Pride of Hawaii Questions

[AllentownEric]

I am a newbie to this site and to cruising.

 

My wife and I will be making reservations shortly for the August 7th cruise.

 

I will have tons of questions over the next few weeks but first let me start with my room. If you had a choice of which level to stay on, would you choose from deck #4, #5,#8, or #9 and why. I know that there are lots of other choices but for money reasons, we have narrowed it down to these levels.

 

Since we plan on spending the vast majority of our time ashore, we decided that we would rather not spend a lot of money on a room, but rather on shore excursions.

 

Thanks, Eric

[bankofdad]

We chose deck 10, because it is sandwiched in between two decks (9&11) that have 100% cabins on them (i.e. no public areas). This is what we always try to do, thereby eliminateing potential common area noises from above and below.

 

It's also just two decks up to the Promenade deck and the pools/pool bar and buffets, which we often find ourselves frequenting.

 

In you're scenario, I would choose deck nine, but avoid selecting a room directly above Blue Lagoon, Paniolo Tapas or the inside area directly aft of these restaurants (It looks like this may be a galley).

 

Deck 5 is directly below the main dining rooms, main galley's, Le Bistro, the whiskey bar, and Stardust theatre. If you don't mind the noise, you'll be okay, but I wouldn't do it.

 

If you choose deck 8, I'd suggest booking on the aft-half of the ship. Far forward and you directly over the Stardust lounge's second level. Just forward and you're over the top of Jasmine. However, the aft half is over the business center & meeting rooms as well as the art gallery. I would suspect these areas to be relatively quiet in the evenings.

 

If you're prone to motion sickness, one of the few insides on deck 4 near mid-ship would be something to think about (lower decks, inside mid-ship will feel the most stable as compared to other rooms).

 

If you're looking at a balcony room, starboard has the best views in port (in Kauai & Maui), and is the primary side when going past the lava viewing after leaving Hilo. The port side gets the best view of the Napali Coast.

 

As always, JMHO. I hope this helps some!

[AllentownEric]

Great response!! Can't get into much more detail than that.

 

Where do most of you book your cruises for the cheapest rate, best service, or for whatever reason?

 

Eric

[bankofdad]

Great response!! Can't get into much more detail than that.

 

Where do most of you book your cruises for the cheapest rate, best service, or for whatever reason?

 

Eric

 

For cruises with Carnival & RCCI we've booked directly with the cruise lines. I really like the RCCI on-line booking system because it allows you to edit cruise choices on-line on your time schedule. I've also found that the Carnival vacation planners are really helpful when you call, and are easy to reach.

 

For NCL, I've used an on-line travel agent for the three Hawaiian cruises. Unfortunately, the CC rules won't allow me to post the names of these travel agents, but I wouldn't say I received any extrodinary services from them anyway. I've just done my research, knew what I wanted ahead of time, and made sure the prices were in-line before booking. The reason I don't like the NCL on-line booking system is that you can reserve on-line, but you still have to call to provide payment information (instead of doing it on-line). In the past I've found that reaching NCL customer service can be a challenge because of the long "on hold" times when calling, so I've not gone that route.

 

I know that CC works a lot with CruCon. We were origianlly booked on the 6/10/06 CC group sailing of POAmerica (which we very much wanted to do, and is being organized in a great way), but had to change our plans because of school schedule changes (so we took our kids on this past October's POAmerica sailing with us). It's just MHO, but I was not impressed with CruCon. I like to do my research, know what I want, and then just get it done. With CruCon, the particular group planner that was in charge of the CC group sailing was difficult to reach, and it was cumbersome to get things done with them. I guess that's why I like the on-line travel agents with on-line bookings engines, but that's just me.

 

I hope this helps!