My POA Tips

[Lightweight]

My trip review has been posted. Warning it is pretty long.

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=109976

But here are some of the tips I found to be most helpful.

Excursions – If you are not afraid to do a little research (and most people on this site are not), you can get much better deals booking your activities yourself directly with the tour operator. Many places offer a discount for booking online too.

Rental Cars – Based on comments from this site and from our travel agent we rented cars at every port except Kona. We went with Thrifty and I reserved ahead of time on-line. So many posters mentioned signing up for the Blue Chip program that I thought everyone would be Blue Chip members. The others on our shuttles obviously did not do their homework on this site. We were always the only Blue Chip members in the group. We walked right up to the Blue Chip counter. The keys and the paper work were always ready and waiting. There was no pressure about the add-ons because I had made all those choices on-line and we were ready to roll in 5 minutes. Super easy!

Franko’s Maps – Read about these maps on a review here and ordered one for each island before we left. They always went with us in the rental car. We used them quite a bit and found them very helpful.

Lunch and Snacks – We brought a small insulated tote bag (DH was afraid to carry it because it looked like a purse!) and Ziploc bags. After breakfast we took fruit, lunch meat, cheese and bread from the Aloha Buffet back to our room and made sandwiches to take with us in the cooler bag. Our cabin steward was happy to provide us with ice that we put in a gallon size Ziploc bag. Cookies are available at the Aloha Buffet in the evening. So you have to plan ahead a little if you want cookies with your lunch. They also had cheese cubes on the evening buffet which could also make a nice snack to bring along.

Water – We took a couple of bottles of water from the hotel when we boarded to get us through the first day. In Maui we went to K-Mart and bought a case of water for the rest of the week. DH used the water every morning to make coffee in the room. We also brought insulated cups with us which we used for ice water.

Backpack – DH brought a backpack with multiple compartments. We used it for towels, maps, water bottles, camera case, sunscreen, snorkel gear etc. You name it. The backpack always went with us.

Carabiner clips – These were great to clip things to backpack or belt loop even clipped the camera to the safety harness when we were ziplining.

Flat Iron – This is a tip for those ladies who are particular about their hair. I have a CHI professional grade flat iron. It heats up fast and gets pretty hot. First time I tried to use it on the ship it did not work. The power light would come on, but not stay on. We thought there must be a short. I bought an inexpensive flat iron and K-Mart to get me through the trip. When we got home, I plugged my flat iron in and it worked just fine. So….. they must limit the wattage to the outlets or something. Recommend taking an inexpensive hair appliance or throw caution to the wind and just go au naturale.

iPhone – We love our iPhones and use them quite a bit. We had upgraded to iOS 6 before the trip and had the new Maps app. I have the 4S model with Siri and had the turn by turn directions, which was nice, but Apple needs some improvements to this app and we had problems dropping pins (really it was finding the exact location backthat was the problem). Some other apps that came in handy:

Maui Drive – I had to buy this and then I had to buy the Hana Highway tour, but it worked well for us and I would recommend.

TripIt – This was a cool and free app that I installed early on when I was planning the trip. You set up an itinerary and can enter all of your tour/reservation info (times, phone numbers, address, confirmation number, notes, etc.) It allows you to map to the location and route from one activity to the next. Plus I shared it with my son and my mom before we left so they knew what we were doing and had good contact info to reach us every day. I would use this app again. When I open it now it tells me I have no trips and I need to plan one. I like that kind of encouragement.

TripAdvisor – Used this to find restaurants close by or activities.

If you have an iPhone, the new do not disturb feature came in handy. We scheduled it from 10 pm to 6 am each night after the first night/morning when our phones were buzzing and dinging in the wee hours before dawn.

Journaling – I sent lengthy emails home to close family and friends each day describing what we had experienced. They seemed to really enjoy sharing our trip with us and it was a great way for me to document the memories for myself. I did not pay for internet service on the ship and emailed from my phone when we had service. Kind of a pain to type the long emails on my phone, but it also provided the flexibility to do it while waiting in line for the rental car, on the shuttle, waiting for the evening show to start, etc.

[hill6]

Thanks. Can't wait to read it. We leave in just over three weeks.

[puddles99]

Awesome tips - thank you so much for sharing!

[CGBanks]

Thanks for the tips. I am going to print out. We are on the count down for our November 10th cruise !! Woop Woop !!!

[Teegiee]

Thanks for the tips! Will be very helpful for our March cruise:)

[Keith1010]

Thank you for posting your review and tips.

 

Keith

[jdblakeslee]

Great trip report and it sounds like you guys had a real adventure! Thanks for posting so much valuable information!

 

Jennifer

[cmego2]

Thanks for the great tips! It sounds like you had a really nice trip......we're sailing in 4 weeks and have been looking forward to this cruise; especially since we booked more than a year ago.