all of the islands.  I am always shocked on how many people go
    to Hawaii and never visit the Big Island, Volcanoe Nat'l Park, Hilo
    & Kona.  Maui and Kauaii are nice, but Hawaii is more than that.
    
    Good Luck
    
    Joe

    
    Pam
    
    	My wife and I took the American Hawaii cruise last October
    	and it was great. We stopped at 4 Islands and had 4 days
    	in Honolulu after the cruise. We booked through American
    	Express travel in Cambridge and they were super. The cost
    	of the trip was $1950.00 per person and that included a
    	2 day side trip to Las Vegas on the way home. 
    
    Bert
    

    Pam
    	About 2 years ago (Jan 1987) my wife and I took the American 
    Hawaii cruise and really enjoyed it.  The positive things were the 
    great food, the ships crew (very friendly), the great weather and 
    the beautiful Hawaiian Islands.   The negative things were that
    the ship was old (built around WWII) and most of the passengers were
    senior citizens (about 85%).
            
    	The cruise people told us that if you take the cruise in the
    summer there are much less senior citizens on the cruise.
    
    	The bottom line is that I would definitely recommand the cruise.
    
    Bob

    Thought I'd open this note up again.  It is now time for us to start
    making decisions on whether we want to go on a Hawaiian Cruise in July
    of 1992.
    
    Has any one else had any personal experiences with the American CRuise
    Line?
    
    We have an agent in Florida that we work with and she usually gets us
    a good group discount.  
    
    Our concern is that after crusing on the Homeric (Now Westerdam) and
    the S.S. Norway, that we will be very disappointed with the ship.
    
    Any updated information?  
    
    Thanks,
    Pam
    
    

    
    I just got a brochure from American Hawaii Cruises in the mail the
    other..I wanted to look into what they had to offer..and i'll be
    truthful, its a little too expensive for me. I can deal with the cruise
    prices, roughly $1,100 for the lowest catagory. But the airfare prices
    getting there, they offer a price in the high $500's from boston is
    putting the cruise out of my financial reach. Its tooooo long a flight
    to only go for 7 days and dropping about $3k in one week isn't quite
    up my alley!...now if i could spend that $3k over 2 weeks time i'd
    be going!...
       But anyways..if you'd like i can send you the brochure..it does have
    some specials...such as..you pay for a top catagory (high $2k's up to
    high $3k's) and you can get some free hotel stays or money
    back...things like that...if your rich..your all set!
    
    al

    My parents went on a Princess Cruise last year, they flew to Pepete
    (sp), sailed from there to another island in that general vicinity, and
    then on to Hawaii (12 or 14 day cruise, I think - you can check a 
    Princess brochure).  As I recall they got a good deal as I was hoping to 
    do that same cruise with my daughter some time.  Might be worth
    checking in to.
    
    Ro
    

    We have a group that is taking the S.S. Independence on July 16-25,
    1992.  That ship is part of the America Hawaii Cruiseline.  I think for
    what we're getting that the price is very reasonable.  We'll be
    stopping at Kauai, Hilo, Kona, and Maui, with departure from Honolulu.
    
    I can hardly wait.
    
    If you want more info, send me a note.
    
    Karen

    Speaking of the S.S. Independence . . .
    
    Has anyone any information about this ship?  
    
    1.  Is it worth the money to spend on getting a cabin with a window?  That
        is, are we going to be able to sight see from our room or is it just
        water we'll be looking at?  
    
    2.  Do they have a Tux Rental place on board, and if so, how much do they
        charge?
    
    3.  How is the entertainment?
    
    4.  From all the cruising experience you have . . . what is a *good* 
        discount rate?  Is 20% a *good* offer?
    
    5.  What ends up being the best deal to take when a travel agency
        offers the following, keep in mind that we will be doing a
        post cruise stay for 4 or 5 days:
    
                o  FREE 2 nt. Waikiki htl. pkg.
                o  $125 per person shipboard credit.
                o  $100 per person cash discount.
    
    6.  Also, what is shipboard credit and when do you use it?  Other
        than receiving credit this way, is there anyother way to obtain
        it? -- whatever it is ;-)
    
    
    adTHANKSvance,
    --Cathleen
    
    

    Shipboard credit can be applied against things you by on board.
    E.g., drinks, sweatshirts, etc. Normally, you would charge these
    items to your stateroom and settle up the last day of the cruise.
    If you have shipboard credit, that amount will be deducted from
    your bill. If you plan on buying anything on board, like drinks,
    the shipboard credit is probably the best deal.
    

    re: .8
    
    
    Cathleen,
    
    Are you booked on the Independence?  When are you planning to go?
    
    Pam

    I'm not booked yet.  I'm just looking right now.  Plans are to cruise
    Hawaii during the month of September during this year.  However, it doesn't
    quite look like we're going to be able to do it.   The cruise starts a 
    little too late for when we would like to go.  And going to Hawaii
    and staying there before we pick up the cruise simply costs way too
    much.  :-(
    
    --Cathleen

    Re: -2
    
    Well, it looks as if we going to do it after all!!!!  We are getting
    married on 9/1/91.  Flying out to Oahu on the 2nd from Logan.
    
    We are booked for the September 7 - 14 cruise on the S.S. Independence.
    
    We'll be staying in Maui for 4 nights and on Waikiki Beach for 1 night
    and the following day we'll get on the S.S. Independence from
    Honolulu's Harbor.
    
    So, my question is:
    
    Is there anybody out there who has been on the S.S. Independence
    lately and if so, can you tell me a little about it?
    
    139 daze en countin'
    --Cathleen
    

    Well, it looks as if there isn't anybody out there who's done this
    lately.  I will have to remember to leave a message about our trip
    when we get back.  That way, you'll all see what a great cruise it
    was and want to go on it yourself :-)
    
    --Cathleen

    Well, our wedding day came and went just like our honeymoon.
    
    I just wanted to put a quick report in here about the S.S. Independence
    and some of it's ports.
    
    The S.S. Independence was a very nice cruise.  However, if it weren't
    for the other several young couples doing up their honeymoons or a few of
    them having an anniversary, the average age on this ship was a mere 
    63 or so.  
    
    My husband and I had a great time.  Lots of Mia Tias!!!!  Lots of food
    that I would rate to be 7 on the scale from 1-10.  The crew was
    absolutely great!  They were VERY helpful and VERY friendly.  I really
    hated to say aloha on the last day with them.  
    
    Yes the ship is rather old, but a very well kept ship.  We chose the
    late seating for dinner.  This worked out swell because it allowed us
    time to get back on ship, take a shower, have a cocktail and go to
    dinner.  I know what people mean when they eat the late dinner they
    haven't an appetite for the midnight buffet!  The ships excursions --
    some of them were worth it and others were not.  We usually booked all
    our own excursions and all worked out great!  
    
    I'll continue this tomorrow . . .

    I can finish this now . . .
    
    Anyway, the S.S. Independence leaves Oahu out of Honolulu.  The first
    island we went to was Kauai.  Kauai is very beautiful.  Some really
    beautiful waterfalls are to be found here, including the waterfall you
    used to see on the opening of Fantasy Island.  I don't have much to say 
    about this island.  In my opinion, it's way overloaded with police. 
    The second island was The Big Island, Hawaii.  Kona is nice (the desert
    side) and Hilo always had some percepitation.  A must to do here is go
    see the volcano, it's still erupting of course.   Definetely spend the
    money and take a ride on a helicopter and hover over the top of it for
    a good birds eye view, spectacular!!  You'll  never believe what you
    are seeing.  Suddenly you'll feel the heat brushing pass you as you sit
    in awe looking at the red hot spewing lava bubbling and spurting
    upward.  You'll see where over 180 homes were distroyed when the lava
    rushed downward and out into the Pacific Ocean. You'll see old cars,
    tops of houses, roads that lead to nowhere now  because lava covers
    their paths.  Truly an awesome sight, this island is still being
    created.
    
    The third island, Maui.  This island was my favorite.  We stayed in
    port over night here.  We also stayed in Maui one week before we picked
    up the S.S. Independence.  The road to Hana . . . switchback roads with
    national parks, waterfalls, etc. along the way.  There are large trucks
    to be careful about; on this road to Hana you will find one lane
    bridges, the oncoming vehicles SHOULD yield, however those big trucks 
    don't care about you and your little vehicle and drive like they own
    that road!  Once you enter Hana, you'll kinda wonder why you drove all
    that way.  However, it's definetely worth it.  Keep on that road and
    you will hit the Seven Sacred Pools soon.  Very nice.  If you have a
    jeep and it is dry season, you might want to consider driving the back
    road in Upcountry Maui.  Becareful here 'cause black angus are
    everywhere.  You might even come upon some horses.  I mention dry
    season.  Hawaii's wet season is our winter here on the mainland.  You
    will not want to drive that back road, or jeep road unless it's dry 
    season.  You will eventually cross over river beds.  Driving over them
    while they were dry was bad enough.  One could only imagine the size
    of the river that would flow through there during wet season.
    
    Another thing to do on Maui is SNORKLING!  Great snorkling!  If you
    can, I think Molokini is a great spot.  You'll have to get over there
    by boat.  There are many places to book with.  We never made it over to
    this little marine life island, but from what I read and heard, if
    you're into it, do it. You will want to catch the Haeleahkala (sp)
    crater, Maui's dormant volcano.  Catch the sunrise up there.  Make sure
    you get up early enough to allow yourself time to drive 10,000 feet
    above sea level and be there before the sun rises.  We got up around
    2:30am to drive up there.  What a sight!!!!  This place is one of the
    seven wonders of the world.  Lahaina is nice.  Walk along Front Street,
    lots of little shops and whatnot, and stop at Burger in Paradise for
    something to  eat.  They have great burgers there.  I could go on and
    on about this island.  It's a must when you're in Hawaii.
    
    Our last stop was back on Ohau.  I really hated to end this uplifting
    journey of ours.  But, hopefully, we'll be back there soon.
    
    
    --Cathleen
    
    
    The next island 
    

My S.O. and I are scheduled to go on an American Hawaii cruise from Oct. 24-31.
We are taking the Constitution, which WAS to have spent two days on Kauai.
However, our travel agent received a fax from them saying that they are bypassing
Kauai and spending extra time at the Big Island and Maui.

I suppose it's possible that enough services will be restored on Kauai by the
end of October that the ships will put in there again, but I'm not expecting
that to happen.  They say they'll keep us informed, so we'll see...

							-- Nina

P.S. I'll be disappointed if we can't see Kauai, but on the other hand, it gives
us an excuse to go back to Hawaii another time! :-)

    Nina,
    
    Will look forward to reading your trip report.  Haven't heard of anyone
    who has taken the American Hawaii cruise recently and it is one I've
    always wanted to go on.  They also have deals where children under 16
    cruise free (airfare not included) which is important to us.
    
    Thanks,
    
    Ro
    

I'll try to remember to post a report when we get back... :-)

My mom and grandmother went on an American Hawaii cruise two years ago and had
a great time.

							-- Nina

    There has not been many entries about Hawaiian cruies of late. Has
    anyone been recently?

    I am booked on a Princess cruise for Feb 1996 cruising around the
    islands and back across to Ensenada. This is a 10 day cruise.  I hope
    it is going to be great.  I got a great rate by booking this far in
    advance.
    
    Joe

Shame on me for not posting a trip report after my cruise on the American
Hawaii ship Constitution in late October of 1992 (ref. a couple of replies
back).

I don't have time to post a lengthy report, but the upshot is that we had a
very good time.  The American Hawaii ships are small compared to the 
superliners you always hear about, but they were - or, rather, the one we
were on was - perfectly nice.  The food was good, and plentiful; they had
a nice breakfast buffet on deck (better selection than the breakfast buffet
on the Carnival Fantasy, on which we cruised over this past Christmas).
And the fresh pineapple was awesome! :-)

The Constitution also served the best Mai Tai I've had to date. :-)

We didn't get to go to Kauai because of the recent hurricane, so we spent
extra time on Maui and the Big Island, as I mentioned in .16.

We spent another week in Hawaii after our one-week cruise.  The cruise was
great for giving us an "overview" of the islands (except for Kauai :-( ), so
we were better able to decide where we wanted to spend our time the following
week.  (We hadn't made any advance reservations for that period, but we didn't
have any problem finding places to stay.)

You do feel the motion more than on the bigger ships, of course, but our
trusty meclizine took care of that for us and we had no problems.

I'd recommend an American Hawaii cruise.

-- Nina

We just returned from a wonderful trip on the Constitution. I 
would have to ditto most of what has be said already. Its was a 
great way of getting an "overview" for this 1st timer to the 
islands.

If I had it to do over again I would stay an extra week on one
of the Islands. I would not stay in Honolulu however. Honolulu 
and the Waikiki area is just another concrete eye sore that
happens to have a nice beach. If I stayed on Oahu I would head
straight for the windward or north shores. Hilton has what
appeared to be a nice tennis/golf resort at turtle beach (the
point that separates the windward coast (east) from the north
shore).

American Hawaii used Avis as its rental car company. We were 
able to book directly with Avis using the Digital rate. We had
six people in our party and a full size was about $37 a day 
booked direct vs $49 via the ship. I made the 1st arrangment at 
the dock on Kona (An Avis agent was there), then reserved one 
for our next stop when I dropped off the car(s).

Things to do the ship excursion counter won't tell you about,
or will have a tour that will cost dearly:

Kona: Rent a car and drive south on rt 11. We found the Puuhonua
      O Honaunau National Historical Park wonderful.

Hilo: Rent a car and drive to Volcanoes National Park or the 
      Kalapana area (lava flows and black sand beachs).

Maui: Rent a car and visit the old whaling town of Lahaina. We 
      went parasailing here on the spur of the monent, it was    
      great!, and less expensive than booking it thru the ship.

Kauai: There is a beach within walking distance of the dock if   
       your tired of touring.

Oahu: If offered take the shipboard credit not the two/three 
      night stay in Waikiki. Rent a car and drive rt 61 from 
      Honolulu to the windward coast then on around the island.  
      Outstanding vista from the Pali lookout of the windward    
      coast. Lots of beach's!         


We did sign up for two of the ship arranged packages:

The 1st was the Luau at the Hyat Kaanapali, it was a great show 
and the roast pig was pretty good. 

The 2nd was the tour around the Haleakala volcaneo. 
This tour was by van and went thru the rain forests on the
windward side via 600+ curves to Hana then on around the 
semi-arrid south coast. This tour was outstanding! They had a 
heavy rain the night before and the waterfalls along the road
to Hana where great. Our tour guide also knew which dirt roads to 
slip onto for the best photo taking views, not that views from
the main road were not wonderful.

We decided to take the tour instead of renting a car when we 
found out the rental places, including Avis, would not permit you 
to drive the south coast of the island due to bad roads (did I 
say roads, I mean goat trails along the cliffs) and falling 
rocks. In fact the only traffic on the road past the seven pools 
area where rental cars violating their agreements! 

If you want to rent a car and do the drive to Hana/seven pools 
yourself I would recommend you pick up a Maui self guide tour 
book ($6 at most shops including Kmart on Maui) and an audio tour 
tape ($20 at the shell station near the Kmart or call 871-6339) 
before leaving the the Kahului area. Avis also has "Drive Guides"
for each island at its counters and the ships excursion counter. 

Schedule:

1st Night	Spent at sea, travel to Kona on the Big island. 
1st Day 	Arrival at Kona around 1pm
2nd Night	Anchored in Honokohau Bay, Kona
2nd Day		Depart Kona a 2PM and travel to Hilo.
3rd Night	Spent at sea, Past the lava flows about 11pm.
3rd Day		Arrived at Hilo by 8AM and depart at 6PM.
4th Night	Spent at sea, travel to Maui
4th Day		Arrived at Kahului Maui by 8AM
5th Night	Spent in port at Kahului
5th Day		Spent in port at Kahului, depart at 6PM.
6th Night	Spent at sea, travel to Kauai.
6th Day		Arrived at Nauiliwili port near Lihue by 8AM, 	
		 departed for Oahu at 6PM.
7th Night	Spent at sea. arrived at Pier 10 by 8AM.
7th Day		Arrived at Pier 10 by 8am and had to be off the
		 ship by 9:30AM.

p.s. The Constitution will enter dry dock in July 1995 for 12
months of remodeling. Thus American Hawaii will only have one
ship in operation during that time.