POA- April 30-May 7- Mini Review and ask questions

[Silver Sweethearts]

48 minutes ago, MacII said:

Rats! I was hoping he meant walking from Mama’s…oh well. Are ride share companies active near the port?

 

If you are thinking about visiting Mama's for lunch or dinner, be sure and get reservations well in advance and bring your major plastic, as Mama's is costly for what it is.

[markkw07]

15 hours ago, MacII said:

About how far is Mama’s from the ship? Walkable?
 

Thank you!

Definitely NOT walkable from the port, I meant walking back to the ship from where we parked the car. 🙂 

[markkw07]

14 hours ago, Silver Sweethearts said:

 

If you are thinking about visiting Mama's for lunch or dinner, be sure and get reservations well in advance and bring your major plastic, as Mama's is costly for what it is.

Agree!  It's not an inexpensive meal,  but well worth it. Reservations are tough, but doesn't hurt to try. We made ours months in advance, since we only have the 1 night in Maui to go there. 

[markkw07]

On 5/9/2022 at 8:06 PM, Linda the Book Lover said:

Just received notice our Kona excursions was canceled. Was there any available when you sailed?

We did not book any ship sponsored excursions, and there were cancellation notices being sent 

out on board. As I stated before, we did not have the best weather, so I am going to assume those

cancellations were due to weather, depending on what the excursions being booked were of course. 

 

If you already got a cancellation notice, I'm going to assume the tour didn't meet the quota of people needed to operate that particular tour, or the vendor NCL uses is not fully  back up to staff or some other vendor issue. I would def check with the shore excursions desk on 5 when you get onboard. 

[markkw07]

On 5/9/2022 at 8:09 PM, tampagirl2 said:

Would love to hear what you did in each port. We have also booked a rental in each port. Any problems with rental experience?

 

Any food choices on board that you loved?

As i stated before, we did not have the best weather..so we had to just go with it. 

 

We went up to Kapalua, in Maui. Very nice beach and nice area. Never been up that way before, so we decided to check it out. We had a pineapple tour scheduled at Maui Gold, but that was cancelled due to weather, we did however go on the distillery tour where they make local spirits. Great tour and samples if one is into that sort of thing. 

 

Hilo- we just went around to a few water falls, and visited Hilo Town, as we have been to the volcano park and all of that, as we were just on the Big Island recently , so didn't need to do that again. 

 

Kona- after the tender ride over from the ship, the port/drop off is right off the main road at Kona, so everything is pretty much with in walking distance for Kona. We did not rent a car in Kona, since everything is very close and again we were just on the Big Island recently.

 

Kauai- We went Zip Lining at Koloa Zipline, great company and good people over there. If ziplining is your thing, def check them out. They have the superman and upside options, where a lot of the other compains do not.... great time and experince. We also went to the Luau, same one the ship excursion  goes to, we just booked on our own, saved some $$ by doing so, its not far drive from the port. 

 

No issues with any rentals, other than in Kauai, where it took a little time to get a taxi to the airport. 

 

Eh, food is always a tough subject to navigate, since everyone has different degrees on what is "good". 

 

Buffet was decent, lots of fruit every day, not always good, just depends on the pieces you get lol. Most of the buffet food was decent, breakfast was the same daily, lunch and dinner changed depending on the food "theme" for the day. Cook to order pasta was good, and pizza was good. Desserts, not so much...

 

We only ate in the 1 main dining room 1 time, as it took over 2 hours, ..food was so so, i had the fried chicken, NOT recommended, it had this weird crumbly crust on it..everything else was decent, not great not bad..just so so..

 

Jefferson's Bistro we thought was the best meal of the week. 

 

Cagney's was also very good, no complaints. 

 

Cadillac  Diner-Chicken Salad Sandwiches and Chicken Wings were the stars we had. 

[markkw07]

16 hours ago, Silver Sweethearts said:

 

By "the middle of the night" we meant around 3 a.m. - not 10 p.m.  

 

Yes, we are well familiar with Mama's Fish House.  Who isn't?  We aren't big on tourist places however, so we rarely get out there.  Floyd and Doris established quite a fan club with the place though.

 

By "We walked back to the ship..." we trust you mean from where you parked and not Mama's, as the restaurant is almost nine miles from the dock.

Well no, I can't say for sure there were transient people near the port at 3am, I just gave the time that I was out there which was 10pm. Yes, I get 10pm is not 3am, but I could not say for sure, so I wasn't going to give a blanket answer and just assume it was like that all night. 

 

LOL, well you assume everyone knows or has heard about Mama's, I don't know you from anyone else, so no way for me to know what you do or where you travel, tourist places or non-tourist places..it was just a friendly comment and rhetorical question. So where would a decent non-tourist restaurant be in Maui? 

 

Correct, we walked back from where we parked the car to the ship. 

[markkw07]

On 5/9/2022 at 8:22 PM, WanderlustJourney said:

Was most of the entertainment onboard still taking place? Were any of the pools or fitness facilities closed?

 

Boarding on May 14th and looking forward to the cruise!

There was some entertainment on board, but not a lot. All the pools and the gym were open. The gym is open 24 hours so anytime workouts!. The gym was remodeled so it was very nice and all brand new equipment. 

 

Enjoy the cruise, regardless of the negatives you hear! Always going to be people to complain and B%#$% about things….dont get caught up in all that.....enjoy the time...its Hawaii after all!

[WanderlustJourney]

21 hours ago, markkw07 said:

There was some entertainment on board, but not a lot. All the pools and the gym were open. The gym is open 24 hours so anytime workouts!. The gym was remodeled so it was very nice and all brand new equipment. 

 

Enjoy the cruise, regardless of the negatives you hear! Always going to be people to complain and B%#$% about things….dont get caught up in all that.....enjoy the time...its Hawaii after all!

 

Thanks so much! I board on Saturday and I'm really looking forward to it 🙂

[MacII]

12 minutes ago, WanderlustJourney said:

 

Thanks so much! I board on Saturday and I'm really looking forward to it 🙂

Please consider writing your own review...(while on board!)

[WanderlustJourney]

1 hour ago, MacII said:

Please consider writing your own review...(while on board!)

 

I am considering doing a live review, this will depend on time, etc 🙂

I will be filming my experience for my YouTube channel and in a proper blog post on my website with menus, photos, etc.

[Linda the Book Lover]

5 minutes ago, WanderlustJourney said:

 

I am considering doing a live review, this will depend on time, etc 🙂

I will be filming my experience for my YouTube channel and in a proper blog post on my website with menus, photos, etc.

As we are getting closer I would like to read an update since we have not sailed POA for a couple of years. 

[Silver Sweethearts]

On 5/11/2022 at 8:05 AM, markkw07 said:

So where would a decent non-tourist restaurant be in Maui? 

 

Locals seem to favor Wailuku and Kahului.  Non-tourist haoles seem to like Upcountry.