Pride of Hawaii review -- Jan 28 - Feb 4

[jwmcq]

We are two couples in our forties - the two husbands are brothers. Just as a reference point, my DH and I have taken 4 previous cruises and have spent a week on Oahu on a land trip, while my BIL & SIL have never cruised or been to Hawaii. We had inside cabins on the mid 10th floor, cabins 10599 and 10601. I have had a balcony before and LOVED it, but for this port intensive itinerary, we did not feel it was worth the additional $1500 per couple that it would have cost to upgrade. We caught a GREAT deal for an inside cabin so there was a wide gap to upgrade this particular sailing. We did not regret our decision as by the time we went back to the cabin each night, we were exhausted. We stayed really busy in port so there would not have been much time to enjoy the balcony.

 

BIL & SIL flew in the day before, but for us, this was not an option. We took the very risky flight plan to fly in the day of the cruise. We were well aware that we would miss the ship if our flight was late, but our options were to risk it (and fly to catch the ship in Hilo the next day) or not go at all. We were very fortunate and our flight arrived right on schedule. We caught a taxi (which turned out to be a limo!) and were on the ship, in our room by 3:00 PM. Whoo hoo! I would highly recommend flying in several days early if it is an option. It would really help with the jet lag and decrease stress on the day of boarding.

 

BIL & SIL were on the ship by noon, so they made reservations for Papas for Monday and Paniolis for Tuesday. After the life boat drill, we got ready for dinner, thoroughly enjoyed Papas and then went to the Welcome Aboard show (very enjoyable) and then fell into bed exhausted.

 

I will throw in the only negative of the ship right now so that I can end on a positive note. Our room steward was almost non-existent. The room very VERY clean when we arrived, but we did not receive much service after that. The problem appeared that he had more rooms to clean than was humanly possible. He would be out there working at 7:00 AM and still out there working at 3:00 PM, just not on my room. He was always very apologetic and friendly when we would go refill our supplies from his cart. He made it to our room about every other day in the morning and we received turn down service (and a towel animal) one night. We were away from the room a lot, and we were changing the dial, so that was not the problem. The real irony, our steward was the only non-American I met all week! So it was not an “American crew” problem. My theory is that as the American staff did not renew their contracts, NCLA did not fill the spots vacated so that they would not have to lay anyone off when the POH left for Europe. One waitress told me that she had hoped to go to Europe with the Jade, but that NCL is only taking 3 Americans with them. The rest going to the Jade are all foreigners. But all of the Americans wishing to stay with NCLA are being moved to the two other ships. So I believe that all 3 ships have been understaffed lately, but with the POH staff moving over, both ships will again be at staff capacity. Even with the staff shortage, the restaurants managed quite well, only our room suffered. I heard one staffer say that the staff was down by 25% for this sailing. I met quite a few staffers from the two other ships who had been moved over for this sailing. All this to say, I think the NCLA staff shortage is about to be much improved with the POH’s departure from the fleet. One last thing, the steward threw away my stack of Freestyle Dailies that I was saving. I guess he thought it was trash. So I am having to remember the shows from memory - sorry if I get any of the days mixed up!

 

Tuesday was Hilo. We rented from Thrifty - Blue Chip. I rented a “wild car” and we ended up with a mini van for only $28. We really enjoyed the VNP - took lots of CC advice to go counter clockwise (avoiding the tour buses), had a picnic at the lookout on Chain of Craters road, and took the hike out behind the Volcano House. With binoculars, we saw one little glimpse of red molten lava way off in the distance. We were all fascinated by the steam vents and had a really great day. After leaving we stopped at the Mauno Loa nut factory for ice cream, purchased several large bags of “2nds” mac nuts for only $5 (another CC tip), but we did not tour the factory. We then stopped at Rainbow Falls and did in fact see a rainbow. Turned in the car and were back on the ship by 5:00. Showered and changed clothes and went to dinner at Paniolis. Michael from San Antonio was our favorite server of the week. We are from Texas and were not sure we would enjoy “fake” Tex Mex food. I had the shrimp fajitas and they were very good. The Cinnamon Churros w/ ice cream was the best dessert we had all week! But the chili con queso was not very authentic, but still fine. That night we were a little late from dinner to the Magic show so there was no seating left anywhere. We stood in the back for a bit to watch, but the show wasn’t good enough to stand through, so we went back to our rooms and retired early. This was the only rude NCL employee that I encountered all week. There was a man “guarding” the upper seating sections so that no one could sit up there. It was frustrating that there was no seating yet no one was allowed to sit in these huge empty sections. There was no explanation except a man yelling (and I do mean yelling!!) at us to go find somewhere else, we couldn’t sit here. All we could figure is that you could see how the magician could do his tricks from that angle.

 

Wednesday we were in Maui. We rented a convertible this day - which was a complete bust due to the rain. Oh well. We planned to do half way to Hana. Even in the rain it was very enjoyable. The waterfalls were raging at flash flood stage. WOW! The Maui Revealed book would say “look to the right to spot a gentle stream” and there would be something like Niagara Falls coming off the mountain. We got out, even in the rain, and took lots of waterfall pictures. There were even new waterfalls that weren’t listed in the book due to the heavy rain. We made it all the way to Ka'enae Peninsula. We really enjoyed this spot, it even quit raining for a moment. We then turned back and found that there had been many rock and mud slides in the path that we had just taken! That made me a little more nervous for the ride back to the ship. We arrived at the ship around 1:00, ate lunch and had some down time before we headed out to Lahaina for the Old Lahaina Luau. We LOVED this! I had purchased the tickets 5 months in advance, so we had front center stage seats. The location for the luau was fabulous, food was good, just everything about it was enjoyable. We got back to the pier around 9:00 PM and of course there was no parking (which I had expected.) There are 4 spots which are labeled “loading only” except from 10:00 PM until 6:00 AM. Since we had an early morning scuba dive the next morning, the security guard let us park right there up front as long as we were gone by 6:00 AM. Wow that really worked out!!!!

 

Thursday - Scuba in Maui. DH and I are divers, BIL & SIL are not. We had to check in for our dive at 6:00 AM in Kihei, so we had to leave the ship at 5:15 AM. Wow that’s early! But we had a most wonderful dive. I spotted my first sharks, but the best part was that we could hear the whales singing from down below. This brought me great delight!! We used Mike Severns Diving which I would highly recommend. The 2 DMs were excellent. For a full dive review, click here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=13328504#post13328504

 

BIL & SIL, bless their hearts, had to either go early, or stay on the ship since we would have the car. They chose to drop us off, then head to Lahaina for the early morning whale watch with Pacific Whale Foundation. The early morning watch was much cheaper and the sea is much calmer that early, so it really worked out. They saw several full breach jumps and too numerous to count splashes and tail flips. They really enjoyed this. Afterward they spent some time in Lahaina, then picked us up in Kihei at noon. It had not rained on us all morning until the exact time they picked us up. So again, no top down on the convertible for me. We were all tired and decided to just turn in the car and go back to the ship. My DH took the car back just as the rain stopped. He decided to enjoy the top down just for the little ride to the airport. At the first stop light, the heavens opened and it began to pour rain on him! There was nothing he could do but to drive in the rain as he was in heavy traffic. He said water actually poured out of the car when he opened the door at Thrifty! Too funny! The convertible just wasn’t meant to be for us. Back on the ship (it stopped raining) we ate lunch at the buffet and just relaxed on the ship. I spent some time in the hot tub. There was a Hawaiian band playing out by the pool and we could see the wind surfers from the ship. That night we ate dinner in the Grand Pacific for Prime Rib and Lobster night. The show was Ken Byrd the ventriloquist. He was my favorite of the week! Oh so funny.

 

Friday in Kona - This was another scuba dive for us, but this time BIL & SIL could come along as snorkelers. The topography in Kona is different than Maui so the snorkelers could also see plenty here. We used Jack’s Dive Locker and they picked us up at the pier and then returned us, so no car was needed for this day. We got off the ship early just in case there was a line, but did not have to wait at all for a tender. Fortunately there were some shops open at 7:30 in the morning, so we just wandered around the shops a while. Jack’s driver was right on time and we headed off to their dive boat. We had an even better dive in Kona. We spotted two 6 ft. sharks, 3 eels and 2 eagle rays. During the dive interval there were some whales oh so close. Our dive boat was anchored so the whales approached us. Wow! So much to see. For a full dive review click here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=13328563#post13328563

 

That night we had reservations at Alizar, but decided to cancel them as we wanted to get to the theater early to get seats for the Broadway show. We just ate out back at the buffet’s lanai and really enjoyed it out there. We had an aft table, so we could really enjoy the sail away and the wake of the ship. The Broadway show was good. It featured all new musicals (Wicked, Hairspray, Mama Mia). The dancers always impress me that they can dance on a seriously rocking ship. I agree with BeachChick that I really missed having a live band for the shows. The canned backup music/singers was a little lame. The 3 featured singers were very talented as were the dancers.

 

Saturday in Kauai - We purposely took a late start this morning. We just enjoyed the ship and had a leisurely breakfast out on the lanai. I got up early and walked on the track as the sun was rising, went to the bridge viewing room to watch the ship pull into port and just enjoyed the view. We picked up our car around 10:30 from Hertz this time and were upgraded to a Lincoln. Instead of Thrifty, I used priceline for this port as I had seen many poor reviews for the Thrifty office in Kauai. Priceline gave me the bid for $21 plus tax so this really worked out. We headed straight up to Waimea Canyon. Another good CC tip was to resist the urge to stop at all of the lookouts and go all the way to the top to really get the WOW factor. This was great and we hit a few pull offs on the way back down for more pictures. We made a stop at the Red Dirt Shirt Factory in Port Allen and then stopped for lunch at Keoki’s Paradise at Po’ipu Beach. We loved this little restaurant and it wasn’t very expensive - about like a Hawaiian Chili’s. There are little waterfalls running through the Hawaiian themed outdoor seating area. They are famous for their hula pie (mac nut ice cream on an oreo crust topped with hot fudge) YUM! Since it was my birthday, they sang to me and gave me a hula pie a a birthday gift. That was a nice touch! We then went to Po’ipu beach where there was a monk seal napping on the sand. Then went to Spouting Horn to see the blow hole. There was also a little craft market here with very reasonable prices from the local vendors. We then went to see the waterfall (Wailua?) which was also at flash flood stage that day. A local there said she had never seen it flow like that before. We did not see much rain this day, but it had been raining there all week so it was really flowing. (Incidentally, Kauai experience major flooding the following day and 3 tourists were injured badly. I believe a bridge washed out.) We then turned the car back into Hertz. That night we ate dinner again in the Grand Pacific - the Alizar was closed this night since so many were off the ship for the ship’s luau. We did not make reservations and were just able to walk in to get a seat with no wait. This night was Hawaiian baby back ribs. They were great! We didn’t care for our dessert though, so we headed back to Panioli’s and had churros with ice cream again. Our server was again Michael from San Antonio and he again impressed us with his great service. There was a late night show with a comedian (it was at 9:15 so the luau people would be back.) I was too tired so I did not make the show that night. SIL said it was good, but not fabulous.

 

Sunday morning - Kauai again. We had 8:15 AM reservations with Blue Hawaiian helicopter for this morning. It was overcast so I thought it might be cancelled, but it cleared up enough that we could still go. We did not get to fly over Waimea canyon though as it was too rainy in that direction. Instead our pilot took us over Jurassic falls and spent a lot of time over the NaPali coast, up the coast all the way to Princeville and back down. It was still quite enjoyable. The only downside is that we would occasionally hit pockets of turbulence and rain which kept me white knuckled! But it was not rainy the entire time so we still had many pictures. We loved it so much that we bought the video to show our teenagers at home. Afterward we walked over to the Marriott and enjoyed that beach area. The surfers were out enjoying the storm induced waves. We walked through the Marriott grounds and really enjoyed the koi ponds, swans and birds in the Marriott’s gardens. We headed back to the ship at noon and ate lunch at the Blue Lagoon. What we didn’t know was that there was a special buffet set up for the Super Bowl up in the Spinnaker Lounge. We then went up to watch the game at 1:30, but were too full to enjoy the football buffet. The big game on the ship was great fun. The satellite feed the ship received did not include the commercials or half time show, so the CD kept it fun with some trivia games during the commercial breaks and a sports memorabilia auction at halftime. The game was not available on our room TVs. They also showed the game in the atrium and a couple of other places.

The game was over just in time for the NaPali sailby which was amazing. There was a double rainbow. We actually sailed by it 3 times - port, starboard, and port again. We had dinner reservations at 6:00 for Papas. We only ordered pizza and salad as we were really full by this time in the cruise! We had a window seat so we could still see the NaPali but by now the sun was setting. WOW! At one point whales began to play within view so the entire restaurant emptied out to the lanai to watch the show put on by the whales with the sun setting as a backdrop. Even a few of the servers went out there to take pictures. This was many of the staff’s last day in Hawaii too since this was the final sailing of the POH. It was sentimental for the staff as well. That night the show was the Farewell show. The Ventriloquist was back which was again the highlight for us. He is sooooo funny.

 

Monday - disembark in Honolulu. We had planned to do Easy Fly, but were told that it was not an option for this sailing. There was no explanation as to why, just that it was not available. Fortunately we found out early in the week so I was able to change our car rental to a mini van to account for the extra luggage. I rented a room at the Sheraton Princess Kuialani with their points/cash program. This was great as it was only 2800 Starwood points and $45 dollars. We were upgraded to an ocean view room up on the 22nd floor. We dropped off all of our luggage and got a room even at 10:30 AM. We then left with stops at the Pali lookout (it was freezing here so we didn’t stay long!), then drove up the coastline to the North Shore. We ate lunch at Giovanni’s Shrimp truck ($12 per plate - yum!) and then watched the surfers at the Bonzai pipeline. There was a surf competition there this day so it was really fun to see the really good surfers. We made a quick stop at the Dole Plantation for a dole whip ice cream, then one final stop at Walmart for souvenirs. We went back to the hotel to relax a bit and take showers before our late night flights. Out on the balcony I saw the POH leaving Hawaii. It was so sad to see her sailing off. About half of the people on the ship stayed to on the go with her to LA.

 

Turning the car in and security was a snap so we had a couple of hours to wait at the airport. A huge tip is that there is a tropical garden in the basement level of the HNL airport. It is wonderful down there! Just like another world away from the hustle and bustle of the airport. We spent over an hour there just waiting. Our flights home were completely uneventful - just the way I like them! I was able to sleep all the way to Houston where we caught our connection to our little home airport. All in all we had a great trip. The POH will be greatly missed - she was a fine ship and a vacation to remember always. For the low price that we paid, I would take this trip again in a heartbeat. We had a really great week to remember forever.

[PDAZ]

Nice review -- glad to hear you had a great trip!

[fryml]

Thanks for the great review! We are flying to Honolulu from Houston in March direct on Continental and I'm wondering about the flight. Do they serve one meal or two? Do the seats have individual screens with continuous movies and games? I have two teenagers who are really wondering about the entertainment and food on the flight.

[jwmcq]

On the trip there they served a little pizza, chips and cookies within the first hour and then a sandwich, chips and a Twix about an hour before we landed.

 

On the late night flight home, they served cheese & crackers, chips and a mini Milky Way within the first hour. About an hour before we landed they served an egg biscuit and fruit.

 

Yes there were personal tv screens on the back of the chair in front of you. There were 8 or 9 channels to choose from with one channel showing a feature film, another showing sit-coms and I can't remember the others. They were all on a loop which would repeat about every 2 1/2 hours. There were also games.

 

A huge tip is to go to seatguru.com to see the layout of your plane and see if you can get seats with a power outlet through the Continental site. That way you can charge your video iPods or whatever during the flight. :D