Noordam in Kona
The city of Kona is on the big island of Hawaii. It sits on the island’s west coast, which is the drier side of the island receiving about 18 inches of rain annually while Hilo on the rainy side of the island gets about 130. The Kona district spans about 2/3 of the island’s west coast. The area includes lots of things including beaches, resorts, coffee farms, shops, restaurants, and historical landmarks. Popular things to do in Kona include snorkeling, diving, sailing, fishing, and wildlife watching for dolphins, rays, and sea turtles. Kona is well known for the coffee grown on its hillsides. Pure Kona coffee is quite pricey.
view of a tender near the dock in Kona from another tender
Kona is a great port for people who haven’t booked anything ahead of time. It’s a tender port. Right at the pier where the tenders come in there’s a booth where people can book all sorts of activities. They have a variety of land and boat tours, including a glass bottom boat or snorkeling.
Kona by the tender pier
The beach right next to the pier is open for swimming and snorkeling with ropes and buoys separating where boats can go and where people can swim so anyone who just wants a beach day doesn’t need to go far at all. There were some pretty good waves going the day we were there, but that didn’t stop people from swimming and snorkeling at that beach.
dog on a boogie board
A couple people even had a little dog riding on a boogie board. It would sometimes jump from one person’s board to the other. They attracted a bit of a crowd to watch, but seemed to be doing it for their own enjoyment rather than as a show because there weren’t any tip jars or other means of collection that would have been there if they’d been buskers.
sunrise on the Noordam
Besides the things that can be booked on the dock, there’s also a hop on hop off bus and options for last minute van or taxi tours. The sign at the booth included parasailing, but the guy at the window said that actually books through the hotel next door.
glass bottom boat in Kona seen through the back window of a tender
People can book a variety of things through outside sources before the cruise, and of course there are shore excursions through the ship as well. Our ship offered a zodiac wildlife tour, Atlantis submarine, zodiac snorkel tour, a couple food tours, a glass bottom boat, coffee farm, and highlights of Kona.
tender platforms on the Noordam
The water was a bit choppy on the day of our visit. Since Kona is a tender port the ship anchors a bit offshore and people are brought to the pier in small boats called tenders. They used the tenders from the ship on this port, which double as lifeboats, but are taller than the ones that are only used as lifeboats and have dual engines rather than just one. The tenders bobbed up and down semi violently at the ship, but not so much at the dock on land. One group on the little dock at the side of the ship got wet feet while waiting to board the tender when a big wave swamped the platform. Lucky for us we were already on the tender and stayed dry. It’s a pretty short ride from the ship to the shore at that port.
we saw dolphins from our balcony
We saw dolphins from the tender on the way back and also from our balcony on the ship in the morning while we were watching them drop the tenders into the water before tender service began. The ones on the way back followed behind the tender. The ones in the morning swam around the area next to the ship for awhile, then went straight for it, dived down under and disappeared, presumably going underneath the ship and out on the other side.
Cruise Stories 