Seven Seas Mariner - South Pacific Dreams: Honolulu to Papeete

Where this cruise calls, day by day

8 ports and 7 sea days over 14 Nights.

1. Day 1

   Honolulu

   United StatesDepart

   Ships dock at Pier 2 beside the Aloha Tower, which for decades was the tallest building in Hawaii and still marks the edge of downtown Honolulu. You step off into a real working capital city of office towers and Chinatown lunch counters, not a resort strip - Waikiki is a separate place three or four miles east. Most Hawaii itineraries either start here or stay overnight.

   • Pearl Harbor: the USS Arizona Memorial, the Battleship Missouri and the Bowfin submarine
   • Diamond Head crater hike, which requires an advance reservation for out-of-state visitors
   • Iolani Palace, the only royal palace on American soil, with the room where Queen Liliuokalani was imprisoned
   • Waikiki Beach and the Honolulu Museum of Art

   Getting ashore

   Docks downtown at Pier 2 by the Aloha Tower; Chinatown and the palace are walkable, Waikiki and Pearl Harbor are not.

   Best months

   Year-round (Apr-Oct driest; Dec-Apr for humpback whales offshore)

2. Day 2

   Kauai (Nawiliwili)

   United StatesPort

   Ships dock at Nawiliwili, a commercial harbour just below Lihue on Kauai's southeast corner. There is little at the pier itself beyond a beach and a hotel, but the island is small enough that a single day reaches either Waimea Canyon or the north shore - not both. Many itineraries give Kauai an overnight or a long call, which is what makes the far corners worth attempting.

   • Waimea Canyon and the Kalalau Lookout over the Na Pali cliffs
   • Wailua River boat trip to the Fern Grotto
   • Poipu Beach and the Spouting Horn blowhole on the south shore
   • Hanalei Bay and the Kilauea Point lighthouse and seabird refuge to the north

   Getting ashore

   Docks at Nawiliwili Harbor about two miles from Lihue; there is no walkable town, so a tour or rental car is effectively required.

   Best months

   Year-round (Apr-Oct drier; Kauai is the wettest main island, and winter closes north-shore roads after floods)

3. Day 3 · At sea

4. Day 4

   Kona (Kailua-Kona)

   United StatesPort

   Kona has no cruise pier, so every passenger comes ashore by tender onto Kailua Pier in the middle of town - and when the surf is up the call is shortened or cancelled outright, which happens often enough to plan around. Once landed you are on the dry, lava-black leeward side of the Big Island, with Alii Drive's shops and the old royal compound within a few hundred yards.

   • Hulihee Palace and Mokuaikaua Church, Hawaii's oldest Christian church, both on Alii Drive
   • Snorkelling at Kealakekua Bay by the Captain Cook monument
   • Kona coffee farm tours in the uplands around Holualoa and Captain Cook
   • Puuhonua o Honaunau, the restored place of refuge south of town

   Getting ashore

   Tender only, landing at Kailua Pier right in town; tendering is genuinely weather-dependent here and calls are sometimes dropped.

   Best months

   Year-round (Apr-Sep calmest seas for tendering; Dec-Mar swell causes the most cancellations)

5. Day 5

   Hilo

   United StatesPort

   Hilo is the wet, green, unpolished side of the Big Island - it takes well over 100 inches of rain a year and looks nothing like the resort coast. The pier is an industrial one a few miles from a downtown of old plantation-era storefronts. Nearly everyone uses the day to get to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, which is roughly 45 minutes inland and the reason ships call here at all.

   • Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Kilauea's caldera rim and the Thurston lava tube
   • Rainbow Falls and Akaka Falls, both short stops close to town
   • Liliuokalani Gardens and the Pacific Tsunami Museum in downtown Hilo
   • Mauna Kea visitor station on the slope of the mountain

   Getting ashore

   Docks at a commercial pier a few miles from downtown Hilo; shuttles or taxis are needed, and the volcano park is a separate 45-minute drive.

   Best months

   Year-round (Apr-Sep drier; volcanic activity varies and can change what is open in the park)

6. Day 6 · At sea

7. Day 7 · At sea

8. Day 8 · At sea

9. Day 9 · At sea

10. Day 10 · At sea

11. Day 11

    Rangiroa

    French PolynesiaPort

    Rangiroa is one of the largest atolls in the world - a ring of low motus around a lagoon big enough that you cannot see across it. There is no mountain, no interior, almost no elevation at all. Ships anchor off and tender to Avatoru or Tiputa, and the whole point of being here is what happens in and around the two passes.

    • Drift dive or snorkel in Tiputa Pass, where dolphins ride the incoming tide
    • Boat trip to the Blue Lagoon, a lagoon enclosed within the atoll's lagoon
    • Ile aux Recifs and its eroded coral pinnacles
    • Domaine Ampelidacees, the vineyard growing wine grapes on a coral motu

    Getting ashore

    Tender ashore near Avatoru or Tiputa; the villages are strung along the motu and everything else is reached by boat.

    Best months

    May-Oct (dry season)

12. Day 12

    Raiatea

    French PolynesiaPort

    Raiatea matters more than it looks. This was Hawaiki, the departure point for the voyaging canoes that settled Hawaii and New Zealand, and its great marae is a UNESCO site. Ships tie up at Uturoa's town wharf, which is rare in French Polynesia - no tender queue. The island shares a single lagoon with Taha'a next door.

    • Taputapuatea marae, the most important pre-European religious site in the Pacific
    • Boat trip up the Faaroa, the only navigable river in French Polynesia
    • Uturoa market, busiest on Wednesday and Friday mornings
    • Fifteen-minute ferry across the lagoon to Taha'a for vanilla and pearl farms

    Getting ashore

    Docked at the Gare Maritime in the centre of Uturoa - one of only two real cruise berths in French Polynesia; the town starts at the terminal door.

    Best months

    May-Oct (dry season)

13. Day 13

    Bora Bora

    French PolynesiaPort

    Ships anchor inside the lagoon off Vaitape and tender in, which means the famous view - the twin basalt peaks of Otemanu and Pahia rising out of turquoise - is yours from the deck before you go anywhere. The island itself is small and the village is modest; the reason to be here is the water and the ring of motus around it. Nearly every worthwhile excursion involves getting back into a boat.

    • Lagoon tour with stops to snorkel with stingrays and blacktip reef sharks
    • Matira Beach, the one long stretch of public sand, about 15 minutes south of Vaitape
    • Manta ray site off Anau on the eastern side of the lagoon
    • 4WD trip up to the WWII coastal gun emplacements above Vaitape

    Getting ashore

    Tender to the pier at Vaitape - there is no berth big enough for a ship; the village is at the landing but everything scenic needs a boat or a taxi.

    Best months

    May-Oct (dry season)

14. Day 14 · At sea

15. Day 15

    Papeete

    French PolynesiaArrive

    Papeete is the administrative and shipping capital of French Polynesia rather than the postcard version of it, and most Tahiti itineraries begin or end here. The quay is right in town, so you step off into traffic, gendarmes and a French-Polynesian city that works for a living. The scenery people came for is mostly on the other islands, or up in Tahiti's interior valleys.

    • Marche de Papeete, the two-storey municipal market for vanilla, monoi and pareu
    • Les roulottes, the food-truck park at Place Vaiete that fills up after dark
    • Point Venus and Matavai Bay, where Cook observed the transit of Venus
    • Musee de Tahiti et des Iles at Punaauia for Polynesian navigation and tattoo history

    Getting ashore

    Docked at the Quai d'Honneur in the middle of town; the market is about a block away and no shuttle is needed.

    Best months

    May-Oct (dry season)