My P.O. America Review - 10/15/05 sailing

This is a VERY long review of our trip! I hop it doesn't boar everyone!

Our family just returned earlier today from our 10-15 sailing on the Pride of America, which included a 2-day pre-cruise stay and 1-day post cruise stay. The comments I’m making are based upon my own experience and humble opinions. I hope someone can find some value somewhere within this review.

Our group consisted of me (43 y.o., 7th cruise), DW (30-something, 8th cruise), MIL (71 y.o., 3rd cruise), DS#1 (12 y.o., 4th cruise), DD (9 y.o., 4th cruise) and DS#2 (3-y.o, 4th cruise). We had originally planned to sail POAm twice; this cruise just being DW and I, and a June cruise with the family. However, certain scheduling conflicts forced us to change that plan and cruise with the family on this sailing.

Our first day began with an early flight out of Chicago Midway Airport on ATA. We arrived in Honolulu at about 12:20PM, which was an hour ahead of ATA’s published schedule. We gathered our bags (of which there were many) and proceeded to the taxi stand just outside of the baggage claim area where one of the staff called a taxi limo for our ride to our hotel.

$32 and about 30 minutes later we arrived at the Prince Hawaii Hotel in Waikiki (it was about 1:30PM by now), and were greeted by an enthusiastic and helpful bellman. He took our bags and held them for us while we proceeded to the check-in desk located just inside the lobby.

At the check-in desk we were assisted by an adequate check-n agent (not very friendly) and were advised that the two rooms we had reserved would not be ready until 3PM. This is pretty standard for most hotels and happens quite often, but the difference here is that when we asked about lounges/pool areas/bars to hang out for that amount of time, we didn’t get much advise other than “here’s our lobby area, there’s a drink kiosk over there”.

Just a few notes on the hotel before I talk more about our pre-cruise activities/excursions. We booked both rooms via an on-line discount broker (I’m not sure if I can say the name here) using the strategy suggested at www.biddingfortravel.com and we knew that this hotel would be a likely location. We got a great rate on the rooms, and about a week before flying to Hawaii I sent an email to the reservations staff with our confirmation numbers and requested adjacent or adjoining rooms on a upper floor of the hotel, both requests which were acknowledged with an email reply, and then honored at check-in.

This hotel is oceanfront (but not beachfront), and is located basically in between the Hilton Hawaiian Village and Ala Moana Beach Park. All rooms overlook the Ali Wai Harbor (the harbor famous for being part of the opening scene in the Gilligan’s Island series where the Minnow launched), and is very scenic (especially in the evening/at sundown). The rooms are large by Waikiki standards and nicely maintained by a very friendly staff. While the rooms do not have balconies, they do have several very large upper windows (at about chest height) that open up providing an unobstructed ocean breeze for the occupants. For the price we paid, we were very satisfied. Each room was equipped with a mini-frig and coffee maker. Our only complaint was that while the grey colored carpet looked clean, we noticed that all of us had black feet after walking around barefoot on the carpet.

The hotel is on the same block as an Outback Steakhouse and Red Lobster. We were famished after our flight/check-in, and ate at the Outback. Normally I like to find restaurants to eat at that I wouldn’t find on the mainland, but this was convenient and it did, to our surprise offer a number of dishes that included Hawaiian seafood flair. While the hotel does have a sundry shop in it’s lobby, there is an ABC store located right across Ala Moana Blvd from the hotel that sells snacks and beverages at about half the price.

We also found out later that the pool area has a snack bar and beverage counter (not a full service bare) on the fifth floor overlooking the harbor, which was somewhat small, but very nicely maintained. Not extravagant décor and gardens like the Hilton (which we really enjoy), but for this part of our stay in Hawaii, this hotel fit quite nicely. They also have a complimentary shuttle that will take you down Kalakaua Blvd in Waikiki for shopping, and it’s only a few blocks from the massive Ala Moana Mall with lots of shopping and dining choices.

Just a few more notes on the Hawaii Prince Hotel. We had hoped to see the Hilton Friday Night Fireworks from the hotel, but the angle of the hotel didn’t allow for that. We could hear the fireworks, but couldn’t see them. For those that don’t know, the Hilton Hawaiian Village has a fireworks display each Friday evening after their sunset ceremony near their pool grounds. Also, the hotel had a fabulous kid’s room service menu, but had limited entrée’s for adults. IN any case, for a Waikiki Hotel it was very reasonably priced.

Also, our preference for a pre-cruise hotel was to stay at the Marriott, through NCLA to enjoy the transportation, baggage and boarding conveniences. However, by the time we added our kids and MIL to our already booked trip, the number of rooms NCLA-allocated rooms were sold out, even though the Marriott was showing availability for direct bookings. However, a direct booking would not have entitled us the pre-check-in and other benefits.

On our first full day in Waikiki I reserved a Hertz car rental for an 8AM pick-up. This is considered a Hertz Neighborhood location, but there really isn’t a Hertz desk there. The Concierge processes the paperwork, and Hertz delivers the car to the hotel. When you return the car, you simply give the keys to the valet along with a copy of the contract. Valet parking is available at the hotel ($17/night) or you can self-park for $12/night.

After securing the rental car we drove up to Haleiwa on the North Shore (one of my favorite places on the islands) for an excursion with Hawaii Shark Encounters. This is one of two similar operators (the other being North Shore Shark Adventures, whom we’ve used twice previously), both of which motor your group out 3-4 miles off shore, drop the shark cage into the water, and you snorkel in the cage observing circling sharks which are fed by the onboard crew with fish parts.

This was the third time we’ve done this similar excursion, and was at the same time the best and worst experience. The best part was that we were blessed with the presence of a 13-foot Tiger Shark (a rare daytime sighting) and two very large Galapagos sharks (11-12 feet), one of which was pregnant and very hungry! To compliment these incredible creatures were about 10-12 Sand Sharks ranging in size from 4-7 feet. Quite a site to see!

The worst part was the surf condition. Oahu had been under some high surf advisories prior to our arrival, and we experienced 8-10 feet swells that caused a lot of rolling and churning of the ship and shark cage, in turn creating some green-gilled-humans if you know what I mean. We had planned this excursion with four non-cage divers/boat riders (DW, DD, MIL & DS#2) and two cage divers (DS#1 and myself). However, very much to his credit, Captain Chris gave us a very real warning about the surf conditions and offered to allow us to cancel without penalty if we took the tour. DW, MIL &DS#2 backed out, and I’m really glad they did. DD made it through, but certainly was very uncomfortable while others around us got seasick.

The first time we took this tour we took the early (8AM) tour and the water was very flat and very enjoyable, so it’s just a case of Mother Nature’s cooperation as to weather you’d enjoy it or not. Comparing the two different operators that do this tour, each has an advantage. North Shore Shark Adventures only takes two in the cage at a time unless you want to have additional members of your group – up to four total – in with you at one time. Onboard service is friendly, but the boat and cage are slightly smaller than Hawaii Shark Encounters. While I do prefer Captain Chris (very friendly and fantastic with my kids), his excursion puts four in the cage weather you of the same group or not. IN our case, we ended up with a couple that wasn’t very considerate of or careful around DS#1 and I, and we were consistently pummeled in the hinder by the wayward and rekless kicking feet of our companions! All in all, a memorable day (I just hope my pictures turn out)!

After leaving our excursion we ventured over to Aoki’s for shave ice near the small boat harbor. Excellent treat, very reasonable price & very much enjoyed by all. We then drove down the coast toward Sunset beach and stopped for some scenic walking along the way. Beautiful beach that happened to be in full swing with experienced surfers enjoying the swells.

From there we proceed around to Kuhuku for a stop at the famous Giovanni’s Shrimp truck for the Garlic Shrimp Scampi plat lunch. Fantastic meal that everyone should try once if you’re in the area. Keep in mind that there are now four shrimp truck operators within about 5 miles from each other, but this is our favorite and worth the stop.

Then onto the Kaneohe area and the trek up the Pali Highway to the Pali lookout. I’ve stopped here many times over the years, but MIL had never bee to Hawaii so we pulled over for the view. On this particular afternoon/early evening, the view was absolutely stunning and we found ourselves staying a little longer than usual. ON the way out, the fruit truck with the fresh sliced pineapple made a nice treat! Then, back to the hotel for room service and an early night sleep prior to our Saturday early AM excursion and afternoon embarkation.

Up and out by 6AM, we headed up to the west shore for Dolphin Excursions (www.dolphinexcursions.com) which is about an hours drive from Waikiki. We did this last year (just DW & I) and my kids had been begging me to take them on it on this trip. This is on the West Coast of Oahu, that doesn’t get much tourist attention (other that a few luaus like Paradise Cove or Germaine’s) and is very scenic, especially from the water. The excursion craft is a 15-20 passenger rigid hull inflatable zodiac craft, with stainless steel railing for a very relaxing, yet exciting ride. We headed up the coast and located a large pod of Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins, which were dropped into the middle of and able to snorkel with. On this day, the dolphins were moving fast, but the few minutes we were near them was spectacular. I took all three of my kids in with me on this one, and they loved it (DW and MIL don’t swim much or snorkel at all). I can’t give enough praise to the crew that treated all of us so well, and went out of their way to ensure everyone had a great time.

The second stop of the day was near a location known for numerous sea turtles, and we weren’t disappointed. The largest turtle I had ever seen swam right underneath DS#@ and I and surfaced less that three feet away. Absolutely amazing! While this is an expensive tour, it is quite worthwhile if you can do it. They also have a shuttle that will schedule hotel pick-ups in Waikiki, or they will give you a 10% total discount if you drive yourself. They do two excursions per day – the first at 7:30, the second at 10:30. I’m told the first tour has the best success with locating and doing the drop with the dolphins.

Another wonderful morning on a gorgeous Hawaiian day – not a cloud in the sky! Next up, return to our hotel to get ready for embarkation!

We drove up to the hotel at about 11AM, and returned the rental car to the valet as instructed. Hotel checkout was to be at 12PM, so we all had enough time for a brief shower and change of clothes. I had requested that a bellman come up to our room at noon to help with our luggage, and he was right on time and also helped to secure a taxi van for our ride to the pier.

After a fifteen minute and $14 + tip ride to the pier, we were dropped off at Pier 10, getting our first real view of POAm. I had seen her coming into port earlier that morning, but only with running lights glowing. My initial impression was very positive, and made us all feel very anxious to get onboard.

A porter arrived with a cart to assist us with our luggage, and there were many more workers like him in the area. Because we had been issued E-Docs of this cruise, we had to obtain our stateroom baggage labels at a desk situated in the Aloha Tower garden area adjacent to the pier entrance (about 50’ from the drop-off curb side). Prior to leaving for our vacation, I printed out standard 2” x 4” shipping labels with our stateroom numbers, sailing dates & name. I then placed the labels on the bags prior to going to the pier that morning, and this certainly helped the staff to speed up the ID process and get us to security. Within a few minutes we were through initial security screening and were inside the building to stand in the embarkation line.

Upon entering the room we were greeted with flower leis for the ladies and shell leis for the guys. We were then escorted over the obligatory guest photo for our group (the one they try to sell to you, and then directed to the actual embarkation processing line. Last year when I sailed POAloha, the obligatory photo was last, and created the longest line we had encountered during that particular vacation. It was a nice move to change this photo activity to the beginning, especially since we all had to wait in the embarkation line anyways.

There are 22 embarkation stations for regular guests within the building, and priority lines for gusts staying at the Marriott Waikiki (if booked through NCLA) and Latitudes members. Because only two of our group were Latitudes Members (DW & I), we just stayed in the regular line.

Compared to other ports we’ve sailed from (FLL, MIA & Port Canaveral), this process was very painless, and by about 1PM we were up the gangplank with sign & sail cards in hand and on the ship.

We were handed a Daily while we were in line, which included an insert that the $10 PP/Day service charge WOULD NOT be administered on this cruise. This somewhat surprised me because of the positive reviews we had read here on CC recently, but it fit our strategy of tip-as-you-go perfectly.

Upon entering the ship we were all very pleased and impressed with the initial view of the atrium area. As others have described, very attractive and spotless. Because we had two children with us under 80 pounds of weight, we were directed over to an area where life vests were issued for DD and DS#2. While DW was attending to that, I headed over to the Specialty restaurant reservations desk, and waited my turn in line.

There were three NCLA agents answering all sorts of questions about the restaurants, and taking reservations for the entire cruise. They were being very helpful, but the line does move slowly because many passengers that make these reservations don’t have much of a clue about what these restaurants are about (i.e. they didn’t know how to do their homework before boarding).

When my turn came, I did inquire about children’s menus in the specialty restaurants, and was advised that children’s menu type foods (i.e. grill cheese, hot dogs, chicken nuggets) would be available, but the child would still be charged the surcharge. I proceeded to make my reservation at Lazy J’s for all six of us for Wednesday at six, and at East Meets West for DW, MIL &I on Friday at 8PM. I was given a printed reservation confirmation slip for each night by the agent, and believe me – HOLD ONTO THESE SLIPS (more on that later).

By now, only Deck 11 staterooms had been cleared for guest occupation (it was about 1:20PM). Because we had three kids with associated carry-ons and two life vests in tow, we decided to head up to deck 9 and see if our rooms were made-up so that we could drop off our carry-on bags and life vests and proceed to the buffet.

We were in connecting BC staterooms 9628 & 9630. The doors were open to both rooms, the rooms were made up, so we dropped our bags off and headed up to the buffet.

Regarding the buffet, all I can say is that if you couldn’t find something you liked in the buffet during the week, then you deserve to go hungry! Yes, the breakfast and lunch menus didn’t vary too much during the week, but there was so much food very nicely prepared that it was easy to overlook that fact.

One of only issues with the buffet in general is that it did get very crowded quite often, and the aft buffet area was hardly ever opened. Of the seven days we were on board I only saw it open for breakfast twice (Thursday and Friday of the cruise), and never for lunch. Seating was available in the area, but no food service. Hence, I only was able to get cooked to order eggs once, because we were typically out and around about the time or after the main restaurant had closed for breakfast.

The other issue was that some of the staff was not very approachable, and seemed to be quite stresses. I use the example of the hot dog/hamburger cook. We saw on several occasions where he would outright ignore passengers requesting hot dogs and other items he had to dish out from the grill. We noticed this on day one, and unfortunately, this would not be our last experience with disappointing incidents on the ship.

A note on another non-life-or-vacation-threatening issue, but one that disappointed our kids and MIL. The infamous ice cream machines were not in operation but MAYBE for half of the cruise. After a very hearty and tasty buffet lunch on embarkation day, DD and DS#! Went to get ice cream, but found it to be empty. Over to the starboard side machine, same thing. About that time the ship’s mess officer was walking through the buffet area, saw my daughter trying to get ice cream, and explained to her that “supplies for ice cream had not yet arrived on the ship” but promised that would be corrected by the next day. Late on day 3 the machines were in operation, but only intermittently during the rest of the cruise. To the ship’s credit, they did provide scooped ice cream occasionally (but erratically). Just a warning to the ice cream lover of the world – don’t get your hopes up.

I then took a stroll over to the Gold Rush saloon, which was opened and had several TV’s going with NCAA football. This was a great place for a specialty draft beer in a 22oz mug, and Kathy (the bartender) became one of my favorite crewmembers. Very efficient and friendly. Just a note at this lounge and all other bars on the ship that we encountered – service is great if you’re sitting AT THE BAR, but was normally awful if you were waiting for someone to take a drink/soda order if you chose a table. For the most part, waiting to be served turned into a very frustrating experience as the inefficiencies of some of the wait staff became so glaring.

It was now about 2:40PM, and all of the decks had been cleared for passenger occupancy except ours. As we knew are room had already been made up, we decided to walk back down to deck 9 anyways, and were stopped by one of the staff explaining that we were not allowed to go to our rooms yet. When we explained we had already been there earlier to drop off our carry-on luggage, we received a mild scolding and were turned away. So, we went back up to deck 11 to check out the pool area and surroundings.

I know others had commented on the size of the pools, but we found the mid-ship pools (there are actually two which are “back-to-back” per se) to be very attractive, and normally uncrowded. This was a life-saver to us, because when the ship was in port during the week (and we were aboard), almost nothing was opened and very few organized activities were offered to any age group. It is painfully obvious that NCLA expects passengers to be off of the ship doing other things while to ship is in port.

About that time (3PM) we heard the “all clear” for deck 9 passenger occupancy. No question about it that this is the latest on embarkation day that I was formally “allowed” to go to my room, so we proceeded to our rooms to get a more thorough look at our accomidations for the week with much enthusiasm.

Our first thought after giving our rooms a good look were; (1) how nicely done the woodwork and décor actually was – very attractive rooms, and (2) how small they were. The “small room” part, we expected from reading these boards, so that wasn’t totally a surprise. DW and I had joked around that our recent cruise on the RCI Majesty was a “practice” for small rooms (because this ship is fleet wide known for small quarters), but POAm topped the charts on the need to utilize every square inch of capacity.

The first thing that jumped out after the “space” issue sunk in was that the rooms were so small we could NOT fully open the adjoining room door between our two cabins because it was obstructed by the end of the bed on the adjoining room. The room stewardess had left a rubber door-stopper for our cruise that allowed us to partially prop the door open and provide about 18” of passage between the two rooms. On a side note about adjoining rooms – the balcony dividers between adjoining rooms cannot be opened (ala some CCL ships we’ve sailed on) because they are hard bolted the the ship chassis by (7) ¾” bolts.

I have read many reviews that the balcony rooms (non-suites) were best suited for no more than two people, and I wholeheartedly agree. The third passenger (as was the case in each of our staterooms) sleeps in a draw-out twin size couch that comes fully into contact with the dresser drawers/vanity ACROSS THE WALL, and leaves zero space for passage to the balcony with the bed extended. Very tight quarters to say the least, but very attractive in design. We did find that the cabins were cleverly laid out from a storage standpoint, and had no problem storing our gear/clothing for the week. Because we had some idea of what to expect because of previous reviews, we were not disappointed with the cabin size, but rather thought the reality was somewhat comical that three persons would actually be allowed to stay in this size cabin.

I neglected to mention that when we had been allowed clearance to our rooms, several of our bags had already arrived and we began to unpack for the week. By the time we had to depart for the mandatory muster drill (4:30PM) all of our bags but one (DW’s clothing bag) had arrived at our staterooms. We proceeded to a very painless and quick muster drill, and then completed our unpacking as much as we could.

For this evening, because of the early morning excursion and still present jet lag, we chose to have dinner in the buffet around 7PM. We had a very nice meal, and then prepared ourselves to view the sail away from the deck-side party near the pool, which was to begin at 8PM. DS#1 was left with DW’s mobile phone, was baby sitting DS#2 and DD in our adjoining rooms (while they slept), so it was a happy trek to the party deck for DW, MIL and I. However, about that time DS#1 called me on my mobile phone to let us know security had called our room and our immediate presence was requested on deck three because something “suspicious” was viewed in the one bag that had not yet arrived at our stateroom.

We “immediately” proceeded to deck three, where we asked to grab our bag from the group of about 50 remaining bags from other passengers. We did, and proceeded to the table where I was asked what I was hiding in my luggage. “do you have booze in there”, “that’s a no-no”, “you can’t bring your own liquor on board”. Thing is, it was DW’s bag, so I didn’t know what was in there (and I’ve never attempted to smuggle anything onboard anyways), but the interrogation as performed was out of line, IMHO. DW gave full consent to a search as it should be, which was thoroughly performed without location of contraband, and we were excused. We left silently, WITHOUT A WORD, because we do understand the value of security; I just don’t know why the smuggling booze statements were made instead of something like ”it looked like something dangerous” in our initial x-ray. Security is great, but using it as an excuse to ensure maximized onboard profit (i.e. you buy their booze, not bring your own) was lame. And it wasn’t just us experiencing this – several other couples of all ages were going through this, too, while we were there in this “room”.

If the previous situation wasn’t bizarre enough, we had another as we were leaving the “room”. DW, MIL and I entered the elevator to go back up to deck 9 (so we could take our bag to our stateroom) when one of the staff ran into the elevator as the door was closing, looked at us very angrily and began spraying Windex randomly around us through the elevator on the mirrors. When we didn’t say anything, she angrily asked “Do you ever wonder why this ship looks so clean”?, and before we could reply how beautiful the ship was and the crew’s efforts were appreciated, she said loudly” WELL YOU’RE WELCOME” and left the elevator at the next deck.

Very interesting start to a cruise…….Very much unlike anything we’d ever previously experienced….

After dropping off our bag, we went to the pool deck for the sail away party, but by then (8:45) the excitement of the crowd was starting to diminish because the ship was still in port. We started to hear some announcements (only partially because the band was loud) that the delay was due to re-fueling, but didn’t get all of the details. The end result – we waited until about 9:45PM, with the ship in port – and decided to go to sleep. By then, I went out to my balcony for the sail away, which eventually happened around 10:10PM.

Forgot to mention the room stewardess. When we were finally allowed to enter our cabins (officially) after 3PM, we did have questions about linen and pillows for the third beds, because there was nothing there! We placed calls to housekeeping requesting additional items, and about the time we went back to our rooms at 9:45PM we finally met our room stewardess. We spoke to her about our younger kids and need for earlier turn-downs (not because we needed turn-down, but because we typically showered in the evening AFTER the beach and needed those services in the evening) during the week. It never happened consistently. Rooms not made up, no linen and pillows until DAY THREE of the cruise for the third beds, water not replenished, shortage of towels & wash cloths, coffee not replenished, etc etc etc. You might say that some of these expectations are petty, and you’d be right. But stack one upon the other, and it’s an annoyance.

Okay, a rocky start to the cruise, but we are resilient!

Our itinerary for this cruise was a little bit different from the norm. Our port schedule was changed four times since I had originally booked this cruise this past spring. I don’t know why the changes occurred, but I do know I never received a notice of any change from either NCLA or my on-line TA. I just happened to find out on my own while researching the cruise, or (in the case of the last change) while onboard. Lesson here, keep monitoring the NCL website for changes – they won’t likely keep you informed.

We stopped in Maui on Sunday (first full onboard day, day 2 of the cruise), for an overnight stay until 10PM on Monday. Unfortunately for us, DS#2 wasn’t feeling well that day, so we stayed on board the ship all day Sunday and we alternated keeping him company in our cabin.

The bright side is that we really had a chance to explore this absolutely gorgeous ship. Unfortunately, almost EVERTHING was closed expect the Ocean Drive Pool Bar and Aloha Buffet (less the ice cream machines). Very little to do. If you wanted an indoors cold drink, well you’d have to take it back to your room or in the buffet, because nothing else was open. That’s not a complaint (maybe a disappointment), but rather just the way it is on this ship. That evening we all ate in the buffet again and enjoyed each other’s company. Not much of interest happening onboard this night.

The second day in Maui (Monday, third cruise day) we were off of the boat around 9:30AM. We had made reservations around the islands with Thrifty, and we had previously registered as Blue Chip members. Several notes on Thrifty; first – have the local office phone numbers to check on the shuttle to the pier. I say this because this experience taught us that if you were not out at the pier with the first “wave” of passengers, you were not going to get a shuttle from Thrifty without calling the local location. Second, several Thrifty locations are “off-site” from the airport, and stop shuttle service around 5PM (Kauai in particular), so unless you plan to park your car rental overnight, you need to plan to be back early. Third, Thrifty only runs one sporadic shuttle to the pier for return at the end of the day at most ports. So, you have all of these passengers (like myself) booking these low rates, but then we all arrive back at the rental car counter looking for small van shuttles back to the pier (I could tell story’s about Hilo in particular) they’re very slow coming.

After calling their local Thrifty office and getting our vehicle, we drove down to Polo Beach in the Wailua area of the South Shore. We followed the advise printed in the “Maui Revealed” and had a great day at the beach. After a time, we drove up to Kaanapali Beach at the Sheraton Maui, and spent the rest of the afternoon. What a great day.

As some may know, the ship’s luau takes place at the Sheraton Maui, and is performed by Tahati Productions. The location at the Sheraton is superb – fantastic beach setting with a very nice dive ceremony off of Black Rock (an excellent snorkeling spot by the way) in front of the Sheraton. I can’t speak for the show or food (because I did not attend it) but I can say the location is superb, and in MHO, one of the best in Maui.

Back to the ship, and our first onboard dining room experience. We arrived at the Skyline around 6PM to no wait (guess everyone was off of the ship), and had the best dining room service of the cruise from Mallory and her assistant. We wanted to request her each evening, but they had her alternating between main & specialty dining rooms the entire cruise. While my food was very average (I had the strip sirloin – very comparable to the buffet) for an onboard main dining room, DW and MIL thought there’s was below average. However, great service prevailed, and we all left very pleased with the experience.

The next day was Hilo (cruise day 4), with Thrifty rental car (and the same pick-up and return shuttle limitations). After buffet breakfast onboard, we had a great day in the Puna area at the Ahalanui heated pool, the coastal drive to the 1990 lave flow devastation and new black sand beach, and plate lunch at Verna’s. The “Big Island Revealed” book delivered again, and we had a great day. After leaving the coast we had enough time to drive the Volcano Crater Rim Drive, with several stops. This is definitely a location I’d like to spend more time on my own at in the future. Very impressive!

As mentioned. Thrifty car rental was a problem here. Only a ten-minute drive to the pier, we thought we would have plenty of time with a 4:30 return, because a 5:30 onboard deadline was in place. This was not the case at all. Many cruise ship passengers appeared at the same time, and with only one 8-passenger shuttle working from Thrifty, many passengers got extremely stressed. Not a pretty site, so plan to return your car earlier if Thrifty is your choice.

After arriving back at the ship, we cleaned up and went to our pre-made reservation at Lazy J’s. I had the 24 oz Porterhouse, and DW, DD, & MIL had the filet. DS#2 had hot dog, DS#1 chose to go to the buffet. Again, we were charged for DS#2’s hot dog the $15 surcharge, but we all very much enjoyed our meal, which we all agreed was our best onboard during the entire cruise. Great service, great food, great fun! Very much appreciated!

That evening after dinner we all adjourned to our Port side balcony rooms with cameras and binoculars in anticipation of the 10:15PM viewing of the Kilauea lava flow viewing for the sea. DD was especially exited because she was in the middle of a lesson on volcanoes at school right before she took this trip with us, and the teacher asked for her to tell the class all about it upon return.

Is the lave viewing spectacular or not? Obviously that’s a matter of opinion. I enjoyed it on our PO Aloha cruise lat year, and really liked the way the Captain slowed the ship down and did a “360” so that all passengers could get a good view. After reading other reviews about POAm, it sounded like POAm did the 360 turn as well.

But, not this time. A slow down near the viewing left us in anticipation of the 360, but it never happened. After about 15 minutes, the Captain resumed course speed without the turn, leaving those of us on the Port side (and there were many) disappointed that the ship didn’t turn. Lesson to be learned – do not rely on the 360. If it’s important to you, go topside. My 9y.o. DD was devastated, because that’s what she looked so forward to – even if it would have been lame by adult standards. An audible shipboard announcement of the ship’s intentions would have been nice, and if it did happen, we never heard it.

Our stop in Kona was on Wednesday (day 5 of the cruise). Again I was stunned at the beauty of this port. DS#1 & I decided to take the Captain Zodiac excursion through the ship on this day, which among other things provided a snorkeling opportunity at Kealakekua Bay (my favorite Hawaiian spot).

Our shore excursion met at the Hollywood lounge at 7:40AM, and soon made our way down to the tenders. POAm uses it’s own lifeboats as tenders, and about (80) passengers fit in each. The first tender I had viewed left the pier at 7AM, though I’m not sure if it was carrying passengers or crew/excursion personnel for NCLA.

Captain Zodiac had (4) 12-14 passenger rigid hull inflatable rafts booked through NCLA that day. They met us at the pier (after tendering), and we were fortunate enough to be on Captain Cody’s boat. Why? Because Captain Cody is a total sea-life fanatic that loves whales and dolphins, and he offered to take us to some special spots out in the open ocean he had recently seen, with the majority vote of the passengers on board of course.

The end result? Floating in the middle of a pod of Spotted Dolphins, then the best – cruising in the middle of a pod of 20-25 17-20 foot pilot whales (and the white tip reef sharks that were following them)! What an experience! Yes, we were the last of the four zodiacs to arrive at Kealakekua Bay, but we still had an hour to snorkel, and had a great ride back at high speeds (with periodic stops) along the Kona Coast. This was a real highlight of the trip!

We returned to the Kona-Kailua pier at 11:50AM, and met up with the rest of our group for the Kona Tiki Party boat, booked thru NLCA. The actual tour operators name is Captain Beans, and they are (at least in part) owned by Hawaii tour giant Roberts of Hawaii. This was a really fun tour taken by only about 60-70 passengers, and lasted two hours long. Op[en bar, a great participation staff, and very nice coastline view made this a nice tour. I’m really surprised that more passengers don’t take advantage of it!

Upon our departure from Kona, we all decided to have dinner together at the Liberty Restaurant. After viewing the flat-screen TV monitors devoted to restaurant availability by NCLA, I’d like to over the following observation; first, the left hand of the screen (as you view it) contains bar graphs associated with percent of available capacity at each onboard restaurant, respectively. Second, the right side of the screen alternates between the various restaurants and is designed to show the number of available tables for the size party you have (i.e. 1-2, 3-4 or 6+) and the expected wait time if the dining room is full. Well, the bar graphs (on the left) work fine, but the wait time function always shows “0.00” wait time – in other words it’s useless and non-functional. You never know what the wait time at a particular restaurant is going to be unit you go to it’s own front desk.

To that perspective, wait times happen to us all, regardless of party size, at restaurants all across America. The big problem, on this ship, is the layout. If you have a larger group and you trudge through the crowds (and photo gallery mob) to find this detail out, it might not be pleasant if you were expecting a short wait.

Yes, the restaurants now have beepers to alert you that you can now be seated. The problem is the limited seating and lack of beverage service in the area. If a small kiosk were to be set up, or complimentary sparkling wine serve active during the wait (ala our POAloha cruise last year) the wait would be moiré tolerable.

My point is, don’t rely on the monitors, bring snacks for the kids (if you have kids) and bring a drink for your self because you are isolated once you get to the dining room entrance. Sure the beeper will reach all over the entire ship, but by the time you fight back through the crowd and find a server, 45-60 minutes is up and your fighting your ay back before the reservation goes to someone else. With a little more customer service, POAm could “comfort” its waiting guests more efficiently.

I’ll post the remainder of my POAm thoughts and opinions tomorrow, but this review has already been long and my lack of sleep last night has been catching up with me. In the interim, please post any questions, and I will answer them with the utmost honestly.

Can't wait for more! Thanks for writing all this.

Thanks for in-depth review, I've been waiting to hear how things went. We're going to miss you in June!

Our first day in Kauai was Thursday (an overnight stay). The ship arrived in port around 7AM, and was cleared for disembarkation well before 8AM.

We had a nice breakfast in the buffet with a great view of the bay on the starboard side of the ship. The omelet station and buffet lines were open on this day, and while the line was a little long, the omelet was worth the wait. After breakfast we headed out to the car rental shuttle station, and as usual a large crowd awaited Thrifty, who had only one shuttle running. This is one of the off-site Thrifty locations I had talked about earlier, and you needed to have your rental back in time to catch the last shuttle back to the ship by 5PM, or you could keep it overnight and park it at either the Anchor Cove or Harbor Cove shopping Centers that were either a short walk or complimentary shuttle away from the ship.

We elected to take the scenic drive all the way to the end of the highway at Ke’e Beach. We stopped at several locations along the way (including the lighthouse) for scenic viewing and short walks along the many beautiful beaches we came across. The drive up, with all of the stops took about three hours (but could easily be done in well less than that without the stops). Very scenic, especially the further north we went.

On the drive back we stopped at a restaurant/sports bar in Kapaa town across from the beach called The Shack. Whatever you do – don’t stop there for lunch! Very bad food at a very high price. However, the service was good and drink selection great, so if you’re just looking for liquid refreshment, this isn’t too bad of a place.

After lunch we drove about five miles south of Kapaa to Lydgate Beach Park. We learned about this place (and many others that we stopped at) for the “Kauai Revealed” guidebook, and couldn’t have been more pleased with the stop. This place is a County run park with clean bathrooms, very well maintained grounds, a beautiful beach, and break walls in the water creating two ocean “swimming pools” that were both crystal clear and relatively flat. This was a perfect place to frolic in the water for a while before heading back to drop off our car rental.

Upon returning to the ship we all cleaned up and headed to the Liberty restaurant for dinner. We arrived just before 7:30PM, were advised of a 35-minute wait, and were seated in 45 minutes. We sat again for about 20 minutes before being acknowledged, and even then there wasn’t even a wait staff introduction, just a “are you ready to order”, which we were. 20 minutes later our soups arrived. Another 15 minutes our salads came out with the kids’ meals (grill cheese for DS#2, chicken nuggets for DD, DS#1 opted for the buffet on his own after main dining wait staff experiences from the previous night, and he had my full and understanding blessing to do so). About 9:30PM, still no entrees, and kids falling asleep in their chairs. BTW – while we asked the assistant if we could place a beverage order (besides water) none was ever taken or offered. 9:40PM, I decides to leave the table and take the kids to the stateroom (entrees had still not arrived). This was Lobster night, which I had ordered).

About 10:30 DW met me back at our stateroom, with a covered plate the waitress had sent back for me. I don’t know if it was because the food was partially cold or what, but the lobster was the worst I’d ever tasted (and dry and mealy in texture). Needless to say, I was glad we had a reservation for our last day on board at East Meets West!

BTW – Because of the dining delay, we all missed the South Seas spectacular 9:45PM presentation that we had all been looking forward to on this cruise.

Friday was the last full day of our cruise, with a scheduled 2PM departure (1:30 all aboard) form port. This is the day that had originally been a 6PM departure, then was changed to a 3:30PM departure and then to a 2PM departure. All changes made without any formal notice from either NCLA or my on-line TA. I won’t beat a dead horse here, because this topic has been discussed already on these boards, but the schedule change was a big disappointment because the late departure was a factor in our decision to take this itinerary again (we really wanted to do an up close catamaran tour from the North end of the NaPali, but the schedule change eliminated this opportunity on this cruise).

We decided to take the free shuttle over to Kalapaki Beach, which is just a short drive or walk from the ship and is situated behind the Anchor Cove shopping Center and Marriot Kauai. The weather was a bit rainy, but we had a nice time spending a few hours here. My kids loved playing at the mouth of the freshwater stream where it meets the ocean, and the view was quite scenic for it’s convenience to the pier. This was a great place to go for some downtime after the previous days of driving and excursions.

After embarkation we all had lunch in the buffet and enjoyed the scenic sail away from the pool area. I was a little disappointed the ship did not do a deck party and poolside BBQ on this day (as PO Aloha had done on the early departure day from Kauai). A little later in the afternoon we proceeded to our staterooms to enjoy the scenic NaPali coast viewing, which came into full view around 5:30PM and lasted about an hour. Another highlight of the trip! I’ve now seen the Napali from the perspective of a helicopter, a catamaran, and twice from a cruise ship and all angles are spectacular! Definitively one of the most favorite places I’ve seen on this earth!

After the Napali viewing DS#2 and DD wanted room service, which we’d used a few times during the week. As usual, service was very quick and courteous. While the menu is somewhat limited, everything we tried from kids meals to snack sandwiches were very tasty and well prepared. DS#1 opted for pizza from the buffet area again, and while not gourmet by any means, the pizza was just fine for a quick meal/snack.

With our kids taken care of and DS#1 on the babysitting job we went up to DW, MIL & I went up to the East Meets West for our 8PM reservation, arriving right on time. We went to the hostess station for seating, and were promptly advised that they had no record of our reservation (which we made right after embarkation), and that they were full and could not accommodate us. I tried to explain that we had made a reservation, and was advised that I must be mistaken and that unless I had proof, there was nothing that could be done.

Unfortunately, I did not bring my reservation slip with me that night, so I had to go back up to our stateroom, found the slip and then came back to the dining room. As you might expect, I wasn’t real pleased. When we were advised that they would make up a table but there would be a substantial wait, I was even less pleased. By this time it was about 8:45PM, and I opted for room service and DW & MIL went to the Liberty, where they said the service was extremely slow and the food of very poor quality. This was not the way I had hoped we would end our last evening onboard.

Saturday was debarkation day. The ship disembarks by way of colored tags that were delivered to your stateroom the afternoon before. The color of the tag you receive is either dependent upon the location of your stateroom on the ship, the travel agent group your touring with or the shore excursion/post-cruise stay you’ve purchased from NCLA. NCLA also gives you an idea as to what time your color might be called.

Ours was supposed to be called around 8:45AM, but for some reason other colors (that were supposed to go after us) were called ahead of our and we got the nod at about 9:30AM. Debarkation was painless, our luggage was all located very quickly, and we again received excellent port service that not only took us over to the taxi area, but also helped to load our bags onto the van within minutes of our debarkation.

Our post cruise stay was for one day on the Sheraton Waikiki, again booked through a discount on-line broker using the www.biddigfortravel.com strategy. We got a great rate, and were very pleased, because we had stayed there before as part of a land vacation, and really enjoyed this hotel. As I had done with the Hawaii Prince Hotel before leaving for our trip, I sent an email to the reservations staff at the Sheraton requesting adjoining/adjacent rooms on an upper floor of the hotel and early check-in. I received an acknowledgement within a day, saying that our requests were noted.

We arrived at the Sheraton at 10:30AM, and were greeted by a friendly bell staff. He held our luggage while we proceeded to request check-in. Much to my delight we were told that not only were our rooms ready, but also we were upgraded to adjoining partial ocean view rooms on the 28th floor! We were ecstatic, and were even more pleased to see that our rooms were in a newly renovated section of the hotel and were gigantic by normal resort hotel standards. After being in our tiny cabins all week on POAm, we didn’t know what to do with all of the space.

In retrospect, I was very glad we took the extra day and stayed in Waikiki instead of immediately returning home. We had a great day walking around Waikiki, even if it was a bit rainy. Later that evening, I really enjoyed my balcony (which was about 14” wide and 5’ deep), and we just relaxed and reflected quite a bit on our just completed cruise.. Sometime around 8:30-9PM I saw POAm sail out of port and past Waikiki on her way out to sea while sitting on my balcony, and the next morning I watched POAloha cruise into port over morning coffee.

We were sad to have to leave the Sheraton dreading the long flight home. Recovering from jet lag, it’s now back to work tomorrow.

In closing this very long review, I’d just like to mention a few more miscellaneous things that come to mind.

First, a lot of discussion goes on about “what side of the ship is best for a balcony as it pertains to the view”. In Honolulu, starboard side faced the Aloha Tower Marketplace (which is scenic as far as malls go because of it’s open air design), while port side faced pier 15. Starboard side wins here. In Maui, starboard side had a nice view of the West Maui Mountains, while port side faced a smelly garbage area and the industrial dock. Starboard side wins again in Maui. In Hilo, starboard side faced the port building (metal structure), while port had a nice view of Banyan drive and the Bay. Port wins this one, however, lava viewing was only seen from the starboard side after leaving Hilo as I had previously mentioned. In Kona, the ship is anchored fore and aft, with starboard side having a view of out to see, and port having a nice view of beautiful Kona. Port wins Kona. IN Kauai, starboard side faced a nice view of the bay, coastline and moored boats, while port side faced the port structure (metal shed). Starboard wins again. Napali viewing best for the port side, but there was a lot of space on decks 11, 12 & 13 to view the NaPali topside. If I were to do it again, I would have chosen starboard side, which is exactly opposite of what I thought I’d feel when considering this choice prior to the cruise. Last year we had a cabin directly aft on PO Aloha, so we always had a great view of both sides.

The ship is really limited in what TV stations are broadcast. CNN, ESPN, and a few movie channels are about it. Not normally a big deal to me, n=but my beloved Chicago White Sox are on the rampage, and I was not able to see any of there broadcasts, even for a moment while they were in the playoffs. This is different from POAloha, where we saw all of the network TV broadcasts for the Yankees/Red Sox and Carndinals/Astros last year.

I found the crew on this ship to be much different that POAloha. PO Aloha had a mostly young (and Hawaiian) staff at the time of our sailing (that may have changed by now, I don’t know), and we really enjoyed their enthusiasm and efforts, and we had absolutely zero complaints about any of the staff on board. The POAm, well, let’s just say we were disappointed overall. While we did encounter a handful of very approachable and friendly crewmembers, we saw more complacency and discontent among the crew as a whole than on any ship we’ve ever sailed. I know this differs from many other POAm passenger reviews, so please take if for what it is, just my own personal experience and JMHO. Believe me, we were looking for the positive, but it seemed like every time we relaxed into an Aloha kind of groove, something would either happen (or not happen in the case of the main dining rooms), and we’d feel just a bit disappointed.

IMHO, freestyle dining fails on this ship. If you have to make a reservation for the main dining room to ensure your wait time is minimized, you’re not really freestyle dining (by my interpretation anyway). And once inside the main dining rooms, the wait did not turn out to be worth it.

Again, please take this review for what it is, JMHO.

I mentioned earlier that I had seen the POAm leave port the evening of 10/22 with the group cruising after us, and observed PO Aloha arriving into port the next morning from my balcony at the Sheraton. To sum up my entire feeling about these two trips I had made around the Hawaiian Islands through NCLA, I can say the sight of POAloha brought back a lot of very happy memories and a very nostalgic feeling. The sight of POAm only gave me a scene of sadness, and a hope for others that our experience was not typical and that others will have a better time.

Bank of Dad,

Thank you for the complete review you wrote. The info you shared was helpful.

For fear of creating more bashing, I am hestitant on asking. With your background of cruising, do you think the Pride of America still has problems with the American crew?

Please people, no flaming, bashing, etc. I truly want to know for our future cruise we are trying to book.

Bank of Dad, Thank you for your very detailed thorough review. You covered both the positive and the negative very fairly and I know you were well prepared for the ship. It sounds like you enjoyed Hawaii even if the POAm is not quite up tp par. It is a shame the crew just can't quite get it's act together. It seems they have some good crew members but just a few can spoil an experience. We will be cruising with a large group of 16 celebrating my parent's 50th anniversary and I am starting to dread the whole dining experience. We have young kids with us and waiting for dinner is just not going to cut it when we are coming from the East Coast and have jet lag. We have 2 nights in Waikiki prior to the cruise but I don't think we can adjust 5 hours that quick. I thought that maybe making reservations in the specialty restaurants might help but now I find they charge $15 for a kid's hot dog and don't always honor your reservation and even worse accuse you of being mistaken. Perhaps the buffet......Oh well I'm not going to Hawaai to eat. Thanks again I always love your very well written posts, I wish there were more just like it.

Bank of Dad,

 

For fear of creating more bashing, I am hestitant on asking. With your background of cruising, do you think the Pride of America still has problems with the American crew?

 

Please people, no flaming, bashing, etc. I truly want to know for our future cruise we are trying to book.

Hi Dwrist,

Thanks for reading through the review, I know it was long.

I don't know that I would put all of the issues we saw on being an American crew. In fact, our room steward was not (I believe she was from the Philipines).

I think the problems on board have to do with several things, but mainly I think the crew is understaffed and in some areas under-trained (or apparently not trained at all). Using my room stewardess as an example for staffing; on all of our international cruises, we had a head room steward and an assistant. On PO AM, we only had the one stewardess, and she had a row of about (16) rooms (I know because I would see her starting her work late morning at one end, and would see her ending her work mid-afternoon on the other end). I would think it would be hard for anyone to do a good job with that work load being all alone.

I also point to the dining rooms where there were always vacant tables, and on the nights we had poor service, the waiter/waitress had very limited assistance. In several cases, the assistant that did come around was in his first week on board, and was obviously not properly trained. He really truly didn't know what/how to do anything but pour us more water (which was a blessing because we sure didn't get anything else offered to us to drink).

I think it really comes down to management's ability and willingness to staff and maintain a properly trained crew. If Management doesn't put these people in a position to suceed, then that's their failure IMHO, and everyone looks bad. Along the way complacency sets in (and we saw more of that then we wanted too).

Or on the flip side from Management's perspective, maybe the staffing issues are a function of compensation; we've seen that discussion on these boards with comments from other crew members, and the willingness to do a job for the wage. Keeping talented American staff comes at a price (and talented American's have other options if they're good at what they do), so it has to be a tough balance to maintain cost and keep prices attractive to consumers. Maybe that's the root of the staffing problem? I really don't know, and probobly never will.

In any case, it is my feeling that with adaquate staff and training, the quality of the food in the main dining rooms still has to improve as a whole or the majority still won't be pleased overall. It was almost as if we were being encouraged to either up-charge to the specialty/pay restaurants to get the quality of food we normally experience on a cruise, or down-grade to the buffet by servicing ourselves. The middle road, the Main Dining Room, which we have always enjoeyed during our sailings was a major dissapointment for us on POAm, but that's just our experience.

Again, JMHO as always.

Thank you for your quick response and its honesty. That helps us to plan. We visited Hawaii on the Wind three years ago and had a wonderful three weeks between the cruise and land. It is time to go again and we are trying for another land and cruise situation, only this time maybe four weeks with a condo thrown in the mix. We are still in the planning stages.

Hey Bank O Dad, you can see my mini-review for the exact same cruise and date here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=246517

I had the opposite impression of crew, thought they were among the best I have seen in 11 cruises, really made the cruise more cheerful for us. The ones behind the reception desk were not the most friendly, but otherwise they were great.

Thanks for the review! I appreciate knowing the good and the bad. The more I read about this cruise- the less anxiety I feel. Even though this was not the perfect cruise for you, your experiences help the rest of us.

I am in the process of selecting excursions and your info really helped. I am also blue chip with Thrifty- would you suggest I go with someone else? Are the other rental companies better organized?

Bankofdad:

Excellent "warts and all" review. I read pretty much all of it because we are considering a Hawaii cruise for 2007/2008. Initially we were pretty sure that we wanted to go on one of the "newer" NCLA ships but after your review the POAloha looks good again (I loved her when she was the Sky). I guess we will just have to keep reading reviews before we make any decisions. The ineptness of the cabin steward would have bothered me (we had very good stewards on both our NCL cruises - so I am spoiled).