Pride of Aloha Oct 10-20 Review

Pride of Aloha Oct 10-20 Review

Here’s what we did and the associated costs in case it helps others!

First off, NCL changed the itinerary shortly before the cruise so that is what I’m posting to. I’m not sure if this is a permanent change or not.

Wed Oct 10 – Honolulu

We flew in that morning, took a shuttle for $20 to the cruise ship, and boarded. Check-in was rapid and efficient. We left the ship for awhile to go for a walk – we copped a squat at a nearby park and enjoyed the sunshine before heading back to the ship.

Thurs Oct 11 – Honolulu

I had booked the “Dolphin Swim” directly through Sealife Park. For $149, we were able to swim with, be belly-pulled by, and kiss a dolphin! My husband and I both greatly enjoyed the dolphin swim. The package also included feeding the sea lions which normally would cost you an additional $15 or $20 each. The dolphin excursion through NCL is the dolphin encounter, not the swim. To get to Sealife Park, we hopped on the city bus right at the pier for $2. It took us to Ala Moana Center. We walked to Ala Moana beach and stayed there for about an hour and a half and then walked back to Ala Moana Center to catch the bus directly to Sealife Park using the same bus ticket we bought to get to Ala Moana in the first place. We paid another $2 to take the bus back to the pier at the end of Sealife Park.

http://www.thebus.org/

http://www.sealifeparkhawaii.com/

Fri Oct 12 – Kahului

We booked the Molokini Crater Snorkel through NCL. You can get this cheaper if you book it yourself for the second day in Maui, but we wanted to do it the first day and you can’t get to the boat in time by yourself the first day. What can I say - it was fun to snorkel with the beautiful fishes at the crater. At Turtle Arches, my husband and I were the only ones to see turtles. You had to go a bit farther from the boat anchoring spot to find them and even though we told folks where they were, they seemed to want to snorkel closer to the boat. The catamaran ride is also just plain relaxing and enjoyable. Sit at the front of the boat on the way out to the crater – no splash, wonderful breeze, great view. Only one other couple sat up front for some reason – don’t miss it. We picked up a car rental from Dollar around 4pm and parked it for free at the pier so we would have it for our horse excursion early the next morning.

Sat Oct 13 – Kahului

We booked the Haleakala Crater Ka Mao O'Pele junction ride through Adventure Maui for $159. All I can say is WOW! I am terrified of heights but after about 20 minutes of staring straight down at my horse’s footsteps, I finally started to relax and really enjoy the ride. You ride down about 2700 feet and because of the terrain, you gain an appreciation of how early settlers who rode across the country must have felt. There were 7 of us plus the wrangler, Steve, who was fabulous btw. 3 of the folks were very experienced riders, my hubby and I have about 20 hours of riding experience each, and the last couple this was their first riding experience ever. We all had a blast. The total trip with getting setup, the ride, and half hour lunch took about 6 hours. We had originally booked the Sunrise Bike Tour, but with the shutdown due to the deaths, we had to find something else to do. I must say, seeing the bikers coming down the tick-tacking road as we drove up to the House of the Sun Visitor Center, I am glad we did the horses rather than the bikes. The horse started at 8:30am (takes 1 hr comfortably to drive from the pier to the visitor center), but you could easily drive up to the top to see the beautiful sunrise and then do the horses. If biking is really your thing, I’m sure you’ll enjoy the bikes that start outside the National Park. But I’m not kidding when I say I saw a number of folks fumbling with their bikes or looking pretty stressed coming down heh.

http://adventuremaui.com/horse.htm

Sun Oct 14 – Originally supposed to be in Hilo, but now a day at sea.

Mon Oct 15 – Nawiliwili

We were originally supposed to arrive at 10am, but it was changed to 8am. We had booked the Napali Explorer through NCL because if you booked it on your own, you had to be in before 10am. The shore excursion ticket said pick-up at 8:30am but apparently there was miscommunication between Napali Explorer and NCL so we didn’t get picked up until 9:30am. NCL wanted to cancel the tour, but the 3 couples that had booked this excursion didn’t want to. I was surprised there were only 3 couples with all the good I had read about this tour. So Napali picks us up and it is just us 3 couples on this boat. The boat is a large reinforced raft like the ones Navy Seals use and has a cover to shade you from the sun. This trip was awesome! The scenery is amazing, our captain is a marine biologist and not only can she handle the boat like a pro, she gave us tons of info about the animals we saw and Hawaiian legends and history. Dolphins swam alongside us, we saw a monk seal on the beach, sea turtles swam amongst us as we snorkeled, we went INTO a sea cave – it was extraordinary. Because of the timing confusion with the time changes, Napali Explorer allowed each of us to take a free t-shirt from their store. We picked some out for our sons back home and when I bought a couple turtle key chains for my boys’ backpacks, they gave me 2 more for free. Aunt Evelyn, who drove us to and from the boat, gave us so much info about Kauai and answered all our questions. It was a magical day.

Tues Oct 16 – Nawiliwili

We booked a helicopter tour through Safari Helicopter. I highly recommend this tour as it only cost $155pp rather than the $220 I was seeing through NCL and other companies when booked directly. It is an hour long flight and the helicopter is just as good as the other good companies. They also provided a shuttle to and from the pier. At the helipad area, you see the helicopters from all the companies, and Safari’s was just as good as Air Kauai and some of the other popular ones. A couple of the companies had teeny helicopters (mosquitoes I call them) and one had no doors on their helicopters – not for me! One couple who got off one of the shuttles of one of the other large chains while we were waiting for our shuttle said they didn’t get to fly at all because the company said ‘there was something wrong with the plane’. They were very upset. What was interesting is I saw that company going up when we were at the helipad so not sure what happened to those folks we met at the pier – maybe overbooked? I really recommend flying over Kauai – it is absolutely stunning with its “Grand Canyon” and all the waterfalls – saw the waterfalls for Jurassic Park, Fantasy Island, etc. Plus for those of you that are afraid of heights like me or have tummies that jump easily – I was amazed. This helicopter flew smoother than my flight to Honolulu from Seattle on an airplane heh. I had no tummy tickles the whole trip.

http://www.safarihelicopters.com/kauaitours.html

Wed Oct 17 – Hilo

We rented a car through Dollar so that we could visit the Volcanic National Park, Orchid Farm, and Macadamia Nut Farm on our own. The drive is easy, there’s nothing the tour takes you to that you can’t get to on your own. For the equivalent of $20pp for the car and gas, it’s a much better way to go than the nearly $100pp tours imho. We stopped at the grocery store to buy some munchies and Hawaiian Sun and away we went. Before we returned the car, we stopped at Itsu’s – a tiny Mom-n-Pops place recommended by a local to get some shave ice. Get some shave ice with the ice cream on the bottom and some condensed milk on top – mmm mmm good. Hadn’t had any in ages and was something I wanted to eat before coming home.

Thurs Oct 18 – Lahaina

Caught the bus behind the Wharf Cinema (across the street from the pier in the Cannery Mall) for $1 and took it to the Whaler’s Village. There’s some shopping there if you want that, but it was our cheap way of getting to some of the pretty Ka’anapali beaches. The beach there really reminds me of Pensacola if you’re familiar with that area. We soaked up sun and swam and then rode the bus back to the pier. We looked around the shops, enjoyed the Banyan Tree, etc.

Fri Oct 19 – Kona

We booked a 2-tank scuba diving trip with Torpedo Tours. We are not certified divers and have only dived once previously in St. Thomas. The cost was $139pp. This is a husband-wife team who are experienced divers and dive instructors. I had mixed feelings after the first dive. Our dive in St. Thomas was from shore and they put the tanks on you while you are in shallow water. Very easy. This one, they kind of help you put on the weights and tank and then you have to walk off the boat. It’s not too hard, but if it is new to you, it seems a bit intimidating as well as that stuff is heavy heh. The husband talks rather sternly and appears to be impatient – not sure if having a bad day or doesn’t realize how gruff he comes across – so when my mask wasn’t sealing correctly (I am quite comfortable clearing and wearing a mask, but this mask just plain didn’t work for me) he seemed to think it was a problem with me rather than the mask. With the 2nd mask, I had no problems at all. So I wasn’t digging the experience after the first dive even though the actual time in the water is amazing. The second dive was more enjoyable for me as I now knew how to gear up and walk off by myself. I think these folks are nice (wife more so), but if you are new to diving, I don’t know if I would recommend them. If you are certified, you have a lot of other dive options open to you. I absolutely love scuba diving. If I didn’t live in the frigid and dark waters of Seattle I would work to get certified and dive more often. If you have ever considered diving, give it a go! Torpedo does not offer shuttle service so we took a taxi to the pier for $15 (including tip). The taxi driver gave us his card to call him when we were done but we hitched a ride with a local who was on the dive back to the cruise ship.

http://www.torpedotours.com/index.htm

Sat Oct 20 – Honolulu

Took a $5pp shuttle through Roberts Hawaii (they are outside on the pier all around the times folks are departing that day) to the airport and headed out. Airplanes don’t seem to be providing food or snacks for free anymore as we found out on our 6.5 hour flight to Honolulu so grab some food in the airport to take aboard!

General Info:

Food – My husband and I were both pretty disappointed. It has been about 10 years since we’d been on a cruise (had kids, different traveling) and both of those were on Carnival (E. Caribb and Mex Riv). I don’t know if our palates have become more sophisticated over the years or if cruise ship food has gone downhill or it was just this ship, but it was disappointing. The food looks gourmet, they use gourmet prep, but it didn’t taste good. The buffet on board was the same limited food for breakfast and the one night we ate dinner in there, it was worse than the dining rooms. The night of the Napali Explorer, the ship comped us the fee for eating in one of the restaurants so we ate in the French restaurant. That food was better and the escargot was to die for it was prepared perfectly. So I don’t know if this is a ploy to get folks to pay or what. The food we had in the French restaurant was what we were used to in the dining room on Carnival. And those beautiful midnight buffets for desserts or crepes or whatever, there’s none of that here. We also had free juice 24x7 on Carnival – you only get free iced tea on NCL and that’s only during meal hours and free juice is only during breakfast. I am curious if this is how it is on all cruise lines now or if it was this cruise.

Laundry – there was some question on these boards at to whether or not there was a self-service laundry available. No. There are also no irons available as I heard someone complaining ferociously about this. They will pick up your laundry and you pay per piece laundered ($4 for a t-shirt for example). I washed some of our clothes in the bathroom and hung it on hangers we had brought along in the bathroom to dry.

Entertainment – very limited, loungey and/or amateurish. On Carnival, you had something you could do every 20 mins of a given day – not so here. The evening shows were a disappointment imho.

Gambling – If you are looking for that, there isn’t any as this boat only docks in US ports. A couple of the boats go to Fanning Island to get around this as well as the makeup of the crew, but that’s like 4 days at sea for that.

My husband and I loved this trip because of the activities on shore, but the cruise itself could have been much more enjoyable.

If any questions, let me know! Hope this helps. :D

Good review! I particularly enjoyed the tour reviews. I think including the cost of the tour was a great idea. Since you ask..I think that there has been a general decline in the overall quality of food in the last 10 years. I think this is due to economic issues.

SuO: Nice review. I did want to clarify this:

Gambling – If you are looking for that, there isn’t any as this boat only docks in US ports. A couple of the boats go to Fanning Island to get around this as well as the makeup of the crew, but that’s like 4 days at sea for that.

Most of the internationally flagged ships don't go to Fanning Island, but rather do one-way (repositioning mostly) or round-trip cruises from the mainland with a stop in Ensenada. Princess has some Tahiti-Hawaii itineraries. The internationally flagged ships are not allowed to have their casinos open when in Hawaii's waters, but do have them open on the crossing and (this seems to be hit or miss) sometimes at night between the islands.

It's actually the Pride of Aloha which pops down to Fanning Island most often. But because the PoAl is an American-flagged ship which starts and ends in Hawaii and because her original itinerary as an NCLA ship was Hawaii-only, she doesn't have a casino. I've heard that PoAl has bingo on the sea days to and from Fanning, but have no first-hand experience. Pride of Aloha doesn't change crews for the Fanning Island itinerary, so there's no difference there, but the internationally flagged ships of other cruise lines (including NCL's Star, Wind, and Sun, which have all done the Hawaii-Fanning Island itinerary) are not required to follow US labor laws. The NCLA ships do operate under different labor laws and are required to have primarily US crews.

My DH and I absolutely agree with you about the onboard entertainment. Or that is, we had a similar experience on PoH. I think because of the port-intensive itinerary that NCL decided not to spend the $$ for really good entertainment facilities. (No offense to those who like it, but to us the stage itself as well as the technical facilities of the theater on PoH are just pathetic. We thought the production shows were pretty awful and didn't stay through either one.)

I'm suprised and sorry to hear that they haven't added more at sea activities for the longer PoAl itinerary. Sure, cruising the island coasts is scenic in and of itself, but not even island nuts like my DH and me would sit there and watch the coastline all day (not even Molokai, which we likely wouldn't see any other way). One of the reasons the longer itinerary sounds so appealing is that there are "down" days between the port days--the perfect time to "up the ante" (so to speak) for onboard activities.

Overall, we think food quality on the mass-market lines has gone downhill in the past decade. (That's just our opinion, of course.) We don't expect to have five-star cuisine on any of the big ships (partly because they are prepping meals for more than 2000 and sometimes more than 3000 pax). We do expect the food to be decent in the dining rooms/buffets and very good to excellent in the specialty restaurants. That's exactly what we had on PoH. I realize that food is completely subjective, but I agree with you that the quality has suffered. On PoH, we found the buffet to be just fine. We ate primarily in the specialty restaurants (both upcharge and included) and found the food to be excellent in some and merely adequate in others. I'm actually glad they don't have the huge, food-wasting midnight buffets. I do wish they had more late night snacking options though.

Mahalo for your insightful and detailed review.

beachchick

I was on the same cruise (10/10 - 10/20) and I have to say that we ate in the specialty restaurants 3 times. We loved all of them. The French was our favorite, but the other two were very good also. We also ate dinner one night in Crossings, and we thought that food was very good too. As far as breakfast goes, the buffet needs to change a little during the cruise, however, I understand that you could go into the Crossings and order anything you wish. We just didn't have time to do that.

I had read on these boards different opinions about the staff on board, and I can only say that we have wonderful experiences with each and everyone of the staff that we ran across. They couldn't have been more friendly. I think if you treat them like dirt, they are not going to give you the best service. We treated them with respect and we received it in return, plus enjoying conversations with them.

We only went to a couple of shows and they were OK. Of course we didn't take this cruise to be going to the shows at night, so I really didn't care. We always ended up on the Blue Hawaii Bar and we really had a great time there. Each night was something different and the staff was great in there plus the entertainment was very enjoyable.

I would highly recommend this cruise to anyone. Just go with the attitude and that you will have a great time because you are on vacations on the beautiful islands of Hawaii.:D