POA, how good is it?

[KiwiFunCruiser]

Was thinking of cruising in Hawaii in January and was wondering what it was like. Cabins, food, activities, entertainment etc thanks.

 

 

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[aussiemandy]

We sailed at the end of Sept and had a wonderful time. Not being cruisers, we had nothing to compare it too. Our cabin was fine, we weren't in it much anyway, plenty of clean towels, the food, in the buffet and main dining rooms was great (didn't bother with the speciality restaurants), only saw a few shows, too tired to stay up late, and enjoyed the shows. It was great way to get a taste of Hawaii.

[Twiz]

Was thinking of cruising in Hawaii in January and was wondering what it was like. Cabins, food, activities, entertainment etc thanks.

 

 

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We went in Feb a few years ago. It was wonderful, we were so busy that we really didnt get to see much of the ship but what we were able to see and do was great. You are there to see the islands so it served as a place to sleep and eat for us. I would do it again if it werent such a long 14 hour flight for us to get to and from....

[ryarger]

I'll be on the PoA next week and based on all I've read I'm expecting decent service, decent food (we got the UDP as a fail safe to reports of a mediocre MDR) and decent entertainment.

 

The star of the cruise is really Hawaii itself. As long as they get us from island to island with minimal fuss, we'll be happy!

 

 

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[buckeye82]

We were on the POA in December and had a wonderful cruise. Of course Hawaii itself is the main attraction but we found some time to enjoy the ship activites and amenities as well.

 

Some of the activities offered and enjoyed by members of our family were the hula classes, lei making classes and trivia contests. My DH and DS enjoyed the Gold Rush Saloon for some sports viewing (I enjoyed the popcorn!). We were all very pleasantly surprised at how much we enjoyed the evening shows.

 

We ate in the MDR for two dinners before switching to the specialty restaurants. We were not terribly impressed with the food in the MDR.

 

We had five adults in our party and originally had booked two aft balconies. After getting nervous about the size of the balcony cabins we upgraded to an aft two bedroom suite with connecting aft balcony cabin. Glad we did! I can't imagine three adults sharing a balcony cabin. Small and little drawer space. The bathroom was very small also. We left the connecting door open between the cabins and we all enjoyed the huge wrap around aft suite balcony.

 

All in all it is a lovely ship and we found the staff to be friendly and helpful. Two thumbs up! :)

[ride4806]

We sailed on the POA in Oct-we liked the ship-had an Aft room and found it to be a really nice space!!! There service was fabulous, folks could not be more accommodating!! All the main areas were in great shape, we spent VERY little time on the ship it is such a port intensive cruise and actually went to no shows at all so can not help you at all with that. We went to Cagney's that was great, did the new restaurant which was wonderful, main dining room was just OK and we were very happy with the buffet, they had lots to offer for all the meals. We did do the lei making classes and they were lots of fun and went to a few of the Latitudes sail away parties which were fun. You will love it-the islands are just gorgeous!

[VideoTech]

We're on the POA this coming March. From what I've read (check out the POA reviews here) it seems that there's about the average distribution of happy and un-happy cruisers.

 

You'll always hear the comment that the "American" crew of the POA isn't as good at the service parts of their jobs as the crews on other NCL ships. I think that's a cultural thing more than anything else, and I'll be interested to see what the reality is in March.

 

It's apparent to me, though (and as other have pointed out) that the POA cruises are much less about the ship and much more about the ports. This is truly a case where the POA is mostly just a floating hotel and dining room, and I doubt we'll spend that much time on board.

 

Looking forward to it, though!

[Ilovesailing]

Feel free to go to the review section and read away!

[getaway4fun]

With how port intensive the cruise is, if you think of it as a floating hotel, you will not be disappointed.

 

We found the food to be on par with other ships so we were happy. The staff were nice, but found service to be much better on other ships. We were booked into mini-suites with adjoining rooms with my parents. The rooms were clean and comfortable. My parents loved the balcony and my Mom could have spent all of her time there. We were so busy with tours that we were exhausted so didn't attend any of the shows. If we were to do the POA again, we would book our own excursions and save lots of money. The diving was good, but not Caribbean warm so full wet suits are a must. Definitely rent a car so you can get out and explore.

 

Hawaii is beautiful and we really enjoyed ourselves, but next time we will just go to the Big Island and chill!

 

I hope this has helped!

[ksimpso3]

We sailed POA Nov 30-Dec 7. Overall we had a great time. The ship was very well laid out and everything seemed clean and in good order. We ate in the Liberty dining room twice and had the same server. He was awesome!! The food was very good. We also ate in Cagneys almost every morning (suite perk), and at the Cadillac Diner a few times for wings & fries (yummy!!) We had a great aft wrap balcony, but the bathroom was very small. I recommend renting a car and driving to the sites yourself...much cheaper that way and very easy to do. This itinerary is so port intensive that the ship becomes secondary (we only saw one show because we were too tired at night). I would do it again for sure!!:)

[KiwiFunCruiser]

Thank's for the great input, yes it does look like a great way to see the islands.

[dixielandings]

Another happy POA cruiser here! Yes, it is port-intensive but it was a wonderful to see Hawai'i for the first time! We did a couple of paid excursions thru NCL - and 2 days of renting a car and driving ourselves to Volcanoes Nat'l Park and up the road to Hana (my favorite day). The ship was lovely - we had only cruised once before (on Disney, which was awesome) so we had little to compare it to, but we liked it enough to repeat the trip a couple of years later with a 6mo baby and 2 grandparents!

[VideoTech]

..........Hawaii is beautiful and we really enjoyed ourselves, but next time we will just go to the Big Island and chill!

......

 

That's my theory behind our POA cruise this March. It will serve as a nice intro to the major islands, and then we can decide which one we want to go back to!

[ksimpso3]

That's my theory behind our POA cruise this March. It will serve as a nice intro to the major islands, and then we can decide which one we want to go back to!

 

That's a great theory because the islands really are very different. Each one we went to I would say that was my favorite...then we would go to the next one and that was my new "favorite":D. Enjoy your cruise and good luck picking a favorite ;)

 

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