What days do cruise ships come and how crowded and where (Hilo: restaurants, store)

[Sunaimer]

What days do cruise ships come and how crowded and where Do they port? Is Kona crowded with tourists the entire day? What site seeing should I avoid on cruise days? I'm gonna be on the BI October 28--nov 8 and want to keep away from crowds. TIA

[HonaunauLove]

It's never crowded enough to be annoying. The north end of Alii Dr. will have a good bit more people walking around than usual. The ships anchor off shore so the cruisers need to be ferried in. You won't have 2000 people walking down a gangway onto Alii Dr all at once.
The restaurants and bars will be full during lunch hours typically.

[fluffythewondercat]

Speaking as a cruise guest, in past years many cruisers wouldn't make it any farther than Hilo Hattie's. But now that the Kona store is closed, who knows?

[smarino]

Right. I went over there one day and watched (it was years ago, but the wife's son in Hilo says it's still the same), and they had bus after bus lined up for the cruise ship passengers to board....and they all went to the Kona side! Only the adventuresome folks who know about Hilo head out on their own to the downtown and other east side areas.

[fluffythewondercat]

Originally Posted by smarino

Right. I went over there one day and watched (it was years ago, but the wife's son in Hilo says it's still the same), and they had bus after bus lined up for the cruise ship passengers to board....and they all went to the Kona side! Only the adventuresome folks who know about Hilo head out on their own to the downtown and other east side areas.

The last time we were on a ship docked in Hilo we got off and walked around a lot. I remember stopping at a park with a footbridge where apparently some people had come to watch a tsunami. It didn't end well.

Most of the people on the ship stayed on the ship. It was Thanksgiving and most everything was closed.

Most Hawaii circle cruises stop at both Hilo and Kailua-Kona.

[hotzcatz]

The cruise ships don't affect things by being overly busy since many of the cruise ship folks take a bus off to the volcano or other places. The Big Island is big enough and diverse enough that they don't all go to the same place. There usually isn't more than one or maybe two cruise ships in port at any one time, too, unlike some other cruise ship ports.

They do have the cruise ship arrivals listed in the newspapers. West Hawaii Today and Hilo Tribune Herald both have a ship arrivals section. There's also Harbors | Passenger & Cruise Schedules if you want to look it up online. But, it's a pretty much non-event other than a bit more activity in town.

[KaraBenNemsi]

If you go to Hilo to catch a heli tour to the volcano, you may avoid a cruise ship arrival day. Helis can get booked out quick then over there. Otherwise you'll be fine.