carohs

Overall thoughts: Flights. Hawaiian Air wins hands down. From seats to beverage service to onboard entertainment. Even their float in the parade was a thing of art. Southwest simply had a banner and a few employees walking and waving The Ship. I'm not one to notice little details but overall I got the impression the ship was clean and well maintained. I loved finding all the quiet sitting areas around the ship too. Everything was easy to find. Besides the quirk with the midship elevator with two separate call buttons, deck 12 took me a couple tries to figure out. If you took the aft elevators to 12 (as we did after leaving the MDR) you end up by the Spa. We were going to Splash so we went down a deck to midship then back up the stairs. A couple days later there was a lady on 12 midship utterly lost looking for the Spa. Stateroom. Location-wise it was pretty good, between midship and forward elevators on deck 7. Our steward did a great job and the rooms were always clean by the time we made it back onto the ship. We didn't get any towel animals, and the steward never did personally introduce himself. As far as storage we easily fit everything in the drawers and shelfs available. Both suitcases went under the bed. DH finally found the behind the mirror storage in the bathroom night 3. I had known and mentioned to him it would be there, but upon initial glance it didn't seem to me it was there. I guess I should have looked a little more closely. Due to the room setup, we slept in separate beds for the 7 nights. Shh don't tell but I think I slept more comfortably not sharing blankets, body heat, or disturbed by DH's getting up in the middle of the night or early morning walks. We're both glad to be back in our own bed though. I would book the room again on the POA but I would strongly consider weather or not an upgrade was worth the increased cost on a different itinerary. We had an obstructed ocean view which I had expected to be completely blocked by the lifeboat. In truth if you stood, you got a decent view out the window over the lifeboats. If not a view, we at least got plenty of natural light. Entertainment. We only participated in hula classes, the flower lei making and two comedy shows. If we were on the ship, we spent our time eating, sleeping or chilling in the pool/hot tub. I was glad that the only activities available that were of interest to me were all during a time we were on the ship. Isabella, the CD, has her work cut out for her given the low key vibe of the passengers. She seemed better suited for a Carnival ship where she may have been given back the same level of energy she was putting out. There was very little to do on the ship (you could look through the dailies) but that was expected. At least there was no FOMO about leaving the ship for most of every day. Food. We had one or two stand out dishes during the sailing, and also one or two bad dishes. Most everything was okay to good. Thankfully we aren't picky and like to try new things or we may have had a hard time finding something we liked. The best meals in the café are breakfast and lunch. The specialty dining we chose, Moderno, was excellent having the best meal and service of the whole vacation. We had one bad service in the MDR. I do try to give most servers a break but this guy didn't seem to know how to multi-task or keep track of which of his tables needed what next. For example we got dessert menus and had our plates cleared before the table next to us who were served dinner as we sitting down. DH had two plates served to him that he didn't order, which he declined and they made it to the right place. Someone had asked me about the officers earlier. I managed to get the following. Food and Beverage: Alain Nicholas Beverage Mgr: Timea Bartha Housekeeping: Arvin Vitug Guest Services: Kelani Cing Let me know if I can answer any other more specific questions

Step counts, because I'm curious 9/29 - 9,620 9/30 - 16,026 10/1 - 14,609 10/2 - 15,410 10/3 - 17,112 10/4 - 9,584 10/5 - 8,8544 10/6 - 15,519 10/7 - 13,504 10/8 - 8,457 10/9 - ? Fitbit didn't track spent most of the day flying anyway This is about double what I would do in a normal week. Not enough to justify how tired I felt maybe.

We got to the airport a little early but discovered the gardens. That was neat too.

The map of PCC got wrinkled. I took pictures of it nonetheless. Hope it helps some.

We are home! Back to working and cooking our own meals. Alas. Our last day in Maui was quiet. In the evening we went to Tiki's to have an evening meal watching the sunset. I was ecstatic to get an ube piña colada, since my favorite color is purple. I also ordered the purple quesadilla. Note to self: don't expect spicy salsa from a none Mexican restaurant, or hot sauce that isn't Tabasco. All in all it was a great way to end an otherwise busy vacation.

You'll have a great time! Our tour in Kona on Greenhill Farms was also walk-in and we had no problems with availability. Hopefully Abalone will be the same for you. The last tender was at 5pm, so with a 4pm time you may or may not run into a crowd getting back to the ship but you should also have plenty of time to get on a boat or for them to make a round trip for more passengers.

🤔 well we left at 830ish. At that point they was one right behind the other, running as often as it took to load up and go. The ride over was only 10 min or so. We did come back earlier about 3 I think. We didn't have to wait for a tender at all and it did fill up quickly so we got going in short order. I imagine they run consistently throughout the day.

At the PCC The gateway buffet was super good. Wish I was hungrier. We browsed the shops after dinner then found our seats at Ha: Breath of Life. They strictly enforce no cell phone policy including checking your phone for texts, so no pictures. People raved about how good the show is, and it exceeded expectations. So worth it, they take you through a story that visits the different Polynesian islands and showcases each style of dance. If we ever make it back to Oahu we'll definitely check out PCC and see Ha again. The kids fell asleep not even halfway into the show. In retrospect, they never stood a chance. Between a hot busy afternoon in the sun, a filling buffet dinner, a show in the dark, after bedtime Hawaii time let alone home time, and sitting still....no way they would make it. Besides the fact that we've had a busy last week. Had we done it before the cruise it would have been a lost cause too, not yet being acclimated to a new time zone. Lastly, we drove the hour back into Waikiki to check into our room. I probably fell asleep before my head hit the pillow. We (mostly I) decided we'd take today slow and easy. Take the time to rest before flying back. Despite having 8 hours of sleep, I still felt spent out. The kids who slept thru Ha and the drive home slept in til 8:30 but would have gladly stayed sleeping later. I won't have much more to write about but I'll come back and give a retrospective on the POA after getting home. I also have the map of PCC.... somewhere. I'll take a few shots of that and upload for anyone curious. For now, Mahalo for following along. Aloha.

There's a marketplace right next to the PCC the marketplace opens at 11:00 a.m. in hindsight this would have been the place to grab lunch. PCC opens at 12:30. We arrived shortly after 1pm got a map and took a few minutes to orient ourselves. There are six islands you can visit. Each island has at least one cultural demonstration, running on the hour and sometimes on the half. These run 15-20 minutes. They also have several hands-on activities for you to try. Some took 5 minutes, some 15. And each island also have a few cultural exhibits. You could choose to snap a pic and move on or take your time here. With 6 islands, and only 5 hours, I felt rushed and like we skipped a lot. Keep in mind, it takes at least 3 minutes to get the kids attention and convince them to move on every time. If you only have adults your time management would be more efficient. If you have the package that includes the luau with dinner, you get better seats at Ha but you also lose an hour of island time. Theoretically you could choose to return up to 3 days to the islands, but they close on Sundays so that wont be an option for us.

Bear with me, I've lost 5G. I hadn't remembered 4g as being so slow, but even if I could get signal it's been 4g all week.

We had Korean BBQ for lunch. It was good and plentiful, but I wish I had anticipated the portion size and ordered less. I'm tired, did I mention that yet? I only managed to take 140 pictures today missing at least half of the opportunities presented throughout the day. I'll give a brief overview of PCC for anyone curious about adding this on to their POA vacation. I think the land tour includes a visit here as well. The drive is about an hour give or take a few minutes depending on traffic. It's another scenic drive. Mountains to the west Ocean to the east And a tunnel too

Rather than arrive early we decided to extend the trip into the weekend. Today we lolligagged and yet still had time for breakfast in the MDR. Nothing special on debark morning. I was a little bummed not to find something like the shakshuka from the other day, but I got my cappuccino. The cappuccinos are tasty are included in MDR of you have HBP. We made it off the ship and had our rental from the airport by 9am. Since PCC doesn't open til 12:30 we drove to Costco to see what they had for souvenir options then to the laundromat nearby. $5 for the washer, $1.25 per load of detergent, $.25 per 3 minutes in the dryer. FYI for budgeting. We'll find lunch before making the drive to PCC.

To end our last evening on the ship we attended Hula Graduation (after a tub soak and a nap). Moana quickly went over the two dances, Hukilau and Pearly Shells. If you had attended her earlier classes these were super easy. If you hadn't, well they were still easy. There was one Ami step, but otherwise done with all Kaholo. The great thing about hula is the arm movements tell the story in the song. So when it sings about the Hukilau we make the motion of pulling nets like if we had been fishing. Hukilau is the way of fishing. Then the kids ate dinner and off to Splash. DH and I had reservations at Moderno. We have dined at Brazilian steakhouse before but not on NCL. They brought out all the meats in succession when you were ready, but our previous experience with Brazilian had been the meats were continuously brought out in alternating fashion until you say you're full. I was stuffed after trying what I wanted to, but DH requested seconds of several. He hadn't expected to need to but they were happy to accommodate. Btw, the cocktail here was excellent. I could had several of those if my body wasn't already suggesting I had not trained it for the unlimited drinks package. We went to Hollywood to see Alex Ortiz again. His bit last night wasn't as funny as before. He did start it with awkward jokes about getting it on with a 96 and 102 yo on Holland. After that we watched the farewell thing then went to pick up the kids and called it a night. The seats in the theater are weird. They're like velvet and at a slight decline. It was a struggle to sit upright for the duration of the show.

Then we hiked back. My arms were like jelly. We even tried switching DS and DD, but as it turns out DS was even less than a help than DD, and heavier to boot. By the time we got to the car I was ready to call it quits. I regret not having the energy to make the most out of island time, but I gotta listen and know my limits. Plus we do have another full day in Honolulu tomorrow. Unfortunately the rental place had a few call outs and they weren't able to get us back to the pier. We did have to grab a Lyft. I forgot to mention, last night we did find street parking. There's plenty of it around the pier area.

Finally we got to the falls. The weather remained overcast until we left the falls. You want cooler weather when you're active anyway. The falls were what I was looking forward or the most and they did not disappoint. Took me a few minutes but I finally braved swimming in the water. It was cold! Because it's right in a valley I'm sure the water gets very little sun. If you ever want to do this hike, water shoes are a must. I thought I would take my shoes off because generally you're more sure footed barefoot (by the way if you get on a catamaran they do make you take your shoes off. Everyone's barefoot onboard), but the bottom is filled with every size rock and it hurts to walk on them. That is when they're not covered with moss and making you slide right off. But getting to stand under the falls was glorious.

Mushrooms a flower, and our guide pointed out the spiral ginger.

The whole time you could hear the water. And smell the smells. Good smells. Several times we walked alongside the river too.

We pulled up our kayaks with all the other groups out there and started on our hike. That trail is wild. Muddy, rooty, overgrown in parts, wet, slippery, and rocky. Cole, our guide, provided our group with walking sticks and they sure came in handy at certain points. We also crossed several streams. And parts that were easier.

It started raining at the Marina. As typical it was already warm out even early in the morning so the water felt good. It rains so often here and it's not unusual for it to stop shortly after it starts. Our guide from Wailea Kayak Adventures said just ignore it and started us on our way. Seven days in and I'm still in awe over how luscious and green the islands are. I'm out of shape. It was especially evident on the return trip back but even on the way there I was falling behind the group so I didn't get too many pics although I did have to stop for the rainbow. Since it had rained we got a pretty good one as the sun started to peek out. See if you can spot it.

We headed out at sunrise today to kayak and hike to Secret Falls. Breakfast opens at 6 am for dining and cafe, but Cadillac's is 24/7. We had a small and quick meal and headed right out. We arrived at the marina and got sunscreened and set to go.

Cell service has been spotty. Works in odd parts of the ship and their wifi isn't any better. Sometimes it works better when we're pulling away from port than when we're docked. I just can't predict it.

Sitting in the tub now relaxing with a mudslide.

Last night we got the last daily along with the usual the end is near notices. We got back late and had an early morning, so it was dinner then bed. I can't believe how much we've seen yet how quickly the week has gone by. I'm tired now though. Not ready for real life but too beat for any more adventures. free-style-daily-7.pdf

Thanks! Yes two more nights. I'll write up a small summary on ship opinions at the end.