NikiPinkston

12 hours ago, Silver Sweethearts said:

As you know, Maui has many things to offer our visitors - though some of those things may not be the experience you had envisioned.  It is a shame that Lahaina was not as you had expected.  Have you had the chance to visit Upcountry?  You would find it very unlike Lahaina.    

You are absolutely right, Maui has many wonderful things to offer visitors! We visted pre-covid and stayed at Ka'anapali Beach, at which time we rented a car and explored your beautiful island, thoroughly enjoying the amazing scenery and the people. We also took a guided tour of the road to Hana, a helicopter tour, and visited Haleakala at sunrise, all of which I highly recommend. All of the Islands are dear to my heart and I was just sad to see the way the pandemic had affected Lahaina, but I know that Hawaii had it harder than a lot of other places during the worst of it. Hopefully, Lahaina will recover one day soon, but I would visit Maui again in a heartbeat.

The ship's officers:

2 hours ago, LauraAnneC said:

Absolutely loving your trip report. It’s my dream to visit Hawaii one day!

Thank you, @LauraAnneC! You will love it!

Dailies:

DAY 4 P1.pdf DAY 4 P2.pdf DAY 4 P3.pdf DAY 4 P4.pdf DAY 5 P1.pdf DAY 5 P2.pdf DAY 5 P3.pdf DAY 5 P4.pdf

We had been to Volcanoes National Park in 2016 and had visited the Kilauea caldera and the museum there, walked through Thurston Lava Tube, and had seen the steam vents along the road. It was quite awe-inspiring and educational, and I would highly recommend visiting if you’ve never done so. At that time, the Captain sailed the POA by where the lava from Kilauea was entering the sea but, currently, the eruption activity is confined to the crater so there was no sail-by.

This time, we opted for the Hilo Hoppa On Hoppa Off bus, which picked us up in the building by the port. We first drove through the “Hilo Walk of Fame” where various celebrities from Amelia Earhart to Babe Ruth have planted banyan trees and then it was on to Rainbow Falls, one of several falls along the path of the Wailuku River. Its name comes from the fact that sometimes in the early morning a rainbow can be seen arching across the falls.

After a stop at Big Island Candies, where we bought some shortbread cookies to snack on and tasted Kona coffee, it started pouring rain, so we stayed on the bus and had to enjoy the view of Liliuokalani Gardens through the windows. Liliuokalani Gardens, which opened in 1919, is the largest Japanese-style ornamental garden outside of Japan. The original 5 acres were donated by the Queen to create a public park to honor the first Japanese immigrants to Hawaii who helped to build its agricultural capabilities. The rain made it impossible, though, to get any good photos.

Hilo is the rainiest city in the USA and normally gets some rain every day but, as the rain had let up a bit and we had come prepared with ponchos and rain hats, we got off in Hilo town and window-shopped some of the little gift shops and galleries there.

We had planned to visit the Tsunami Museum, but DH was pretty much done walking, so we returned to the ship for lunch. I’m afraid this review is going to be boring when it comes to excursions as we’re not as young as we look - LOL - and any of our more physically-demanding adventures are behind us, so, I hope you don't mind me telling you what excursions we've taken in the past.

That night we had dinner at Cagney’s - prime filet with creme brulee for dessert - which was delicious, and afterward attended “Lights, Camera, Music,” which features songs from classic musicals. The performers were excellent and we were once again impressed by the quality of the shows on Norwegian ships!

The following day in Kona, we waited for the morning crowds for the tender to clear up and went into town for a few hours (I think it was about 9:45ish). If you hadn’t booked a ship excursion (in which case your tender tickets were included), tender tickets could be picked up at the Napa Wine Bar or, if you’re Latitudes Gold or above, you could pick up priority tender tickets at Pink’s Champagne bar, both on deck 6.

After a stop at Scandinavian Shave Ice, we spent some time enjoying the little shops and beautiful beaches along the bay. We strolled by Hulihee Palace, built in 1838 and once a summer vacation home for Hawaiian royalty, which unfortunately appeared to be closed, and Mokuaikaua Church across the street, which is the oldest Christian church in the Hawaiian Islands. The church’s congregation dates back to 1820 and the present stone structure was completed in 1837, partially from stones recycled from a nearby Heiau (an ancient Hawaiian temple).

I had wanted to bring home some 100% Kona Coffee but it was $28 up to $60+ for a 7 oz. bag at the ABC Store by the beach, so I passed on it. I guess I’m kinda cheap!

After we returned to the ship that afternoon, we went to check out the evening menu for the MDR and we stopped for a moment on a bench in the corridor outside. When DH got up to take my picture, one of the ship’s officers came by and asked if we’d like a photo of the two of us. To our surprise, we realized later that it was Captain Jozo! Apparently, not only does he rock at sailing a ship, he’s also a pretty good photographer.

That night’s entertainment was “The Company Men,” who did mash-ups of popular songs, both old and new. They were fabulous and, although NCL discourages passengers from taking photos of the shows in the theatre, The Company Men asked that we do so if we enjoyed the show and were going to make any social media posts, tagging them with #thecompanymen

They really are not to be missed!

@BermudaBound2014, thank you for correcting me about Hilo Hattie's! Our tour bus driver told us that the store had been closed and I'm sorry that we missed it! Too bad, because I'm sure that we and other folks would have looked for it. We, too, have the spurious skin care vendors in the malls here in Southern California, and they're really aggressive; I wish we could ban them. I hate to ever have to say anything bad about Hawaii as I know the pandemic has been especially hard for you there. Hopefully, Lahaina will at some point recover. I'm so sorry to hear about the high winds and fire, something we're also very familiar with here. Hope they get it under control soon. Have a lovely day. It's always so nice to hear from you! Mahalo!

Dailies for days 2 and 3:

DAY 2 P1.pdf DAY 2 P2.pdf DAY 2 P3.pdf DAY 2 P4.pdf DAY 3 P1.pdf DAY 3 P2.pdf DAY 3 P3.pdf DAY 3 P4.pdf

Aloha! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

We sailed in a balcony stateroom and the cabin and the entire ship were immaculate and in excellent condition, and all of the officers and crew were the friendliest that we’ve ever encountered. One of the officers told me that we were sailing with 1,600 passengers, or about 73% capacity.

Although we had watched the safety video during online check-in, we were required to participate in an old school muster drill where we showed up to our muster station on day 1 (I assume because POA is an American-flagged ship?), but it went very quickly and we didn’t have to bring our life jackets.

I also wanted to mention that we had made Cagney’s dinner reservations online, and it was a good thing that I wanted to change one of the dates because when we went to East Meets West to do that, I was told that most of the reservations that passengers had made previously online had not been saved. We were able to get the nights and times that we wanted, but I would advise you to stop in there first thing after you board to check on/make your dinner reservations. (East Meets West was only open that afternoon so that passengers could make dinner reservations; it wasn’t open for dinner during the cruise.) We never made reservations for the Skyline main dining room, which was the only MDR open, but there was never a wait at the times we went, usually 5:30-6:00ish. Don’t know about later times.

As I had mentioned, we had dinner in the Skyline MDR our first night aboard, and my cream cheese crab wontons and salmon were excellent, but DH ordered the sirloin strip and it was very tough. There was a young lady about 13 sitting at the table next to us who had apparently ordered the same steak, because we saw her repeatedly trying to cut it and finally stabbing it with her fork and eating it like a hot dog on a stick! I guess no one was in the mood to send their steaks back to the kitchen as service was slow, although our server was very attentive. We had chocolate lava cake for dessert, which is always a favorite!

We also had dinner in Skyline on our last night and were lucky to be seated at a table port-side right by the window so we could enjoy the view of the Napali coast! (I had actually reserved a port-side stateroom so that we could enjoy it from our balcony, but we spent most of our time on deck or in the dining room, so best laid plans…) DH once again ordered the sirloin strip (I guess he’s a glutton for punishment), but with the same unfortunate result. I had an appetizer & a salad that were both very good and, again, service was slow but our server was great. We skipped dessert so that we could catch the ”Icons” show & it was well worth it, but we got something sweet in the buffet afterward.

We had dinner at Cagney’s twice and we each ordered the prime filet & a baked potato with crème brulee for dessert, and everything was amazing! We also ate at Cadillac Diner a few times and the steak DH got there was very good. When we ate in the buffet, it was always a little crowded, but we did manage to find a table. As I mentioned, although there was a good selection, the items we tried weren't hot and the taste was just average. Dolce Gelato was closed but it looks like they also serve shave ice on the POA!

Maui was our first port and, as we had been to Haleakala at sunrise and at sunset and done the road to Hana previously, all of which we very much enjoyed, we took the excursion to Lahaina, an old whaling town on the leeward side of Maui. We had been to Lahaina a couple of times before and I remembered it as a charming little town. However, the pandemic has really taken its toll and Hilo Hattie’s, Bubba Gump's, and most of the cute little shops have been closed down and there was a large homeless population in the park under the banyan tree. It was very sad. There were at least four of those businesses where someone outside offers you a sample and then tries to sell you more products. They were all very persistent, so be aware of that and, if you’re not interested, just walk on by. The shining light was Ululani Shave Ice, which was the best we’ve ever had. We had lunch at Cheeseburger in Paradise, which was also very good. DH had a cheeseburger and I got a salad (I know, we are very boring when it comes to food).

The Aloha Polynesia show that night was excellent as was all of the entertainment that we saw in the theatre. The performers in “Lights, Camera, Music” and in “Icons” were incredibly talented!

The following day, I had scheduled a “free day” to give DH a break from walking too much, so we spent some time at the pool drinking mai tais again. He later said it was the best day of our cruise! Boy, is he easy to please. As you can see from the dailies, I think all of the bars were open, service was pretty quick, and there were servers coming around to take our orders at the pool as well as in other venues. We found it kind of amusing, though, that most of the drinks we ordered were always just a little bit different - stronger, weaker, looked different - and the mai tais we had that day were very strong. It didn’t get crowded around the pool until Friday, our second day in Kauai, as it seemed like a lot of passengers chose to stay aboard that day but, again, we always eventually managed to find a table.

Lunch that day was at Cadillac Diner and it was very good. (Sorry for the blurry photos.) I got the nachos & DH had the loco moco, a popular Hawaiian dish comprised of white rice, a hamburger patty and a fried egg with gravy. We also had banana milkshakes, which were delicious!

That night we had some professional photos taken. I’ve found that the photographers onboard do a very professiona job!

On 11/23/2022 at 9:28 AM, sberg23 said:

Hi Niki, thank you SO much for posting your experiences.  We are sailing the POA on 12/10 and have been anxiously awaiting any kind of news and most recent experiences, and we are very appreciative that you are sharing yours 😊

 

I spoke with my PCC a couple days ago and he advised that the POA is pushing closer to 100% capacity as they've been expanding the crew.  Looking at the Day 1 Freestyle (BIG THANKS FOR THIS) it appears that while Skyline MDR is back open, the other Liberty MDR is not yet open for dining (NCL website shows the same).  The website shows Teppenyaki as still being closed, so your Freestyle showing it is now open is good news.  Everybody on the ship wins when there are more available dining options, whether they go there or not.  There are still multiple restaurants not yet open, and you've touched on dining already (really curious to hear DH's concerns with the MDR) so we're looking forward to hearing your daily experiences on dining considering the current staffing vs. guest ratio.  

Lastly, I hope you were lucky enough to sail around Hawaii to see Kilauea.  We are keeping our fingers crossed we get to see it 🤞

 

Looking forward to the rest of your posts.  Have a great holiday!

@sberg23 So glad you're enjoying my review!  I know that we were anxious to read about any recent experiences prior to our sailing, so I'm so happy that it's helpful. We did see the lava from Kilauea flowing into the ocean on our 2016 cruise, but we didn't sail by this time as I believe that all of the current eruption activity has been confined to the crater, and we didn't hear anything about Kilauea while onboard. Have a wonderful cruise!

Aloha, my CC friends! Just wanted to let you know that we have family here for a few days so I'll continue my review after the holiday. Thank you for all of your kind comments. Wishing you all a very happy Thanksgiving!

The Freestyle Daily for day 1:

SCN_0001.pdf SCN_0002.pdf SCN_0003.pdf SCN_0004.pdf

On our 2016 cruise tour with NCL, we had visited Pearl Harbor and had seen the Arizona Memorial and the USS Missouri & USS Bowfin submarine; the Nu’uani Pali lookout, the site of the battle that helped King Kamehameha conquer Oahu; the Dole Plantation; Kualoa Ranch and, as I mentioned previously, the Polynesian Cultural Center. If it’s your first time cruising on the POA, I highly recommend the 11-day cruise tour for a great sampling of the sites on Oahu!

Because we had already experienced those venues and due to the fact that DH has a back issue that sometimes makes doing a lot of walking uncomfortable for him, we decided to just hang around Waikiki close to the hotel. The International Marketplace and Royal Hawaiian Center had already put up their Christmas decorations, so we took some kitschy tourist photos, followed by cheeseburgers & fries for lunch. I’m terrible at remembering to take pictures of our food, so you will see very few. As we had eaten at the Splash Bar restaurant at the hotel the previous two nights (which was very good), we had dinner that last night in Waikiki at Kai Fresh, the waffle and smoothy stand in front of the hotel on Kalakaua Avenue and it was really good!

Saturday morning, it was time to board! We had checked-in online and selected the second time available, 11:00 – 11:30 a.m. Hawaii23 was to pick us up at the hotel at 10:30 and our driver pulled up at 10:15 to take us to the port. Check-in was quick and easy as there was a short line that moved quickly and we just needed our real ID’s and boarding passes. Then it was time for our boarding photo.  We always purchase some of the photos taken by the ship’s photographers and, for the past several years, we’ve used one as our Christmas card photo. It’s a fun way to look back and share our happy memory with family & friends. After waiting a short while, we were able to board at about noon.

Our stateroom wasn’t ready until about 2:00 p.m., so we hung out by the pool and had a couple of mai tais. When it was time, we met our cabin steward and I requested extra cream for our coffee, and he was great all week - very sweet and hard working! There were crew members from all over the country and Marlon, our steward, was from Guam. There was actually a lot of storage in our cabin, even some drawers which you don’t find on the newer ships, and I counted 23 hangers in the closet LOL. I even took photos if anyone is interested.

We normally have lunch in the MDR on our first day but, since it was only open for dinner, we ate in the buffet and, honestly, it was just okay all week. We had dinner at Cagney's twice and it was delicious, and dinner in the MDR twice, where I really enjoyed my meals, but DH was very disappointed (more about that later).

I really have to give a shout out to every single member of the crew that we encountered. They were all very friendly and went out of their way to make sure that we had a great time aboard. I had actually been a little apprehensive about the crew as, when we had sailed on the POA before, our cabin steward was less than stellar, but this time we may have had the best crew that we’ve ever encountered! 

At 7:00 p.m., we said good-bye to the Aloha Tower & the Port of Honolulu, and we were off on our adventure!

On 11/19/2022 at 8:33 AM, Crazy planning mom said:

Thanks for posting.  We missed the Iolani Palace.   Great photos and info!  I did visit the Hulihee Palace in Kona.

@Crazy planning mom, how was the Hulihee Place? We would have liked to have seen it but it looked like it was closed when we were there.

@BermudaBound2014and @CruzinMel, I just wanted to thank you for your kind comments! You are the reason I love Cruise Critic.❤️

We had been to the Polynesian Cultural Center on the north shore briefly in 2016 when we had booked a cruise tour on the POA, which included a 3-day land tour prior to sailing. We had really enjoyed our visit, so this time I booked a package that included transportation there and a full day at the center, including a luau and their amazing show, “Ha.”

The ride to the PCC takes about an hour and, when we arrived, we stopped just outside the gates of the center at the Hukilau Marketplace for a quick lunch of hot dogs and shave ice. There are some shops located in this area, as well as some food trucks and stands. Last time we had visited, we had eaten at Pounders restaurant, which was excellent. (I have never had a good hair day in Hawaii, because it’s always humid, rainy, or windy or all three!)

The PCC is run by BYU Hawaii and most of the staff members are students who work there to help pay their tuition. Our guide, Mia, was adorable and guided us through all of the various “villages” where we enjoyed the shows and activities.

Our first stop was the village of Aotearoa (New Zealand), where we saw a haka. If you’ve never seen one, Wikipedia says, “Haka are a variety of ceremonial performance art in Māori culture. It is often performed by a group, with vigorous movements and stamping of feet with rhythmically shouted or chanted accompaniment. Haka are performed to welcome distinguished guests, or to acknowledge great achievements, occasions, or funerals,” All I know is that it’s a lot of fun to watch!

Next up was Samoa, and this guy was hilarious! If you ever go to the PCC, be sure not to miss him. The “villagers” in Tonga brought up 3 unsuspecting participants who thought that they were going to play the drums, but they also had to perform some crazy gyrations until a “winner” was selected. The student performer for Hawaii was a red-haired Caucasian student and, boy, did he surprise us with his excellent and energetic hula performance! All of the performers we saw were very talented. This man from Fiji is dressed in native dress and told us he was descended from Fijian royalty. Doesn’t the carving of a Fiji chief look like Elvis?!

There is also a replica of the double hull canoes that early Polynesians used to sail the 2,000 miles to Hawaii as early as 400 A.D. on display. If you ever have some time to kill and like to read, I highly recommend James Michener’s “Hawaii.” It’s 1,100 pages but it’s a great story. I read it during the pandemic.

After our tour, we headed to the luau, and it was by far the best we’ve ever attended! They started us off with a huge virgin pina colada. BYU does not allow any alcohol at the PCC, but it was delicious and you could have as many refills as you wished. (They do allow caffeine so they have coffee, however.) The roasted pig was removed from the imu and there was some fabulous live entertainment during our meal. They have you go up in groups to serve yourself so it was very organized, and the food was pretty good.

After dinner, we attended the show, “Ha: Breath of Life,” which included fire dancers and a set with a waterfall and erupting volcanoes! No photos are allowed, but here’s a brief video to give you an idea. Most of the performers are students and they’re incredibly talented. We thoroughly enjoyed it!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AARl2yu9VGs .

7 hours ago, fabby50 said:

Thank you!  We are on her on 12/10, it will be our third one of these cruises.  I do have a question.  I don't usually worry about phone service, but this trip, we have an elder dog that I might get phone calls about.  I am wondering if on the overnight port nights, if we can leave our phone on without it roaming.  I know we can turn it on when we get off the ship, which we'll do to check messages, but I wasn't sure if we could keep it on when docked since we will be in the USA.  Thank you and have a wonderful time, it is a great way to see lots of islands in a week.

Hi, @fabby50, yes, we took our phone off of roaming whenever we were in port and were able to use it normally.

Thank you, @georgiacat! We had never visited the palace and really enjoy learning the history of the places we visit so, for us, it was worth it. The palace is full of valuable and delicate antiques so I don't think that children would enjoy it, though, if you're bringing the family. We sprung for the docent-led tour and she was very knowledgable and informative. The story of Liliuokalani was sad and fascinating. 

The morning of day 2 in Waikiki, we walked the few steps to the beach to catch the Hop-On Hop-Off Trolley as we had reserved a tour of Iolani Palace. But first, a photo of me with the big tiki at the hotel.😁 Our room had been quiet and the bed was comfortable, so we had a good night and give the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani two thumbs up.

The stop for the trolley is by the statue of Duke Kahanamoku, who not only introduced surfing to the world, but was also a multi-gold-medal-winning athlete who incredibly used his longboard to save 8 people who were drowning after their boat capsized off the coast of Newport Beach in 1925. Between 1925 and 1933, Duke starred in several Hollywood movies, and was later the Sheriff of Honolulu from 1934 to 1960. To many, Duke is the greatest waterman who ever lived and the epitome of the Aloha spirit.

The stop by Duke’s statue was only the second one for the trolley that morning, but it was already full! We finally found two seats that weren’t together, so we took ‘em. Coming back to our hotel later that day, however, there was standing room only and it was an uncomfortable ride back to our hotel as the driver often stops suddenly and takes some of those turns like an Indy 500 driver, so I really can’t recommend the trolley.

One of the stops that the trolley makes before arriving at Iolani Palace is the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Located in the caldera of a dormant volcano, Punchbowl Crater, it is the final resting place of over 61,000 members of the U.S. armed forces, including over 13,000 service members who were killed in World War II. Visiting the cemetery is a very moving and humbling experience.

Iolani Palace is the only royal palace on U.S. soil & was the home of the last ruling monarch of Hawaii, King David Kalakaua, who reigned from 1874 until his death in 1891, when his sister, Queen Liliuokalani, whom the King had named his heir apparent, ascended the throne. Both King Kalakaua and Queen Liliuokalani cared deeply for the Hawaiian people and tried to better their everyday lives. The King is known for being a patron of Hawaiian music, dance and culture, including the revival of the hula, as for awhile it had been banned by previous monarchs in an attempt to modernize the country. Can you imagine Hawaii without the hula?!

The gates of Iolani Palace display the Coat of Arms of the Kingdom of Hawaii. The palace was built on a site sacred to the Hawaiian people and completed in November, 1882 at a cost over $340,000 — a vast fortune at the time (that’s over $10,000,00 in 2022 dollars). The palace was outfitted with all of the most up-to-date amenities, including electric lights, indoor plumbing and even a telephone!

As we arrived early for our tour, we found a shady spot under a tree on the grounds where we could wait and DH decided to take a selfie of the two of us. I think these photos are the best vacation pic's ever. We sure had a good laugh!

Once inside, one of the first rooms we saw was the Throne Room, the largest room in the palace, where King Kalakaua and Queen Kapiolani held formal receptions and state balls. They actually disliked sitting on the thrones and preferred to stand while receiving their guests. The King and Queen’s crowns and scepters were also on display.

The lights are kept very dim in the palace to preserve the furnishings & it was not conducive to taking great photos, so we didn’t get very many. DH got a good photo of this hat in the King’s office that he frequently wore, and I loved this embellished dress that belonged to Queen Liliuokalani that was displayed in her bedroom.

We also saw the gowns that Queen Kapiolani and Liliuokalani, who was then still a crown princess, had worn when they visited London in 1887 to attend Queen Victoria's Jubilee. The Queen and Crown Princess had also been received by President Grover Cleveland at the White House that same year. Liliuokalani is the one on the right in the photo.

Queen Liliuokalani was the only queen regnant and the last sovereign monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom, ruling from 1891 to 1893, until the overthrow of the kingdom that year. Sanford B. Dole, a local businessman, formed a committee backed by the U.S. government that staged a coup against the Queen. She was then virtually imprisoned in Iolani Palace for eight months until she acquiesced to their demands, and Hawaii was proclaimed a U.S. protectorate on January 17,1893. There is much more to the story and I’m sure I don’t do it justice here, but there are still some native Hawaiians who believe the monarchy should be restored.

This 18-foot-tall bronze statue of King Kamehameha stands across the street from Iolani Palace in front of the Hawaii State Supreme Court building. Kamehameha was a great warrior and leader, who united the Hawaiian Islands into one kingdom in 1810 after many years of conflict. He is greatly revered in the Islands and there are numerous fascinating stories about him.  You may recognize this statue of him and of Lady Columbia in the cemetery from the opening credits of both the old and new Hawaii 5-0 shows. The exterior of Iolani Palace was even used as Steve McGarrett’s office in the old series.

Only two more days until we board! 🚢❤️

3 hours ago, TSUmom said:

Looking forward to more...My very 1st cruise was on the Pride of America back in 2006.  I loved it so much I did it again in 2007, 2008 and 2012!  Hawaii is one of my favorite places.

It's one of mine, too, @TSUmom! The people, the scenery,  the music, and the aloha spirit are just the best. (We listen to Izzy and Keali'i Reichel all year long.) This was our third time to Hawaii and I would go again in a minute!🌴🌺🍍

1 hour ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

I'm so happy you finally got to go!!! Looking forward to your review 🙂

Thank you, @BermudaBound2014! We were so excited to finally sail.

I forgot to mention that we had booked Hawaii23 taxi service to get us to the hotel from the airport and then, four days later, from the hotel to the port. I had booked online 10 days prior to our arrival and then, when I hadn't received a confirmation, contacted the number on the website 2 days before our departure from San Diego. Mark, the owner, texted me back and said that I would be receiving a confirmation, which I got the night before we left. It was kind of the same thing for our trip to the port on Saturday as Mark has that very relaxed yet likeable Hawaiian way about him, but the service was excellent and both drivers were on time and very friendly and informative, so I would highly recommend them. When the driver pulled up at the hotel to take us to the port, he immediately recognized us by the POA tags on our luggage. You may have to work a little bit, but you'll be very pleased with their service.

DH and I had sailed aboard the Pride of America in 2016, taking the 11-day cruise tour at that time, and had enjoyed it so much that we scheduled a return cruise at the end of March, 2020 to celebrate our 40^th wedding anniversary. After rescheduling five times, we were finally able to sail on November 5! I'm starting this review with our stay in Waikiki and am happy to answer any questions you may have.

We were in Hawaii a total of 11 days, arriving on Oahu on November 1 and spending our first four days in Waikiki at the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani. I had read mixed reviews about the hotel, but selected it because the price was right and it was centrally located for us. The Royal Hawaiian Center is across the street, the International Marketplace is almost next door, Waikiki Beach is a few steps away, and the pick-up locations for our upcoming Polynesian Cultural Center tour and the Waikiki HO HO bus were just a few steps from the hotel. The hotel was built in the 1950’s but is immaculate and has been kept up nicely. The only telltale sign of its age was the old school bathroom, but it worked just fine for us.

We had reserved an ocean view room in the Princess Tower and we were on the 10^th floor overlooking the pool; this was the view of the ocean and the Moana Surfrider from our balcony. We could also see the Royal Hawaiian Hotel peeking out on our right and the beach on our left.  Here is our view of the pool, and Splash Bar restaurant where we had drinks and dinner our first night is under the umbrellas to the right. Guests also have signing privileges at the restaurants and bars at the Moana Surfrider, the Royal Hawaiian, and the Sheraton Waikiki. Dinner was good and it was quite lovely with the balmy breeze, the palm trees swaying and live entertainment playing Hawaiian music - a great first night of vacation!

The hotel’s hospitality manager had contacted me prior to our arrival and I had told her that we were belatedly celebrating our anniversary so, when we checked in, we were given two free drink tickets and this scene greeted us when we arrived at our room! Actually, all of the staff members we interacted with were amazing!

Lest you think this review is going to be all sunshine and rainbows, we had booked our air travel with Hawaiian Airlines way back in 2020 that we now needed to use. Our departure out of San Diego was scheduled for 8:00 a.m., but was delayed 4 hours due to the plane arriving late due to mechanical problems in Honolulu that had to be addressed. To make up a bit for the inconvenience, Hawaiian gave us a voucher for breakfast at the airport and, once aboard, the pilot told us that he had been given more fuel so that he could get us to Oahu faster. This made for a very long first day and that was 4 hours we missed in Waikiki. However, we obviously agreed that we’d rather have a safe flight than get there on time under the circumstances.

I got my packing cubes from Amazon and they're very lightweight and fold down completely flat. They were inexpensive and won't last forever, but I've taken them on 3 cruises so far and love them. I'll just replace them when I need to. I have several of every size so my things are organized within each cube and easy to find. I do take out some things and hang them up. Finally got the hubs to use a couple of them and we do each have our own shelves when aboard. I don't pack my suitcase completely full so I don't usually have a problem with adding souvenirs, but I do bring a collapsible duffle just in case. I have a medium Longchamps and it folds up into a little square but holds a ton of stuff. I don't think I've ever been on a ship that had drawers. Hope that helps!

1 hour ago, kylenyc said:

Then there's this. Refer to my previous comment on the risk posed by flushable wipes vs the much greater risk of children and irresponsible or oblivious adults flushing something clearly not intended to be flushed (non-flushable wipes, condoms, tampons, sanitary napkins, toys, etc.)

 

https://www.nonwovens-industry.com/issues/2021-09/view_features/flushability-report/

"Nonwoven Industry" "flushable wipes advisory committee" who would have thunk it.

 

"Analyses of several U.S. and U.K. sewer systems have shown that wipes engineered to be flushed make up a negligible percentage of sewer clogs, as low as 1-2%. Instead blockages tend to be caused by products not intended to be flushed like baby and cleaning wipes, paper towels and feminine hygiene items..."

I'm so glad we can "discuss" this like respectful adults and retain our sense of humor, @kylenyc! Flushable wipes advisory committee, indeed.

13 minutes ago, kylenyc said:

30+ cruises never had a problem or clogged line using wipes specially designed for flushing (Cottonelle). I posit that the risk of a flushable (keyword) wipe (not a baby wipe or another other kind of wipe) that breaks down in minutes has less risk of clogging the line than a child, an irresponsible adult, or the vast majority of passengers who are not on CC who are oblivious, throwing unacceptable objects down the toilet such as tissue paper, tampons, sanitary napkins, condoms, toys, gum, food, etc.

 

It's the responsibility of the flusher to understand the difference between a flushable wipe and a non-flushable baby wipe, facial tissue, disinfecting lysol wipe, etc.

 

Btw. Nickels and dimes and gratuities are not flushable. 🤣

 

I dunno, maybe you've been lucky...? There are numerous websites that discuss the problem with flushable wipes, but this one takes the cake!

https://www.wbay.com/2022/02/19/flushable-wipes-cause-12-hundred-foot-clog-green-bay-sewers/