Star of Honolulu - Dinner Cruise Review

The Star of Honolulu is a two hour dinner cruise complete with entertainment that cruises the west side of Oahu island in Hawaii.  The boat is a wide hull boat that is quite stable when cruising and it handles the waves quite well.

Parking is available near Pier Eight.  If you purchase something at the nearby shopping mall and get your ticket validated, the parking is far cheaper that way.

Upon arriving to the boat, we checked in at the reservations office to pick up the tickets and receive a tag that indicates which floor to dine on.  Hula dancers perform dockside as you board and you can get your picture taken for purchase.  The pictures are mounted on a hard board and available for $24.

Four of us took the cruise and we paid $82 for an all-you-can eat crab leg and steak dinner.  The dinner came with roasted vegetables, mashed potatoes, baby romaine salad and Hawaiian bread.  Dessert was a cup of macademia ice cream. The steak was a bit on the thin side but the sauce over the steak was very tasty and the steak was tender.  The crab legs were hit or miss-- some snapped in two rather crisply, and others were rubbery and hard to crack open.  Thankfully, because it was all-you-can-eat, we were able to request more and enjoy the ones that were easy to break open.

We found the staff to be very friendly and helpful.  One Mai Tai is included with the dinner upon arrival.  Coffee and tea are also included but all other drinks are an extra cost.

The cruise is a slow, relaxing one that follows the shoreline and provides many picture taking opportunities.  The night we left, it was cloudy and we were sure that we wouldn't see a sunset.  Fortunately, the sun broke through for five minutes and we were able to experience a short, beautiful sunset.

The entertainment was very nice, with several hula dancers rotating in shifts with many costume changes.  The staff signed "America the Beautiful" at the end with a combination of ASL and gestures.  It was very moving.