Renting a Car After a Honolulu Cruise: Which Desk Is Open the Morning You Dock

We found no published disembark time for Pier 2 — your line’s last-morning schedule sets it, so read that before the rental.

A weekend arrival narrows the list fast — Discovery Bay gives you until noon, North Nimitz until 2.

Waikiki’s desks open early enough, but you’d reach them by cab with the luggage, about 3.4 miles across town by our estimate.

Want to see who’s open at the minute you’ll arrive? The hub’s hours checker takes a day and a time.

The Rental Car Center is about 6.6 miles from Pier 2 by our estimate, roughly 18 minutes with no traffic.

Avis’s 24-hour drop-off is the line that matters for a red-eye home — you can drop the car whenever your flight allows.

The airport adds a $4.50-a-day facility charge and, we assume, an 11% concession fee — the airport page breaks those down.

Going straight from the ship to a flight? Then you need a ride, not a rental.

At an assumed $50 a day, four days from HNL with that much driving come to about $306, our arithmetic. Collect the same car in town and it’s about $264.

So the airport costs roughly $42 more over four days — the price of a counter that’s open when you get there.

Each island day has its own booking window, and the island-day page lines them up.

Oahu passes on a 4.712% general excise tax (4% state plus Honolulu’s 0.5% surcharge, through 2030), and the state adds a rental surcharge of $7.50 a day in 2026, rising to $8 on Jan 1, 2027 under the statute.

That’s 50 cents a day, not a new fee, so a week goes from $52.50 at $7.50 to $56.00 at $8.

We couldn’t read how a rental that runs from December into January is charged — every day at the new rate, or only the days after the 1st. The gap is a few dollars either way.

Check the surcharge line on your quote if the trip crosses the new year.

AAA had Honolulu’s regular at $5.55 on Oct 1, 2026, and the state average at $5.62 — about 19 cents a mile at 30 mpg, by our arithmetic.

Oahu is small, so fuel stays modest — the whole island list costs about $24 at that mileage. A minivan for seven drinks more, so lower the mpg in the calculator if that’s your car.

We didn’t read any company’s refueling charge for Honolulu — return the car full and you won’t need to know it.

Choose the pick-up by your dock day, not the rate. A weekend arrival points to HNL, Discovery Bay or North Nimitz; a weekday opens up Ala Moana.

Return it at HNL on the way to your flight, unless you’re staying on.