Plan the Trip, Then Be Ready to Pivot: Our Hawaii Cruise Change of Plans

Last week we took a trip to Hawaii for our 20th anniversary. We had never been to Hawaii before, and we had a few goals for this trip.

First, we wanted to see two National Parks: Hawaii Volcanoes and Haleakala. We also wanted to experience multiple islands and see as much as we could in a short amount of time. We hope to return to Hawaii someday, but we didn't want to assume we would, so we wanted to experience as much as possible just in case this was our only trip.

We also knew we wanted to spend money on a few bigger experiences, like a doors-off helicopter ride and ditch tubing through tunnels in Kauai. Because of that, we wanted to save some money on the rest of the trip.

Why We Chose a Hawaii Cruise

With all of this in mind, we decided to take a cruise around Hawaii on Norwegian Cruise Line on the boat Pride of America.

This gave us a floating hotel room where we could keep all of our stuff in the same place instead of paying for different expensive hotels and flights between islands every few days. For us, one of the biggest advantages was being able to see several Hawaiian islands without packing, flying, checking into another hotel, and unpacking every couple of days.

The cruise was going to take us to four islands: Honolulu, Maui, Hawaii's Big Island with stops in Hilo and Kona, and Kauai. We rented cars on each island and planned our biggest adventures for Kauai.

Then Mother Nature decided she was in control.

Then Mother Nature Changed Our Hawaii Cruise Itinerary

Hurricane Lowell had caused damage and disruptions on Kauai, and the cruise line removed Kauai from our itinerary. Instead, we were given an extra day in Hilo and a day at sea.

Suddenly, we were dealing with a Hawaii cruise itinerary change that affected rental cars, excursions, reservations, and some of the things we were most excited to do.

Here is where travelers need to become flexible perfectionists.

Plan the trip. Research everything. Make the reservations. Know what you want to do. Then be prepared to throw the whole damn plan out the window and pivot.

Mother Nature might be the reason for a pivot, but there are plenty of other possibilities: flight delays and cancellations, family emergencies, sickness, work not approving time off, and so much more. Trip insurance has become something we regularly purchase since I started my current job and especially since COVID.

But first...

NO KAUAI!!!

We needed to mourn our losses for a second.

We had really been looking forward to Kauai, especially the helicopter ride and tubing. At the same time, we knew this was only a vacation change for us. For the people who live and work on Kauai, the storm was disrupting their actual lives. We could be disappointed while also keeping that in perspective.  Prayers and thoughts to you!!

Then it was time to pivot and figure it all out.

Cancel, Refund and Rearrange

We started with the easy stuff. We contacted the rental car company, helicopter company, and tubing company to cancel everything and get refunds.

Luckily, the helicopter and tubing companies were going to cancel on us anyway, so we received full refunds. We got a partial refund on the rental car.

Next, we contacted our rental car companies in Hilo and Kona to change and extend our reservations. There were some extra fees, but it was easy enough to do.

We also changed the night of our specialty dinner on the cruise to our new day at sea. If we were going to have unexpected extra time on the islands, we wanted to use every minute of it.

Then came the harder pivots.

Finding New Things to Do in Hawaii

We found a helicopter ride in Hilo that fit into our schedule. Originally, our big helicopter experience was supposed to be a doors-off flight along the cliffs of Kauai. The Hilo tour was doors-on and was supposed to fly over the volcanoes instead. It was a little more expensive and definitely not the same experience, but we would still get our Hawaiian helicopter ride.

Then Mother Nature changed that plan too!

Because of the weather around the volcanoes, our helicopter tour was changed to a cliff and shoreline tour in Hilo instead.

This time Mother Nature was on our side!

It wasn't the Kauai helicopter ride we had planned, but it ended up giving us some of the scenery we thought we had lost when Kauai was canceled.

The tubing was harder to replace. The tubing adventure we had planned was only offered on Kauai, so there wasn't really a Plan B somewhere else. We were both very sad about missing that one.

Eventually, we decided this just means we have to return to Kauai. Someday when we are heading out that direction to visit the National Park of American Samoa, we can stop in Hawaii again and finally go tubing.

See you later, Kauai tubing! You haven't gotten rid of us that easily.

We still had to figure out what to do with our extra time, so we decided to book a full-day snorkeling trip in Kona. It was expensive, but we figured, when are we going to have this opportunity again? It wasn't part of the original plan at all, but it became one of our new adventures.

Lastly, we scheduled a resort pass for our final day in Honolulu. We got off the cruise around 7:30 in the morning, but our flight didn't leave until 8:00 that night. Instead of spending the entire day trying to kill time with our luggage, we could relax at a resort before heading to the airport. And the shower was awesome so we did not wear the sand and salt while on the plane.

Pivot complete.

Now it was time to enjoy the trip!

And you know what? All three of those changes were so much fun and absolutely beautiful.

What We Learned About Handling a Cruise Itinerary Change

This definitely wasn't our first travel pivot, and I am sure it won't be our last. But this trip reminded us of a few things that can make it easier when your carefully planned vacation suddenly isn't going according to plan.

• Give yourself a minute to be disappointed. You were excited about those plans!

• Figure out exactly what has changed before making a bunch of new reservations.

• Contact excursion companies and rental car companies as soon as possible to ask about cancellations, changes, and refunds.

• Move flexible onboard activities to sea days when possible so you can maximize your time in port.

• Look for another way to have the experience you wanted, even if it isn't exactly the same.

• Accept that sometimes there isn't a replacement. That might just be your reason to come back!

Most importantly, don't spend the rest of the trip being mad about the trip you didn't get.

That doesn't mean I wasn't disappointed about missing Kauai. I was. We both were.

But sometimes traveling—and life in general—means having a really good plan and then being willing to completely change it.

Maybe the goal isn't to have the perfect trip. Maybe it's to plan the trip you want and then be flexible enough to enjoy the trip you actually get.

How do you handle pivoting? Have you ever had a vacation pivot that may have actually turned out better than your original plans?

Here's to enjoying the pivots in life!

Anne