Pride of America - "The Suite Life" - 7/16/11 - a cruise review

[Zimomiller]

Prelude to a cruise

 

My plan for this cruise review is to write it from the perspective of a family enjoying the unexpected benefits of the Suite Life and VIP status on an NCL cruise. This will take a while to write so it will be coming in istallments.

 

Our family of five has been blessed to be able to take numerous cruise vacations together, including 7 cruises on the venerable Norway.

 

Our kids (who are now 18,18, 20) were born to cruise. I say that because they were souvenirs born 9 months after earlier cruises on the NCL Seaward and the RCI Majesty of the Seas. (They hate when I tell that story, so I tell it whenever I can)

 

Most all of our cruises have been to some corner of the Caribbean except for a 2 week cruise to the Med on the Jade a couple years ago that our eldest daughter chose as the graduation/vacation cruise.

 

Our twins graduated in June 2011 and over a year in advance I asked them where they wanted to cruise to celebrate their graduation. We had discussed a cruise to Hawaii for years but we had just kept putting it off. They could not make up their minds, so in March 2010 I secretly booked a cruise for the 5 of us on the Pride of America 7/16/11. Eventually they made up their minds. I was very glad I did not wait for them as the price of our cabin almost doubled from March 2010 to March 2011.

 

We are big fans of aft balcony cabins so it was a no-brainer to choose a Category SH on deck 9 (cabin 9198) on the POA. That is an aft facing family cabin for 5 with a ginormous balcony. That balcony is a truly wonderful place to see Hawaii from a cruise ship, especially Friday afternoon when the ship turns around and heads back on the Napali coast sail by. You have a front row seat to paradise for a few hours.

 

TIP #1 - Book far ahead if you can, especially if you are after a specific cabin location, like an aft facing balcony. My observations the last few years have been that pricing is best over a year away and the price just goes up from there unless the itinerary/ship has too much competition.

 

Fast forward to April 2011 when I found out that NCL had extended full suite privileges to our cabin. a happy dance was celebrated as this was an unexpected surprise. We have sailed the suite life a few times on NCL and it really is special.

 

TIP #2- Take a chance, sometimes ya just get lucky

 

Since we had never been to Hawaii, I started scouring the Cruise Critic Port of Hawaii board, roll calls for other Hawaii cruises, cruise reviews from completed trips etc to learn as much as I could from the experiences of fellow cruisers that had gone before us. This research confirmed that which I had learned previously on Caribbean cruises:

 

a) arrive a couple days before the cruise

b) book your tours and excursions in advance and save $$

c) don't plan too many activities

d) start watching airfare for a deal

 

TIP #3 - Plan , Plan, Plan

 

Here was our pre cruise plan:

 

1) Fly out mid-day 7/13 from Detroit through San Francisco with a 3 hr layover to relax/recover

2) Spend 3 nights at the Outrigger Waikiki on the Beach

3) Learn to surf

4) Visit Pearl Harbor

5) See the new Harry Potter movie when it was released 7/15

6) Eat at Dukes and the Hula Grill and experience the Hula Pie

7) Rest up and be at the cruise port 11 am Saturday to begin our cruise adventure to Hawaii

 

Our adventure begins in installment #2

Edited August 17, 2011 by Zimomiller

[brunolvr]

Great start! You've got me awaiting your next installment!;)

We'll also be enjoying the "suite" life with our cabin being an Owner's Suite! Can't wait!

Edited August 17, 2011 by brunolvr

[Zimomiller]

On the Road to Hawaii 7/13/11

 

Unlike most of our previous family cruise vacations, we were packed and ready to go a day or 2 before departure. On top of that our first flight was not until 12:30 in the afternoon. A huge luxury.

 

This was the result of a change in planning strategy on my part. I realized that we would be flying for 10 hours with a 3 hour layover so we needed to be fresh at the start of our adventure.

 

We usually are up late packing the night before our flight to our cruise port (which historically has been early the next morning) and therefore too wound up to sleep.

 

For this cruise, we arose relaxed, rested and ready to go.

 

Tip #4 Try something out of the ordinary when planning

 

8 full-sized bags, 5 carry-ons, 3 kids, 3 Labrador retrievers and 1 spouse all crammed into the minivan. We then made the labs get out of the minivan and then we said 1 more goodbye to the families 3 labs, 1 cat, 2 turtles, 1 cockatiel and 7 fish. Naturally we had a house sitter for our menagerie.

 

Tip #5 Beware stowaways

 

Off to the airport we went.

 

I don’t know about you, but I worry more about the trip to the airport before a cruise more than any other segment of our trips. A flat tire or a breakdown could really mess up your vacation and add stress to a stressful day of flights. Luckily, our trip was uneventful as was our check-in and departure.

 

Mom and Dad had seats in first class, a surprise for Mom, while the kids flew coach. (Nope, we did not forget Kevin at home) The first class extra space and treatment was a special treat for us, something I had always said I would do when we finally took a trip to Hawaii.

 

The flight was on time, uneventful with great weather and actually arrived a little early in San Francisco. We stretched our legs, had a relaxing dinner and then boarded our second 5 hour flight to Honolulu where we arrived at 9:20 PM Hawaii time.

 

Tip #6 Build time in your itinerary for relaxing a bit. Travel is stressful

 

I had a couple surprises for the family upon arrival in Honolulu:

 

1)I had a Lei greeting prearranged

2)I also scheduled a full size van to meet us and transport us to our hotel

 

The lei greeting was a hit.

I was surprised that the family enjoyed the lei greeting as much as they did. They quickly realized that there were very few people receiving a lei greeting. I later discovered that they all had an expectation of a lei greeting based upon what they saw in old films and were surprised it was not a continuing tradition for all arrivals.

 

Tip #7 Pre arrange a lei greeting. How many times do you go to Hawaii for the first time?

 

All our bags arrived undamaged, unopened and in a timely fashion.

 

When I turned on my phone we already had a message from Mark at Hawaii23 asking me to call him as soon as we were ready. He was running a few minutes late but it turned out not to be an issue.

 

It was rainy that evening in Honolulu. What we did not realize it at the time, but that was the most amount of rain we would see over our 11 days.

 

We arrived at our Hotel for the next 3 nights, the Outrigger Waikiki on the Beach. This was a terrific choice for us. The location was ideal; right on the beach in Waikiki and it had all the amenities we wanted on site. (Great beach location, fine pool, 2 well known terrific restaurants, lots of shops and even a self-serve laundry.)

 

The room we had a was a partial city view, but it also had a partial ocean view. Every time we looked, there were surfers on the waves.

 

We had a great sized room, 2 twin beds and a pull out twin couch bed. We wrangled all our bags into submission, caught our collective breaths, showered and hit the hay.

 

Day 1 could not have gone any smoother, a result that was repeated over and over on our vacation

 

Tip #8 See Tip #3 and then repeat

Edited August 17, 2011 by Zimomiller

[brunolvr]

Enjoying your review.

How did you prearrange the lei greeting? Was it very expensive?:confused:

[mrsbuddha123]

I am also interested in arranging the lei greeting. My POA cruise is 8/25/12 pre-cruise hotel is Disney's Aulani Resort. 8/18-8/25. I want this to be our most memorable cruise ever booked the owners suite.

 

Please continue your review!

[Just Jo]

<snip>

... 8 full-sized bags, 5 carry-ons, 3 kids, 3 Labrador retrievers and 1 spouse all crammed into the minivan. We then made the labs get out of the minivan

 

Tip #5 Beware stowaways

 

 

So funny and so TRUE! Wonderful review - can't wait for more!

[Cubechick]

You're making me miss our trip in April soooo much.

 

I really need to book another Hawaii cruise ASAP!!! I feel downright homesick for those islands and the America!!!

[beardedwoman]

This is like a great book, can't wait to pick it up and start reading. Great review!

[TSUmom]

Love this review - I can't wait for more!!

[russianmom]

Going back to Hawaii, on POA, for my 10 yr anniversary... Very excited to read this review:)

[debster818]

We are going on this cruise in April 2012. Can't wait. Planning will be difficult. I already have a large stack of papers to go thru and try and set up our itinerary. Thanks for the review.

[welove2cruise232]

Loving your review! This cruise is definitely on my bucket list!

 

MORE please!:D

[Zimomiller]

July 14, 2011 The Outrigger Waikiki on the Beach

 

First off, thank you to our fellow members of Cruise Critic that took the time to post their plans and reviews after their Hawaii land and cruise experiences. Without their feedback we never would have been as well prepared for our trip, nor would we have found the Outrigger Waikiki on the Beach.

 

The Outrigger Waikiki on the beach is centrally located on Waikiki Beach next to the Royal Hawaiian. Great beach frontage, kid friendly pool, beach services. It really is a moderately priced family friendly oasis in paradise.

 

Tip #8 Cruise Critic is a great resource, use it. Then remember to pay it forward.

 

Mom and I awoke at 830 am from our airline induced travel comas. Our internal clocks reminded us it was 230pm back home. The kids were not happy with us because before we arrived in Hawaii we had told them they could sleep in to 2pm the first morning. Silly kids thought we meant Hawaii time…heh heh.

 

Tip #9 Being a parent has its rewards. Take advantage while they still live with you, trust you and depend on you.

 

After wrestling the three kids out of bed and finishing showers we headed downstairs to Dukes for the breakfast buffet. ($14.95 ea) It was the prefect start to our planned beach day. Everyone found something they liked. Dukes is located on the ground floor of the Outrigger overlooking the beach.

 

10 lbs. of bacon later, we staked our claim to 5 cushioned loungers on the large patio/deck area in front of the restaurant, just behind a wall that separated the beach from hotel property. There were some tall gorgeous palm trees in this area that deserved to have their pictures taken. I was shocked by the lack of chair hogs. Silly me, I forgot we were not yet on a cruise ship.

 

While the family slathered up in suntan lotions with SPF factors higher than the IQs of your average congressman, I decided to wander up and down the beach for a bit to scope out what services and activities were available.

 

On the east side of the hotel I found what turned out to be one of the oldest surf schools on the beach. The kids did not know it but I had put “learning to surf” on their bucket lists.

 

I dragged the three of them over, paid $30 / each for board rental and instructor for an hour , special surf shirt to wear for the lesson and then off they went for practice on the beach and then into the waves to use their newly learned skills.

 

I tried to follow them down the beach and out to sea so I could take pictures, but alas I gave up due to how far out they were and the multitude of others in the surf.

 

Or maybe it was the bar calling.

 

After 3 beers and an hour passing, I wandered back to the surf school just in time to watch the three kids dragging their tired bodies and slippery boards ashore having obviously expended their last remaining energy paddling back after very successful first surf.

 

They were very sad to learn that I had not captured their triumphs on film.

 

What they did not know was that this surf school employed a photographer with a high powered digital camera with a lens worthy of sports photographer shooting action at the Super Bowl from the roof of anearby hotel. The surf shirts they were given to wear made it easy for him to pick them out and capture several shots each of their triumphs and face plants.

 

They wanted $20/picture or you could buy the CD for $60. 5 minutes later I had a freshly burned CD with surf memories that would last a lifetime….and pictures that became Facebook profiles 7 hours later. (Did I mention the hotel has free high speed internet in the rooms?)

 

They were so proud of their pics and surfing performance and the instructor went out of his way to praise each of them.

 

Check that off their bucket lists.

 

Tip #10 Explore the local possibilities. Find more time to spend at the bar.

 

Smoking is prohibited pretty much everywhere in Hawaii. I like an occasional cigar or 4, so I asked around and eventually found a nice area set up by the hotel outdoors near the self-serve laundry facilities not too far from all the activities, but definitely in a place that would not offend someone of normal sensibilities.Of course there are always smoking ****s on the prowl.

 

After an exhausting afternoon at the bar watching the family spend an exhausting day in the sun, in the pool, in the surf and on the beach, we retired to the room to shower and relax before dinner at the Hula Grill.

 

I booked dinner at the Hula Grill on line a couple months in advance to insure we had seating at prime time. Glad I did as it was busy and the view was worth it.

 

The Hula Grill is located on the second floor above Dukes and offers a terrific dining experience with a fabulous sunset view. Lots of great seafood, beef and special choices. After an enjoyable meal we quickly found out we were beat, so we dragged ourselves back to the room and crashed early.

 

Tomorrow was going to be a busy day as there were two items to be crossed off of buckets lists.

 

Pearl Harbor and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II

 

Tip #11 Sleep is good for you.

 

Pics - Travel to Hawaii, and day one at the Outrigger http://travel.webshots.com/album/580544611GQvkmp?start=0

 

Pics - The Surfers http://travel.webshots.com/album/580544689VDfvxd

Edited August 18, 2011 by Zimomiller

[mrsbuddha123]

This is a great bedtime story. I can dream of Hawaii until your next installment.

Edited August 18, 2011 by mrsbuddha123
typo

[TSUmom]

Once again thank you - you are a great writer, I enjoy reading your review. My DH is also a cigar smoker and he enjoys a good cigar or 4 also...Now we will know of a spot where he can enjoy his.

[jimswims]

OK this is great, I need to read more.

 

I think that I may have just found my summer 2013 cruise. It is in the running with the new build so I will have to wait patiently to see what is going on with the rates and plans. The cruise to Hawaii was always on my list but my wife was not so sure. She finally read Cubechick's review and was sold. This is a bit of a roll reversal because I blame her for our cruise to Alaska since I was not sold on that cruise until she did her review.

Finish up so I can close this deal!

[Zimomiller]

Enjoying your review.

How did you prearrange the lei greeting? Was it very expensive?:confused:

 

We used this service. It was the cheapest I found and was satisfactory.

 

http://www.hawaiiactivities.com/us/hawaii/oahu/sg/2129/ag/8169/

[Zimomiller]

Pearl Harbor and Harry Potter Friday 7/15/11

 

Long before we arrived in Hawaii my dear spouse figured out that the last of the Harry Potter movies was to be released to US audiences on Friday July 15, 2011.

 

Upon the discovery of this fact and the obvious conflict with our vacation in Hawaii, she immediately began lambasting me for once again scheduling a vacation that interfered with the release of a Harry Potter movie. (Note: This is the third time that has happened)

 

She conveniently ignored my objections that I had booked the cruise well over a year before the announcement of the movie release date.

 

Needless to say it was now my problem to deal with. Obviously JK Rowling and I had conspired to cause this calamity.

 

In mid-June I placed a call to the concierge desk at the Outrigger Waikiki, explained my predicament and then was given a personal recommendation of a movie theater to attend. The concierge pointed out that it was very nice, not very far away and it was the one she took her family to. SOLD

 

I then found the web site of the theater, found the link to the “specially priced “advance reserve seating tickets and then promptly picked our late afternoon 5 seats at the top back and center of the theater, paid by credit card and printed our ticket receipt. Problem solved.

 

Tips # 12 ALWAYS make sure the wife is happy.

 

We arose extra early on Friday because I wanted to make sure that we got to Pearl Harbor early in the day as the tickets to visit the Arizona memorial are first come, first serve.

 

We grabbed a cab from the Outrigger to Pearl Harbor and were there a little after 9 am. We got our tickets and were scheduled for the 11:45 am tour. This was the item on my bucket list.

 

http://pacifichistoricparks.org/pearl-harbor-hawaii.php Link to where you can plan for a trip to PH.

 

From our planning we knew that we would likely have a period of time to kill before the trip over to the Arizona memorial. Please remember that you cannot take any bags to the memorial.

 

We took a leisurely walking tour of the grounds and exhibits. We opted to pay $10/pp to tour the USS Bowfin, a WWII era sub on permanent display. It is a fun walking tour with a headset describing the areas that you are at. You just punch the number of the sign on the wall into the keypad of the unit attached to your headphones and it plays a script for you.

 

At 1145 am we entered a theater where we were shown a film describing events leading up to Pearl Harbor and then footage of the attack. We then exited to a large launch that whisked us over to the memorial.

 

It was a gorgeous blue day with blue skies and a calm harbor. The memorial was quiet and somber as expected, but unique and interesting as well. We all caught glimpses and pics of the oil tears that were still bubbling to the surface after almost 70 years. I took a lot of photos.

 

And just like that our 15-20 minutes at the memorial was over and we were speeding back to shore.

 

Tips #13 If you are on Oahu don’t miss Pearl Harbor and paying your respects at the Arizona Memorial.

 

We took a shuttle back to our hotel and grabbed a quick lunch at Dukes because we had a 4 pm movie waiting for us.

 

It was unique and memorable for all the family to take time out of our vacation to attend the Harry Potter movie in Honolulu. We will always remember where we saw the finale.

 

Tip # 14 - Finding something unique and memorable to do on your vacation is possible when the whole darn vacation is unique and memorable.

 

We cabbed back to the Outrigger after the movie and spent some time counting the number of ABC shops we saw as we walked down the sidewalks just watching the early evening nightlife shuffling by. We tired quickly after an hour of wandering so we headed back to the hotel.

 

Everyone wanted to get their stuff organized so we could crash early as we had a 1030 am shuttle picking us up for the trip to the port and the Pride Saturday am.

 

It was amazing to see how many iPods, cords, phones, charges, computers, cameras and clothing items were scattered about our room.

 

Surely we would never arise and get packed in time for our early arrival at the cruise port Saturday.

 

http://travel.webshots.com/album/580553289brqYXm Pearl Harbor Pics

 

Next installment – The Sweet Suite Life begins

[Kruisenut]

Awesome review, looking forward to the suite episode. Our suite adventure won't commence until April 2013:( but this is making up for the long wait.

[Zimomiller]

Pride of America – Port of Honolulu – 7/16/2011

 

I had arranged with Hawaii23 to be at the front of the Outrigger to pick us up at 10:30 am so we had a lot of work to do to get all our stuff repacked in time.

 

We arose 9 am Saturday morning fresh and rested after a great night of sleep. OK, Mom and I arose, took our showers made noise and then yelled at the kids until we coerced them out of their slumber into vertical zombies.

 

I left out a detail from yesterday evening. While the family watched TV and eventually drifted off to sleep, I took a bag of luggage full of dirty clothes down to the self-serve laundry on the ground floor and spent a lovely couple of hours drinking beer, smoking cigars and watching the dryers go round and round. They had machines that you could buy detergent and bounce from. I knew the laundry existed from my planning and wanted to mention it for those of you that may be cruising and then spending time on the island at the Outrigger after the cruise.

 

Miracle of miracles, we managed to organize all our belongings and met our shuttle to the pier promptly at 1030am. The trip is 20-25 minutes depending on traffic.

 

We arrived at a virtually empty port. I think there were maybe 1 or 2 taxis in front of us. We jumped out, grabbed our bags and dragged them to the terminal. We were quickly directed to the bag drop off point indoors and then pointed in the direction of the security line.

 

A couple minutes later we wandered in to the check in area which was still in the process of being set up. We posed for our boarding photo and then went looking for the portal to the check in booths.

 

Note: This is all located in a very large warehouse area. You can literally see everything the second you walk in, there are no barriers.

 

There was only one other family checking in so we wandered up to the first booth we saw, checked in and got our pics taken, room cards and then we were escorted to the VIP check-in lounge where we grabbed some nice chairs and waited for the arrival of the concierge and further instructions.

 

As I recall there were some water and coffee available and maybe some pastries, but I do not recall. They had a portable a/c unit keeping the lounge area comfy also. At this point I grabbed my camera and went back to take a photo tour of the check-in area so I could post the link in my review.

 

The timing of our arrival was almost perfect. There were maybe 20 other passengers in the general waiting area. No congestion, no hassle.

 

Tip #15 - If you can, arrive at the port at 11 am. You want to get the most out of day #1

 

They were just finishing setting up a big table loaded with Leis just before the embarkation picture station. I asked if I could get some for my family so they wandered over to the VIP lounge with Leis and bestowed them upon all of us Leiless passengers.

 

The concierge, Thomas Meier wandered into the VIP lounge around 11:40. It was starting to fill quickly as there were several like-minded families in suites that arrived early. He walked around introducing himself, asking questions and letting us know what was going to happen and where we would go.

 

Promptly at noon the conch shell horn was blown and that was our signal to gather up our carry-ons and to follow Thomas aboard to a forward lounge on deck 13. There was a group of about 30 passengers in this initial group and we arrive into the lounge (I forget which one) where we were promptly served champagne, water or orange juice while we relaxed very comfy cushioned leather chairs.

 

Thomas then gave a 15 minute lecture where he laid out the benefits that we VIP and suite passengers were entitled to. He made it very clear that we should not be waiting in lines and to contact him whenever we needed assistance. He explained that he would coordinate dinner reservations for us. He outlined the breakfast and lunch options available to us in the Lazy J steakhouse which were the best benefit of all in my opinion. Thomas also said that in the event we had another couple that we wanted to bring to breakfast or lunch with us at the Lazy J that was an option. Just contact him in advance and he would make it happen.

 

Whenever we arrived ate the Lazy J after lunch the first day, one member of our party would hand the hostess a room card and she would swipe it and then seat us. (Eventually the hostesses became familiar with us and did not require the card)

 

About 12:30 we were all escorted down to the Lazy J Steakhouse for our first suite perk of the cruise. The restaurant was of course not busy and snapped to attention on our arrival. We had a long leisurely lunch as the rooms would not be ready until 2-230.

 

My favorite meal at lunch was the Sesame encrusted Ahi Tuna burger- rare… I fell in love with these in the Epic Club on the Epic. The lunch menu is the same every day with lots of choices.

 

Tip #16 – Like carrot cake? The carrot cake at the Lazy J is to die for IMHO.

 

After lunch we wandered around but ended up on pool deck waiting for the clearance to go to the rooms.

 

I went back to the lounge on deck 13 forward to find Thomas and gave him our dinner reservation requests for the whole week and he said he would take care of it, but he immediately checked on Teppenyaki availability at the time we requested to insure it was all set. (By later that afternoon we had a letter in our mail slot from Thomas with all or dining choices and times as requested. Remember this fact as it is important for events the last night of the cruise!)

 

Tip #17 - Teppenyaki is the smallest dining venue. Book it early and first

 

As soon as the announcement was made that the rooms were ready for occupancy, I went to our aft facing suite and immediately took a photo tour before the family arrived, unpacked and transformed it from its pristine condition into our normal cruise cabin chaos.

 

Shortly after I finished with the photos the family invaded and the arguements over who got which room ensued. I headed to the balcony. You will see in the pictures in my link that the balcony on the category SH suites is HUUUUUGGGEEE. We could have had a party for 30+ out there.

 

http://travel.webshots.com/album/580716848mCvcrh Picture tour of suite 9198

 

When we arrived the mail slot above the door sign outside our cabin had several pieces of mail. Invites to latitudes events, meet the captain events, shore excursion tix for the one tour we bought thru NCL, information announcements from the concierge etc.

 

Shortly thereafter our luggage arrived and we spent the remaining time before the mustard drill (yeah I know I spelled it wrong, but humor me) putting it away. In 26 cruises that was the first time we were unpacked by the mandatory safety drill.

 

While we relaxed and got ready for dinner after the drill, my youngest daughter pulled one of the 2 bottles of champagne that was on ice out and took the wire off from around the cork and then promptly shot me in the back of the head with the cork on the rebound off the ceiling and TV. She of course indicated that it was an “accident”.

 

We dined in Lazy J’s the this evening as it has become a tradition on NCL ships for the past few cruises for our family to dine at Cagney’s the first night of a cruise. The surprise for the evening was that the cover charge was $15/pp the first night vs $25. We have seen this before, but knew better than to assume that would be the pricing for sure.

 

As we were finishing dinner, the ship was just nudging away from the dock and I managed to head back to our balcony to capture the sail away pictures that I love to take.

 

After sail away I wandered up to the Waikiki bar aft deck 13 and had a few adult beverages and a cigar or 2. This was the designated cigar bar and became the meeting place for drinks, smokes and stories about the day events with all my new cruise buddies and their spouses. The people that discovered this bar returned daily. This was a very fun and friendly place to just hang.

 

http://travel.webshots.com/album/580566085IvGWIl Embarkation, POA shots, room tour, sail away

 

Tomorrow Day 1 in Maui - Will we survive the Road to Hana? Stay tuned

Edited August 20, 2011 by Zimomiller

[cole]

I agree with everyone else's comments about an excellent and entertaining review - but I was surprised that in a cabin at this level ($$$$) there was no Lavaza (sp?) coffee maker - just the usual inexpensive hotel kind. I hope they upgrade before next year (Oct - 2012!!!)

B, Cole

[albertamom]

I am absolutely love, love, loving your review!!! :D

 

We will also be soaking up the suite life on the POA in December (our first cruise), and your review has me positively bursting with excitement!

 

My kids are 12 and 13, and I love traveling with them. Your stories of your now-grown kids are fabulous! Your line about taking advantage while they still live with you is priceless!:)

[Zimomiller]

I agree with everyone else's comments about an excellent and entertaining review - but I was surprised that in a cabin at this level ($$$$) there was no Lavaza (sp?) coffee maker - just the usual inexpensive hotel kind. I hope they upgrade before next year (Oct - 2012!!!)

B, Cole

 

My understanding is that the treatment of the category SH cabins on the POA as a suite is an experiment. When I booked this cruise, this cabin was nothing more than a large mini suite, or in other words, a deluxe balcony cabin. The amount I paid for the 5 of us for the cruise was almost half of what the other SH cabins were selling for weeks before our cruise. I got a ridiculously good deal. And then they added full suite perks.

 

If NCL makes the suite status permanent, I would hope they would revisit the cabin and make some upgrades to insure that the quality of the furnishings is equivalent to those that are in other suites.

 

We are not coffee drinkers so the first thing we had the cabin attendant do was remove the coffee maker and supplies to free up more space for us to distribute our clutter to....

 

The only issue we had with our cabin the entire cruise was a lack of beach towels. We would leave the wet ones on the cabin floor but they were never replaced. No big deal as the supply closet was across the hall from our cabin and it was always unlocked.

Edited August 20, 2011 by Zimomiller

[nona0541]

I am also interested in arranging the lei greeting. My POA cruise is 8/25/12 pre-cruise hotel is Disney's Aulani Resort. 8/18-8/25. I want this to be our most memorable cruise ever booked the owners suite.

 

Please continue your review!

 

http://www.hawaiianleigreetings.com/ Here is a link for lei greetings at the airport. And the standard lei is about $20.

[Planmaam]

Am truly enjoying your review, too; a great read!

 

"Our kids (who are now 18,18, 20) were born to cruise. I say that because they were souvenirs born 9 months after earlier cruises on the NCL Seaward and the RCI Majesty of the Seas. (They hate when I tell that story, so I tell it whenever I can)" ;)

 

"8 full-sized bags, 5 carry-ons, 3 kids, 3 Labrador retrievers and 1 spouse all crammed into the minivan. We then made the labs get out of the minivan" "While the family slathered up in suntan lotions with SPF factors higher than the IQs of your average congressman" LOL!!! Love your humor. :D

 

"While the family watched TV and eventually drifted off to sleep, I took a bag of luggage full of dirty clothes down to the self-serve laundry on the ground floor and spent a lovely couple of hours drinking beer, smoking cigars and watching the dryers go round and round." Ahhhhhhh, a man who truly knows how to keep the heart of his woman!!!! ;)

 

Can't wait for your next installment.

Edited August 20, 2011 by planma'am