Just back from paradise via POA . . .{sigh}

[AZGrandma]

Wonderful. Awesome. Unforgettable. Beautiful.

 

I wore out all of the above words on my cruise to 'paradise,' Hawaii, via the Pride of America. We had the most lovely, once-in-a-lifetime time.

 

I HIGHLY recommend the Pride of America. The crew is delightful - I ran into only two less-than-happy crew members, but that tells me it was their own bad day, nothing more. No reason for me to pan the entire crew. I never met James - sorry! - but every crew member we did work with was helpful, friendly, and competent. They act glad to be there so I hope they are!

 

The itinerary is THE thing. You want to get off the ship and see the islands! Wonderful opportunities to 'sample' all they have to offer . . . I left every island wanting to return for a full week there, though. ;-)

 

I will answer detailed questions when I am less jet-lagged. It is noon and my kids are still sound asleep, so I guess it is going to take a few days before we are back to normal. :-)

 

My quickie review:

 

Thumbs UP for:

 

Embarkation - smooth, easy, quick (even with paperwork problems)

The itinerary -mostly full days in port, two overnights - yay!

The Skyline and Liberty restaurants - great food and service

Cabin staff - eager to please

Kid-friendly ship - staff everywhere, safe environment, fun options

Kids' programs for young kids

Akaka Falls and scenic drive north of Hilo

Volcano National Park - self-tour w/rental car

Old Lahaina Luau

Goofy Foot Surfing School (but w/caveats)

Fairwinds II snorkeling

Kona's beauty - wish we had time to explore

Kauai ziplining - for a fun rush

Wings Over Kauai airplane tour - great way to see the island when you only have one full day

Kalapaki Beach - WALKING distance from ship pier, and beautiful!

Cadillac Diner main waiter - should've gotten his name; fun guy

 

Thumbs down for:

 

NCL website - they need to fire the entire IT staff and replace them! The site is down, nonfunctional, or under maintenance more times than it is up and functioning. It's a blot on NCL's reputation, big time. The cruise experience is nothing like the website hassles, thankfully.

 

NCL ofc. in Marriott Waikiki - no help to us at all. We apparently arrived too late for their liking, so they gave us room keys and sent us on our way. It never dawned on me they did nothing else; it should have, but I was just glad to have finally arrived in Honolulu, and needed to feed my kids and get them to bed. Why didn't the NCL staff there tell us at that time that they were NOT giving me complete check-in and to return in the AM for that. I just happened to notice the next morning everyone in my party - but us - sitting around with shuttle time slips. Oops. Not impressed with that office.

 

Ambivalent feedback on:

 

Lahaina surfing lessons - I am not sure whether to give this a thumbs up or thumbs down. I liked Goofy Foot, but the surf zone where all the schools are allowed to teach is VERY dangerous, because it is crowded with novices armed with long boards. One of the other schools lined up BEHIND us. So here we are, trying to paddle out to our instructors from our safe waiting zone, and we have to cross in front of incoming learners! It's chaos. I consider us lucky not to have had a collision. The way it SHOULD be organized is ALL the schools have to line up abreast. A starting line marked with buoys or something. Much less potential for injury. I am so grateful our group of 10 had no injuries. BUT: I had a loose surf board sail just inches over my head. I avoided a concussion by the grace of God only, not by any plan for safety by the city of Lahaina or who ever should be governing this.

 

Rental car locations - they all say they are at the airport; be aware they are not. They do all pick up via shuttle from the pier; no problems there. We had been warned Avis did not pick up in Hilo, but you just ride with Budget, their partner; we had been warned only Thrifty and Hertz picked up at Oahu post-cruise, but I saw shuttles from Thrifty, Hertz, Enterprise, and Alamo. So shuttles are not the problem. FINDING the locations can be! Just pay attention. Thrifty likes to hide in industrial locations off-airport - both in Oahu and Kauai. I found them, but my caveat here is allow PLENTY OF TIME to return your car. Some people describe cutting it close, but I am so glad I allowed an hour to get gas and find the location - 3 times I needed it! Maybe I'm just a ditz. ;-)

 

Things I wish I'd known/thought of:

 

PAY ATTENTION to where your rental car ofc. is located! Don't just sit back and enjoy the shuttle ride as I did, assuming I could return to the airport and find 'rental car ofc. row' easily. Yes, the airports are small, but the offices and returns are NOT centrally located at the airports and in two cases were not on the airport at all. Then add in trying to find it at night after the Old Lahaina Luau and you have 40 min. of driving around. :-) I couldn't easily find 3 of the rental car locations! Yikes.

 

A roll of paper towels, which I would have taken every where with me! I'm not kidding. Pack some! We needed them in the car and at the beach all the time. We never stopped at a store to pick up supplies - didn't want to spend any precious time doing that - and the one time I was in an ABC Store (inside Marriott) I forgot to look for paper towels, so I wish I'd packed them, used them up, and stuck an extra souvenir in their space on the way home. ;-)

 

Lighted clock, or a flash light for the cabin. I knew to do this but forgot mine. It's dark as a cave in there so you have NO internal sense of the time of night/morning when you wake up, which I do every few hours. I ended up keeping my cell phone by my bed to check the time during the night.

 

Deck plans! Take the ones you get in your NCL magazine, or print some from the website. NCL only gives you pocket guides which list what is on each deck, but no 'top view' layouts of each deck. I am a very visual person so the top views were very helpful to me pre-cruise in picturing everything, and would have been very helpful on ship. I got turned around a lot, but fortunately, there are instructions at every elevator, with a side-view pic of the ship with fore and aft shown. That helped me at least feel like I knew which way I was facing. ;-)

 

I would like to rave on and on about the cruise itself, and the ports, and all we did, but . . . my kids are now awake and ready to go, and I've been sitting here long enough. I WILL post more about our fun later. I'll answer in detail in response to questions. If I post every detail it would take days, so let me know what you specifically want to know more about!

 

Basic itinerary:

 

Fly in Friday, stay in Marriott Waikiki (NCL arranged)

Pearl Harbor Sat. am

Explore ship Sat. pm

 

Hilo: Rainbow Falls, Akaka Falls, scenic drive there, Volcano National Park self tour of Lava tube, scenic overlooks, Chain of Craters Rd (partial), and steam vents. A real kick to walk around those!

 

Maui: south Maui beach on day one; Old Lahaina Luau that evening.

Day two, surfing. See above for thumbs up and down!

 

Kona: Fairwinds II snorkeling - incredible view of colorful fish!

 

Kauai: Kauai Backcountry Adventures for ziplining with my two oldest children. Definitely a scenic thrill.

Wings Over Kauai - air tour with Bruce Coulombe. Loved it.

 

There is LOTS more to say, but I've got to run. Bottom line: I highly recommend this cruise. There is no perfect cruise line, but the POA was wonderful to us. And of course there are the beautiful islands . . . :)

 

Leslie

[whale-watcher]

Hi Leslie...we were on the same cruise as you. We were so lucky with the weather!!! I agree...the ship and the crew were super. Glad you had a great time.

 

We purchased a Garmin Nuvi and it was really helpful in terms of finding rental car return locations.

 

The surfing lessons in Haleiwa on Oahu were also held in a fairly crowded location...

[fryml]

Thanks for the review. We'll be going on the Pride of America in March and I have a few questions.

 

We have a Verizon cell phone plan with no International calling. Do you think this will work in Hawaii and on the ship?

 

How was the Lahaina Luai? Is it worth the time and money?

 

How was the Kauai zip line? Did you book through the ship? We have a 16 and 13 year old who have done zip lines in Mexico so they are a little spoiled.

 

Thanks for the tip on the rental car locations. I'll make sure to watch where we're going.

[whale-watcher]

Verizon worked well on all the islands, but we were only able to use our phones on the ship when we were close to shore.

[ohioNCLcruiser]

Glad you had a great time!!

James

[CC Help Michell]

Great, Leslie! I'm always so happy when one of "our" people (those who find this board and post/exchange info here prior to their cruise) come back with great things to say. It's the flip side of how I feel when I'm on the main NCL board reading some totally negative review from a Hawaii cruiser who never posted here, and is 100% focussed on the ship and the "cruise experience." I always wonder "what if they'd found us before?" and "Did they even know they were IN Hawaii?" :/

 

I'll look forward to reading more as you answer questions and all, and I appreciate this report.

[AZGrandma]

Thanks for the review. We'll be going on the Pride of America in March and I have a few questions.

 

We have a Verizon cell phone plan with no International calling. Do you think this will work in Hawaii and on the ship?

 

How was the Lahaina Luai? Is it worth the time and money?

 

How was the Kauai zip line? Did you book through the ship? We have a 16 and 13 year old who have done zip lines in Mexico so they are a little spoiled.

 

Thanks for the tip on the rental car locations. I'll make sure to watch where we're going.

 

We have T-Mobile with nationwide coverage and free roaming, so that includes Hawaii. It means you can call when in port and using the land-based cell towers for any company. It also meant we could NOT use it once at sea. There is a thread on CC somewhere about using cell phones at sea, and the bottom line impression I had was, don't do it - you are using a ship relay tower at $$ per minute. SO, I made all my calls in port - mostly to confirm reservations 24 hours prior.

 

Well, I can't compare zip lines because this was our first! It was fun, but not scary or intimidating - so I honestly don't know if your teens would be impressed. Both my 19yob and 17yog enjoyed it as their first zip. I will tell you what I can: We went with Kauai Backcountry Adventures; they have 7 zip lines, the longest 700 ft; you are traversing back and forth down a valley, a total of 250 ft. down from where you start at the top; they say they have the third longest zip and the second highest - they drive you to the top of a ridge. Oh, and the guides talked a LOT about a Ben Stiller movie recently filmed there. KBA is on private land owned by Steve Case of AOL fame, a Kauai native. We did not book through the ship - NCL uses a treetop canopy co. and we wanted to go up into the mountains. Which we did, via bumpy ATV-type vehicles! $125/person. KBA has a website.

 

Old Lahaina Luau - loved it. It is highly recommended, and I can see why - very authentic, genuine, and classy. Well organized, too - some people complained the buffet was like a 'cattle call.' What are they thinking! I guess they are comparing to table service. Well, I personally LOVE to walk a buffet line and choose just what and how much I want . . . and there was no standing in line as they called people up table by table. You waited at your table and enjoyed the drinks the waiter would bring you. What's to complain about?!?!? ;-) Since it was my first luau, I have no idea if the costumes are typical, but since you have kids I will warn you that the dancers do reveal a LOT of skin. My kids would have been uncomfortable. The men dancers wear a loose hanging loin-cloth type thing so they have a breeze blowing around their backsides, shall we say. I saw more butt cheeks than I needed to, but I WAS done eating, fortunately. ;-)

OLL feels authentic in part because the people giving demonstrations in coconut cracking, etc., before the show seem genuinely interested in showing you a craft/skill, and they stay 'in character' the entire evening. You don't see them horsing around when not performing, for instance. I was impressed with the professionalism. Oh, and yes, the food WAS good. I have my doubts I was eating much of the actual pig they dug up - a lot of aluminum-wrapped pork roasts in there, too - but oh, was it good. I give it a thumbs up. Just remember how to find parking in the dark when you cross the island back to Kahului! We laughed ourselves silly over finally following a Budget shuttle back to home base only to have him act like we were crazy people - ha! I guess we were, but we wanted to park, ride the shuttle back to the pier, and FALL into bed! ha.

 

It was ALL good . . . I loved Hawaii. POA is a typical cruise ship - some food average, some good . . . some mistakes happen, most things work out . . . but there were NO deal breakers on board for us. POA got us quite capably to every port and we enjoyed every island as fully as possible! Go and enjoy.

 

Leslie

 

Oh, and MichellP, I'm with you. Some people are BORN to complain; some people just don't do their homework. We heard one guy complain that he expected Hawaii to be all sand beaches, 'like Florida.' Why would he expect that? THere are plenty of sand beaches, of course, but HI isn't a giant sand bar like much of Florida - it is volcano-formed islands! A little research would have prepped him! Silly. A lovely place - enjoy it for what it is.

[jetz]

Leslie, thank you so much for all your commentary!! My kids (16 & 14) will be going to the islands on the PoAm at the end of March and I can barely wait anymore. I'm making up my budget and itinerary list now. Did you by any chance go to the Polynesian Cultural Center on Oahu? Your description of the Old Lahaina Luau sounded so good that I'm 2nd guessing my plans for the PCC. Also, I wanted to see both Akaka Falls and VNP. Since the tours only offer 1 or the other, I was thinking about a car rental on Hilo. Were you rushed or did you have time to see pretty much all you wanted to see? I probably have many more questions, but I've overwhelmed myself with about a ton of information! Thank you again!!

Karin

[jetz]

What am I saying?? My kids and I are going. ;-))

[Mamma D]

Wonderful. Awesome. Unforgettable. Beautiful.

 

I wore out all of the above words on my cruise to 'paradise,' Hawaii, via the Pride of America. We had the most lovely, once-in-a-lifetime time.

 

I HIGHLY recommend the Pride of America. The crew is delightful - I ran into only two less-than-happy crew members, but that tells me it was their own bad day, nothing more. No reason for me to pan the entire crew. I never met James - sorry! - but every crew member we did work with was helpful, friendly, and competent. They act glad to be there so I hope they are!

 

The itinerary is THE thing. You want to get off the ship and see the islands! Wonderful opportunities to 'sample' all they have to offer . . . I left every island wanting to return for a full week there, though. ;-)

 

I will answer detailed questions when I am less jet-lagged. It is noon and my kids are still sound asleep, so I guess it is going to take a few days before we are back to normal. :-)

 

My quickie review:

 

Thumbs UP for:

 

Embarkation - smooth, easy, quick (even with paperwork problems)

The itinerary -mostly full days in port, two overnights - yay!

The Skyline and Liberty restaurants - great food and service

Cabin staff - eager to please

Kid-friendly ship - staff everywhere, safe environment, fun options

Kids' programs for young kids

Akaka Falls and scenic drive north of Hilo

Volcano National Park - self-tour w/rental car

Old Lahaina Luau

Goofy Foot Surfing School (but w/caveats)

Fairwinds II snorkeling

Kona's beauty - wish we had time to explore

Kauai ziplining - for a fun rush

Wings Over Kauai airplane tour - great way to see the island when you only have one full day

Kalapaki Beach - WALKING distance from ship pier, and beautiful!

Cadillac Diner main waiter - should've gotten his name; fun guy

 

Thumbs down for:

 

NCL website - they need to fire the entire IT staff and replace them! The site is down, nonfunctional, or under maintenance more times than it is up and functioning. It's a blot on NCL's reputation, big time. The cruise experience is nothing like the website hassles, thankfully.

 

NCL ofc. in Marriott Waikiki - no help to us at all. We apparently arrived too late for their liking, so they gave us room keys and sent us on our way. It never dawned on me they did nothing else; it should have, but I was just glad to have finally arrived in Honolulu, and needed to feed my kids and get them to bed. Why didn't the NCL staff there tell us at that time that they were NOT giving me complete check-in and to return in the AM for that. I just happened to notice the next morning everyone in my party - but us - sitting around with shuttle time slips. Oops. Not impressed with that office.

 

Ambivalent feedback on:

 

Lahaina surfing lessons - I am not sure whether to give this a thumbs up or thumbs down. I liked Goofy Foot, but the surf zone where all the schools are allowed to teach is VERY dangerous, because it is crowded with novices armed with long boards. One of the other schools lined up BEHIND us. So here we are, trying to paddle out to our instructors from our safe waiting zone, and we have to cross in front of incoming learners! It's chaos. I consider us lucky not to have had a collision. The way it SHOULD be organized is ALL the schools have to line up abreast. A starting line marked with buoys or something. Much less potential for injury. I am so grateful our group of 10 had no injuries. BUT: I had a loose surf board sail just inches over my head. I avoided a concussion by the grace of God only, not by any plan for safety by the city of Lahaina or who ever should be governing this.

 

Rental car locations - they all say they are at the airport; be aware they are not. They do all pick up via shuttle from the pier; no problems there. We had been warned Avis did not pick up in Hilo, but you just ride with Budget, their partner; we had been warned only Thrifty and Hertz picked up at Oahu post-cruise, but I saw shuttles from Thrifty, Hertz, Enterprise, and Alamo. So shuttles are not the problem. FINDING the locations can be! Just pay attention. Thrifty likes to hide in industrial locations off-airport - both in Oahu and Kauai. I found them, but my caveat here is allow PLENTY OF TIME to return your car. Some people describe cutting it close, but I am so glad I allowed an hour to get gas and find the location - 3 times I needed it! Maybe I'm just a ditz. ;-)

 

Things I wish I'd known/thought of:

 

PAY ATTENTION to where your rental car ofc. is located! Don't just sit back and enjoy the shuttle ride as I did, assuming I could return to the airport and find 'rental car ofc. row' easily. Yes, the airports are small, but the offices and returns are NOT centrally located at the airports and in two cases were not on the airport at all. Then add in trying to find it at night after the Old Lahaina Luau and you have 40 min. of driving around. :-) I couldn't easily find 3 of the rental car locations! Yikes.

 

A roll of paper towels, which I would have taken every where with me! I'm not kidding. Pack some! We needed them in the car and at the beach all the time. We never stopped at a store to pick up supplies - didn't want to spend any precious time doing that - and the one time I was in an ABC Store (inside Marriott) I forgot to look for paper towels, so I wish I'd packed them, used them up, and stuck an extra souvenir in their space on the way home. ;-)

 

Lighted clock, or a flash light for the cabin. I knew to do this but forgot mine. It's dark as a cave in there so you have NO internal sense of the time of night/morning when you wake up, which I do every few hours. I ended up keeping my cell phone by my bed to check the time during the night.

 

Deck plans! Take the ones you get in your NCL magazine, or print some from the website. NCL only gives you pocket guides which list what is on each deck, but no 'top view' layouts of each deck. I am a very visual person so the top views were very helpful to me pre-cruise in picturing everything, and would have been very helpful on ship. I got turned around a lot, but fortunately, there are instructions at every elevator, with a side-view pic of the ship with fore and aft shown. That helped me at least feel like I knew which way I was facing. ;-)

 

I would like to rave on and on about the cruise itself, and the ports, and all we did, but . . . my kids are now awake and ready to go, and I've been sitting here long enough. I WILL post more about our fun later. I'll answer in detail in response to questions. If I post every detail it would take days, so let me know what you specifically want to know more about!

 

Basic itinerary:

 

Fly in Friday, stay in Marriott Waikiki (NCL arranged)

Pearl Harbor Sat. am

Explore ship Sat. pm

 

Hilo: Rainbow Falls, Akaka Falls, scenic drive there, Volcano National Park self tour of Lava tube, scenic overlooks, Chain of Craters Rd (partial), and steam vents. A real kick to walk around those!

 

Maui: south Maui beach on day one; Old Lahaina Luau that evening.

Day two, surfing. See above for thumbs up and down!

 

Kona: Fairwinds II snorkeling - incredible view of colorful fish!

 

Kauai: Kauai Backcountry Adventures for ziplining with my two oldest children. Definitely a scenic thrill.

Wings Over Kauai - air tour with Bruce Coulombe. Loved it.

 

There is LOTS more to say, but I've got to run. Bottom line: I highly recommend this cruise. There is no perfect cruise line, but the POA was wonderful to us. And of course there are the beautiful islands . . . :)

 

Leslie

Nice review and very enjoyable to read. Thank you for sharing that with us. You mentioned that you did snorkeling on Fairwinds II. What excursion company did you use? Or did you book it on your own?

 

Thanks again!

[AussieKathy]

Nice review and very enjoyable to read. Thank you for sharing that with us. You mentioned that you did snorkeling on Fairwinds II. What excursion company did you use? Or did you book it on your own?

 

Thanks again!

 

thanks for the great review.

 

Can you also please give me a bit of information about the snorkeling trip. Last time we were in Kona we did the Captain Zodiac which was fanastic and would like to do another similar trip this time as it will be my daughter's birthday the day we are in Kona.

[AZGrandma]

Leslie, thank you so much for all your commentary!! My kids (16 & 14) will be going to the islands on the PoAm at the end of March and I can barely wait anymore. I'm making up my budget and itinerary list now. Did you by any chance go to the Polynesian Cultural Center on Oahu? Your description of the Old Lahaina Luau sounded so good that I'm 2nd guessing my plans for the PCC. Also, I wanted to see both Akaka Falls and VNP. Since the tours only offer 1 or the other, I was thinking about a car rental on Hilo. Were you rushed or did you have time to see pretty much all you wanted to see? I probably have many more questions, but I've overwhelmed myself with about a ton of information! Thank you again!!

Karin

 

So glad to hear you ARE going with your kids. ;-)

 

I have heard good things about PCC, so if that fits your schedule better, just know that I would have been as happy at it, I believe. They do not serve alcohol, not a dealbreaker for me. We passed the grounds on our driving tour around Oahu and it looked like a neat place . . . search for PCC on these boards and you will read lots of more knowledgeable input.

 

Re: Akaka Falls. I could have skipped Rainbow and just done this one and been satisfied, so that's my recommendation. We needed something to do while waiting for dad's flight to arrive in Hilo, so we jumped in our rental car about 9 and headed out of Hilo about 9:45 after seeing Rainbow Falls. If you skip that, you can probably get to Akaka, see it, and include the scenic drive, all in under 2 hours without feeling rushed.

 

We made it to VNP at 12:30, left at 3:15, and while I would have LOVED more time and a hike, we took what we could get. It was well worth seeing! Our speed tour was:

 

Drive to first lookout that is on the LEFT from the entrance (we made a clockwise tour), parked, admired the view, walked to the Lava Tube. Walked through the tube and back the same walkway to parking lot. next, drove halfway down Chain of Craters Rd. So wished we could have gone all the way, but we at least saw the lava flows, marked by their year, on each side of the road, and we let the kids explore them. Next overlook we also stopped and wandered around the steam vents. You can see the crater from here also but we had already peered over the edge. It just left me wanting to hike it and we couldn't so I skipped looking longingly at it again. ;-) Drove Crater Rim road around to Volcano House. We passed Jagger Museum which usually gets high marks but were out of time.

 

I think if you start earlier, say 8:30, and are back in Hilo at 10:30, at VNP at 11am, you will have 1-1/2 hours more to work with and can do some of what we missed. For hiking, there are short trails behind Volcano House that you could research on these boards. VNP is neat, even for a short visit!

 

Keep researching here at CC and you will feel SO prepared for your trip! It was special for us in many ways.

 

Leslie

[AZGrandma]

thanks for the great review.

 

Can you also please give me a bit of information about the snorkeling trip. Last time we were in Kona we did the Captain Zodiac which was fanastic and would like to do another similar trip this time as it will be my daughter's birthday the day we are in Kona.

 

When you snorkeled with Capt Z you were in the same bay as the Fairwinds - it was the tall ship closer to the cliffs than your rafts. It was a lovely experience, with shade and bathrooms, if you need them. ;-) My guys all enjoyed the high dive, too.

 

They have a website - just search the net to find them and book directly.

 

We were told to get on the FIRST tender at 7am to get their on time; we did, and were there at 7:45, so we napped for 45 minutes! Next time I would get on a tender at 7:30ish since it was only 30 minutes down the road to Fair Winds dock.

 

Leslie

[AussieKathy]

thanks - would prefer to go somewhere different than the same cove.

[DenverVal]

Well, I can't compare zip lines because this was our first! It was fun, but not scary or intimidating - so I honestly don't know if your teens would be impressed. Both my 19yob and 17yog enjoyed it as their first zip. I will tell you what I can: We went with Kauai Backcountry Adventures; they have 7 zip lines, the longest 700 ft; you are traversing back and forth down a valley, a total of 250 ft. down from where you start at the top; they say they have the third longest zip and the second highest - they drive you to the top of a ridge. Oh, and the guides talked a LOT about a Ben Stiller movie recently filmed there. KBA is on private land owned by Steve Case of AOL fame, a Kauai native. We did not book through the ship - NCL uses a treetop canopy co. and we wanted to go up into the mountains. Which we did, via bumpy ATV-type vehicles! $125/person. KBA has a website.

I'm glad to hear you had a great time, and thanks for the report! I told my DD15 about your experience with the zipline, but it's still a no-go for her. This is very high on DH's to-do list. I can't decide what interests me most. Since we are going in August, we only have the one full day to spend there.

 

Did you rent a car to get to the KBA location, or did they pick you up?