Econom405

MKgal,

There are only myself and hubby on this cruise. The "free" night was part of the promotion they were running when we booked the cruise. Otherwise I would have researched my own hotel reservations. We've stayed in the Hilton Village before, and probably would have used Hilton points to stay there again. Not too sure about the Aholani hotel, it's new and I will have to do more research on it.

NCL is no longer using the Marriott pre-cruise. We are also booked in October and we were notified by email that we were moved to the Aholilani Hotel, and I have seen others say they have been moved to the Hilton Village, which is HUGE...You may want to make another phone call.

We are booked in the Owner's suite, so not sure if that is why the difference in the hotel, or if the Hilton was already booked up. But there has to be close to 3000 rooms in that Hilton complex.

I also just went and looked at the excursions, it says 0 right now. I wonder if it is because of them not going to Big Island right now?

We are on October sailing and we got out hotel switched to the Aholiana hotel, not Hilton. No onboard credit either. Seems as though everyone else is at the Hilton, which is a great location, we stayed there a few years ago. Lots to do on the property and tons of places to eat too.

Just received an email from NCL stating as of August they are changing the hotel from the Marriott Waikiki to a new hotel called Alohaini, which is new. I looked at the website, looks pretty nice. I just wish they would have provided more information, as we would like to schedule a few nights prior to the "free" night. I think the room at Marriott, the rooms were partial ocean view correct?

Loving this review, I check all day long for updates lol Thank you so much for sharing.

Sounds like you had a good time! We are still a while out from our cruise in October, but am following closely to see what is happening with the volcano. Hopefully, Madam Pele is done with her outburst soon! We did a land trip to the Big Island 2 years ago, I absolutely love it there! I could see myself packing everything up, saying adios kids! and moving there.

Isn't North and South, NCL's brand? You'd think that would be included.

Thank you for the review! I am curious, did they let you go to the suite prior to them calling you by floor? I know the POA is different and they actually block off corridors, but we have always tried to sneak into room early to drop off carry ons.

Nicole Thank you so much for such a nice review!! The pictures were fabulous.

Again do you have to ask for it, or is it already in your cabin

We've never have had to ask for it, both bottles are usually in room on ice upon our arrival.

Go back to both!! We just did a land trip where we spent a week on the Big Island and 5 days on Oahu (we had done previous land trip to Maui). The inter-island flights on Hawaiian airlines are fairly cheap, AND run on time! I think it cost us like $50 each to fly from Big Island to Oahu. We also stayed in condo type accomodations through Hilton, so our room had a full kitchen, which was great for breakfast, we made our own, packed a few picnic lunches and a few days where we ran ourselves ragged, we came back to room and cooked frozen pizza in oven. Was a great relaxing trip, and it was so much fun grocery shopping there! Just my two cents lol

I seriously could live there, get a job at the big VA hospital...we've talked quite frequently about it, especially if Navy daughter gets stationed there.

Now that we have reached platinum status, and also stay in suites usually, we receive 2 bottles of "champagne' in our room. They almost always go to waste, because we really don't like it. Occasionally, I'll ask for some raspberry puree to put in it, and once we cut up the oranges and made mimosa's. But we truly feel like it's a waste of two bottles.

Has anyone every asked to switch them out for bottles of wine, that we would actually drink? Is this even possible?

I know, first world problems, but I really feel wasteful letting it sit there all week. :D:D

I'm great with 3 bottles of wine, as that's what we drink anyway!! Do they let you pick the bottles of wine, or just red or white? Thank you so much for the reply.

I've searched through probably 500 posts, some quite old and I can't seem to find the answer to my question. I even combed through NCL site and can't find the answer.

I know things are different on the POA because it is American flagged, but does anyone know the suite ammenities? Do you get the 3 bottles of alcohol/wine, or does this not happen?

Or if someone can point me into the right direction to find the answers myself, I'd greatly appreciate it!

Depends on what you are looking for. The Sun has far less activities and choices for eating and entertainment, but is one of our favorites. If you looking for itinerary alone, I'd go with Sun. If you looking for itinerary and ship experience, for sure the Getaway.

I've been wondering about these questions myself. I am a bit concerned about leaving my luggage behind.

So if we can take it to the lobby ourselves? Although I guess on this type of cruise if they miss your luggage it's easy to get it to the first port.

Has anyone had any issues with the luggage?

I downloaded an app called ‘shaka’; they offer guided audio tours for every island. Tours cost $3-$5 to download but the app is free to browse. We are planning on renting a car and doing 3 of the tours during our cruise in April.

 

 

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We did these tours on Oahu and the Big Island last time we did a land trip. This app is AWESOME. Oahu has like 2 or 3 different tours. Was so nice to do it on our own and find things we wouldn't have just trying to drive around on our own.

I can drink Pepsi on the ship for a week or two, with my Coke fix in the ports. I look at it like this, it could be much, much worse...it could be RC! We have season tickets for hockey, and the only thing the arena serves is RC products, luckily there is Dr. Pepper. Talk about first world problems! :)

Thanks for such a nice review! We were on same cruise and was nice to read everything and relive the week. Were you in an aft cabin? We had a ton of vibration in ours, never experienced anything like that before, and we've been in several aft cabins. A few nights we had to wear earplugs to sleep, but not really complaining a noisy cruise is better than being at home in our view!

We did a land trip in October and are planning another for this October. Aside from the earthquake, lol, the weather was amazing! The pricing wasn't too bad either, as I think that may be considered "off" season.

First I apologize if this has been covered at nauseam, but I searched and did not find what I was looking for.

I have not nailed down a hotel yet for our trip arriving Sept. 25 and departing on cruise Sept. 28th, but I do think I'd like to stay near Canada Place, which appears to be relatively close to either cruise pier.

My question is this, is a rental car worth the hassle of returning it before leaving? Or is everything pretty much walkable? I would like to do the suspension bridge one day, but an also concerned that we are going to be in Vancouver over a weekend and will most likely be very crowded. If the suspension bridge is not crowded on the weekends (wishful thinking) I am thinking renting a car is unnecessary, but I may be wrong with our choice in area to stay.

Any help would be appreciated.

We did the Capt. Nautica as well in St. Thomas. You go out in a Rhino to the snorkeling spots, so it isn't a lot of people on the excursion, I think ours had a dozen or so. The Capt. is the owner so he takes a great pride in what he does and makes sure everyone has a great time. Plus you walk a short distance from the ship to the boat, so it is nice if you take early or later excursion for coming and going from ship. We took afternoon tour and had time to go and shop a bit, return to ship get towels and what not, then 5 minute walk to where rhino was docked.

We are doing our first b2b cruise in Sept/Oct on the Sun. My questions are these: do we HAVE to get off the ship on the day new passengers embark?

If we do get off, is it just like a regular port day with all aboard time or is it different? And also, do we have wait in the big long line of people getting back on board or do we just get to walk back on like normal port days?

I know it's early but these questions have been bugging me since I am a planner, and like to know in advance what my options are.

Thanks in advance to anyone who answers me!

We took the Izapa ruins and Mayan tour. It was okay. The guide spoke very poor English. We did notice that there seemed to be a club with a large pool near the end of the port, that seemed to have quite a few cruisers and cruise staff there.