A Loyal RCCL Cruiser Takes the POA

[handbellplayer]

I posted this a few days ago on the RCCL board, but I thought some here might find it useful, too.

 

Hawaii has been a retirement bucket list item for us. We considered a land-based vacation or a RCCL cruise. We chose POA because we wanted to visit several islands and didn’t want to spend a lot of days sailing from the west coast of the US to Hawaii.

 

This review will mostly cover ship information. I may do a second review on ports/excursions.

 

Cabin

 

We are inside cabin people – we have realized that we only sleep, shower, and dress in our cabin. Every balcony cabin we’ve had (up through JS on RCCL) has been wasted on us. The cabin was very comparable to our insides on RCCL – small, but plenty of storage for everything. A minor complaint – our cabin had no “medicine cabinet” space in the bathroom like the little corner cabinet on RCCL- I’m not sure why – there was plenty of room for it. It made our over-the-door shoe holder even more useful. Not a huge inconvenience – we adapted.

 

The bathroom did have liquid hand soap (only bars on RCCL) that had a nice fragrance. The shower had body wash and conditioning shampoo, as opposed to the “all purpose” stuff on RCCL. It didn’t matter to me – I bring my own stuff regardless. Exceptfor the bathroom, I thought the cabin storage was better than an RCCL insidecabin.

 

The mini-fridge was actually cold! Our TA had sent us a bottle of champagne and it stayed cold! We were able to fit the champagne and a bottle of water in it without removing anything.

 

Service

 

I had read on these boards that the American staff could be rude and not as hard-working as staff from other countries. This was certainly not our experience. Every staff person we encountered from senior staff to our room steward were friendly, efficient, and eager to please. With all of them speaking English as a first language, it was easier to engage with them in conversation. We never had any trouble getting service from waiters at the pool, theatre, and other venues. In fact, in some cases they seemed over-staffed. Our favorite staff were the bartenders and waiters in Pink's – we hated to say goodbye to them at the end of the cruise.

 

Food

 

Food was on par or better than RCCL. We only ate in the MDR twice and were fine with the food and service (again, more friendly conversation with the crew). There are two MDRs with identical menus, but the Skyline allows shorts – making my DH very happy.

 

In general, more dining venues were available on POA than ona RCCL ship of similar size. The Aloha buffet had later night hours, Cadillac Grill was open 24 hours a day, and the Key West Grill (above the pool) served sandwiches and burgers for long hours. I would compare Cadillac with Johnny Rocket’s, except it was free (except for shakes) and open 24 hours a day (also served breakfast) and their burgers were delicious.

 

I’d give the Aloha food a slightly higher grade than the Windjammer – a couple of examples – they were able to manage crisp bacon and soft rolls, two things we’ve never had on any of our RCCL cruises.

 

The only negative, and this was only for DH, not me – NCL has Pepsi products, not Coke.

 

Entertainment

 

We went to three shows in the theatre – a Four Season’s tribute, a magic show, and the final production show. They were comparable to shows on smaller RCCL ships. There was live music of some sort in Pink’s from early to late, live music in the Gold Rush Saloon several nights and some sort of smaller production show in the smaller Mardi Gras Lounge.

 

Fellow Passengers

 

It was generally an older demographic (think Serenade 11-day, not Oasis 7-day), with very few children and teens. There were several multi-generational family groups. I would characterize the passengers as more active seniors – we saw very few wheelchairs or scooters –probably because the ports and most excursions required some mobility. Most passengers were from the US, with a healthy number of Australians and quite a few from the British Isles.

 

General

 

The ship was a nice size and tastefully decorated, with Radiance or Vision class feel, and very well maintained, despite its age. I’m a sucker for a grand staircase, and POA has one.

 

POA’s Tender Ticket system (used at only one port) was far superior to the cattle call/line up the stairs RCCL method. Passengers got in line at one of the lounges –first come, first served – and received tickets. We were then released from the lounge one tender at a time.

 

The pool was only crowded on the last day, partly due to the port-intensive nature of the itinerary. We saw very little chair saving. They had the same goofy games as RCCL at poolside, but they seemed to have a hard time getting people to participate.

 

There was no hawking of t-shirts, specialty restaurants, o rspa services – so refreshing

[zerooveride]

Great info, I sail in 4 weeks! Can't wait. What type of live music did they have in pinks?

 

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[destiny217]

So nice to hear you are enjoying your cruise so far. We sailed on the Pride of Aloha in 2004 when NCL started the Hawaii cruises and sailing the islands was a favorite trip for us. It was the inaugural cruise and the staff were excited and anxious and all very nice. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did. Aloha!

[easyboy]

Thanks for the review.

 

 

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[zerooveride]

Any menus or dailies?

 

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[anandaindonesia]

Happy to read your reviews. Any comments on shore excursions? And yes, yes, please post the dailies 😁.

Thank you.

 

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[spotfish]

Great review!

 

I share your DH's pain having to drink Pepsi products : ) on NCL

[Linda the Book Lover]

Thanks for sharing. The DD, DGD, and myself will be sailing next summer on POA. I have dodged this cruise as I had such a great time on NCL Wind over 15 years ago with my DH. I was afraid to try the "American" ship. I have a few good reports about this ship and the DGD (she will be 9) when we sail has mentioned Hawaii so much my DD decided she would surprise her. Of course when she asked me to join them, how could I say no ;););) The DH opted out so maybe another time with him. Like I have to forced to cruise:D

[BirdTravels]

Mahalo!

 

Glad you got to experience many of the Hawaiian Islands.

[handbellplayer]

Sorry that I'm taking so long to reply. I will get back to you on some of your questions soon. We did not keep the Dailies or take photos of the menus - Sorry. But I will talk about the live music and excursions shortly!