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

[CC Help Michell]

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?

 

The drive guides are provided at the time you rent the car -- but I didn't want to wait, so I ordered them through the site -- you can pay by check or money order. I wanted the hard copies in hand in advance to use for my planning. :) Other books I used were the Revealed books for Oahu, the Big Island, and Kauai (we didn't rent on Maui so I haven't picked that one up -- yet); Hawaii by Cruise Ship; the Eyewitness Travel Hawaii book from DK Publishing; and the Tourbook from AAA.

 

I did prepare a detailed itinerary as a word document, with one page for each day summarizing reservation numbers, phone numbers, which credit card we used for online bookings (you have to present it most places when you pick up the car, tickets, whatever), etc.

 

Hope that helps and I'll drop you an email as well.

[alikim]

Hi again,

 

As I'm packing my flashlight, I was wondering what size flashlight did you take?

 

I was thinking of something smaller than standard size and now I'm wondering if that'll be bright enough. Was the lava tube COMPLETELY dark?

 

Did you have one flashlight per person?

 

Thank you.

 

 

then went to Thurston lava tube (yes we had a flashlight and yes we went into the dark spooky part, too)!

[CC Help Michell]

Hi again,

 

As I'm packing my flashlight, I was wondering what size flashlight did you take?

 

I was thinking of something smaller than standard size and now I'm wondering if that'll be bright enough. Was the lava tube COMPLETELY dark?

 

Did you have one flashlight per person?

 

Thank you.

 

It was pitch black dark! :) For 2 of us we had one standard flashlight (uses 2 C batteries), not a larger, camping type model -- and that was sufficient for us to see where we were going. It was spooky but also very cool. Since you have a group going, I'd suggest 2-3 flashlights split among you -- don't give one to your teenagers if they are with anybody who is afraid of the dark -- they might decide it would be fun to turn it off and freak everyone out! ;)

[weweresad2]

:DThankyou so much for such a great review. I will keep a copy of it for when we travel there next November:p

The drive guides are provided at the time you rent the car -- but I didn't want to wait, so I ordered them through the site -- you can pay by check or money order. I wanted the hard copies in hand in advance to use for my planning. :) Other books I used were the Revealed books for Oahu, the Big Island, and Kauai (we didn't rent on Maui so I haven't picked that one up -- yet); Hawaii by Cruise Ship; the Eyewitness Travel Hawaii book from DK Publishing; and the Tourbook from AAA.

 

I did prepare a detailed itinerary as a word document, with one page for each day summarizing reservation numbers, phone numbers, which credit card we used for online bookings (you have to present it most places when you pick up the car, tickets, whatever), etc.

 

Hope that helps and I'll drop you an email as well.

[FarmAnimal]

We just got home a few hours ago from the Pride of America trip in Hawaii. I'm beat. We did have a great time. I found very few things that disappointed me during the whole trip. I did find that our butler in our penthouse (yeah, I know) was just a little bit overbearing and wasn't available most of the time that we needed to ask her for something. It always went to call waiting. Any order that we placed for delivery to the room was handled by regular room service and the tipping got to be bothersome. The concierge is also a joke in my opinion. Very little service for what it cost and it came with an attitude.

 

The only other disappointment wasn't with anything NCL did. We flew to LA on SkyBus. What a mistake. It goes onto Burbank and I assumed there were standing ways of transferring from one airport to the other. Wrong. A taxi is $80 to $90 each way. We did spend the night in LA on both directions, but the cost of taxis quickly outweighed any saving in airfare.

 

Also. the 48 pound bag that I traveled with and had weighed several times at airports mysteriously became 58 pounds on the way home from Burbank to Columbus Ohio. That required getting out of line and then redoing the process and paying a $25 overweight baggage fee. It had to be a mistake in the scales, but it's a clear case of ripping off the public as far as I am concerned. Hawaiian Air weighed it at 48.1 pounds and 24 hours later the same unopened suitcase was over 58 pounds. You multiply that by a couple hundred people a week and after a while the erroneous scale pays for itself. My advice for those traveling on SkyBus is to carefully look at the alternatives because the little fees they throw in quickly grow into more than what a traditional airline charges.

 

The thing to not miss is the trip around the north coast of Kauai. It's the most beautiful place on Earth and when we were there the rainbows were to die for. The waterfalls were stunning. A perfect way to end the cruise.

 

The week before two ports were cancelled because of weather. This week had only a few light showers and no thunderstorms or wind at all. I've never seen so many rainbows in my life.

 

It's a trip well worth the cost. It was sheer indulgence to experience a penthouse cabin once in our travels, but it's highly overrated. Not worth the cost when everything is factored in.

 

Advice: Buy a cheap TomTom navigation system for around $100 and go to Hawaii and rent a car on each island. On Kauai a Mustang convertible cost me $59 a day at the Radisson and we went to the canyon on our own and had lunch and dinner at local small restaurants and had a blast meeting the locals. It's much cheaper than onboard excursions and you control what you see and where you go. Parking is always a problem, but not one that can't be overcome. We used the TomTom in rush hour traffic in LA and didn't get lost once. We saw Grummans Chinese Theatre and Mulholland Drive and much of LA without killing ourselves. Rent ahead and save up to 50% of drop in costs.

[judyf]

We just got home a few hours ago from the Pride of America trip in Hawaii. I'm beat. We did have a great time. I found very few things that disappointed me during the whole trip. I did find that our butler in our penthouse (yeah, I know) was just a little bit overbearing and wasn't available most of the time that we needed to ask her for something. It always went to call waiting. Any order that we placed for delivery to the room was handled by regular room service and the tipping got to be bothersome. The concierge is also a joke in my opinion. Very little service for what it cost and it came with an attitude.

 

The only other disappointment wasn't with anything NCL did. We flew to LA on SkyBus. What a mistake. It goes onto Burbank and I assumed there were standing ways of transferring from one airport to the other. Wrong. A taxi is $80 to $90 each way. We did spend the night in LA on both directions, but the cost of taxis quickly outweighed any saving in airfare.

 

Also. the 48 pound bag that I traveled with and had weighed several times at airports mysteriously became 58 pounds on the way home from Burbank to Columbus Ohio. That required getting out of line and then redoing the process and paying a $25 overweight baggage fee. It had to be a mistake in the scales, but it's a clear case of ripping off the public as far as I am concerned. Hawaiian Air weighed it at 48.1 pounds and 24 hours later the same unopened suitcase was over 58 pounds. You multiply that by a couple hundred people a week and after a while the erroneous scale pays for itself. My advice for those traveling on SkyBus is to carefully look at the alternatives because the little fees they throw in quickly grow into more than what a traditional airline charges.

 

The thing to not miss is the trip around the north coast of Kauai. It's the most beautiful place on Earth and when we were there the rainbows were to die for. The waterfalls were stunning. A perfect way to end the cruise.

 

The week before two ports were cancelled because of weather. This week had only a few light showers and no thunderstorms or wind at all. I've never seen so many rainbows in my life.

 

It's a trip well worth the cost. It was sheer indulgence to experience a penthouse cabin once in our travels, but it's highly overrated. Not worth the cost when everything is factored in.

 

Advice: Buy a cheap TomTom navigation system for around $100 and go to Hawaii and rent a car on each island. On Kauai a Mustang convertible cost me $59 a day at the Radisson and we went to the canyon on our own and had lunch and dinner at local small restaurants and had a blast meeting the locals. It's much cheaper than onboard excursions and you control what you see and where you go. Parking is always a problem, but not one that can't be overcome. We used the TomTom in rush hour traffic in LA and didn't get lost once. We saw Grummans Chinese Theatre and Mulholland Drive and much of LA without killing ourselves. Rent ahead and save up to 50% of drop in costs.

 

Nice review, I need to go back just to see the north shore in Kauai as it rained most of the time we were there and missed a lot, but still had a great time it the things we did do.

[plan2go]

Day Seven (Kona):

This was a wonderful day – the best snorkeling I’ve ever done, with the clearest water I’ve ever been in, on a very healthy reef with tons of fish. I could even hear the crackle sound the shrimp make on a healthy reef. The crew trolled fishing lines on the way to the Bay and caught an ono (wahoo on the mainland) – one of the passengers got to anchor as the fish was reeled in. The gal who was taking video for the optional DVD you could purchase did a presentation on the reef and the animals found there that was very interesting, and on the way back in we had dolphins jumping our wake. I’d recommend this trip to absolutely anyone, including non-swimmers – the crew is very safety conscious and they have a ton of different floats to help folks feel comfortable and have a good time. They station lifeguards at all four corners of the catamaran, and another one on a surfboard in the water. Everyone from tiny tots to the older folks had a great day on this trip.

 

MichellP Help

You mentioned tiny tots in your review. This sounds like so much fun, my 3yo swims well with a float - is this a realistic excursion for us? What about ride along only passengers. My mother does not get in the water but loves to be with the kids to watch, will she be allowed to go along?

Mahalo

[CC Help Michell]

Day Seven (Kona):

This was a wonderful day – the best snorkeling I’ve ever done, with the clearest water I’ve ever been in, on a very healthy reef with tons of fish. I could even hear the crackle sound the shrimp make on a healthy reef. The crew trolled fishing lines on the way to the Bay and caught an ono (wahoo on the mainland) – one of the passengers got to anchor as the fish was reeled in. The gal who was taking video for the optional DVD you could purchase did a presentation on the reef and the animals found there that was very interesting, and on the way back in we had dolphins jumping our wake. I’d recommend this trip to absolutely anyone, including non-swimmers – the crew is very safety conscious and they have a ton of different floats to help folks feel comfortable and have a good time. They station lifeguards at all four corners of the catamaran, and another one on a surfboard in the water. Everyone from tiny tots to the older folks had a great day on this trip.

 

 

MichellP Help

You mentioned tiny tots in your review. This sounds like so much fun, my 3yo swims well with a float - is this a realistic excursion for us? What about ride along only passengers. My mother does not get in the water but loves to be with the kids to watch, will she be allowed to go along?

Mahalo

 

I think both would be fine on this excursion. They have lots and lots of floaties, boogie boards, etc. There was a little one on our trip who was "free and a haf" -- she liked telling everyone that ;) -- and she did SUPER in the water with her mom. I think it's very realistic, and the boat is nice for your mom to use just to hang out and watch. You do not have to leave the catamaran, but your mom might even venture in -- lots of non-swimmers actually do that there, using inner tubes, float belts, viewing boxes, etc.

 

PS Mahalo for finding my review; I know it was buried, and I haven't had a link to it in my sig in a while, so I appreciate your efforts. :)

[plan2go]

PS Mahalo for finding my review; I know it was buried, and I haven't had a link to it in my sig in a while, so I appreciate your efforts. :)

 

 

Great news! Now I can share this with the whole gang. Do you mind if I ask a few more questions?

 

After Fair Wind tour, were you too tired for anything else in Kona? I was thinking we might want to do something coffee related...any suggestions?

 

Also, you mentioned a "meet and greet" with your roll call friends. I have registered in the roll call, but have no idea what else that feature of this site offers, can you elaborate?

 

Your posts have been very helpful in my research. I am having some trouble since the advanced search is down!

Maholo again!

[CC Help Michell]

PS Mahalo for finding my review; I know it was buried, and I haven't had a link to it in my sig in a while, so I appreciate your efforts. :)

 

 

Great news! Now I can share this with the whole gang. Do you mind if I ask a few more questions?

 

After Fair Wind tour, were you too tired for anything else in Kona? I was thinking we might want to do something coffee related...any suggestions?

 

Also, you mentioned a "meet and greet" with your roll call friends. I have registered in the roll call, but have no idea what else that feature of this site offers, can you elaborate?

 

Your posts have been very helpful in my research. I am having some trouble since the advanced search is down!

Maholo again!

 

We were pretty tired after our snorkel trip, but it was probably more related to our pre-dawn trip up Haleakala the previous day! We'd just left that afternoon open for what we felt like -- which turned out to be returning to the ship and dozing by the pool. :)

 

Usually cruise critic meet and greets are arranged by someone on the roll call notifying the ship a few weeks prior to the cruise and requesting a meeting place. Since we hadn't done that, we just set up a time and place to meet on the ship, but as I said in my review it didn't work out for us because a sailaway event was happening in that lounge.

 

It's a shame about the advanced search feature. It's quite valuable for accessing a lot of great information posted here, sometimes by people who no longer visit the site. But apparently it was that feature that slowed these boards to an unbearable crawl over the last few weeks. Perhaps with some hardware upgrades they'll be able to restore the advanced search feature.

[lazygal]

Thank you for this great review and thanks for the resurrection! Very helpful information here!

[dnoble74]

Thanks so much for this great review and the pictures you posted on Webshots are beautiful! I have lots of family in Hawaii (my mom is from Hilo) and have been there numerous times but have never been a "tourist" and this will be our first cruise around the islands. I've never been to Maui or Kauai. We will be on the POA cruise in October and like you, I've been reading everything I can about cruising Hawaii on the CC boards!

 

Again, thanks for all the hard work and time you put into making your review one of the best I've ever read and I know it took lots of time to post all of those pics on Webshots.

 

Mahalo! Debbie

[CC Help Michell]

Thanks so much for this great review and the pictures you posted on Webshots are beautiful! I have lots of family in Hawaii (my mom is from Hilo) and have been there numerous times but have never been a "tourist" and this will be our first cruise around the islands. I've never been to Maui or Kauai. We will be on the POA cruise in October and like you, I've been reading everything I can about cruising Hawaii on the CC boards!

 

Again, thanks for all the hard work and time you put into making your review one of the best I've ever read and I know it took lots of time to post all of those pics on Webshots.

 

Mahalo! Debbie

 

Mahalo for the kind remarks, and I hope you have a wonderful cruise! :)

[Parsp]

Not sure if you meant coffee plantation of something, but after our Fairwinds tour we had the taxi driver drop us at Lava Java for a mocha/kona coffee milk shake (thanks to a tip form these boards). Wow! It was a short stroll back to the port from there with cute shops and an open air market to visit along the way. If you have a rolling tote bag to bring your wet towels back in, it will help lighten the load!

[plan2go]

I have already made a note to plan on the rolling tote! We will probably do the Lava Java and shopping near there, I think it would be way too ambitious to try further touring. Thanks

[emste]

bump

[smrtypnts]

Thank you for bumping this up. I thoroughly enjoyed your report, MichelleP! Thank you for taking the time after your trip! I plan to print it to help with all my decisions!

[CC Help Michell]

Thank you for bumping this up. I thoroughly enjoyed your report, MichelleP! Thank you for taking the time after your trip! I plan to print it to help with all my decisions!

 

Mahalo for the compliment; I was surprised to see this resurface yesterday myself! I would urge you to double check the details of anything in the report or in this thread -- it's been nearly two years and things can and do change in that length of time. Have a wonderful trip!

[smrtypnts]

Mahalo for the compliment; I was surprised to see this resurface yesterday myself! I would urge you to double check the details of anything in the report or in this thread -- it's been nearly two years and things can and do change in that length of time. Have a wonderful trip!

 

Yes, I will. Particularly since I am not going for 2 years!:eek:

[emste]

I bumped it becuse I was reading the review during the day and wanted to see the pictures and did not want to have to search for it again! It was a great review.

[Bucky3]

Hi Michelle - Just happened across your review - I thought at first this was a recent Hawaii trip and then realized it was two years ago. Doesn't matter, it read like it was last week! I've always enjoyed your writings here on CC and your love of Hawaii - like ours and Cruisechicks! Hope you've been there since and will be going again? We get stops there on our cruises to/from Sydney (West Coast departure and arrival - no flying!) next fall. We'll get to Hilo, Lahaina twice, and Honolulu. Mahalo for your great review and Aloha!

[flashdog_1]

Thanks, Michele Especially enjoyed the photos. No details are unimportant here on cruise critic. Glad you included them all. See you on the boards!