Hawaii which way to go?

[dogo88]

We are looking to go to Hawaii sometime next year. My original desire was to take the 14 or 15 day trip out of San Diego but it doesn’t look like we will be able to take that trip due to the time of the year and length of the trip. One option we have is to fly to Hawaii and take the NCL cruise. It’s been almost 30 years since we’ve been on an NCL ship and after reading many threads both here and on the NCL site I have some concern.

 

 

The three cruises we took on NCL (twice on the Norway and once on the Skyward), as I remember them were good, but we were a lot younger. Even then I did notice less on the second Norway cruise and after we went on the Skyward we had decided to go back to HAL. I would like to ask those that have traveled on both HAL and specifically NCL Pride of America to offer up their views. I do realize that there are differences in cruise type, accommodations, crew, costs, and facilities. I also realize that diehard fans of either line will “post to the death” to defend their lines honor. I will post a similar question on the NCL site too.

 

 

The initial set of questions I have are:

1. The impression I get when reading a number of threads on comparisons is that food in the MDR or “free” restaurants in NCL lacks variety, and there seems to be a push to “upsell” you to the specialty restaurants. I find the food in HALs MDR and LIDO to be excellent. If NCL’s food was similar than that would be a good thing. What was your opinion of the regular food?

2. POA is a bit smaller ship than the Vista class ships. They also have more passengers. Will we “feel” crowded?

3. Many posters on the NCL site use the logic that because they pay less for their cruise compared to HAL it offers them the option of going to the specialty restaurants. Fair enough if it is a lower price, but POA cruises seem to be way higher than HAL. Do you think you got your money’s worth on the trip?

4. I know NCL has Freestyle dining and HAL has their own version. We have never done open sitting, though we will be doing it in October on our Eurodam cruise. So what is your opinion of NCL’s Freestyle dining?

5. Since this is a high intensity, port a day, cruise how do you rate NCL’s handling passenger exiting and returning to the ship?

6. Anything else that should be mentioned?

 

 

 

 

Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.

 

Dan

[vbmom87]

I have responded within your questions.

 

 

The initial set of questions I have are:

 

1. The impression I get when reading a number of threads on comparisons is that food in the MDR or “free” restaurants in NCL lacks variety, and there seems to be a push to “upsell” you to the specialty restaurants. I find the food in HALs MDR and LIDO to be excellent. If NCL’s food was similar than that would be a good thing. What was your opinion of the regular food?

 

On our 2010 POA cruise we found the food in the MDR to be inferior to what we experienced on HAL in 2008. However, it is my understanding that all the lines are making cut backs. We were disappointed in the food on the POA and refused to go to a pay restaurant, but by no means did it ruin our trip. We had a fabulous time!!!

 

2. POA is a bit smaller ship than the Vista class ships. They also have more passengers. Will we “feel” crowded?

 

We never felt crowded. We had been on the smaller HAL Volendam, and it was a concern for us, but it ended up being a non-issue.

 

3. Many posters on the NCL site use the logic that because they pay less for their cruise compared to HAL it offers them the option of going to the specialty restaurants. Fair enough if it is a lower price, but POA cruises seem to be way higher than HAL. Do you think you got your money’s worth on the trip?

 

In our experience it seemed liked if you were able to book very early, you got a better deal on the POA. We booked just a few months before the cruise and paid more than we would have liked. We considered the POA to be our floating hotel. It did a great job of taking us from island to island. We loved the overnights in Maui and Kauai so we could spend more time there. The ship itself was in great condition. We found the staff hardworking and friendly.

 

 

4. I know NCL has Freestyle dining and HAL has their own version. We have never done open sitting, though we will be doing it in October on our Eurodam cruise. So what is your opinion of NCL’s Freestyle dining?

 

We have done HAL's open seating so we were used to this kind of dining. We only ate in the main dining room twice on the POA, but we had no trouble getting seated either night. The group I travelled with preferred the buffet, so that is where we mostly ate. I would have preferred the MDR, but I went with the majority rule. The servers in the MDR were not as "polished" as those on HAL, but they were friendly. We were on this vacation to see Hawaii, so the ship and dining experience did not interfere with our getting to enjoy Hawaii.

 

5. Since this is a high intensity, port a day, cruise how do you rate NCL’s handling passenger exiting and returning to the ship?

 

Overall, it was excellent. There was only one port where we had a signficant wait to reboard and that was Hilo. They do not have electronic x-ray machines here, so they were doing the check manually. It took about 40 minutes to get through this line at Hilo. All other ports were very fast and efficient. For exiting the ship in the morning, as soon as they opened the gangplank, the lines moved very quickly. No complaints at all.

 

6. Anything else that should be mentioned?

 

Since we don't like sea days, we didn't even consider a round trip from the mainland. We loved our cruise very much. We were going to see Hawaii, not for the cruising experience. I had read quite a few negatives before we left, but the only negative I agreed with was the food. Don't get me wrong, you won't starve. I was happy because I came home not gaiing a pound. :D

 

 

 

 

Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.

 

Dan

[jhannah]

I personally would not even consider sailing one of NCL's U.S.-flagged ships. I guess HAL has spoiled me with their ambiance and level of service.

[Himself]

I think LaffinVegas has been on this ship and she could give you insights.

[Boytjie]

I have done 4 charters on HAL and one on NCL's POA; not the same as a regular cruise, but you can check out my POA review which does some comparisons: http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=75998

 

1. The impression I get when reading a number of threads on comparisons is that food in the MDR or “free” restaurants in NCL lacks variety, and there seems to be a push to “upsell” you to the specialty restaurants. I find the food in HALs MDR and LIDO to be excellent. If NCL’s food was similar than that would be a good thing. What was your opinion of the regular food?

 

There was reasonable variety in the MDR and I did not get much of an upsell feeling re food.

 

2. POA is a bit smaller ship than the Vista class ships. They also have more passengers. Will we “feel” crowded?

On actually does not spend all that time on the ship with two overnights and no sea days, so I did not feel it was that crowded. Not much more that on HAL's bigger ships.

 

3. Many posters on the NCL site use the logic that because they pay less for their cruise compared to HAL it offers them the option of going to the specialty restaurants. Fair enough if it is a lower price, but POA cruises seem to be way higher than HAL. Do you think you got your money’s worth on the trip?

For me the POA cruise was about Hawaii, not the ship. The best meal I had all week was lunch in Kona at the Brewing Company. ;) Our experiences with the specialty restaurants vs MDR varied - some good and some not so good in both.

 

4. I know NCL has Freestyle dining and HAL has their own version. We have never done open sitting, though we will be doing it in October on our Eurodam cruise. So what is your opinion of NCL’s Freestyle dining?

Our charters on HAL have been open seating lately and I did not see much difference between how the two lines handle it.

 

5. Since this is a high intensity, port a day, cruise how do you rate NCL’s handling passenger exiting and returning to the ship?

Very efficiently.

[JJPacer]

We were planning on spending a couple of days befor or after the cruise. When we started looking at ports, we realized we would be unable to do what we wanted to do in the ports, due to traffic, time in port, etc.

We were afraid we would be disappointed. So, we started to plan a land trip, and compared the price of doing it on our own, and taking the cruise. Then we cancelled the cruise. For about the same price, we are spending 7 days in Maui and 4 days in Kawai. We will have plenty of time to explore both islands, relax, and I think we will feel like we have actually experienced these islands, versus feeling like we didn't have enough time in each port on the cruise. We leave May 11, and can't wait!

 

A co-worker just returned from an NCL cruise, and said the food was worse than college food. That's pretty bad! They said they would not take another NCL cruise.

[Hobbsey]

Hi

 

I have never been on POA. But, I have done a number of Free Style cruises on NCL. Unfortunately, due to their American Flagged ship they pretty much tie up the interisland business in HI.

 

1. I have always felt that HALs main dining room service and food was tops. I even preferred it to Celebrity. NCL is fine though unless you have a highly refined pallet you will be OK. Service is a bid scattered sometimes and since the whole ship is free style it can be complicated to sit with a preferred server. We have enjoyed the other free options such as Italian or Asian fare when available. I'm not sure what POA offers in total.

 

2. If you are used to HAL then yes, you will feel crowded. To go along with the greater density of passengers is the fact that NCL fills most of the usuable space in trying to upsell everything. My last NCL was a Free Style on Star to Mexico. That ship has one of the most amazing soaring Atriums but it was impossible to enjoy it for all the inch of gold, wine package, shore excursion, bingo and cracker sales going on. They even used the space for Karioke at night causing big traffic jams.

 

3. If you get a good deal then yes, it's easy to find the value. They are the only inter island cruise line so it makes your time in the Islands more focused and makes it easier to do both land and sea in Hawaii. This is not a Premium cruise however. Higher passenger density and a real desire to sell you something. Lots of announcements too.

 

4. We do like free style. After 16 cruises we have been there and done that for formal dinners and portraits. We appreciate the opportunity to go our own way, be a bit casual and make our own schedule.

 

5. We did Hawaii with NCL on the Wind in 2002. I don't remeber any particular problems getting off and on except at the initial call ashore when the stairwells fill up a deck or two.

 

6. It's a different product marketed to a younger or less seasoned cruiser. Expect it to be less relaxing and quiet than a HAL ship. Service is not uniform across all departments.

[sandiego1]

While I love to cruise, I would never do a cruise in Hawaii. There's so much to do on each island. 1 day is definitely not enough! I've been there at least 8 or 9 times. The last time we spent 2 weeks on Maui. I still didn't get to do/see everything I wanted to! And Maui is my least favorite island:)

 

Its's not the same as cruising the Carib. The islands are more diverse and offer so many different activities.

 

I once checked into NCL on behalf of my sister. My TA talked me out of recommending it to her. TA said service and food would not live up to her expectations. Sister's done several cruises on Royal Carib (she has kids and they love that cruise line).

 

If you are already planning on flying to Hawaii, then you might as well stay put in 1 island, or possibly split and go to 2. On my 1st trip, we went to Kauai and Maui (1 wk each). We also had 1 overnight in Honolulu since we were living in Boston at the time. It was such a long flight that we decided to stop in Honolulu, see Pearl Harbor and then fly to Kauai the next morning.

[Hobbsey]

We were planning on spending a couple of days befor or after the cruise. When we started looking at ports, we realized we would be unable to do what we wanted to do in the ports, due to traffic, time in port, etc.

We were afraid we would be disappointed. So, we started to plan a land trip, and compared the price of doing it on our own, and taking the cruise. Then we cancelled the cruise. For about the same price, we are spending 7 days in Maui and 4 days in Kawai. We will have plenty of time to explore both islands, relax, and I think we will feel like we have actually experienced these islands, versus feeling like we didn't have enough time in each port on the cruise. We leave May 11, and can't wait!

 

A co-worker just returned from an NCL cruise, and said the food was worse than college food. That's pretty bad! They said they would not take another NCL cruise.

 

The interisland crusie is a great way to sample Hawaii. We did it and then went back for land vacations over the next number of years. If you haven't been then you'll miss the Americanized version on Oahu - along with all the history from the days of Royalty to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Also, you miss the Big Island, which is our favorite. The trip to Kiluea is worth any traffic jams, as well as the Place of Refuge on the Kona Coast.

 

I know you'll love your time there no matter what you do. Enjoy.

[cruzn single]

We have done both HAL R/T from San Diego and the NCL cruise through the islands. (As an aside, we have also done 9 land trips to Hawaii--so you can tell we just love Hawaii).

 

We didn't particularly love the # of sea days on HAL--at the particular time we went ocean was very rough and cold and we couldn't get out on deck to just walk around). The 5 days in the islands were great, but I don't think it was worth 10 boring sea days that were cold, rough and rather miserable.

 

That being said, we thoroughly enjoyed our NCL cruise--we weren't looking for a HAL experience. Food was good, and we never ate in a speciality restaurant. Crew was courteous and lots of fun! We looked on this trip as a trip on a floating hotel, and just went with the flow. (And our trip had started with all our luggage being stolen on the way to HNL, so we had added stress on this trip). We would do this trip again in a heartbeat, because we just want to enjoy the other islands from Oahu where we usually spend our time.

[lazey1]

Since you do not mind flying to and from Hawaii may I suggest you consider Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays for a tour package. We enjoyed our Pleasant holiday so much that 2 years later we repeated the same tour taking my parents as their 50th wedding anniv. present.

 

We did the Pride of America cruise. We sincerely hope they have improved their service, their food and especially their attitudes. So, in answer to your questions-

#1. In our opinion the food in the master dinning room was almost inedible, food in the Lido very slightly better.

#2. Yes, we felt crowded. Our cabin was tiny as was our veranda.

#3. We booked very early, and got an extremely good price for what we had to consider a floating motel 6.

#4. We have never done HAL'S open seating in part because the POA Freestyle dinning was such a problem.

#5. NCL's handling of passengers exiting and returning to the ship was very good.

#6A. To eat at the specialty restaurants we were told we had to make reservations by tel. between 7am and 8am for that evening or the next evening. Both my SIL from her cabin and I from my cabin tried to do so but neither of us were ever able to get through. On the 4th night after seeing the Steak House only had 2 tables of diners at 6P.M. and being turned away by the host we demanded to speak to the manager and were seated within 5 minutes.

#6B. Service in all areas was bad and the crew members were very unfriendly to the point of rudeness.

[Wormy53]

I enjoyed my NCL cruise except for the MDR. Just add the cost of specialty dining into your cruise cost. It still works. After all, a Hawaii cruise is all about Hawaii. Much better IMO than spending 4 days going and coming home. Be sure to spend a couple days pre-cruise getting used to time change and seeing Oahu!:)

[pizzalady1]

read this review

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1403193

[Hobbsey]

read this review

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1403193

 

Appreciated. Sounds like they have some things under control on that ship. Good to know.

[Iwant2BatC]

Trying to compare Pride of America with a Holland America cruise is like trying to compare Wal-Mart with Neiman Marcus. Having said that - there are times when shopping at Wal-Mart exactly fits the bill. My personal opinion is that one should always approach islands by sea. That is the way they were originally discovered and the beauty of watching an island become closer and closer is magical. I live in Hawaii and have taken the NCL cruise several times with guests and it is what it is. Think of it as a ferry boat and you get the picture. My daughter and I took my grandsons and the kids adored it. It is mass marketing at its best (or worst depending upon your perspective). The food is very marginal compared to HAL and the ship seemed very crowded to me. But, on the plus side you only unpack once, you sleep in the same bed every night, and you don't have to do any driving. To me, that is far more relaxing that jetting in between islands and staying in different places all the time. I would do it again but just be prepared for the kind of product they offer. Hope this helps.

[dogo88]

Thanks to all that replied.

I am under no illusion that NCL offers a cruise in Hawaii exactly like HAL. AS my TA pointed out they are completely different products. With that being said I was interested in finding out what HAL members who've cruised on NCL in Hawaii though of the cruise. Also given that this is basically a port a day cruise which offers up a different experience (good and bad), it's nice to see some positive responses.

 

I would like to reply to some of the comments:

 

We have considered going to Hawaii and staying instead of the cruise. A lot will depend on price and what the trip includes. It's real hard to top a cruise but we are looking into it with some Googling I've done and the suggested places from this thread.

 

Food on a cruise is important. It seems the MDR and to a certain extent the buffet are acceptable. Not up to HALs experience but acceptable in most cases.

 

The claustrophobic feeling seems to be on an individual taste. It is a smaller ship with more passengers but at a port every day so it's probable manageable.

 

The high cost seems to be attributable to the US flagged ship and it's higher expenses. I can live with that.

 

We have not made a decision yet since I need to discuss this with the other three that are going. I will say I love cruising and even though this ship/line may not be up to HAL experience I will have a great time if we decided to cruise.

 

Thanks again to all that responded. I was very pleased that even though there were some that just will not go on a NCL cruise all were civil in their comments. I will be posting a similar request for opinions/comments on the NCL forum so it will be interesting to see the comments.

 

Dan

[JJPacer]

We found condos to rent on vrbo.com. Tripadviser was a very good resource. We got ocean front condos that include washer/dryer, cooler, beach chairs, BBQ grill etc. We can bring in food to fix ourself, pack a lunch to take with, or eat out. Just about anything you would want to use while there is supplied. The prices of the condos were much less than most hotels, especially beachfront. This is what made it affordable for us. Rental cars are very reasonable. I know this won't be our last trip to Hawaii. :D

[dogo88]

One more question. What is the best time of the year, if there is any, to visit Hawaii?

 

Dan

[Hobbsey]

We found condos to rent on vrbo.com. Tripadviser was a very good resource. We got ocean front condos that include washer/dryer, cooler, beach chairs, BBQ grill etc. We can bring in food to fix ourself, pack a lunch to take with, or eat out. Just about anything you would want to use while there is supplied. The prices of the condos were much less than most hotels, especially beachfront. This is what made it affordable for us. Rental cars are very reasonable. I know this won't be our last trip to Hawaii. :D

 

We've used VRBO Three times in Hawaii and ahve always found great values. I also used them in Florida, same result.

[kyriecat]

Dan,

 

You posted your question at an opportune time since my parents also want to go to Hawaii. My mom told me a couple days ago that they are trying to decide between a 14-night cruise to Hawaii or 7-night NCL PoA cruise plus 7-night condo stay in Hawaii. I haven't sailed on NCL so couldn't provide any feedback for them, although I think they would be disappointed to take a 2-week cruise but only have 5 days in Hawaii.

 

I appreciate the responses.

[pizzadog]

One more question. What is the best time of the year, if there is any, to visit Hawaii?

 

Dan

 

We've been to the Islands eleven times, ten of those mainly to Maui. We always go in October and have never had bad weather. If you are wanting to see whales, go January to March. We always stay in a condo that comes with all the amenities and is beach front (Kihei).

 

We did the HAL Vancouver-San Diego-Hawaii cruise in 2009 and loved it but then we love sea days!:)

[vbmom87]

 

The claustrophobic feeling seems to be on an individual taste. It is a smaller ship with more passengers but at a port every day so it's probable manageable.

 

When I said I did not feel claustrophobic I was talking about the ship. I agree with the other poster who said the cabins were much smaller than we had on HAL. However, the cabins are well laid out with plenty of cubbies for all your stuff and we had three in our ocean view cabin.

 

One more question. What is the best time of the year, if there is any, to visit Hawaii?Dan

 

If you do a search on the Hawaii board for best time to go, you will find many threads. It really depends what you want to see. For example, whales are there in our winter. So if whales are a priority that would be the time to go. Surfs are much higher then too. I was looking for a time when the spring flowers were blooming, it would not be rainy season, and not yet full summer when it might be a bit hotter. We chose May and loved it. Based on all the posts we read, our second choice was going to be October. We rented a house through vbro for four nights in Oahu before our cruise. It was a perfect trip!!! I had originally wanted to do the island hopping, but my DH wanted to try this cruise and then if we ever went back we would know which island we wanted to go back to. I think this works out very well. Many do spend a week on one of the islands combined with this cruise. It does make for a great vacation.

[dogo88]

I have done 4 charters on HAL and one on NCL's POA; not the same as a regular cruise, but you can check out my POA review which does some comparisons: http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=75998

 

 

 

There was reasonable variety in the MDR and I did not get much of an upsell feeling re food.

 

On actually does not spend all that time on the ship with two overnights and no sea days, so I did not feel it was that crowded. Not much more that on HAL's bigger ships.

 

For me the POA cruise was about Hawaii, not the ship. The best meal I had all week was lunch in Kona at the Brewing Company. ;) Our experiences with the specialty restaurants vs MDR varied - some good and some not so good in both.

 

Our charters on HAL have been open seating lately and I did not see much difference between how the two lines handle it.

 

Very efficiently.

 

Peter,

 

I read your review and it was very informative. I do have one question though, you mention that you were able to visit some other cabins and were glad you did not book an outside balcony cabin. Any reason other than small? How would you compare them to a balcony cabin on HALs Vista class ships (assuming you have been in them)?

 

Thanks,

Dan

[Boytjie]

I read your review and it was very informative. I do have one question though, you mention that you were able to visit some other cabins and were glad you did not book an outside balcony cabin. Any reason other than small? How would you compare them to a balcony cabin on HALs Vista class ships (assuming you have been in them)?

 

The balconies seemed much smaller than HAL's. Then again we always get a VD cabin with a deep balcony but I have been on enough other balconies. Our friend's regular balcony on POA was smaller that the small VE baclonies on deck 5 on HAL's Vistas and Signature class ships.

[dogo88]

Juat as an update, we haven't made a decision on whether to cruise or fly and stay in Hawaii other than we will go there next year. Our small group likes to sit and discuss this over many "date nights" dinners. Since planning is half the enjoyment of a vacation and Hawaii has a lot to think about as I've found out from you all. I will say that my reservations about going on the POA have been reduced a lot from comments I've received on both forums.

 

Again thanks to all that commented.

 

Dan