If you feel like you want to get dressed up and have a nice dinner, but are looking for something a little different, this is a good option for you!
Getting Ready for a Fancy Dining Experience at Sea
The Star of Honolulu offers a variety of packages for their dinner cruise. One of them is their Five Star package, which allows you to get dressed up.
This package is their more formal option, so it has a dress code. The cruise requires guys to wear a collared shirt and encourages slacks and a jacket. Don’t sweat it if you didn’t pack a jacket, though, because it’s not required.
I know, it’s Hawaii after all, but shorts are not allowed on this particular package so keep that in mind!
Women, on the other hand, are required to wear cocktail evening attire. This is the perfect chance for you to get dressed up for a fancy evening!
Getting to the Star of Honolulu
You can drive to the check in at the Aloha Tower Marketplace which, depending on traffic, is about a 15-20-minute drive from Waikiki. Star of Honolulu also validates parking if you decide to drive and parking is very easy to find! Otherwise, they can pick you up from certain hotels and locations in Waikiki.
If you choose their transportation you will be picked up in a Motor Coach bus. The interior was very nice and had on board restrooms and TVs. Royal Star, their transportation provider, has recently just gotten a new fleet of buses in, so most buses that they are using are new!
You might make a couple stops at other hotels along the way, but it was a very short ride all together.
Right when you arrive, you can see a huge white boat with Star of Honolulu written in blue paint, you can’t miss it! We were taken to the boat right after we got off the bus. Hula dancers greeted us on the docks, then took us to the captain’s welcome reception outside on the deck!
We got to take a picture with the captain and enjoy some appetizers with a Hawaiian Bellini cocktail to start off the evening!
A Seven-Course Dinner!
We then made our way inside the cabin to sit down at our table which is in the exclusive Super Nova room on the top deck! You will have a private table for your group if you book the Five Star package. We were seated along the window, so we had a great view of the sunset through dinner!
I found it to be kind of cold inside the cabin, so I would recommend bringing a light sweater if you get cold easily like I do!
We were quickly greeted by our waitress taking our first of three drink orders that are included. The waitress also brought out our first course, which was potato leek soup. It was so, so good! This was the first time I have had it and I was a little skeptical at first, but I was a huge fan.
The hula dancers performed a short bon voyage hula after everyone got their seats to send us off. Live soft piano music followed that, which was played throughout dinner.
They first brought over a roasted beet salad with pomegranate balsamic dressing. It was so pretty I didn’t want to eat it! Afterwards they brought out the butter poached Maine lobster with corn souffle that was delicious!
In between these two courses we had a small raspberry sorbet Intermezzo to transition us into the next main course.
Next up was the steak tenderloin with a pastry on top. I thought having the pastry was kind of odd, but it was good to eat by itself!
The dessert was the cutest little piece of chocolate cake that looked like a little present! Chocolate cake is my favorite dessert in the world and this one did not disappoint.
Live Jazz Music Performance
After dinner we got to enjoy some live jazz music before the night was over. They were trying to get couples to get up and dance, but we didn’t have a very dancing crowd onboard. It seemed no one wanted to dance, so I felt kind of bad!
They were all really good performers though! The live jazz really added to the formality of the evening to make it a little more special. There is much more of an elegant vibe with this package versus the Three star.
We got up in between courses to walk around the boat a bit and to get a closer look at the sunset. There is just something different about getting to witness a sunset while out on a boat!
The weather in Hawaii can be unpredictable of course and change quickly but we got lucky and got to witness a gorgeous sunset!
Conclusion
Overall, I would definitely recommend the Star of Honolulu if you are looking to have a nice evening out or celebrate a special occasion!
After having been on both the Three- and Five-star packages, I would recommend this one between the two. It is more of an elegant cruise and the live jazz was a really nice touch. The Three star is better for more of a family-oriented dinner cruise, but this is nice for a more formal night out.
You really can’t go wrong either way though, you just can’t beat a sunset dinner cruise in Hawaii!
To experience this luxury dinner cruise yourself, book the Five-Star package of the Star of Honolulu on HawaiiActivities.
