DAGVBSB

I was on the Freedom a couple weeks ago and after viewing the videos posted of the fire, I question RCCL's comment that the fire was in a Mechanical area on Deck 0.

If you look at a couple of the videos, there appears to be flames visible to the port side of the smokestack (near the rock climbing wall.) When we were on the Freedom two weeks ago, that area on the sports decks next to the Rock Climbing wall was closed off with construction walls and notes that said to pardon the dust, but they were upgrading that part of the sports deck. You could hear construction equipment being used inside and several times when we were eating in Johnny Rockets, construction workers would come through there wearing heavy outfits. (my brother in law even remarked how they looked like they were welders.)

Could the fire actually have been up on the Sports Deck and caused by the construction workers? (calling it an Engine fire on Deck 0 seems suspicious that the smoke would be coming from up there and none at all from the engine areas on the lower decks.

The specialty restaurants on the Freedom of the Seas two weeks ago were hardly ever "sold out" on any night. They would be pushing people to sign up for the specialty restaurants every day in the Compass and at tables set up on the Promenade and near the Windjammer. We also got a letter in our cabin trying to get us to book them. One night, we were heading into the Windjammer for a quick snack during the dinner hour and there were hosts standing outside both Giavoni's Table and Chops trying to coax you to come in and have dinner there.

(I should also note that you can also order a steak from Chops in the main dining room for an additional cost.)

Since neither specialty restaurant seemed that big, it appears to me that passengers are resisting paying the high up charge for those places.

(The Mexican restaurant was literally giving away samples at their entrance and trying to get people to read the menu as they were walking by.)

Yes, we have been to the Missouri (the other vessel, a submarine, is the Bowfin). If you read down the board, there are two major threads about visiting Pearl.

 

In our opinion, and no disrepect to the memories of the events of Pearl, but seeing the Missouri was more worthwhile. Note, my mother and her parents were living on Oahu on Dec 7.

One other thing that is neat is that they have the Missouri "parked" in front of the Arizona. (almost nose to nose if the Arizona was still afloat.) It is really neat to see the bookends of WWII (begining of US involvement and the site of the signing of the surrender) like that.

When I was there last year, there was an Arizona survivor who was going out to the memorial. (according to the Park Ranger, there are 19 survivors left alive and they can go out to the Memorial anytime and don't need tickets or have to wait.) This gentleman was getting on the launch which was loading as we were returning. He was escorted by the Commander of the Memorial site. All the passengers on both launches stood and applauded him. It was an extremely moving experience as well. The park ranger that I talked to said that that particular survivor still lives in Hawaii and visits the memorial at least twice a month on Sunday mornings because that is when the attack occured. (this was a Sunday morning about 9:30).

Thanks to both for your advice.

I'm afraid our Holland arrival of 8am will be the pits to get to PH for "early" tickets....bummer

I just confused as to a do-it-yourself attitude or pay the price and go with the ship.

 

Have either of you done the extras at PH? Speaking about touring the USS Missouri or ????binfin???? (sorry, I just remember reading something and can't remember the word).

Luckily for me, all 3 of my Hawaii cruises have been on NCL which ended in Honolulu and we took extensions after our cruise. That allowed us to get our own tours to Pearl Harbor... and yes I went to Pearl Harbor on all 3 of our trips there...it is that powerful.

I would suggest that, do to the limitations of Pearl Harbor, that you book a tour of Pearl through either your cruise ship or through a private tour company. They know the limitations of the cruises and can make the proper arrangements to make sure you get out to the Memorial. Many of these also include tours of the Missouri and the Bowfin (the sub.).

I have not been to the Bowfin as I am claustophobic and might not do well on that ship...but I have been to the "Mighty Mo" and it is extremely interesting. We think cruise ships of today are big...the Missouri was built 70-80 years before most cruise ships of today and she is huge. I highly reccommend touring her.

Again, your best bet is probably through the ship or tour company. Roberts Hawaii and some of the other tour companies are usually much cheaper but make sure that they guarantee that you will make the all aboard call of your ship. Not all companies guarantee that. (I know Roberts does.) Many of these companies have tours similar to the cruise lines that they offer on the other islands as well for about 1/2 of what the cruise lines charge. We used Roberts Hawaii (http://www.gorabbitgo.com) and loved it. We were usually a stop ahead of the NCL tour buses the whole time.

Being new to the board I have been reading all the Hawaii reviews in preparation for our upcoming cruise. Most people seem to take ship tours or rent cars. Does anyone have suggestions regarding other methods to enjoy the typical cruise stops....Hilo, Honolulu, Kauai, Maui etc?

 

Has anyone taken a cab to Pearl Harbor from the cruise ship? I understand if you get there early enough you can beat the cruise tour buses. I'm just wondering if you might have done it on your own and taken a cab. Do you remember the cost? Any suggestions or help would be so helpful to us "virgin" cruisers.

 

Please give any thoughts from your experiences or what you are doing.

The secret to Pearl Harbor is as always... to get there early. They begin distributing tickets out to the memorial at 7:30 a.m.. By 9:00 a.m., you are looking at tickets after 12:00 p.m. and, on busy days, all tickets for the day are gone by 11:00 a.m.

You didn't mention which ship. If you are on the Pride of America, then it is doubtful you can get there early enough to make it since you have to wait to disembark and you will have your luggage. If you are on another cruise ship, it would depend on what time you dock and what time they would let you off.

Also, no bags are allowed into Pearl Harbor memorial area. You have to leave them in your car or rent a small locker outside Pearl Harbor. (this includes purses and camera bags. As one tour guide told me, if it won't fit in your pocket or is a camera around your neck...forget it.)

As far as touring the other islands. There are free shuttles to most shopping venues in each port but they won't get you to the sightseeing areas. There are also private tour companies, like Roberts Hawaii, that operate tours in the ports and these tend to be up to half the cost of the cruise line shore excursions. We used Roberts Hawaii (http://www.gorabbitgo.com) for all our tours last year on the POAm and it cost us half of what it was through NCL.

NCL will not make any accomodation for you at all. You can ask and they will tell you NO.

 

Carnival will be flexible. Royal has been flexible with us before. But never NCL.

 

The only time I was able to work it on NCL when I wanted my younger daughter to be in the same group as my older dd and her cousins she never gets to see (imagine they WANT to spend their vacation with their cousins they never get to see and be grouped together?!") The only way I could work it is to play way ahead. When I booked the cruise I lied about her age I made her one year older than she was. So if her birthday was 7/10/99 I lied when I booked the cruise and told them her birthday was 7/10/00. Then when we checked in at the port they don't even look at the birth certificate at all. I was holding my breath at that point but they didn't so much as check with the lines out the door and wrapping around the building they didn't give a birth certificate AGE a second look. I was all prepared if we got caught at the pier........I would have been "mistaken.....sorry". It worked out great. My dd got to enjoy kids club with her sister and cousins and no one was the wiser. I've had several friends who've done the same thing with no issue either. I think if you have a well behaved kid that isn't going to cause them any suspicion It will work.

 

It certainly would be nice if they could have some flexibility with this as their competitors do though! When a kid comes on vacation with their cousins who live across the country they want to spend time together, not be seperated. It's a customer service issue!

Oh look a criminal and bad parenting all in one person.

1.) Lying on a government form is a criminal offense. In these days of terrorism and close security for passports and other things, it is a big deal to knowingly lie like that.

(and then to claim ignorance and say it was just a mistake when you pruposely did it is a typical criminal response.)

2.) Instead of teaching kids that following rules are necessary, this parent is teaching them that it is ok to lie and cheat to get what you want.

3.) Kids need to be taught that you aren't always going to get what you want... sometimes things and rules prevent that. Its called maturity and teaching children the right way. Not the illegal way.

Another problem with society is excatly what all these fools on here are trying to do.... change the rules to suit what THEY want.

Rules are there to do what is in the best interests of ALL the people... not just what a certain person wants. To try an circumven the rules is disrespectful to not only those who follow the rules but to yourself. You are putting youself and your own selfish needs/wants ahead of everybody else.

"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" is a great quote to live by.

Some great examples of poor parenting on this thread.

Oh, and by the way... nearly everything that has been reported on this topic is that NCL is very strict with the age groupings and grant very few, if any exceptions. Which I commend NCL for. If you let every Tom, Dick and Harry decide what group their child was in, it would be mass chaos.

Thank God NCL does not let the loons run the show.

Also have a feeling that $6/pp is a group rate. I know we always pay $9/pp or $15/pp/rt on Roberts. Still feel that is a bargain. We take Roberts every time' date=' but we are usually among the first off the bus, and the last picked up, and we get in so early that our room is usually never ready![/quote']

 

The group rate may work for us. We have a group of 16 who will have to go from the ship to our hotel in Waikiki. I also just found, through exploring their site, that they offer a transfer to the airport but no price is listed for that. I am going to call on Monday and ask some questions.

 

 

I do admit I was quite skeptical about Roberts listed Tours because they sound too good to be true, but I from what everyone on here is saying, they are good!

Quote : We have also found that Roberts has a great deal to get us from the port to our hotel for our post cruise stay, ($6 per person) and so we are doing that. Unfortunately our TA scheduled us through NCL to get us from the airport to the ship. NCL's price is $20 a person while Roberts was only $6 a person...... too late to get out of the NCL transfer now unfortunately.

 

 

Can I ask where you found this ? I checked their website, but couldn't find anything about transfers. Or did you have to call them about this ?

 

Thanks

Go to their website...http://www.gorabbitgo.com. On the left side there is a box that says "Build your Adventure" where you put in the name of your ship and sailing date. Directly below that box is a yellow and black box that says "Convenient Shuttle." Click on that logo and it brought up the information on the shuttles.

Hope that helps.

Polynesian Adventure Tours. NCL OWNS them!;)

Now things are begining to make sense!

Our group of 16 have been looking at doing our own tours on the islands and especially one on Oahu because the combination of places we want to go just don't exist on other tours.

I was assigned to contact Roberts and another person in our group contacted Polynesian Adventure Tours.

The email from Roberts was very good... made suggestions to changes for our Oahu tour to make it better. A very good price for a mini-bus and we are going to book it next week. The Roberts person also gave us the link to http://www.gorabbitgo.com, which is there cruise tour website that lists several shore excursions in each of our ports for a much cheaper rate than NCL and includes pier pick up and a guarantee that you won't miss the ship. I was thinking it was all too good to be a true deal but based on what is being shared on this thread, it is a good deal.

Polynesian Adventure Tours was much higher in Oahu (we are talking by about $1000!) In the ports, they had higher prices too and their charges included a "shore coordinator" for $31! (we are one group of 16-18 people all going on one bus what do we need with a shore coordinator.) A whole bunch of nickel and dime stuff included in the price.

The Polynesian Adventure Tour quote made the tours MUCH higher than even the NCL tours and lots of question marks. They even suggested more than once that we look at the shore excursions offered by our cruise line.

The Polynesian Adventure Tours it appears wanted to keep their prices higher than NCL's so we would take the cruise lines because they are owned by them!!! Makes sense now why their prices were so much out of line with everyone else.

We have made several decisions. We are renting cars in two ports (one through Roberts and one through Thrifty because they are cheapest in each of those ports.). We are dropping three ship tours in favor of Roberts Tours on three days (and still considering dropping another... the Molokini Snorkle... not much cost difference.). We will be scheduling the Oahu Tour with Roberts. We have also found that Roberts has a great deal to get us from the port to our hotel for our post cruise stay, ($6 per person) and so we are doing that. Unfortunately our TA scheduled us through NCL to get us from the airport to the ship. NCL's price is $20 a person while Roberts was only $6 a person...... too late to get out of the NCL transfer now unfortunately.

Roberts Hawaii appears to be the company to use.

Thanks everyone for your responses and for helping us decide. Since none of us in our party drinks alcohol and only one or two drink specialty coffees and with the loss of Shore excursion money, NCL is not going to make much off us on this cruise!

Has anyone used the Roberts Hawaii tours offered to cruise ship passengers.

I just found the website for their tours and they are basically the same ones that NCL is offering for about 1/2 to 2/3 the price. (they also guarantee a return to ship in time.).

THey have car rentals that appear to be fairly cheap as well.

Is this a reliable company and is this all true?

Hurry, we leave in a week and need to make some final decisions.

Well, as expected, Star Cruises is pulling out of NCLA.

To refresh everyone's memory: Back in August, 2007, Apollo investments bought a stake in NCL for $1 Billion and were to become half owners. NCLA, however, provided an interesting story... NCLA was not profitable and all sides agreed that a decision on NCLA would be made in 16 months (which is the end of calander year 2008.) At that time, NCLA would either continue or be "liquidated."

So here is the shoe dropping: (from a thread on the NCL Board)

Yesterday's Seatrade.....

 

Star Cruises is exiting NCL America

 

 

Star made it perfectly clear that it would not continue to lose money in Hawaii and they gave the NCLA dept 16 months to shape up or ship out....as expected, they have shipped out and who can blame them, eh?

The entire thread is here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=893457

I have to agree that the failed attempt to get the PVSA overturned is included in this issue.

Oops! Yes, I did mean the formal, dress up night. Just curious if anyone has attended that dinner, as we are trying to decide if we should bring formal clothes.

 

Sorry for the confusion!

The formal night is optional in all dining rooms on all nights on all NCL ships. They will call one night "Dress Up or Not Night" (but not "formal night"). Only about 50% of the passengers will dress up and that will range from tuxes down to shirt and tie. The rest of the passengers will be in resort casual. (polo shirts, kahki's, tennis shoes.) There will be a mix of dress in all dining rooms as no one dining venue will be designated "formal only."

That the best part about Freestyle, the ability to dress as you wish. If you want to leave the nice clothes at home, then you may and won't feel out of place, BUT if you are one of those who like to dress up in your best duds, then you can do that as well and not be out of place! It's your choice!

As long as you call it Pop not soda you're cool in my book!

What is "soda" anyway???

(if you aren't from Ohio, you won't get this....)

You forgot St. Thomas, Washington DC and New Jersey. :)

They have also made an exemption for people from Cleveland to be US citizens, that is why James is allowed on board.....:D :D

(just a little dig at Clevelander James from Columbus......)

I am told that the Pride of America will continue to sail as an American Flagged ship. 15% of the American flagged P of A is allowed to be foreign non-us nationals and what may have happened is this was what was being bid out to the international crew on the NCL ships(for the higher pay)....

I thought the number was raised to 25%. When I was on the Pride of Aloha, we were told it was 15% foreign, but most foreign positions were being given to engineers and officers who could better run the ship.

Hi all, just returned from our NCL Dream cruise. Would have to classify this as "rumor" but our cabin steward, who is a very long term NCL employee, told us that the Pride of America is 'done' the end of this year and NCL is going back to foreign flagged ships, as before, for Hawaii. He says they are already taking bids for crew slots and he has put in for one. We shall see!

Now that would be supported by the agreement between NCL & Apollo. In August, 2007, when Apollo bought most of NCL from Star, it was written into the contract that Apollo would evaluate the NCL-A situation and make a decision on NCL-America. Within 16 months, Apollo would make a decision to keep NCL-America or "liquidate" their assets. (the exact word used in the agreement was liquidate...) The agreement further said that if NCL-A was liquidated, the Pride of America would be reflagged and become part of NCL's fleet.

The 16 month window is up at the end of calander year 2008.... the same time as Cvanhorn's crew member says that the POAm is "done."

Also, James has been surprisingly quiet lately on the fate of NCL-America and the POAm. In the past when anyone even mentions NCL-A folding or POAm being changed, he jumps in very quickly and shoots down the story (or rumor.) He hasn't said a thing about this "rumor" that has been on the board for several days.

I predicted way back in February, that NCL-A would cease operations by the end of the year.....looks like that predicition may come true. (and all those people with POAm cruises booked throughout 2009 are going to be in for a little shock when their itinerary gets altered.... Fanning Island, here they come....)

Two options with NCL..

1.) If you bring your own wine on board to enjoy, you can do so if you pay a $15 per bottle corkage fee. Once you pay the fee and get a sticker, you can take the bottle anywhere and they will even hold the opened, but unfinished bottle in the dining room for you if you desire.

Some have tried to sneak alcohol on board through many different methods, but your luggage and carry-ons will be x-rayed and if anything is suspicous, you will be called to the naughty room to watch while they search your luggage. Some have succeeded in the sneaking, but many have failed.

There is no limit from what I understand as long as you pay $15 per bottle upfront.

2.) When you buy alcohol in ports (including wine) and you try to bring it back on board, they will give you a choice. Either pay the $15 per bottle fee OR you can have them hold it for you and it will be returned to your stateroom on the last night of the cruise. If you are buying a case or several bottles simply to bring home, then I would go with having them hold it for you.

At the expense of losing 1/2 day in Kona & reducing the cruise to 14 days. I don't suppose they lowered the price to reflect that?

I think Princess is really short changing themselves reducing the trip to 14 days. I've got to travel across country & spend a night in a motel just to spend only 4 days in Hawaii. :( They're not doing anyone any favors by spending more time in Ensenada. If & when we do another Hawaii trip I suppose we'll give HAL some consideration.

When the PVSA rule change was first brought out, one of the major arguements in favor of the change was the fact that so many lines, like Princess, RCCL & HAL were making "token" stops in Ensenada just to satisfy the PVSA. The stop was only 1-4 hours, sometimes in the middle of the night and passengers were not allowed to go ashore.

To try and blunt some of that arguement in the fight against NCL & the PVSA changes, the other cruise lines changed their itineraries to include a longer, daytime stop in Ensenada. The cost of the extended time in Mexico was taking time off the Hawaii stops. It was a change however to try and save the Hawaii cruises.

If NCL had gotten their way on the PVSA rule change, then Princess, HAL, RCCL and the rest would not be allowed to make the west coast to Hawaii cruise AT ALL! Be happy that only a few hours were shaved off Kona instead of losing the ability to cruise to Hawaii on any line other than NCL-America!

Oh, and let's not forget this hypocritical fact about NCL.....

They are now doing EXACTLY the same thing in Victoria that the other cruise lines are doing in Ensenada. They are pulling in for an hour and not letting anyone off the ship.

I hope that someone uses that against NCL in this arguement.

It seems that NCLA still is on the warpath:

 

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2008/09/01/focus4.html

 

"NCL America has lost the first round in its attempt to get a federal rule changed in its favor.

 

But it is not giving up. The Miami-based cruise line plans to resubmit a proposal that would effectively limit the amount of time a foreign cruise ship could spend in Hawaiian waters."

 

I'm not a subscriber, so I don't know what scheme they are proposing now, but limiting the amount of time spent in HI waters will certainly not help the tourist economy any.

Hypocritical NCL is at it again. NCL (and OhioNCLCruiser has confirmed) that the Pride of America is sailing full and the bookings are strong. That means that NCL has now achieved one of the complaints that they had about the other lines and the PVSA.... that it was cutting into their bookings. If the ship is sailing full each week, why do you need to limit other cruise ships from coming to Hawaii???

They cannot re-introduce the Pride of Hawaii into the market because of restrictions placed on it under law. (once flagged international, she can never go back... the explanation for that was on the thread that was removed.) The Sky is still for sale and when NCL can sell her that means that the Pride of Aloha won't return. NCL's new builds don't meet the qualifications which allowed the first three ships. So there will be no additional NCL America ship in Hawaii for many years. So, why do you need to monopolize the market???

I think the outcry and the predictiment that Homeland Security was put in by the first attempt at this stupid rule change will prevent any further attempts from getting very far. If Senator Innoye and Representative Abercumbie couldn't get it through the first time even with their powerful influence and friends, I doubt that they could do it now with all of the negative responses against it. (besides...it has been defeated once, that will be used against any further attempts as well.)

California and Hawaii are not going to accept any changes to the PVSA and I think that is why NCL has a huge uphill battle in this fight. (besides...why is NCL pouring so much money into this issue?? Wouldn't that money be better spent on passengers or promotions??)

And ironically, NCL the line that started all this brouhaha with their complaints about technical stops by other cruise lines is going to make technical stops themselves http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=832004

Hypocrites is a good word to describe NCL.

Hopefully with Clueless Colin out... NCL will improve. Of course a trained chimpaneze would do a better job than Colin Veitch.

Not only would the chimp be smarter... it would be better looking.....

:D :eek: y e s !!!!!

Now everybody can re-focus on more normal things and let NCL ''et al'' eat their omelets after they wipe off their faces....

I never doubted this outcome, not one bit.

I suggest this has seen all the daylight it will ever see under this administration, and the next one will have far FAR bigger fishes to fry to be even slightly distracted by this issue.

Long live common sense !!!

Cheers

;)

I agree with you on all issues. I think the fact that Governor Schwartzenegger was heavily involved weighed heavily in this decision. If you read the article, you will see that it was kicked up all the way to Vice-President Cheney's office. Schwartzenegger is good friends with Cheney and Bush and, I believe, asked them to make this go away BEFORE the election and a potential Democratic Administration.

Think about it: Innoye, Akaka and Abercrumbie are big fish in the Democratic party. A Democratic President is likely to give them what they want.

This issue is dead for good in my opinion. NCL tried to pull a fast one and lost (and yes, does have egg on their face.). The decision on the continued existance of NCL-America should be made in about 3 months. That means that NCL-America will either 1.) Cease to exist, hence making any future PVSA changes unneeded. or 2.) Will continue to exist and since that will only happen if they can show a profit, it shows that the foreign competition is not that much of a factor and therefore any PVSA changes are again unneccessary. NCL will never be able to bring this issue back again.

Speaking of egg on the face... it will be interesting to hear NCL and especially Colin's comments on this issue. They all said that without the PVSA changes, NCL-America would not be able to exist and would collapse. Soooooo, Colin, here's the point... If NCL-America and the POAm continue to sail and the company does not fold, your whines about the changes being necessarry were baseless and flat out wrong. So we will see if the company continues.

NCL's inept corporate Management put their "eggs" in the PVSA basket and instead came out looking very bad... which is the norm for Colin Veitch and flunkies.

! can book a 15 day hawaiian cruise on hal zaandam for 345 less than a 7 day p o am single inside on 2-20-10

and that is why NCL is trying to force the PVSA rules through. They can't charge the prices that they want (and need) to charge in Hawaii with the cheaper to operate international ships in the way. (btw, this is not a cut on you or another cruiseline...)

NCL was hoping that they could get the government to tighten the PVSA so that HAL, RCI, Princess, etc. would have to abandon Hawaii altogether.

Think about it: right now 15 days on HAL is LESS than 7 days on NCL. That would make HAL very attractive to anyone who has 15 days to vacation. BUT, if the PVSA rules go through and HAL has to spend 50% of the time in foreign ports instead of Hawaii, would you still choose HAL over NCL?

A perfect example of why NCL attempted this try for a monopoly.

Another suggestion for Mama: On the RCI Board, they have a link to the roll call board at the top of the page. (in the box where it talks about Questions, comments, concerns.....) Perhaps putting a link to "Roll Calls" in that box would help. We could then simply direct people to hit that link and go to the page where all the ships are listed.

We have had great experiences with the NCL Air programs.

It is so nice to not have to worry about anything.

In 2006 on the Dawn, we were notified two days before our return that we would not be docking until 10:00 a.m. instead of 8:00 a.m.. It became a mad rush for the computers on board as people tried to re-arrange their air arrangements. We got a letter from NCL saying that ours would be taken care of and we would be told the next day of the changes.

The next day, we got a letter in our cabin with a new flight assignment (different airline) for a later time and our e-ticket numbers. We were a group of 12 and NCL was able to get all of us on the same itinerary for the return. Now, if we had had to handle our own air changes, there would have been no way that we probably would have gotten all 12 of us on the same flights.

This year (although it was RCI), our flight from here to Detroit was cancelled making it impossible for us to make our connecting flight to Newark. Northwest Airlines changed our flight (for 8 of us) and notified RCI. RCI then called to confirm with us and make sure we had been notified. RCI also made arrangements to change our transportation from the airport to the ship in Newark since we were arriving much earlier (non-stop flight) and at a different terminal. Everything worked great. It was also nice on the return to be escorted past all the people waiting for taxis and private transfers to the airport to the waiting RCI transfer busses and off to the airport we went.

Since we fly in the day of the cruise, Cruise line air is much more convenent for us. Yes it costs a little more, (about $125 a person this year), but it was worth it for the no worry factor.