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Party of 8 – Our Hawaiian Adventure on the POA (with pics)


greatlakesgirl
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HawaiiPOA-resized_zpsb8c10a55.jpgFeb 19 - Mar 1, 2014

 

I’ve never done a review before so I hope you don’t find this long winded and boring. Once I started, I found it hard to reign myself in! I also hope that this review is helpful to some of you planning your own Hawaiian adventures!

 

Discussion of this trip first started over a year and a half ago with my Mom-in-law’s suggestion that we all (eight of us) go somewhere to celebrate her 70th birthday. Her idea? Hawaii.

 

What?

 

Hawaii!? Well, as she said, if we’re going, we may as well go big. It didn’t take a whole lot of discussion among us to agree. So Hawaii it shall be.

 

So there’s eight of us: my mother-in-law; my husband, myself, and our two daughters (9 and 13); my husband’s sister, her husband, and their son (11). We all get along fairly well, but how much of a challenge would this be? We’re all very different. Different personalities, different outlooks on life, our kids have different energy levels, too. We figured there would be some challenges along the way, but we would try our best to be flexible and to just go with flow.

 

It was Mom’s idea to do the POA cruise. She brought an NCL booklet home from her travel agent one day. We checked out the Hawaii section and which islands the ship sails to. We decided Freestyle would be a good fit for the eight of us, and we were right!

 

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We thought about going in the summer so the kids wouldn’t miss school, but living in Michigan, the idea of getting away from winter (an especially brutal one, as it turned out!) was very appealing. And I wanted to see the whales. So February was decided on, with the cruise leaving Saturday, February 22, 2014 and returning Saturday, March 1, 2014. We would fly out Wednesday, the 19th, so we could spend a few days on Oahu.

 

Wednesday, Feb 19 - Getting there

 

The weather cooperated, thank goodness! We flew United and everything went off without a hitch. My brother-in-law is six foot, eight inches tall, and watching him fold himself into the economy class seats was entertaining, but he was a good sport about it. Mom’s travel agent picked our seats well, and got him an aisle seat on every flight. The kids did great and entertained themselves quite well. We were proud of their behavior. This would be true for the entire trip.

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Oahu – where we stayed

 

We stayed at the Aston Waikiki Beach Hotel pre-cruise, a very decent hotel for the money.

 

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The location was great, right across the street from the beach and more towards the Diamond Head end of Waikiki, so the beach was a lot less crowded. The kids loved the pool area and they do a breakfast buffet out there every morning that’s included. Cereals, pastries, fruit, yogurt, and for a few extra dollars you can have omelets or waffles cooked up. There’s also coffee, juices, milk, soda, and water. We loved eating out there, though it was a challenge to find a table every morning. We got creative with the lounge chairs.

Edited by greatlakesgirl
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Thursday

We were up early Thursday morning as our bodies would take a few days to adjust to the time difference. We had a nice breakfast down by the pool then it was off to pick up our rental cars at Budget, which is in the Hyatt just a short walk down the street from our hotel. Our destination: The North Shore.

 

When they say Honolulu traffic is a nightmare, they aren’t kidding. But my husband and BIL put on brave faces and tackled it like pros. If you just go with the flow it really isn’t that bad. Since there was eight of us, we rented two cars. MIL was with SIL and BIL and nephew for the moment.

We hit the Dole Plantation on the way up. This pic is from the front porch looking out. It's worth a stop just for the views.

 

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We poked around in the store and walked around the gardens for a little while, then continued on up highway 99 towards Hale’iwa.

 

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Hale’iwa is a neat old surf town with a lot of great stores. We thought about stopping at Matsumoto’s for shave ice, but decided to continue on. We did stop at the Aloha General Store a little further down and had some there. Very good! I got it with ice cream in the bottom. I decided to skip the traditional beans. I took this picture of our girls there. They just loved to have their pics taken in these cutout things:

 

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We continued on to Sunset Beach, a place our BIL really wanted to see. In his youth, he spent several weeks each summer on Virginia Beach and wanted to see how the waves stacked up. They weren’t nearly as high as they’d been previously that winter. Me and my crew:

 

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BIL and SIL wanted to stick around and play in the waves, but we wanted to continue on, and so did Mom, so she came with us for the rest of the drive around the island.

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your review is looking awesome so far! Keep it coming!

 

we will be sailing on POA mid May and staying a week on Oahu after the cruise... looking forward to more of your review!!

 

counting down the days and day dreaming of warmer weather!

Edited by tdeyette
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your review is looking awesome so far! Keep it coming!

 

we will be sailing on POA mid May and staying a week on Oahu after the cruise... looking forward to more of your review!!

 

counting down the days and day dreaming of warmer weather!

Thank you so much! I'm still working on it, writing it in Word and then copy/pasting and inserting the photos here on CC. It's fun!

 

It was such an amazing time, I know you're going to love it there. It's snowing out right now, so working on this review is helping me to get through these last days of winter.

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We continued on, stopping at Kahana Bay Beach Park. The girls wanted to swim and play in the smaller waves there. A really beautiful place, nicer than Sunset, I thought:

 

 

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I also got this lovely photo of Chinaman’s Hat (Mokoli’i Island) a bit further on:

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We had a little rain shower on our way back to Waikiki, and saw a nice rainbow. I wanted to snap a picture, but we were nearing the highway interchange at that point and I had to play the roll of navigator, so I missed the opportunity. As it turned out, that would be the only rainbow we would see on the entire trip. What little rain we had, occurred at night.

 

We got turned around on our way into Waikiki and ended up driving through Chinatown. Turned out to be a good error on the navigator’s part. *ahem* We saw a part of Honolulu that we wouldn’t otherwise have seen. Sometimes when you accidentally go off the beaten path, it turns out alright.

 

We arrived back to the Aston Waikiki and turned our keys over to the valet. They only do valet, and the hotel charges $27 for 24 hours of parking and you can have unlimited in’s and out’s (with tips, of course ;)). We would need the car the next day for our trip out to Pearl Harbor. I suppose we could’ve returned the car and re-rented it the next day and avoided the $27 fee, but we just didn’t want the hassle. And the valet service was so nice! We just called down fifteen minutes before we wanted to leave and viola! There were our cars when we came down.

 

The rest of the evening was spent by the pool so the kids could swim and we adults could relax and talk. We kept our meals simple. There's a Subway shop on the ground floor of the hotel and we decided to just go get our food from there and bring it back up and eat out on the pool deck. Made for a nice, relaxing evening!

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Really enjoying your review. We leave on the POA on Saturday. Hope you post info about the other islands before we go. Photo's are great!!

Thank you! I'll try to get as much done as I can. I hope you fall in love with the islands and the POA the way we did.

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Friday

We were up bright and early again, and off to Pearl by 8:00. Our tickets for the Arizona were for 11:00 AM. Note that if you pre-order online for $1.50/ticket, you must pick them up at least an hour before your ticketed time or they will be given away. It took about a half hour to get there, and by the time we parked and made our way in, it was after nine. We ended up getting our tickets changed to 10:45. There was plenty to see and do up until our time. We took lots of photos.

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The movie they show prior to boarding the launch out to the Arizona is intense and very moving. I had tears in my eyes by the end. After, our group headed outside to the launch and we made our way over to the Memorial. Everyone was quiet and very respectful, as it should be. The oil that still bubbles to the surface gave me chills.

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Following the Arizona, my crew and I wanted to tour the USS Missouri and the Pacific Aviation Museum. The rest of our party of eight didn’t want to, so we said goodbye to them at that point and we boarded the shuttle bus that takes you over to Ford Island to the Missouri and the PAM. The other four headed off to the eastern side of the island to explore some things they hadn’t had time to the day before. Doing separate things when we wanted to was part of the success of our trip.

 

The Missouri was outstanding. I highly recommend the guided tour for just a couple dollars more. My husband loved the PAM. The girls and I, not so much. But that’s ok, it was hubby’s vacation, too, and of the entire trip, our Pearl Harbor day was the thing he was looking most forward to. After returning our car to Budget, we didn’t get back to our hotel until nearly five-thirty! It was a very long day, but one we’ll never forget.

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One of my favorites of the day, the Missouri watching over the Arizona

HawaiiMissouriArizona-resized_zps988b8c9b.jpg

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Saturday and the Pride of America!

 

We left our hotel at noon and boarded the bus to take us to the pier. MIL had arranged a transfer through RobertsHawaii and they showed up right on time. We stopped at a couple more hotels to pick up other POA cruisers and we were off. It didn’t take too long, maybe a half an hour total, to get to the pier. It went well. However, check in was total chaos. I’ve read about this and was expecting it, so it wasn’t really a surprise. I suppose if you showed up earlier, or much later, it wouldn’t be this way, but I don’t know for sure. Anyway, it took a long time and we didn’t get onboard until after two PM. Oh well, we didn’t sweat it. We were having too much fun! As always, the kids were patient and well behaved. Our staterooms were ready so we headed up to deck seven to rooms 7552, 7554, and 7556. Obstructed ocean views, but with floor to ceiling windows, not obstructed by much. This was our room, 7552:

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Tiny, yes, but we made do. Our older daughter slept next door with Grandma, so that gave us a little more room. Their room was set up a little different, as theirs slept 3 and ours slept 4. They had a small sofa and no Pullmans, while we had 2 Pullmans and no sofa. But we weren’t in there much, so it didn’t really matter. We had Gordon, our stateroom attendant, separate our beds on the second day with the request to leave them that way, as it provided a bit more room. And we were able to get our suitcases under the beds a bit easier. Gordon was a star, btw. He’s from Jamaica and was so friendly and nice to us. He always welcomed us back to the ship, or said good morning/evening, whenever he saw us. He left cute towel animals in each of our rooms, and was always kind to the kids, as they were to him. He got our Vacation Hero card.

 

We’d worked up an appetite by now and were hungry, so we headed out in search of food and found the Key West Bar and Grill up on deck 12 overlooking the pool. There was a buffet out there daily which consisted of burgers, hotdogs, bangers (sausages), grilled chicken breasts, various salads, fries, fruit, and some other things I’m forgetting. I think it was the same every day. We only went there twice, so I’m not really sure, but it was good!

 

Our girls sitting at the bar having a soda. The buffet is off to their right.

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The pool was open, so off we went back to the cabins so the kids could change into their suits. We warned them that they might not have a lot of time, as the lifeboat drill would be happening soon. They swam for a while and then we got the call over the PA system and off we went. Easy peasy. We were out on deck six and it took all of 20 minutes tops, then it was back to the pool. We all went in except Mom. She sat on deck and took pictures.

 

Soon it was time for sail away! Unfortunately, it started to rain. Oh well, it was dark by then anyway and we were hungry. So after changing, off we went to the Aloha Café for our first dinner. We were anxious to explore the ship and didn’t feel like a long dinner in the dining room. This would be the case for the entire cruise; we would utilize the Aloha Café for breakfast and dinner. That was what we loved about Freestyle, the ability to eat whenever we needed to, not when we had to, and the buffet suited us just fine. With eight people, it was easier. We tried to make it a point to get together for dinner every night after being off the ship all day, and the buffet just worked the best. Best of all, the kids could always find something they liked.

 

For breakfast there was always the basics, like eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits and gravy, omelet station, pancakes, fruit…you get the idea. A good start to our morning. We needed the energy for our daily adventures! Though I’m not a big eater in the morning, I did try the eggs, bacon, and sausage. Pretty good! Mostly I just had Raisin Bran, yogurt, and coffee. Our girls usually had the French Toast and bacon.

 

At dinner there was always some type of meat being carved. I’m not a big meat eater so I didn’t partake, but everyone else in our party did. I never heard a word of complaint, so it must’ve been ok. Personally, I liked the Asian dishes the best, and the curry was good, too. Halfway through the cruise our younger daughter discovered the pretzel rolls and fell in love.

 

The desserts were decent, I tried something each night. Some were better than others. They had bread pudding with a whisky caramel sauce one night. Sooo good! It won best dessert of the cruise, in my opinion. There was a cheesecake that was pretty good, and a chocolate cake thing that was good. I’ve forgotten the rest, so that tells you something.

 

We walked the ship that evening, as the rain hadn’t lasted long. Loved the atrium and grand staircase.

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We discovered the ping pong room just off the pool deck and practically around the corner from the Aloha Café. The kids would go there after they ate their meals and play ping pong while the rest of us finished up. Also found the extra-large chess game up on deck 12 or 13, and the shuffle board courts. We would end up playing all of these at least once. Ping pong, a lot more than once.

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As we had been doing for the last several nights, we turned in early. We were all excited about our upcoming days on Maui!

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If you get home sick here is a link to Hawaii webcams. Thanks for the review. Just a note that the cabins on POA are smaller than there other ships.

 

http://www.mybeachcams.com/hawaii/oahu/

Thanks, those are great.

 

True about the cabins, but Hawaii is the real star, and it didn't bother us a bit. When people say you're only in your cabins to sleep on this cruise, they are right!

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Loving the review and the photos are great. Keep it coming

Thank you so much, I really appreciate that. :)

Anxious to read and see more pics...Even more excited about our April 19 cruise! Thanx!!!
You're welcome!

 

I hope you have an amazing time! Within a day, we found ourselves on "island time" and the words "go with the flow" took on a whole new meaning.

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Sunday and Maui!

 

Our sweet ride docked at Kahului.

 

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I had been to Maui many moons ago with my parents and I was anxious for my family to see how beautiful it is. We had plans to rent cars the first day and do the Molokini snorkel excursion through NCL the second day.

 

We were on the shuttle bus to Thrifty by 8:45 for our 9:00 pick up time. They offered us an upgrade to a Dodge Charger for only a little more, and since we knew we might have Mom with us for part of our trip, we went for it to have a little more room. Plus, hubby’s a huge Charger fan, having owned a couple of the classics back in the day. He was excited!

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Off we went to our first stop that we were all doing together, Iao Valley. I had forgotten how beautiful the entire area is. We all loved this stop.

 

The Iao Needle

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After viewing the needle, we made our way down another path, down to where the stream flows. Just gorgeous. We ventured out on the rocks while Mom stayed on the path and snapped pictures of us. I took this one of our girls.

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Mom decided to go with us when it was time to leave Iao, as SIL and BIL weren’t sure exactly what they were going to do. They thought they might want to hit the beaches on the west side of the island, Ka’anapali or maybe Napili. Our plan was to head south and west also, but we wanted to stop in Lahaina and also Whaler’s Village. And to hopefully see some whales along the way! I had yet to see any and was anxious to. That appealed to Mom more than huffing it around on the beaches.

 

We pulled off at an overlook just past Ma’alaea and were rewarded! Our first glimpse of the whales. They were too far out to get decent pictures, so we didn’t take any. I knew we would see more the following day on our snorkel trip. We continued on and stopped further down at small beach Mom could navigate and the girls waded in the water for a little while.

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We eventually made it to Lahaina. I was disappointed in how much the area has been developed in the 20 years since I’d been there. Sign of the times, I guess. But we parked and walked around and did a little shopping. We had lunch at Cheeseburger In Paradise. The girls asked if we could have lunch at one of the restaurants on the waterfront and this fit the bill perfectly. Hubby and I had burgers. They were good, not outstanding, but good. Mom had Mahi Mahi that she enjoyed, and I can’t remember what the kids had. Something “kiddish” I’m sure.

 

On to Whaler’s Village and the whaling museum there. We all really enjoyed it and it filled the remainder of the afternoon. We started heading back to Thrifty to drop off the rental car around 4:30 and were back to the ship by 5:30, I do believe. We met up with SIL and family for dinner at the Aloha to talk about our respective afternoons and share our stories and pictures. They had been to Whaler’s Village, too, and the museum, just earlier in the day because they had skipped Lahaina and gone directly there. After, they found a beach that BIL said would’ve been perfect for snorkeling. I’m not sure which one he was talking about, but it was out past Ka’anapali.

 

The kids played ping pong for a while after dinner, then asked if they could swim and use the hot tubs. The pool deck was virtually deserted every night by seven, except for the eight of us. The pool deck bars were closed, the loungers and chairs stacked away. We just took what we needed to sit on and then re-stacked them when we were done. The Gold Rush Saloon is directly aft of the pool deck and accessible by walking through the ping pong area. It was a good place to get a drink in the evenings while we were watching the kids swim. I loved their Bahama Mamas. Hubby tried several new beers and his favorite of the trip ended up being the Kona Longboard.

 

Speaking of the kids, besides ours, we saw maybe six or seven other kids that were our kids’ ages, and about that many really little ones. Ours didn’t utilize the teen or kids clubs at all, so I have no information on that.

 

We were in bed early again. Our meeting time for our snorkel excursion was at 8:20 the following morning out on the pier. We were all looking forward to it very much, especially our older daughter. This was her gig, the one thing she really, really wanted to do. It appealed to all in our group and so we pre-booked on-line as soon as the shore excursions became available.

 

I wanted to add a pic of our 1st towel animal, but I can only include six images at a time, so I'll do it in another post.

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Thanx for the review and pictures - we are going mid-May - your descriptions are very helpful

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

You're welcome! I love reliving it. I sure hope you enjoy it as much as we did. Let us know!

Great trip report. Looking forward to listening about your snorkelling trip to Molokini and if you did see whales as well as the other marine life.

Thank you! I'll do the snorkel report next, sometime this afternoon.

 

Also, if anyone has any specific questions, please feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer!:)

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