Seas2mountains

Good night from Waikīkī Beach. We are going to try to stay awake long enough to see the fireworks at 7:45pm local time. 

Here are some photos taken on a walk into the area towards Queen Beach/Honolulu Zoo and the Aquarium after breakfast at about 7:30am before the pool opened. 
 

Diamond Head in the distance. 

Newer pickleball courts on Hale Koa property. 

The was some sort of surfing competition.  
 

The Target is new since the last time we were here. 
 

2 hours ago, cruiseny4life said:

I'm so glad you posted this! After you named the resort, I went snooping, because...well it's me! The food looks great, especially for those prices! I'm glad DoD has these options for folx that are retired/serving! 

Yes, you can see with the hotel and food prices how this resort wins over a cruise at times when we are willing to do the long flights.

Sadly, a lot of people who are eligible don’t know about this place. Those who are eligible can sponsor family members or friends by booking up to two more rooms. 
 

The food is typically good but not excellent like other more expensive choices. We go to Duke’s, Hula Grill, Roy’s and  other local restaurants when we want something different but the bill is usually twice the price, too. 

Good morning from Waikīkī Beach. It’s a beautiful morning. There is a light rain/mist as is typical in the morning for this area. 
 

We slept until 5:30am local time which is better than we expected with the time change. 
 

Our hotel has a delicious breakfast buffet with screened outdoor seating facing the ocean. We ate there for many years until we realized it was too much food.  Now we tend to get a simple breakfast at Happy’s which is also at the hotel. It has grab and go service with outdoor seating. 
 

I got eggs and coffee. My husband got eggs, sausage, pineapple and Diet Coke.  No photos. 
 

The prices are tax free since we are on a military installation.  

In case you are wondering how many times Katty Byrd has sent an email to request for us to watch the safety video…. the answer is 6. 
 

Two on Wednesday spaced 4 hours apart, two on Thursday and two early this morning. 
 

On 9/19/2024 at 5:05 AM, TeresaJ said:

Thank you for sharing! We sailed on POA in February and loved it. We can't wait to go back to Hawaii, it was our first time.  We also went to Waimea Canyon in Kauai and it's a must see!

 

Save travels!

Thank you! Did you have any other “must see”s?

We did go to Volcanoes National Park when in Kilo and saw Rainbow Falls last year. 
 

We did book a boat tour to see Na Pali coast in Kaua’i. 

Here are some photos taken around the resort.
 

We were too tired to stay for the live entertainment but hope to be able to do that tonight to catch the Friday night fireworks along Waikiki Beach near Hilton Hawaiian Village. 
 

After a fun afternoon of interesting conversations with many other military veterans and their spouses, we had a nice dinner outside at Biba’s which is at the hotel. 
 

Salad with Macadamia Nuts. I bumped the plate before taking the photo and the tomato fell off onto the floor. That is why the symmetrical tomato is missing for the OCD people.  

Caesar salad

Macadamia nut crusted Red Snapper with Mango sauce 

Shrimp Fettuccini Alfredo 

Mud Pie 

Here are photos from Hale Koa adult pool area.  I’ll post photos of the pool later as there are a few people in it now. 
 

We checked in to our hotel right after lunch. Sorry no lunch photos. 
 

We are staying at the Hale Koa on Waikiki (next to Hilton Hawaiian Village) which is a resort for active duty military and retirees. We tend to come here every year or two. I started coming here in 1990 when I stopped here when I was an Army Second Lieutenant returning to Korea after visiting family in the states to finish my 13 month tour. 
 

I remember eating pineapple for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Now I have a pineapple sensitivity and have to avoid it. 
 

Here are photos of our room. If you know any military retirees who are eligible, I highly recommend it. 
 

The room is average and is nothing fancy but the price is much better than at other nearby hotels. We love the adult pool and hot tub area. It’s fun for us to meet other military veterans. Most are 10-20 years older. 

1 hour ago, Seas2mountains said:

 

We had a lovely driver who told us about her recent trip to Paris. She told us how she checked the price of …

Oops. I didn’t finish the sentence.  The funny thing is the Uber driver said she checked prices everyday to upgrade from Economy to Business class for her flight to Paris and found a deal when prices for Business class dropped at about 60 days before her flight date. 
 

I thought that was ironic since it was exactly what we did to get the first class seats today.

Bags arrived quickly. We went to the taxi line outside of baggage claim. There were probably 15-20 people ahead of us and during the 5 minutes we waited, we didn’t see any taxis pull up. 
 

My husband ordered an Uber which meant we needed to go to the second floor and wait in a crowded area with others who ordered ride shares. This isn’t the greatest area as there is only space for about 4 cars to park along the sidewalk which meant it was congested with people and cars. 
 

We had a lovely driver who told us about her recent trip to Paris. She told us how she checked the price of We arrived at the hotel at about 12:00 Noon local time which was about 13 hours after we left our house this morning. Not too bad! 
 

We are waiting at a restaurant at our hotel for lunch as our room isn’t ready. I just got a text to let us know the room is ready.  
 

We are here! We arrived about 30 minutes early. The decision to upgrade and take the early flight was definitely worth it as we were able to get some decent naps. 

 

Here is our “brunch food”. The eggs and fruit were great. I didn’t need the other items. 

And some sights in the airport. And one for @cruiseny4life

First drink is a mimosa. 
 

We are on the flight to Honolulu.  
 

The best part about getting the upgrade to first class is being in these awesome. Polaris seats. I’m sure we will both get a nap on the 5 hour flight. 
 

My husband likes to play with the partition in the middle that can go up and down. 

8 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

Are those hash browns??? Sorry, I had to! 

Why yes those were hash browns. Good catch!  Ha ha! 

Here is the first food photo. I’m happy with fruit and eggs. The kale was good, too. 
 

We departed and arrived a few minutes early on the first flight. We are now in cloudy and cool San Francisco. We have about 30 minutes until boarding for the next flight. 

As we were taxing to the runway, I enjoyed this beautiful sunrise but struggled to get a decent photo without waking up my husband. 
 

Before a cruise, I tend to do mock bookings to check on pricing changes for our cabin category and to check for upgrade options. A few times we have been lucky to find a suite or the Haven with a price drop enough for us to decide to pay for the upgrade by contacting NCL. The other advantage is we can see the available cabin number and location to help with this decision. This time, we did not see any deals. 
 

I do the same with the flights when it’s a long flight.  We originally had a direct flight with economy seats but one day a few weeks ago, I found this early flight with a connection in SFO had a price drop for first class seats for both flights. 
 

We’ll decide if the early wake up and connection in SFO plus the additional expense made it worth it or not but we are also scheduled to arrive a few hours earlier than if we stuck to the direct flight. 

We are on the first flight! 

I’m not sure who had the great idea to select the 6am flight?!? This meant we had to leave the house by 3am. 
 

We each have one bag checked and both are under 50 pounds. That is an accomplishment for me as my bag is typically slightly heavier. We each have a backpack, too. 
 

We will be gone for 2 full weeks. We will have access to laundry machines at the hotel. We’ve had great success using NCL laundry with our Latitude perks but we are reluctant to trust sending it to the laundry on POA. We may take a risk - will let you all know if we do and the outcome. 

1 hour ago, Ellis1138 said:

I hope you enjoy the PoA! And I hope you don't get one of the Sewer Smell cabins. I stopped updating the document in February 2024, because we finished our cruise. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/177PtRV7gu31oHHax3Cb2-SY2SRbs4NQ1vfJG9iYCGFc/edit?usp=sharing

 

My PoA tips:

Just eat breakfast on the PoA on the overnights. The restaurants on the islands are very good. 

The Huli Huli chicken in the buffet on Hawaiian theme night looked awful but tasted exactly as it should.

For Kona, go down to the vestibule on Deck 3 around 6:45 am, because you can get on the Early Bird Tenders without a ticket from 7 to 7:30 am. (Assuming they didn't change that.) 

Thank you for the suggestions! 

Wow, that is quite the detailed document that you updated! Fortunately, our assigned cabin is not on the list and there don't appear to be other smelly cabins in the area.

We are a little reluctant about POA but knew that when we booked the cruise but knew the scenery and weather outweighed our concerns. Thanks for your previous comments on POA as I found those to be helpful in other POA postings.

This will be a big change from the Prima. 

23 minutes ago, dizzlepop said:

Well hello! We're on this same one, leaving tomorrow (Thursday) from SLC.

 

Curious: are you familiar with any luggage holding service for disembarkation day? Our nonstop flight home doesn't depart until 9 pm.

 

We have a Pearl Harbor tour Friday morning and besides that we have Thursday afternoon/evening and Friday afternoon/evening to find things to do and EAT! Looking forward to our first visit to HI since 1991!

Hello! That's wonderful!  Would you be willing to share your experience on this review either during the cruise or after? I love the live reviews that get contributions for multiple people as it is great to hear different perspectives from the same ship.

I am sorry I don't know about any luggage holding services but hopefully someone else can provide recommendations.

I hope you have safe travels! We appreciated visiting Pearl Harbor in the past and it can be so sad at the same time to consider all the lives that were lost. 

We are getting ready to wake up at 4am feeling hungry for breakfast and having to wait until things open up to get food until we adjust to the time changes.

26 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

I'm sure you have researched, know where you're going, but I'll still throw in a most fabulous breakfast place in Honolulu! Cafe Kaila (2919 Kapiolani Blvd). It's amongst my favorite breakfast places in the world, along with Snow City Cafe in Anchorage. I can't wait until I'm back in Hawai'i to sample some more of their fare. 

 

Thank you for the kind words and I'll do my best.  Thank you also for the recommendation. We will keep this in mind and I did map it out from our hotel and it would be a bit of a walk but would be doable as we like to get in long walks each day.

We have some plans made but others may be made or changed last minute so I am open to recommendations from others who are reading this who have been to these islands.

We have rental cars in Maui, Hilo, and Kaua'i. We do have a rental car reserved in Kona but have a food tour booked in the middle of the day so we probably won't use it.

Here is a photo taken last September at Waimea Canyon on beautiful Kaua’i. 

And the views before arriving at the canyon. 

Last September, we took advantage of an opportunity to take a similar itinerary to the same Hawaiian islands but it was a cruise on one of my favorite ships, NCL Spirit, that continued on to Papeete, Tahiti.  We enjoyed that cruise so much with the near perfect weather, we decided to do it again this September and thought we would try POA despite the mixed reviews. We wish we were able to find one that followed the similar itinerary as last year.

Here is the itinerary from last September on NCL Spirit. Since we will be repeating the islands, we will not return to some of the locations we visited last September and have plans to see other sights. I may post some photos of the visits we did last year.

I highly recommend a cruise between Hawaii and Tahiti. The weather was so gorgeous and the scenery was beautiful.