Aqua Waikiki Wave

The View from our room

So I booked us in the Aqua Waikiki Wave for 10 nights pre cruise and 4 nights post cruise. The location of the hotel is amazing. Right in the middle of the action. Walk to everything basically. ABC shop a few steps to the left and the right, Chinese restaurant in the lobby, The Bus right at the door, International Marketplace next door, food places everywhere. See what i'm getting at? Really awesome location.



I booked us in the partial ocean room. That was a waste. During our first stay we were on the top floor (level 15) The tiny speck of the ocean was just visible, however were were at the back of the hotel was from Kuhio ave. The noise was not a problem for us. Yes it was noisy, but you are in a city. Were were  woken up once during the whole stay because of a fight in Dukes Lane. But that was interesting to watch and added to the enjoyment of the holiday.

During the second stay we must have annoyed someone was we were put on the 14th floor towards the front of the hotel. The room felt smaller, but was a different layout to the original room so maybe that had something to do with it. Noise again was no problem for us.

The staff were pleasant enough, however it was very annoying as they didn't clean your room at a specific time everyday. We often came back to the room at 4pm to find the room still hadn't been made up. Other times it was done by 10am! Not good enough if you wanted to have a sleep in the afternoon!

The whole hotel is smoke free and there are numerous signs around to remind the guests. I love how people don't think this includes them in these rules. I was sitting in the room one afternoon when i smelt smoke and burning. I looked towards the hairdryer and all the powerpoints thinking something was on fire. nothing. I then ran out to the balcony thinking maybe the building was on fire. No, just the rude individual who was leaning so far onto my balcony he was practically smoking onto our door. A quick call to the front desk sent security up to his room to tell him it was not allowed. The smell was so bad I had to leave the room for a few hours and when I returned I found they had sprayed air fresher to try and get the smell out.

The only real negative that we had that did impact the stay was the elevators. 10 days of using only 1 elevator for the whole hotel was ridiculous. One morning the one lift was out of order and we were forced to walk down 15 levels of stairs. During our second stay they did manage to fix both lifts and we didn't really have a problem.

I'm back!

Wow! Its been ages but I have returned from Hawaii!

I loved the whole feel of Hawaii, it reminded me a lot of Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast with bits of Vanuatu and New Caledonia.



Oahu- So diverse- the mountains, the beaches, the city, the countryside. My favourite island.

Maui- I imagined it way differently. The Hana Highway is really beautiful and the views are amazing.

The Big Island- I was surprised how much I liked this island. I was surprised how fascinating the Volacano National Park was and seeing the lava flow was a real highlight.

Kauai- I loved spending a day and a half on this island. I would love to return to Kauai for a few more days to really explore the island more.

Shortly I will be posting a review of all the tours and activities I did. I will also be posting about the shopping from an Aussies perspective.

Getting Around: Waikiki

We are not renting a car for our trip to Hawaii. This shocks many people on Cruise Critic and Tripadvisor. Yes its probably much cheaper to rent a car plus you get to stop whenever and go wherever. But the simple reason is in America they drive on the other side of the road and its much too confusing for us! Also that means the driver would probably miss half the sights and the added stress of not knowing where we are going.

So with all that being said we have decided to use The Bus, booking tours and shuttles and using the trolley buses.

There are many trolleys to choose from in Waikiki. The Aloha bus is a double-decker bus that runs 3 different loops. I have used a similar service ( in fact it could be this company) when I travelled to Sydney last Easter. The second story is open meaning you can take photos and videos without the pesky glass reflection.

Another trolley is the Waikiki Trolley this does a similar trip to the Aloha Bus in in a smaller bus. They have a great deal for a 7 day pass where you get entry into the Aquarium and Zoo included. We were planning on going to those places anyway so it works out very cheap even if we don't use the service everyday.

One thing I love about these sorts of buses is you can essentially sit on the bus for an hour or so and see all the sites, then get off at the places that interest you. A 7 day pass goes for about $50 which is amazing value as the one in Sydney charged $39 for 1 day!!

Booked Part 2

Last weekend I booked my sister and myself on a photography tour in Kauai. This tour is going to be her Birthday present from me. I didn't think she's want to do something like this but I showed her some of the example photos and she was inspired! I originally found Kauai Photo Tours by just Googling "photo tours Kauai" and after reading some review from Tripadvisor and Cruise Critic I was certain this would be a great tour for us.

I was very impressed with the fast email responses, especially considering the time differences. I decide to call to make my reservation ( international calling using Skype is amazing- so cheap) and spoke to Kris. He answered all my questions and gave me great instructions on where to meet the transfer bus.

One thing I love about booking all these tours was there is no money needed up front. Most just need your credit card info and charge you that day of your tour. This is great as it allows you to confirm your tour plus have some extra time to save!

Since booking I have read a lot more reviews on Cruise Critic and everyone seems to have a great tour.

Saving Money

As I've mention before we are on a pretty tight budget for this trip. While we are not one of those families that you see splashing money around on useless junk on holidays, we are also not those cheap people who wont even spend a dollar. We like to have fun but in a responsible way lol

Here are some money saving tips that we have found to be very useful.

Before your holiday

Save coins

As soon as I've booked a trip I start to collect my coins. At the end of the week by purse is usually full of coins. I used to only collect $1 and $2 but i found out the silver coins were adding up much faster. In about a year since I booked my cruise I saved over $450 in coins. 

Swap currency when you get 'extra money'

As we are venturing overseas we are going to have to swap our Aussie money for USA dollars. I like to travel with a bit of cash as I can track it better than credit card purchases ( and no nasty bill to pay off at the end of the holiday) So to take advantage of the excellent exchange rate I have been swapping a bit of money as I get it. I had a friend owe me about $150 and instead of spending it on stuff I swapped it into US dollars. This will prevent me from spending it before hand and I wont need to rush about nearer to the trip.

Look for deals and Groupons

The whole buying a voucher online is quite a new thing so I haven't used it on a trip before. At the moment I am looking for voucher for activities. There's heaps of food and drink vouchers that you can purchase. I know that in Australia we had some trouble with businesses not honoring the voucher so I wouldn't spend a lot of money on them. But for reputable businesses I wouldn't hesitate. 

During the trip

Eat out less

Eating out is nice on holidays but can add up fast. We like to go to a local supermarket and stock up on breakfast things like milk, yougurt and muffins. This only costs a fraction at the supermarket compared to a cafe or restaurant. We do like to go to nice restraints so we limit ourselves to either a nice lunch or dinner. Some places are cheaper if you have dinner before a certain time so make sure you know when that is so you can plan your day. 

BYO snacks and drinks

Bottled water or cans of soda are cheaper when you buy in bulk. We like to get those 24 packs of water and 20 cans of coda boxes and keep them in our room. When we go out on tour of walking about we just bring a bottle with us for when we get thirsty. This saves us at least $4 per drink and saves us getting ripped off in touristy places. Same goes for snacks. Those little packet of chips are a great little snack that takes up hardly any space in your bag. Its great for when you are in  between meals or your not hungry enough for a full meal. We also get some bags of lollies to eat during long drives or tours.

Booked!

Queensland , Australia

Well I was going to wait until about January to start booking tours and activites but the suspense was killing me!! Last weekend I went ahead and booked 3 tours. Fhew!

The first one was Valley Isles Hana trip. I had previously emailed them to confirm bookings were being accepted for so far in advance- they were! Being a cruise ship passenger they require you to call them ( i'm still not sure why...) Anyways being in Australia i had to figure out the easiest and cheapest way to call. My mobile was going to charge me $1 per minute plus connection fee- no way i thought! Then i remembered Skype. I've found you that you can buy credit in $16 lots and can call the US for 2 cents a minute! That's more like it!! So I purchased my credit and made my first ever overseas call. The booking was very simple all they require is a credit card number and your names. I was asked if we would require a vegetarian lunch or chicken and he explained where to meet them in Maui. I was also emailed the confirmation and photos of where to meet almost instantly too. I was very happy with my decision to go with Valley Isle!

Next I contacted Ricky from Ricky's Tours. I emailed him to see if he was available that day and he replied about 2 hours later! His prices has increased slightly from last year but is still way cheaper than NCL tours. Since we've never been to Hilo before we have no idea what to expect. The itinerary looks really interesting and we love supporting local businesses so we booked that as well. No need for a credit card as you pay Ricky in cash on the day. All he needs is your name and cabin number for entry into the port.


Then finally i booked a helicopter trip for my father and I. I've always wanted to do a helicopter trip and seeing youtube clips of various flights in Kauai I knew this was the place to do it. I searched a lot of different companies before deciding on Mauna Loa Helicopters. Every helicopter is essentially private with only 2 or 3 passengers from the same group allowed. This means every person gets a window!! I was always fearful of paying all that money to then be stuck in the middle no being able to see. Its not that much more than other companies and the promise of a private trip and window was good enough for us. They just needed a credit card to hold the booking and names and weights of those flying.

Yesterday I also booked a photography tour in Kauai for my sister and I but I'll blog about that later!

Planning and Planning : Oahu

There is so much to think about! The planning for this trip has been left up to me. My mother had one job to do. Book a simple 1 hour flight that we've done about 10 times in the past 5 years and somehow she managed to muck that up! So now i'm in charge!

We are in Oahu for 10 nights before our cruise and 3 nights after. I think. So many dates going around in my head right now! But anyways, we are there for quite a while. Now that i'm in charge I have been given a free range in planning the days activities which is awesome and horrible. I loved the tour i research for days in Melbourne, but my parents hated it. hhhmmm... My only constraint is budget. We are in a bit of a limited budget. Our wonderful jobs are cutting hours like crazy in this unstable economic time. Yay. But we wont be missing out! Even if we have to eat sandwiches in our hotel rooms every night I plan on making the most of our time in Hawaii!





So far on my list of things to do in Oahu is

• The Zoo

• The aquarium

• Peal Harbour ( and for me a photo tour instead)

• Round Island Tour ( potentially 2 with different companies as they both go to slightly different places)

• North Shore ( either tour or catch The Bus)

• Ala Moana ( shopping!!)

• Outlet Mall ( a must for Aussies so i've heard)

• Stand Up Paddle Boarding/surfing ( Typical touristy things lol)

• Diamond Head Hike

• Pali Lookout

• Eat Shave Ice

• Swap Meet