You save money on meals and nighttime entertainment, but pricey shore excursions can add up quickly.
As such, many of us choose low cost alternatives when in ports, like the Hoppa-On/Hoppa-Off bus in Hilo, which for $20 will take you to a waterfall, historic sites, shopping and a black sand beach.
The highlight for us is always Richardson Beach Park, one of the last stops to Hoppa-Off. When it rains, as it does pretty much every day somewhere in Hilo, there are still lots of colorful fish to be seen, and since you're going to be wet anyway, what difference do some raindrops on your back make?
When the lighting is bright, the snorkeling at this black sand beach can be pretty much as good as anywhere in the world. There are also turtles to be seen at a nearby cove, if not swimming with you, and some decent surf just outside of the sheltered snorkel spot.
With visiting our undersea friends a primary reason for cruising Hawaii, Julie thought it might be best to just take an Uber directly to Richardson Beach this time, so that we could maximize our visit.
Aboard Star Princess on our way across the Pacific, we attended an interesting presentation about volcanoes by naturalist Don Hellstern, including photos from the dramatic eruption of Mount Kilauea that added over 875 acres to the Big Island since our last visit. That major discharge of lava certainly had created a lot of angst for one couple who had booked their cruise just before the lower Puna breech on May 3, 2018, began oozing flaming red lava that wiped out houses in its path.
A few months back, some clients asked about this impacting a cruise they were considering. "Would the cruise go, and if it did, would it be safe?" I asked myself and Princess Cruises.
Their cruise wasn't scheduled to leave until October, and we assured them that was a long time in the future. Besides, Kilauea has been active for decades. This just happened to be a bigger tantrum than usual by the Hawaiian goddess Pele.
Their cruise went as scheduled, as most did. In fact, it turns out that headlines about lava devastation attracted more tourists.
After all, the idea of being on the edge of some disaster Indiana Jones might face but without the risk is pretty appealing, as movie ticket sales have shown. Last week's eruption in New Zealand, however, once again showed that we should never be too cavalier about nature, which has devastating power we cannot control. Our naturalist on board provided an appropriate quote by Will Durant.
"Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice."
"Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice."
In any case, we decided we would really like to visit Volcanoes National Park as well as snorkeling.
We could have signed up for an excursion and then taken a Lyft to snorkel, but we instead decided to rent a car, visiting Volcanoes National Park first to get the long drive out of the way, and then snorkeling as late as we could at Richardson State Beach while still returning the car with time to spare.
Julie's weather check showed most likely sunshine in the morning, so we decided to reverse the order of our stops. After breakfast, we debarked and caught the first rental car shuttle from the port.
The airport isn't too far away, and it seemed like we couldn't have timed it all better. When we reached the Enterprise desk, however, several others who also had reservations were in line before us. It was tempting to go to another agency that had no line, but we had booked at a total price of $42, including insurance, so we didn't want to pay the full counter rate elsewhere.
All was going well until three good-natured men on their way to a wedding turned out to be getting three cars to transport their -families. None had registered in advance, so they took quite a while.
The bigger delay, however, was because Enterprise, a company we usually like, had left only one woman to do everything, including sign people up, walk across the parking lot to inspect and deliver the cars, and then walk back. No wonder they seem to never answer their phone.
Despite the delays, we collected our car a bit ahead of Julie's time line and arrived at the black sand beach under sunny skies. The snorkeling was terrific! We also walked over and visited the turtle cove, where we saw several of our shelled friends.
After two swims each, we showered off and headed to Volcanoes National Park. My Lifetime National Park Pass meant we had free admission. We watched a short video and were instructed by a helpful ranger where we should hike, beginning with a path that started on the other side of the street.
We enjoyed hiking at several different places, identifying sharp "ah-ah" lava rocks (as Don Hellstern said, probably given that name because that's what you would say when walking across it barefooted) as well as the more rope-like "pahoehoe" lava, though with erosion, the difference isn't always so clear cut. We saw lots of smoking pots and dramatic, almost other-worldly landscapes, but no lava bursting through.
As rain threatened to get more serious, we drove back to return the rental car, aiming to arrive a little earlier than the latest possible time to avoid any last minute jam that might delay our beating the all-aboard time. After all, missing the boat would mean expensive transportation to catch up with the ship in the next port, which is why most people choose to minimize that risk by simply going with a ship-sponsored excursion, regardless of price. Once in a lifetime, right?
We stopped and got gas, finding it only took about $6 thanks to the fuel-efficient economy Chevy we'd rented.
There was a crowd waiting to go back to the ship, but it turned out most had rented with other companies, which had their own shuttles for the return. When ours came, few of us were left at the stop.
A couple sitting across from us seemed rather over-dressed for a day at the beach, so I asked where they had been. With clearly Australian accents and a preference to be left alone, they said they had "crashed a party," which they found amusing. I thought perhaps they had gone to that wedding to which the rental car customers were heading with their families. I figured they would expound if they really wanted to discuss it, so I didn't probe further. It turns out they were pop-psychology guest-speakers on the ship whose presentations happened to be at the same time that we attended ballroom dance classes or other activities.
Cruising back across the Pacific, I attended two of their enjoyable presentations, which I'll write about later.
It had been a very good day, though without the lava flow chasing us screaming down the mountain, we enjoyed our half day at the beach more.
However, it did give me the chance to answer the question that is this post's subject. Yes, there is time to rent a car in Hilo as a cruise port, and it can be an affordable way to see more of the island.
Actually, Julie and I did rent a car on a port day once before on a NCL Pride of America cruise 14 years ago, using the time to explore waterfalls and hike through the wilderness, which was also a fun.
When you cruise, don't just walk off the gangway and expect to be entertained. That might work occasionally, but most times, you need to decide what you want to do, even if you don't take an excursion, in order to get the most from your trip.
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