My Review and Excursion Report -- POH 7/9/07 (multi part)

[AZ Karaoke Girl]

I didn't take a ship excursion but I've read on other posts that the Pearl Harbor tour gets you to the airport around 2ish even though NCL says for flights after 4 only. I think they take into account for possible delays.

 

Also, in my opinion, I would make kids go to Pearl Harbor. Kids of all ages will love the film that show actual footage of the attack. I filmed the film:p and showed it to my kids when I got home and my son (age 12) and his friend were totally into the film & watching history and talking about it which was a great conversation for them discussing what they learned.

Questions.

 

1. In excursion, if they said for 8 pm and after flight, by what time do they take you to airport? Grand Circle said 8 pm and after flight and Pearl Harbor said after 4 pm.

 

2. I was also looking into Pearl Harbor and USS Missouri tour because it said for 6 pm and after flight. I've read about Pearl harbor but didn't hear anything about USS Missouri tour. Anyone has info on it? Is it walking tour or bus tour?

[lisara]

MichellP - Can't wait till my 11/10 sailing of POAm. So glad to see a good review. Two groups from our area went different weeks in April and the one group had a "lousy" experience on POA. Could you be so kind and drop me an email? Put in the line "Hawaii"

Thanks

dolphins13@tds.net

It will be a "celebration" of 25 years of marriage (to the same man)!!

[CC Help Michell]

Aloha! I finished uploading several of the videos we took on our Hawaii trip to youtube a bit ago. This link should take you to them -- http://www.youtube.com/michellp1. My still pictures aren't quite ready for prime time -- I'm waiting to get the underwater camera ones back to see if there's anything worth including there, but when I get that done and they are posted I'll update this thread. Not everyone is like me, but when I was planning this trip I loved checking out everybody else's photos and videos! :) If you are like me, I hope you enjoy them!

 

Happy planning, all!

[Disneyworld]

My understanding is that we are suppose to be at the airport 2 hours before our flights leave. I believe that is why if you notice the times that any of tours tell you they'll drop you off at the airport for flights leaving after such and such a time it is usually with 2 hours to spare before your flight leaves. This seems to be for all tour companies ie Roberts, NCL, etc.

[Disneyworld]

My understanding is that we are suppose to be at the airport 2 hours before our flights leave. I believe that is why if you notice the times that any of tours tell you they'll drop you off at the airport for flights leaving after such and such a time it is usually with 2 hours to spare before your flight leaves. This seems to be for all tour companies ie Roberts, NCL, etc

[alikim]

Thank you so much for the videos. Really enjoyed watching them.

 

Now I'm more anxious than ever to go.

 

Aloha! I finished uploading several of the videos we took on our Hawaii trip to youtube a bit ago. This link should take you to them -- http://www.youtube.com/michellp1. My still pictures aren't quite ready for prime time -- I'm waiting to get the underwater camera ones back to see if there's anything worth including there, but when I get that done and they are posted I'll update this thread. Not everyone is like me, but when I was planning this trip I loved checking out everybody else's photos and videos! :) If you are like me, I hope you enjoy them!

 

Happy planning, all!

[Desert Tink]

Thank you SO much for posting the link to your videos, Michelle. I can't believe I will be there in a little more than a week and now thinking I need to buy a camcorder! :eek: What great memories you have to share. I can't wait to see your photos!

 

~Lilli :)

[amylynn68]

Thanks so much for a great review. That was by far the best review I have read so far. :) My husband and I are going on the Pride of Hawaii in August for our honeymoon. We are staying in an oceanview stateroom with balcony, but I noticed in your review that you mentioned yours was on the port side. I looked at the ship map and I see that your room is on the opposite side of ours. We are in 9126. Does this mean that we are not going to see the port when the boat arrives at different islands? I hope not. Maybe I can still call NCL and see if there is another room available. It is my husbands first cruise, and I want him to enjoy it, so we can go on many more. Also, was the Entertainment book worth purchasing. I never thought about that for saving money. You were prepared for everything. Thanks again.

 

Amy

[beachchick]

alikim:

 

With 5 people, it's so hard to please them all.

 

Boy, isn't that the truth? My DH contends that trying to make plans traveling with more than just the two of us is a bit like herding cats--It's hard to keep them together and someone is bound to get "scratched."

 

beachchick

[santaloveroh]

Thanks, Michelle for posting the video. We are going the first of September. Doing the sunrise bike tour. It was something my father told me about. He has since passed but like your SO it was the ONE thing I absolutely had to do. I'm 51 but I've been riding my bike this summer "practicing".:D I also booked the romance package based on your recommendation.:D

[CC Help Michell]

Thanks so much for a great review. That was by far the best review I have read so far. :) My husband and I are going on the Pride of Hawaii in August for our honeymoon. We are staying in an oceanview stateroom with balcony, but I noticed in your review that you mentioned yours was on the port side. I looked at the ship map and I see that your room is on the opposite side of ours. We are in 9126. Does this mean that we are not going to see the port when the boat arrives at different islands? I hope not. Maybe I can still call NCL and see if there is another room available. It is my husbands first cruise, and I want him to enjoy it, so we can go on many more. Also, was the Entertainment book worth purchasing. I never thought about that for saving money. You were prepared for everything. Thanks again.

 

Amy

 

Mahalo for your kind comments! On a ship "Port" refers to the left side of the ship if you are facing the front (the bow), and starboard refers to the right side, where your cabin is. It doesn't really relate to the ports of call where the ship docks. In some of the ports we visited, our portside cabin had a nice view, and in others we were looking at warehouses, etc. The main reason we wanted a cabin on the port (or left) side of the ship was for the Napali coast sailby, because that side can see the cliffs from the cabin balcony, without going up to one of the public decks (on our cruise the captain didn't do a full turnaround of the ship at Napali to give both sides a view; I've heard some do).

 

The Entertainment book was definitely worth purchasing -- it paid for itself the first night ($22 off dinner at our hotel), and we saved another $72 on our Paradise Cove luau, and another $10 at the Bowfin submarine tour. If you have this book for your local area, you should be able to print out coupons you'd like to use in Hawaii at www.entertainment.com.

 

I hope you have a wonderful honeymoon in Hawaii!

[txn_crzn]

During the dinner chat the other couple mentioned that they’d eaten at the dining room every night because they didn’t want to pay extra for the other restaurants – I showed them how to tell which of the specialty restaurants were free (the asterisk in the Daily is for the extra cost ones), and also let them know about the 7 AM reservation option.

 

Michelle - I really enjoyed reading your review. I can't wait for our trip in Sept. I just wanted to see if you could explain how we'll be able to tell which specialty restaurants are free and what the 7 am option is. I've really only just started planning and wanted to get some tips for on the ship dining. TIA

[KKCruisers]

Thanks so much for a great review. That was by far the best review I have read so far. :) My husband and I are going on the Pride of Hawaii in August for our honeymoon. We are staying in an oceanview stateroom with balcony, but I noticed in your review that you mentioned yours was on the port side. I looked at the ship map and I see that your room is on the opposite side of ours. We are in 9126. Does this mean that we are not going to see the port when the boat arrives at different islands? I hope not. Maybe I can still call NCL and see if there is another room available. It is my husbands first cruise, and I want him to enjoy it, so we can go on many more. Also, was the Entertainment book worth purchasing. I never thought about that for saving money. You were prepared for everything. Thanks again.

 

Amy

 

Hi Amy,

When are you going in August? We leave on the 27 th! After reading MichellP's post I'm really getting excited.

Have a wonderful cruise!

Malhalo

Kat

[CC Help Michell]

Michelle - I really enjoyed reading your review. I can't wait for our trip in Sept. I just wanted to see if you could explain how we'll be able to tell which specialty restaurants are free and what the 7 am option is. I've really only just started planning and wanted to get some tips for on the ship dining. TIA

 

Sure, I'll be glad to share how it was on our cruise (this was on Pride of Hawaii, if you are on Aloha or America the names, etc. on some of the restaurants will be different -- and I think the Italian one on Aloha has a surcharge it doesn't on Hawaii).

 

Free restaurants: Aloha Nui Cafe (buffet); Grand Pacific Restaurant (main dining room); Alizar Restaurant (main dining room); Blue Lagoon (sort of a coffee shop); Topsiders Grill (poolside, afternoons only); Papa's Italian Kitchen (specialty); and Paniolo Tapas & Salsa (Tex-Mex specialty).

 

Surcharge restaurants are 1) Jasmine Garden (there are four components to this, all with a surcharge -- a) a regular Asian fusion menu, b) "shabu-shabu" which means swish-swish where you cook your meat and veggie bites in a common pot, like fondue, c) sushi bar, and d) the teppanyaki (a Japanese teppan experience like Benihana's)); 2) Le Bistro (French); and 3) Cagney's Steakhouse. The surcharge restaurants have an asterisk by them on the restaurant list in the Freestyle Daily.

 

The 7 AM thing is the time at which you can go to the reservations desk in the atrium to make reservations for that day and the next. You can also make reservations by phone during certain hours.

 

Now, having said all that, there's a post on the Norwegian board which refers to a published policy from NCL about how reservations are going to work going forward -- apparently this is a new statement of the policy -- it could change how it works on your cruise. Check your Freestyle Daily for the best and most up-to-date information. Here's a link to the post on the NCL board: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=593778

 

I hope that helps and that you have a wonderful cruise!

[CC Help Michell]

As promised, here is the link to my webshots album of our POH cruise photos. http://community.webshots.com/user/Michellp1

 

There are a lot of them -- I thought about doing separate albums for each island, but since this is for our family and friends to enjoy as well as to share here, I decided to make it easy on them just to follow along with us on our adventures. The order follows the POH itinerary -- Oahu, then Hilo, then Maui, then Kona, then Kauai, then back to Oahu -- and at the very end are about 30 pics from the ship, cabin, pool deck, views of Honolulu from the ship, etc. I didn't label the ones that are pretty self-explanatory from the title, but most of them do have some form of caption underneath.

 

I really enjoyed sorting our photos, labelling, and selecting the ones for the album -- even though there are 400 in there, I started with over 1500, so I did pretty well at narrowing it down (hard though it may be to believe)! If you, like me, enjoy looking at stuff like this, have fun! :)

[Desert Tink]

As promised, here is the link to my webshots album of our POH cruise photos.

 

If you, like me, enjoy looking at stuff like this, have fun! :)

 

Beautiful photos, Michelle, thank you for posting the link. You two look like you had a wonderful time! Seeing all the beautiful places my DH and I will be at next week is raising the level of my excitement (I did not think that was possible!) :D

 

We leave next Saturday for LAX and I'm looking at all I need to pack for our 11 day trip :eek: . . .

 

Thanks again for your wonderful contributions to this site!

 

~Lilli :)

[santaloveroh]

Thank you so much for posting the pictures! They are beautiful. You two look very happy! I don't know how I can wait until September 1.

[CC Help Michell]

We leave next Saturday for LAX and I'm looking at all I need to pack for our 11 day trip :eek: . . .

 

~Lilli :)

 

Have a wonderful trip!! I'll look forward to YOUR report when you return!

[CC Help Michell]

Thank you so much for posting the pictures! They are beautiful. You two look very happy! I don't know how I can wait until September 1.

 

Oh that's easy -- just keep hanging out here and read what everyone else did on their trip! That's how I made it through the anticipation phase. :)

[pfopma]

Michell,

 

Thanks for the fun review. All the details were very helpful!! We are excited about our upcoming cruise in August on PoAm. Love the video on YouTube.

 

Pat

[leuly]

Thanks for all the tips. Just wondering if you know of anyone using Budget Car Rental? I did not come across anyone using it.:o

[BullishCruiser]

What a fantastic review!!! Great videos and photos too! Thank you so much for putting the extraordinary effort into all that you have done. This is truly a work of love for the benefit of others. Great job, Michelle. :)

[Desert Tink]

Have a wonderful trip!! I'll look forward to YOUR report when you return!

 

 

I already have my journal packed so I can make an entry each evening so I won't forget anything. I'm so excited and a bit overwhelmed at this point. It will be a relief to be on the plane and on our way; I will heave a great sigh and officially begin my vacation. ;)

 

I have referred to your review and other posts many, many times over the past few weeks and want to thank you again. Your posts have been uplifting, inspiring and extremely helpful.

 

~Lilli :)

[CC Help Michell]

I already have my journal packed so I can make an entry each evening so I won't forget anything. I'm so excited and a bit overwhelmed at this point. It will be a relief to be on the plane and on our way; I will heave a great sigh and officially begin my vacation. ;)

 

I have referred to your review and other posts many, many times over the past few weeks and want to thank you again. Your posts have been uplifting, inspiring and extremely helpful.

 

~Lilli :)

 

I'm excited for you, Lilli! Two days until you head out -- I know you are SO thrilled. I hope you have the vacation of a lifetime! :)

[tofuyan]

I love your detailed review... It gives me lots of insight on how to start planning for my december cruise for POH. We are going to bring our baby who will turn 9 months old in December along. So I was thinking of planning the excursions on our own and renting a car.

 

Do you have a detailed itinerary/time schedule that I can reference to? If you don't mind, can you email me at marilyn1@gmail.com? Thanks a bunch! It would help much in planning.

 

Also, what books or references did you use in planning your trip? I see that you had bought driving guides ahead of time. I went onto the site and they said that they are provided with the rental car. Is this true?