Hi all,
What a wonderful thing this forum is everyone has given such great advise. I%26#39;ve been reading these topics for 6 months now and booked our trip last month. Thanks to everything I read we booked the Outrigger waikiki, party of 12- 4 rooms, you see I am celebrating my 50th birthday and my first trip to Hawaii.(I%26#39;m so excited) I booked the ocean front room, but we have a city view a partial ocean and a ocean view. for October 11-18.
My question is do I wait till I get over there to buy tours or do I purchase them ahead and if you say to purchase ahead through who do I book. The adventures we would like to do is sunset dinner cruise, germaines luau, polynesian culture center, pearl harbour, circle island, blue hawaii show, society of 7 show, and of course my husband to golf a couple of times(should he take his clubs or rent them over there?) Friends went last year and they tell me to wait because at the orientation breakfast you get coupons and discounts. Does anyone know if this is true?
To all of you thanks for all the advice you have given in the past and I know you%26#39;ll have great replies to this. looking forward to your thoughts. So thank you in advance!!!!
Tours, purchase ahead or wait till we get there?
I haven%26#39;t gone yet, so I can%26#39;t say for sure if you should wait or not.
But based on my limited experience, I would look at Tom Barefoot%26#39;s Cashback Tours to get discount tours. They seem to have good prices and seem to come highly recommended. I booked a few tours with them and the service so far has been good.
See http://www.tombarefoot.com/index.html.
Tours, purchase ahead or wait till we get there?
I would book ahead. I have been twice now and each time I thought that we would just book when we got there. Neither time did we do so. We got distracted and did our own thing. Which was good, but then we come home thinking ';I should have done.......'; At least if you book ahead, you know you are going to do it.
Booking ahead depends on 3 factors. Major holiday, impacted tours/events, and experience/preference. We can rule out no major holiday for Oct. 11th-18th. You have a week to shuffle around your agenda, if necessary, to flex-adjust for some of the tours/events mentioned. I would call up the concierge services and talk with them about this before you get here for that orientation speech intro.. (Outrigger.com) Are you taling about the hotel%26#39;s golf package (unlimited rounds) or the daily (one free round) golf inclusive? Need to clarify and check with Outrigger. Hubby will be golfing out at Coral Creek Golf Course in Ewa Beach. (coralcreekgolfhawaii.com). Call them too about rental clubs. Personally, I would skip the dinner cruise and opt for dinner at the Hanohano Rm. at the top of Sheraton or go with John Dominis on the waterfront. Food will be much better with spectacular nightlights views. I would replace Germaines with Royal Hawaiian Luau. Luau food is an aquired taste to most. Entertainment, service and surrounding environment is much better. You can walk to it via the beach or the street option. It%26#39;s just a few hotels away. Grab some ice cream at the Hale Koa on the way back walk to the Outrigger. SOS (Society of Seven) is headlining downstairs in the main showroom of your hotel. Can%26#39;t see you getting bumped off of that, as you would have preference in your own hotel. Call them for some answers. Hawaii time is now 3 hours behind Reno time. Also that week, there%26#39;s the Waikiki Artfest (free) happening at Kapiolani Park from 9am-4pm. Ocktoberfest will be happening at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. Hope this helps...
I would book everything the first day you are there. You can find plenty of coupons for tours and other stuff. I went to germaines luau and had a lot of fun. I was thinking of going to the Royal hawaiian luau but it was $30 more per ticket.
Thanks for the replies. No I didn%26#39;t book the golf package with the hotel as hubby is the only one to golf. Didn%26#39;t think it was worth it.
What is the difference in the luau%26#39;s from what i read the Royal Hawaiian is so much more expensive, but I do like the idea of it being so much closer.
You say peronally you wouldn%26#39;t take the dinner cruise is there a reason?
Again thank you for the help....
You might try a search w/this question. Seems to me there was the same discussion a little while back. I think the gen%26#39;l concensus tho was that if it is something you definitly want to do, and can%26#39;t miss, then book it before leaving home. Otherwise, book once on the island to take advantage of discounts/coupons and etc.
On the sunset dinner cruise, some like them some don%26#39;t. We did one once--and it was ok. If we did it again we%26#39;d take the more expensive package just to get away from the packed-in-like- sardines diners. It wasn%26#39;t the most romantic being herded on and off the boat and being elbow to elbow w/people we didn%26#39;t know. Just my opinion, I could be wrong!
Oh, as for the golf...I%26#39;d say if you%26#39;re husband is a really avid golfer than bring his clubs. Otherwise, if he may only golf once it may be easier, luggage-hauling wise, to rent.
wow, paridisetreker, you know your stuff! I agree, oct is a really uncrowded time, and there should be availability for the tours that you want - although if there%26#39;s something that can%26#39;t be missed, I%26#39;d book it in advance (thru the hotel concierge, if possible) and find out about the tour cancellation policy - in case you change your mind.
in my experience, there are 2 components to a hawaiian vacation:
1- the wonderful, exciting and obsessive planning process.
2- arriving in hawaii, and discarding 90% of the travel plans and doing what you feel like, when you feel like.
and it%26#39;s GREAT.
Do not book ahead, nor at the orientation breakfast. Go to your concierge desk at the hotel, and they will accomodate you perfectly! I would suggest that your husband rent his golf clubs there, that way, they will not ';get lost'; in route.
You will love the Blue Hawaii Show!! The ';elvis impressionist'; is really great!!
The Navatek 1 Sunset Buffet Dinner Cruise is really good too!! You will enjoy the Circle Island Tour, Pearl Harbor, etc..!! You will fall in love with Hawaii!!
Alooooohhhhaaaa!!
Gloria
Aloha Suziflo,
We have just returned from our 12 nights in Waikiki.....it was our second trip to the Islands
We pre-booked most of our tours directly with the tour company on the internet before we left. They offer a discount if you book well in advance and at least you can secure the day you want to do your tour.
We used Polynesian Adventure Tours to book our Oahu Grand Circle Island, One day trip to Big Island Hawaii Volcano adventure %26amp; one day trip to Kauai Waimea Canyon. They were all excellent tours
www.polyad.com
If you want a really good tour of Pearl Harbour, I recommend Roberts of Hawaii ';Stars %26amp; Stripes'; tour. We did this the first trip to Hawaii %26amp; again on this trip and it is also excellent
www.roberts-hawaii.com
They take you to Pearl Harbour, USS Missouri for guided tour on the ship %26amp; to Punchbowl National Cemetery of the Pacific.....not just a drive through but a full narrated tour of the cemetery %26amp; history. Roberts Hawaii is one of only 2 tour companies allowed to actually stop %26amp; tour inside the cemetery and it is very informative.
We did Germaine%26#39;s Luau and had a great time. It cost $58 for return bus transport, dinner %26amp; show and 3 drink vouchers, which could be used for Mai Tai%26#39;s, Blue Hawaii%26#39;s or beers. If you buy the souvineer glass for $7 which is bigger than the cup they give you, they will refill your glass with the drink voucher (much better value). The show was great, entertaining and they really get the audience involced in the whole night. We thoroughly enjoyed the whole night. We didnt pre-book Germaine%26#39;s we just booked this through our tour desk the day before we wanted to go......no problems in getting in the next day.
Mahalo %26amp; have a fantastic holiday
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