Thread: While on a cruise to Maui, have you ever just stayed ashore?

One concern that the cruiselines would have is potential violations of the PSA/Jones Act. If you are on a foreign flagged ship (anything but NCL America), and you're starting off your cruise in Hawaii, you'll be ending up in Canada for that reason. If you are not back on the ship on the last Hawaiian stop, and don't stop in Canada, you will get a hefty fine.

We were on a roundtrip LA-Hawaii cruise about 14 months ago and one guy was talking about how his son needed to leave the cruise after the last Hawaiian port in Kona and fly back home in order not to get fired. He claimed that one can write for permission. That's his story but I imagine that aside from having a legitimate (and provable) family emergency, one would not escape the $5000 fine listed in the Patters. Turned out to be a moot situation, as high waves prevented a stop in Kona. That boy was going to be "stuck" on a ship for five days mroe.

We have two days in Lahaina and we were thinking of spending the night at the Sheraton in Kaanapali. Our thinking was that we wanted to use the hotel facilities/pool for the day and then get cleaned up for dinner. Then we plan on going to the Hyatt's Star Tour that they offer and back to the hotel for a couple of hours of sleep. Next, it's up and out of the hotel at 2:30am to make it for the sunrise on the summit of Haleakala. The rest of that day would be spent on the north side of the island, topping it off with dinner at Mama's Fish House. Then return the rental car and back to the ship. It's not set in stone but this is the general game plan. I know that the ship is paid for and my thinking is that as much as the four of us would spend for one shore excursion we could easily pay for the hotel, star tour and the rental car. They have snorkeling and beach activities right there and it seems to flow for us.