Sept 23- Oct 1 on the POA

[Sherrica]

Thanks so much for your review! Did you participate in any other activities on board the ship? I'm curious about what was offered and what you found enjoyable. It sounds like you had a great time! I'm really looking forward to December. :)

[Krisser22]

Thanks so much for your review! Did you participate in any other activities on board the ship? I'm curious about what was offered and what you found enjoyable. It sounds like you had a great time! I'm really looking forward to December. :)

 

 

Yes we did! I completely have left that out of my review, thanks for reminding me!

 

Activities:

The first night we did the pub crawl. It was a great way to meet people and tour the ship. I thought there was supposed to be one on the last night as well, but never saw it in the newsletter.

 

I also participated in the kukui (?) nut lei class (its like big beads) and the flower lei class. Both were taught by the Hawaiian ambassadors, who were excellent. They gave really good history of Hawaii while we did the crafts. I attended these by myself and really enjoyed them both. They had a ribbon weave class later in the week I skipped. I think the classes were around 4:30, so it was a crunch to get back on the ship and make it, but worth it if you can.

 

I really wanted to go to the white hot dance party, but after countless days of in bed by midnight and up at 6, sleep took over and I skipped it.

 

We also watched some of the newlywed/not so newlywed games and there was a bingo (for prizes, not cash) as well. These were just your normal cruise ship games.

 

Shows:

We skipped a lot of the dancing/singing shows because we were so worn out. If you like comedy, you HAVE to go see both performances of Second City! Even though I like stand up comedians, I thought the improv show would be hokey...it was not! It was HILLARIOUS! They did a show early in the week, which was really good, but the complete improve show on the last night was hillarious! I don't have small kids (so my definition of clean may not be the best), but both shows were very clean. We went to another comedian the first night. He was also good (and clean). His late night show was good as well...lots of men/women jokes.

 

Lava (almost) sailby:

I also forgot to mention a really important point. We were the first ship the captain decided to saiby the point where lava flows into the ocean in months! The captain had gotten word that it was visible again and decided to take a chance. Unfortunantly we were not able to see it. However, maybe it will be flowing more for when you go!! I will be very jealous :)

 

The ship overall was much smaller than any I had been on before....however I actually really liked that fact!! Before, I swear it would take forever to cross the ship or get to my room. On this boat, everything was really convenient!

[Sherrica]

Wonderful! That sounds really fun! I had the pub crawl on my list of things that we'd like to do, and we do enjoy comedy so I'll try to catch that for sure. This is our first cruise ever (shocking, I know) so I want to enjoy as much of the cruise experience as I can and still enjoy all of the islands. Thanks again for sharing!

[debster818]

Love your review. We are going in April and we need to start planning. The only thing we have decided is that my husband (or me) does not want to drive around...sometimes too stressful and you can't take in the views because you are paying attention to driving. So, we have decided to do some tours...not NCL's. I know it will be a bit more costly, but we don't have to worry about driving. Keep all the pics coming. Can't wait.

[lv2bgoofy]

Excited to hear that the lava may be flowing back into the ocean....that is one thing that was on my list and was bummed when it quit....

 

With the review about Roberts I'm now second guessing renting a car...I really love to hear all the information about places. Did you get to do the Chain of Craters road?

[Krisser22]

On Friday we decided to explore the east side of the island. We took highway 56 up past Hanalei and stopped at various areas along the way. We stopped at a lot of beaches (in which the jeep came in very handy), a lighthouse, and some wet caves. On the way back we stopped at a fair and picked up a lei for $5. This is one of those cases where you get what you pay for...I got a lei that lasted me for maybe 3 hours :) Oh well, it still looked cute for a short period of time!

 

 

 

 

 

NaPali Sailby

 

Friday seemed to go by super quick on the island. We had talked about going surfing or trying to book an excursion this day, but it was very enjoyable to just get out and drive the island.

 

We sat on the Aloha Lania and enjoyed happy hour while sailing by Na Pali coast. The coastline was beautiful and it was really pretty to watch the sunset over the coast.

 

The entertainment Friday night was the Second City Improv show. This was my favorite show all week….it was hilarious!

 

We packed up our bags and planned to leisurely disembark after breakfast on Saturday morning.

[Krisser22]

Sunset on last day....

 

[Krisser22]

On Saturday, we had until 7PM to wander around the island before our overnight flight back to Houston. Thankfully we had already reserved a car from Thrifty since they informed other people they were sold out. I think we ended up getting off the ship around 9AM. Our plan was to drive to the North Shore and slowly work our way around the coast back to the airport. The plan was to do the following stops:

 

Dole Planation (already accomplished on the day we embarked, so we skipped this stop)

 

Bonzai Pipeline at Ehuka Beach Park (nothing spectacular due to the time of year)

 

Turtle Bay Resort (just wanted to see the resort and a good place for a restroom)

 

Giovanni Shrimp Truck (best shrimp I have ever had!!!)

 

Laie Point State Wayside (I think we missed this stop)

 

Kualoa Ranch (we stopped, saw 10,000 cars…I might be exaggerating slightly, and drove off)

 

The Byodo-In Temple (really neat architecturally)

 

Lankkai Beach (a little off the beaten path, but the prettiest beach I have ever seen!!! I think it is voted as one of the best beaches on the Travel Channel)

 

 

Halona Blow Hole

 

Hanauma Bay (never ended up stopping)

 

International Market Place and various Waikiki Stops (ughhh….see below)

 

John Pugh Mural (might recognize it from chain e-mails….appears to be 3D, but painted on a flat side of the building….the people are even included in the picture)

 

 

We had a lot of stops planned for our last day as you can tell. Last year we went to Alaska and on our last day, we had like 5 hours to burn before going to the airport and ended up wandering around Wal-Mart due to bad planning. Thus, I thought I could overplan our last day and then skip things as needed if time got short. Well, we got to do most everything we wanted to do. We decided to view a lot of beaches/sights, but didn’t want to spend the day at the beach as we didn’t want to be “beachy” on the plane all night. Our plan above took most all day. We made a last minute stop at the Honolulu or Waikiki Mall, for some souvenirs. I never got a chance to make it to International Marketplace, which kind of annoyed me. We circled the block 3 times looking for a parking spot and could never find anything. The only spots we could find were really far away and had some questionable clientele wandering the lots. Given the fact we had all of our luggage in the trunk, we decided to skip the marketplace. I wish I would have gone the night we stayed in Waikiki, as it would have been easier to walk from our hotel, instead of trying to find a parking spot close by.

 

We had an easy flight back to Houston. Our trip to Hawaii was wonderful and if I had to redo it, I would have chosen the exact same trip including the POA. I believe taking a cruise was the best option for us, as I really wanted to stop at all the islands the POA took us to. I hope this review has helped some people as the prior reviews really helped me plan out my trip. Please feel free to ask me any questions you might have. Aloha!

[kezza]

Great review, thanks and great photos. We did Moana Kea 2 years ago after our week cruising the Hawaiian Islands, wow it is a superb place. We did the evening tour and it was fantastic, the sunset was the most amazing sunset you will ever see I think. You felt like you were on top of the world looking down. Amazing...

 

We loved our cruise that we're heading back this week and can't wait to see it all again.

 

Kerri