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Hawaii...cruise or hotel? Just do both!! Here is our photo intensive review

cruisinskier

By cruisinskier,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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cruisinskier

cruisinskier

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As I had mentioned in my first post, our trip to Hawaii was not something that we expected this year. We ended up on the Pride of America as I had to attend a conference onboard (I know, tough deal!). Also, the Pride was not originally scheduled to sail the week we were onboard (again, this is an overdue trip report) as it was to be in dry dock. However a few things changed with the dry dock postponed for a year and that led to the conference happening and us getting to Hawaii. :D

 

For breakfast, we headed back to the Aloha Cafe outside deck which is a great spot to eat and watch the waves go by. After breakfast, I had to attend the conference which was the majority of the day. The ship spent the day at sea, cruising the coast of Molokini which is not part of the normal weekly itinerary. I did not get to see much of Molokini however as I spent most of the day in the conference facility which is the largest at sea. The main conference room holds approx 250 people, has full AV facilities with numerous flat screen monitors overhead. The room can also be split in half for 2 meetings concurrently and there are also five smaller meeting rooms. From conversations with the staff, the meeting rooms do not get used too often and given they take up prime space on the 13th deck, there could be changes in the works (remember, NCL bought this ship partially built so they were not involved in the original design).....rumours are that the dry dock was delayed a year to allow time to plan garden villas to take over this space...only time will tell.

 

In addition to my conference at sea, we were also able to take part in a 2 hour behind the scenes tour of Pride. It was a very interesting tour which included the main kitchens, waste management / recycling, laundry, and backstage in the theatre. it truly gives you a better appreciation of everything that goes on behind the scenes and it truly is a hidden world of back passageways and lower deck activity.

 

Late afternoon we were finished the work portion and able to enjoy a couple of hours on a lounge chair with a cold drink and check out the pool area. Given the late start we got, most lounge chairs were full although by the time we got there, some people were leaving so we easily found a couple of chairs. For a ship that does not normally have sea days, we did not notice any issues with the volume of people onboard and everyone seemed to enjoy a quieter day.

 

For dinner that night, we had a group dinner for the 120 onboard who were part of the conference. This was held in the Skyline main dining room, food was good and service was also good. That night we went to see Second City and the show was funny and worth seeing. We must be adjusting to the time change as we are now attending the later night shows :)

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cruisinskier

cruisinskier

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:D

 

The ship spent the day at sea, cruising the coast of Molokini which is not part of the normal weekly itinerary. I did not get to see much of Molokini however as I spent most of the day in the conference facility which is the largest at sea.

Sorry all, it was not cruising Molokini, please replace with Molokai. We spent the day cruising the world's highest seacliffs along the shore of Molokai. Molokini is a much smaller island which is great for snorkelling off the coast of Maui. My error....sorry for the mix-up :confused:

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cruisinskier

cruisinskier

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Thanks so much for the awesome post. I particularly love the pictures, which seem to be hard to come by. Me and two friends embark on the Pride on October 9th! Less than a week away, I can't hardly wait!!

 

Thanks Pinkie. Have a great trip and enjoy Hawaii (although I don't know how you couldn't!!). Have you made plans for each of the ports?

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cruisinskier

cruisinskier

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We plan to do a similar trip in 2012 for our 25th wedding anniversary. What month did you cruise? We were in Hawaii for our honeymoon in September and had great weather. Is there a "best" month to cruise Hawaii?

 

Hello to my friends down the highway in Chatham! My buddy Craig does the morning show on The Rock radio station in Windsor/Chatham but back to cruising..... We had also always planned to do this trip for our 25th anniversary but then this opportunity came up and we jumped on it so we ended up going a couple of years early. :) From what I have heard there is not a bad time to cruise in Hawaii but if you want to see whales we were right at the end of the season (we cruised end of April) so you may want to go earlier if you want to see the whales. I can tell you we had great weather for our 17 days, with great temperatures, mostly sunny skies and sporatic rain but you are always going to get that in the tropics! Congrats on 25 years and have a great trip!

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cruisinskier

cruisinskier

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Wow, even though I've never thought of taking a cruise to Hawaii, your review makes me want to go!!!! Thank you for sharing. Love your photos!!!!

 

Thanks lizzie. You can not go wrong with a trip to Hawaii. The only problem is we want to go back!!!

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cruisinskier

cruisinskier

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With the port intensive cruise, we found that a quick trip to the buffet was the best in the mornings so again we headed to the back of the boat to our favourite spot outside to watch us arrive in Maui. I may not have mentioned but there are two Hawaiian Naturalists who are onboard the Pride and each morning during breakfast they would give a brief chat about the features and highlights of the island we would be visiting that day. They also provided maps, etc and overall they were very informative.

 

After breakfast, it was off the boat and onto the free shuttle to the car rental offices again. We arrived at AVIS, my preferred rental car company and were off in no time. Our first stop was a snorkelling trip at Honolua Bay which I had researched (lurked) on these boards. We parked along the side of the road and headed down the path for a short 10 minute walk in to the water's edge. This is not the best spot if you are looking for a beach as really it is very rocky with no real beach at all. However the snorkelling was top notch! During the time we were there, two different catamaran trips arrived so if this is where the locals are bringing the snorkel trips you know it is good.

 

After our great snorkelling, we made our way back to Ka'anapali Beach, swam a little there, walked the beach and went for lunch at Hula Grill. Great spot with good food, good prices and a great view of one of the best beaches in Hawaii. After lunch we shopped a little at Whaler's Village (gotta love Crazy Shirts) and then started our drive back towards the boat in Kahului. That morning we had heard about Iao Valley State Park and thought we would make a quick stop as we had the time. This was very scenic however due to limited recent rainfall the waterfalls were underwelming. We then dropped off the rental car (with a tight grip on the camera) and shuttled back to the boat.

 

We decided on a hot tub to unwind before dinner which tonight was Teppanyaki. Dinner was good and the chef was entertaining. Overall the service level by the support staff was a little weak but the chef took care of things as required. And again, we left full and satisfied. After lots of sun and a full day we headed to bed not too long after dinner....

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sue402001

sue402001

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:) From what I have heard there is not a bad time to cruise in Hawaii but if you want to see whales we were right at the end of the season (we cruised end of April) so you may want to go earlier if you want to see the whales. I can tell you we had great weather for our 17 days, with great temperatures, mostly sunny skies and sporatic rain but you are always going to get that in the tropics! Congrats on 25 years and have a great trip!

 

I have a question for you cruisinskier as we'll be heading to HI next April, what were the temps like at Volcano National Park? Was it cool? I'm just trying to figure out what we'll need to pack. Thanks!

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cruisinskier

cruisinskier

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Thank you all for your nice comments.

 

I have a question for you cruisinskier as we'll be heading to HI next April, what were the temps like at Volcano National Park? Was it cool? I'm just trying to figure out what we'll need to pack. Thanks!

 

Sue, I went back and looked at all our pictures from VNP and we were in shorts and short sleeve shirt for most of the day (as were most others). I would suggest that a light jacket or sweatshirt would be a good idea. In reviewing the website for VNP http://www.nps.gov/havo they indicate that "Chain of Craters road descends 3700 ft over 20 miles". So if the main crater is at 3700 ft, that is much lower than Mauna Loa on Hawaii (13,680 ft but not driveable) or the summit of Haleakala on Maui (10,023 ft). Therefore, not as cold as those locations. We had a very pleasant day.

 

One other item to consider is that there is not much in the way of food, water, etc near the park so best to bring your own supplies. Enjoy your trip.

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cruisinskier

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Breakfast was once again at the back of the Aloha Cafe. This morning we tried the omelette station and they were very good. After breakfast, I had to attend a 3 hour training session back in the Diamond Head Auditorium onboard. While I was working, my wife enjoyed some time lounging around in the sun and pool which were pretty much empty as everyone was heading into port.

 

Once my training session was over, we hoped on a tender to check out the port area (the Pride is tendered in Kona and NCL uses their lifeboats to shuttle you to the port). There are numerous shops within easy walking distance which makes this a very tourist friendly port. We headed over to Bubba Gumps for some shrimp and a drink while overlooking the water. We really didn't do too much in Kona but after lots of active days, we were probably ready for a slower day. I would like to return one day to explore a little more of what is in the area. After a few hours in port, we hopped on a tender back to the boat and ended up grabbing a drink and heading to the upper decks to watch us sail out of port.

 

We had dinner that night in the Liberty main dining room. Overall it was not a great experience, and probably our least favourite meal of the week. We felt very rushed throughout the meal, like they couldn't get us through fast enough. We also noticed it appeared there were no assistant waiters helping out. Overall the meal was ok but the service level was not what we had grown accustomed to on other cruise lines or for that matter, no where near as good as the service was on our recent cruise on the Epic. After dinner we went to the "Not so Newlywed" show. Again, it just didn't seem to have the same polish as we had seen on other cruiselines for similar shows. There were some laughs but it could have been better. And then it was off to bed.....

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