POH 8/6/07 review!

[Hollyster2]

We had a fabulous cruise!

We flew on United through NCL. Flight was fabulous and they had given us upgraded seating so we had the extra leg room in our section. Very smooth flight. Shared a snack box and saved our appetites for Cheeseburger in Paradise which we loved! We also had drinks and appetizers at Dukes and watched the sunset.

 

Stayed 2 nights at the Waikiki Marriott and loved it! Very comfortable rooms and the hotel was all open airy feeling and we would love to go back and stay. We did not use the pools (they were small) because we chose to hang out at the beach instead. The Marriott greeted us with a flower lei, and checked us in for the hotel and the ship smooth as silk! They also straightened out an excursion problem for us. We at only once at the Italian restaurant connected to the hotel(at least I think it was). We had breakfast there one morning and some fabulous mimosas looking out at the ocean! We did order a lot of shortbread cookies in one of the shops located there to send the kids back home. The cookies were fabulous, and our kids got them in two days! They were thrilled. They were shaped like tiny pineapples and chocolate chip/macademia nut flavored. There are a lot of flavors and all there to sample. We ended up stopping at the store location at the Hilton and ordering more to be sent home to give as gifts. Yes...they are that good. :o) Our guys golfed at Ko'olina and loved it. We all had a fun time at Germaine's Luau also! The bus ride there and back is really the most fun!

Boarding the ship was so easy since we had already checked in on shore. We were among the very first ones on the ship! The buffet was much better than we expected with a larger variety. I agree that all the food should have been marked better. We had the buffet every day for breakfast because we had been hearing all through the trip from others that it was a better bet than the dining rooms. We also ordered coffee, juice and fruit very early from room service (we are early risers and met our group for breakfast later) and seriously each time we had barely hung up the phone and it was at our door! I was surprised by that.

Our room wasn't ready until around 5 p.m., and they had roped it off. They announce when each deck is ready over the speakers. Our luggage staggered in, but all of our group had all of our pieces by our dinner reservation time. The room was pretty clean, except for a few dusty shelves. We never saw our room steward until the night before we left and we looked for him daily. We left 2 dollars a day with a thank you note the first day and a request for ice. Every day we left 2 dollars and found out if there wasn't a note with it, he would not touch it. We always had clean towels, a full ice bucket, 2 towel animals (a swan and an elephant) and the bed was made every day. The bathroom was always kept nice. We had turndown service one night although we didn't request it and that was the night the swan appeared. The beds were so comfortable! I loved the duvet cover. So simple and comfortable!

This was the first time we had a lifeboat drill inside a dining room. Usually we are standing outside in the heat, but this one was painless. As for shows, we saw the Illusionist once and he was good. The guys in our group saw the Rock N Roll show after their Sushi dinner, but we gals had opted for the buffet and the spa. They couldn't pry us out of the spa to go to the show. We were too busy laughing and lounging and watching the sunset. They guys were all big sushi fans and had one of their best dinners on the ship there. They loved the eel! They all came to the spa to tell us about it and how good the service there was. They were full of energy from the good food and time they had so they tried to talk us into going to the show. NO dice...we were having too much fun in the spa. We all had the week long package and used it almost every evening. The reviews on the rock show were mixed...some liked it, and some didn't.

 

We did enjoy the piano bar one night! Wished we could have found our way back there again. The kids club walked through there wearing puppy dog ears they had fashioned out of colored paper and they were searching for "cruise clues" and the piano player immediately stopped the song he was playing and played the theme from Blue's Clues and I thought that was just adorable.

 

When we boarded the ship they let us make dinner reservations for the next two nights. After that we had a heck of a time getting anything. The really only real flaw on this ship was the dinner reservation system. We had dinner our first night in Cagneys which we loved! The lobster was delicious, and so was the prime rib. The Banana's Foster was absoluely fabulous! We actually ordered one of each dessert and passed them all around. They were all pretty good but the Foster was our favorite. We had pretty good service too! The next night we ate at Teppenyaki (I forget what it is called actually, it was like Bennihana's). We all loved that! Chef was entertaining, and the food was excellent. We all had just about everything on the menu between us and not a bad order in the bunch. The only thing I did not like was the green tea ice-cream for dessert. I had the fruit which is excellent all over the ship! We also walked up to the Mexican restaurant twice, and both times had the most excellent service and we actually requested the same wait staff. We ordered the fire-star and that was fun and delicious! We tried some other dishes also and we were very happy at this restaurant. Our last specialty restaurant was Jasmine's, and it was the only thing we could get for the last night. Our waiter was OK, but that was it. The food was OK, but I would not repeat that restaurant. The guys all said they would all repeat the Sushi place in a heartbeat and all of the other's we tried besides Jasmine's. The other nights we ended up at the buffet.

 

On Hilo we took the VNP deluxe tour through the ship. It was perfect for us! Very good tour guide, excellent Hawaiian plate buffet lunch and the view from the restaurant was breathtaking! The crater was awesome! The volcano and lava tube was something to behold, and we enjoyed Rainbow Falls also. The garden's we stopped at were small, but beautiful also...just a word of advice. This was the only place on our whole trip we encountered mosquitos!

 

In Maui the guys golfed, and some rented a car (booked ahead through the ship no problems!) and my friend and I went to La Haina through the ship. The Banyan tree was HUGE! We had a fabulous lunch at Kimo's by the water and walked around the shops. We were not impressed with Hilo Hatties and did not buy a thing at any of their locations. We did not even go in another of their stores! It is perfect for matching island wear, but that is about it. We did enjoy walking around the village display at the edge of the shopping center. Cool to walk into the old huts.

 

Our second day in Maui we took the ship beach tour to Wailea beach. Beautiful beach, great snorkeling and we saw a HUGE sea turtle! We also walked around the Grand Wailea Resort which has the most awsome pool! We had a few drinks and an expensive cheeseburger at their pool bar.

 

In Kona the guys golfed again, and the rest of us took the Kona Beach Blast through the ship. We saw several sea turtles there, one along the shore even! The glass bottom boat showed us even more and they swam at our feet while we were on the aqua bikes! We had a great day there.

 

In Kauai the guys golfed at Poipu, one of our guys took the Harley Rumble through the Jungle tour, while we gals took a fabulous horseback ride along the ocean and rented a car to visit the shops. We bought several things at Walmart, and it was so funny to see chickens sprinkled all over the parking lot and along the highway. We found another Duke's and a place called JJ's (I think) that had the best fish and chips! It is across the street from the Marriott. That hotel was gorgeous and the koi pond was something to see!

 

Our second day in Kauai we did the surfing lessons through the ship at Poipu. Those that surfed had fun and we got some great pictures. We had nachos and a few drinks at Brenneckes. We had great spots for the Na Pali sail by up on the sundeck and the big sunflower shower they had up there kept us cool while we sunned and waited. We counted that as our day at sea and the only day we hung out on deck. The music was great, and we had lunch and a few drinks. We had arranged for Easy Fly so we packed up and the next morning was one of the easiest debarkations we have ever experienced. We had breakfast by the pool as we did every morning and went to pick up our rental car.

 

Alamo messed up our rental car situation. We got it straightened out and drove to north shore. Had lunch at the Margarita Bar restaurant and it was just OK. We had dole whip at the Dole Plantation and ended up at the Hilton Hawaiian Village to do some shopping. We stopped at the Waikiki Sheraton and had a few mai tais, watched the sea turtles, listened to music and watched a great hula show by their pool. We watched our final sunset while we walked along the beach back to our car and caught our late flight home. It was not as nice of a plane ride...bumpy because of the Hurricane coming in and a much older plane. I am a nervous flyer, and I was just fine. We all sat together with our spouses so this was not a problem. Some of us had great leg room, but most of us did not. We just tried to sleep and were home before we knew it.

 

It was a great vacation and I would do it again in a heartbeat! The crew was very polite and full of "Aloha's" when you passed them on the ship. One thing I would like to remind everyone is that they sell Dole Pineapples at the airport past customs in the gift shops! You can carry them off the plane! At the Dole Plantation they said we had to pay a ton of shipping and check them as luggage and all kinds of stuff, so we passed. We all brought home 3 pineapples each and they were $25. They were delicious! There is no pineapple like it!

 

Sorry if this got long winded....I know there is so much more that I left out. For those of you getting ready to leave, have the best time!

[MommyJamiex4]

Sounds like you had a wonderful time. What was the week long spa package that you got? Also, how were the surf lessons in Kauai. We booked that one through NCL and were wondering about it. Did you have any time after to hang out or did they take you right back to the ship? And, LOL, you paid $25 for 3 pineapples? Or $25 for all of your pineapples together? I want to bring some home and was wondering how to do it.

 

Thanks for the review!

[karen2cruz]

Congrats on a great cruise! I too would like to know about the surfing lessons. My 16 year old son and 23 year old son-in-law would very much like to try surfing.

[CC Help Michell]

Glad you had a wonderful time, and thanks for the review!

[Hollyster2]

$25 dollars bought you 3 pineapples in one box. They were all perfect! We bought them at the airport after we had checked in. We carried them on the plane. If you buy them at the Dole plantation you have to have them go through agriculture and checked with your luggage I guess. Just remember to buy them as soon as you see them at the airport if you have a very late flight because the shops will close before your flight boards! We barely made it!

 

The surfing lessons were pretty good in Poipu. I think they were in front of the sheraton. They are perfect lessons for beginners and there is a photographer there to snap your picture as you got up. Most people did stand up on their boards! My husband had surfed as a teenager in Santa Cruz, so he was wishing he could go out farther but he agreed it was a great refresher course! They provided booties, and rash guards also, which was a good thing because there is a lot of coral reefs. We wished we had done this earlier in the trip mainly because we wouldn't have hesitated on renting boards at other beaches!

 

There was no time to hang out after the lessons. They took our group right back to the port. Also this was the second day in Kauai and we needed to be on board by 1 anyway. I think the lessons were actually over around 11:30 a.m. My friend and I actually took the Poipu beach transfer which left the ship 20 minutes after the surfing shuttle, and then we walked down the beach to watch those in our group who were surfing. I totally wished I had signed up for it when I saw how much fun they were having. When they all headed back to ship my friend and I still had an hour and a half before our bus headed back so we grabbed a snack.

[Hollyster2]

The spa package we had was about $179 a couple for the entire week and we could use the common spa room which had a large hot tub and several heated tile chairs like the ones they have on the Disney ship. The view is awesome, and the chairs will put you to sleep, and several of us almost didn't wake up in time for dinner! They offer tea and ice water also.

You also get full use of the ladies only spa which had a smaller jacuzzi, cushioned lounge chairs with the same fabulous view, a sauna, a steam room, two showers with tropical rain settings and a colder setting, bathrooms, showers and a cold plunge tub. The water in that was like ice, but actually felt really good! They offered tester spa products for your face, so we used moisturizers on our faces and brought hair conditioner to use while in the steamroom and sauna. They had ice water in there also, and wonderful robes to lounge around in. The guys said they had the same set up on their side, but no skin products. We didn't have any seperate spa treatments. We usually took most of our showers there before dressing for dinner. Loved it!

[cruisePRN]

Thank you for a such thourough review. I am going on the POH next month and have heard not so great things about the food and service but you helped clear that up.

[hazeleyez3]

Glad you had a good cruise. Question about the piano bar - what type of music was played?

[Lulubears]

My husband is going to play golf while on our cruise, but is wondering whether he should take his own clubs or just rent from the different courses. Did your guys rent clubs? Thanks!

[Hollyster2]

The Piano player took requests. He played a variety of things. He joked a little bit too. We only stayed there for a little bit, so I would have liked to see how broad a range of songs he could play. I recall he played some Movie themes, and some jazz. Whatever anyone requested.

 

Our guys brought their own clubs with them. The ship stored them for us at no charge. The ships policy is to store all the clubs. You can't keep them in your room.

[SFO-F/A]

Holly,

Thanks for your great review. I'm going on POH Oct 15. I'm really looking forward to the trip.

[Crusinman29]

Thank you for a great review!

[judyf]

Great review thanks for sharing. Any tops on the Germaine's Luau ? I think that's the one we are going to. Did you get drinks included?

[M5M]

Holly, and to all those who have posted such informative reports...it is truly a pleasure to read about your week. We all sit here, counting the days, reading the boards, and asking each other, "What about this...what about that?..." It is the thorough posters who help create the fun and informative spirit of the boards, and make our upcoming trip even more exciting. So, thanks for the information, we'll each have an extra MaiTai for you.! :) :)

[Hollyster2]

:) At Germaine's Luau they give you 3 drink tickets included with your meal ticket. They are good for 3 drinks and they are in small plastic cups. There is quite a selection to choose from. We had Mai Tai's and Chi Chi's, Blue Hawaii's and other's that I can't remember the names. They have a list up at the bar. They offer you the option to buy the souvenir glass which is a pint size glass I think and it had the Germaine's logo on it. It costs $8. If you buy it in the gift shop take it to the bar with your drink ticket and you will get a larger drink. They fill the glass to the top.

 

Grab your seats as soon as you get to the Luau because they fill up fast. You will be given a shell lei when you get off the bus, and are asked to mark your place at the table by placing your shell lei in your spot. Our bus was one of the last to arrive, and by the time we all had our pictures taken upon arrival we had a poor choice of table. The upside of that is we were excused first to dish up our food. Down side was we didn't have great seats for the show, but we could see it from where we were.

There was sliced pineapple appetizers on each table also.

 

The bus ride is just like we remembered it being 22 years ago on our honeymoon. The tour leader tells you we are all cousins and is quite entertaining. On the way back there is some fun interactions between the other buses. It can get quite hysterical. We laughed alot on the way up and on the way back, so it wasn't just because of the Mai Tais. HAHA

 

Thanks to all who have said such kind words about my review. I am happy to answer any questions because I appreciateded all the reviews written to help inform me about my upcoming trip!

[lburg7]

Hollyster2, I thoroughly enjoyed reading your review! I am cruising on PoH at the end of October.

Re: the shipboard spa, (which you obviously enjoyed :p ), do you remember what time it closed each night...and...was it ever crowded? I plan to get a spa pass first thing after boarding. I am as excited about that experience at the end of each day as I am about the trip itself!

[auntweezie]

This is a great review. Glad you enjoyed yourselves!!!! We are heading out on the POH 09/10/07 and also doing Germaine's luau the night before the cruise. There will be 16 of us and the bus ride will probably be one of the highlights!! Thanks for the souvenier glass tip also!!

[FTLAUDER]

Thank you for the review, the POH will be renamed the Jade and I have booked Feb 2008. Can you tell me if the hair dryer was attached to the wall in the bathroom, or was it in the room. Also did you have a coffee maker in the room? Should I pack anything that you missed having in your cabin.?

[Hollyster2]

The spa closed at 10 p.m. I believe.

[Hollyster2]

The hair dryer was attatched at the vanity near the bed. Not in the bathroom. This worked really well for us. Also it could remain plugged in while I plugged in my curling iron.

 

Now about the coffee maker. We ordered coffee up a few times and it arrived in literally a few minutes. They forgot the sweeteners once and we called back and they said "isn't there any with your coffee maker?" We did not have a coffee maker in our room. They brought some up immediately.

BUT when we asked our friends in the two other rooms on either side of ours if they had coffee makers in their rooms they said YES. So I would ask about it if you are missing one when you board.

 

The only think I can think of that I wished I had brought with me that I usually always bring with me on cruises are clothes pins for the window curtain. Sometimes in port over night the lights can be bothersome. We had an ocean view room. Other than that remember to bring conditioner. They have soap, shampoo and body wash dispensers in the bathroom. There was no conditioners whatsoever in the spa so bring some in with you.

[Hollyster2]

do you remember what time it closed each night...and...was it ever crowded? I plan to get a spa pass first thing after boarding. I am as excited about that experience at the end of each day as I am about the trip itself!

 

It never was crowded. We were a group of 6 and sometimes we were all in there hanging out and there would be at most 2-3 other people in the common area. We were the crowd I guess. :) Anyway there were 6 heated tile chairs and many times we had them all with no one coming in or out the whole time we were in there. Usually half of us were in the girl spa and the guys snoozed on the tile chairs, the jacuzzi or the sauna on their side of the spa. This trip was really about relaxing for us, and it was the only way to end the day for us. Such a peaceful luxury!

 

I did wish there was a common steam room or sauna area like on the Disney ship. In their spa their were common steam rooms and a big roomy sauna. We all would have liked hanging out together in that. Of course everyone was required to wear bathing suits in the common areas. We did notice that on the POH the Ladies spa was clothing optional. The guys said it was that way on their side also. We all stayed in our bathing suits the whole time and went back and forth between the common spa and the Ladies spa. Also they do have private Rasoul treatment rooms for couples, for an add on to your spa package.

 

Have the best time!

[FTLAUDER]

Thank you so much , you have been very helpful. This is my first ncl in a long time so I am not familiar with their ships. Do you have any idea why some folks think it is important to bring an extension cord and power strip?

[judyf]

Thanks Holly. The tips on the luau are great, I will look for a seat first and then get a glass.

 

More more luau question, do you remember what the price of a soft drink was? How about if you bought a mixed drink? We are going with two non-drinkers so we were thinking of buying their soda and using the coupons for a Mia Tia!

 

Thanks again for a great review and answering all our questions.

[Hollyster2]

I did not have any need for a power strip. My husband and I used the outlet by the ice bucket (probably where the coffee pot would be plugged in if we had one in our room) and the outlet by the vanity mirror to charge our cell phones. The hair dryer had their own hook up so we didn't need any more outlets than that.

[Hollyster2]

The soft drinks were at a seperate drink bar and included with your meal I believe. We had one of our group not drinking and she gave us her drink tickets and she just helped herself at the non alcoholic beverage bar by gift shop.

They served from behind a counter and didn't require any tickets. As for mixed drinks there were there were about 10-15 to choose from. Our group tried the Mai Tai's, Chi Chi's, Tequila Sunrise, Singapore Sling, Something with Melon liquer, and Blue Hawaii's.