POA Trip Review

[azappraiser]

You have a very good way of explaining yourself, thus making answering questions comes easy for you. Thanks.

The reason I ask about the lei...you know how it is on some of the ports someone puts a necklace on you and puts their hand out for cash. I am most certain Hawaii is not like this, but I just don't have time to haggle over something I don't need or want.

Our time in the air will be LONG. Coming out of new Orleans. First layover I'd just one hour and just an hour after we leave. So then over 9 hours straight in the air. I can't live on trash and snacks that long. A subway sandwich would hit the spot. The menu they sale on flights suck.

I am sure we will find plenty of good places to eat from wedn. Thru Saturday while we are there.

Thanks again

 

Check out the travel app, Gate Guru. It can tell you which restaurants are available in each airport. TSA can be sticky at times with what passengers try to bring through, but if you buy food & drinks after clearing security, you can stow them in your carry on.

 

The app is available in multiple formats.

 

BTW - GREAT REVIEW... looking forward to reading about Kauai.

[theking329]

Thank you for the info! :D I will try very small slider (small bun)type sandwiches that may hold up a few hours, like turkey & veggies in an insulated container.

 

 

Just an FYI~

I have carried on sandwiches, salad, snacks, and drinks during our non-stop flights from New York to Seattle. The only thing I had to purchase after going through security was the drinks. I had no problem with anything else in my carry-on bag. I have also seen people use a cooler as their carry-on.

[beeandkmon]

You have a very good way of explaining yourself, thus making answering questions comes easy for you. Thanks.

The reason I ask about the lei...you know how it is on some of the ports someone puts a necklace on you and puts their hand out for cash. I am most certain Hawaii is not like this, but I just don't have time to haggle over something I don't need or want.

Our time in the air will be LONG. Coming out of new Orleans. First layover I'd just one hour and just an hour after we leave. So then over 9 hours straight in the air. I can't live on trash and snacks that long. A subway sandwich would hit the spot. The menu they sale on flights suck.

I am sure we will find plenty of good places to eat from wedn. Thru Saturday while we are there.

Thanks again

 

 

Hawaii is definitely different from the Caribbean and Mexico. There were no overly pushy people selling things and there did not seem to be any demanding of tips either.

[beeandkmon]

We woke up in Kuaui and got ready quickly so we could be off the boat at 8. The Aloha Cafe does have sandwich fixing at one end so you can bring a lunch with you. We had a long hike planned and don't eat a lot on hikes so we grabbed small boxes of cereal. This was a really easy thing to pack! We had a Trifty car rental and took the shuttle to the office. Thrifty only had 1 person waiting on people as opposed to the 6 at Alamo in Maui. There were only 3 groups on the shuttle so it only took a few minutes.

 

We got in our car and drove the hour to Kalalua trail head. It was a beautiful drive and there were a lot of places to stop for photos. We had planned an 8 mile hike for the day. The hike here is amazing! The first 2 miles is the "easy" part- although it is not a walk in the park. There are a lot of up and down hills and you have to climb over some rocks. The views of the Na Pali coast are spectacular and even if you only hike in a mile it is worth it.

 

After two miles you arrive at a beach. You can't swim here because of the undertow but it is beautiful. The majority of hikers turn around here, although we kept going. The next two miles on the trail are difficult. It was very muddy and the trail is not maintained. You have to cross a few streams and climb over rocks. It is worth it though as the ending is spectacular. This part of the trail ends at a specular waterfall. There is a pool of water underneath.

 

There were about 10 people there when we arrived. I could not resist and jumped into the water and swam under the falls. I was not alone in this. It was an item on my bucket list and was so happy to check it off!! The water was absolutely FREEZING but it was so worth it.

 

After drying off we began our 4 mile hike back. We are extremely fast hikers and did the whole trip in about 5 hours. A park ranger at the start had told us to allow for 7-8 hours. This was an amazing hike and if you are physically able I would highly highly recommend it. You do have to be prepared with plenty of water as it is very humid on Kuaui. If you can hike a hard 8 miles don't hesitate to do this hike it was AMAZING!! If you don't think you can do 8 try the first 1 or two and you will still get spectacular coastal views.

 

When we got back to the trail head we rinsed out in the showers. We were very very muddy! We stopped on the way back at a convenience store for some power aid and headed back to drop our car off. We opted to only rent our car for the first day of Kuaui. The second day is so short and you have to pay to park at the pier. It just did not seem worth it to us.

 

When we arrived back at the ship everyone was leaving for their luaus. We talked about how glad we were that we had decided against this. It was nice not to be rushed and we were a bit tired after our hike. We showered and got cleaned up as soon as we got back. In retrospect we should have brought old running shoes to hike in. This was we could have just thrown the (extremely) muddy shoes away and not have to bring them back home.

 

We played trivia in the evening (we absolutely love trivia) and went to dinner. It was absolutely empty! We ate at the skyline for the only time. It was nice but for some reason we preferred the other one! We attended the crew talent show, the mainstage show, and the perfect couple game show. As usual we went from one activity to another. Have I mentioned we absolutely love cruise activities? We never make them during the day but get our moneys worth at night.

 

We went to bed absolutely exhausted! It had been a long and thrilling day!

[beeandkmon]

Our last day in Kauai was not too busy. We had decided just to walk to the beach. When we got about halfway there is started to pour so we ran into some shops. About ten minutes later the sun was shining. Strange- but I think this is typical for Kauai. We spent the morning swimming then headed back to the ship.

 

We went to the sail away bbq and enjoyed some poolside music. A husband and wife had done a blues show and a "one hit wonders" show. They were really good and we enjoyed them immensely. They provided the music for the sail away and we really enjoyed them!

 

We were really sad to pack up for our last day!!!

[beeandkmon]

Forgot the Na Pali coast sail! It was beautiful, although a bit foggy. The narration was a bit hard to follow, but that did not matter. I was surprised at how uncrowded it was. I think our ship was actually fairly empty.

[KCSPUD]

We are looking for a shuttle service that will take us from same hotel to pier. Didn't know roberts would pick up later than 1pm....maybe I received misinformation. We get from a tour around 230 and need transportation to pier, is roberts best option or should we do taxi?

[3onTour]

We are looking for a shuttle service that will take us from same hotel to pier. Didn't know roberts would pick up later than 1pm....maybe I received misinformation. We get from a tour around 230 and need transportation to pier, is roberts best option or should we do taxi?

 

I can't say how accurate this information is, but my family will be staying at the Embassy Suites Waikiki and the concierge there told me it would be cheaper to take a cab to the pier. the cost about $15. I had originally arranged for a private shuttle to pick my family up that would cost a bit more than $15.

 

I might suggest calling your hotel to get an estimate. I also read on some of the CC threads, that some shuttles have "connections" with the porters to get your bags taken care of fairly quickly at the pier...:confused:

 

@beeandkmon.. GREAT Review!!!! thank you for all the insight!:D I felt like I was there already.

Edited October 25, 2013 by 3onTour

[Molokai-Chuck]

This past summer we took a taxi from the Moana to the pier, was $16 plus tip. There were 5 of us on the ride. As to the porter and bag thing, they were right there where the taxi dropped us off, waiting for anyone who wanted help.

[3onTour]

Thank you for the confirmation.

 

 

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[KCSPUD]

Thanks for recommendation. We will check with hotel before we book anything.

[KCSPUD]

@beeankmon Thank You so much for sharing your experience and all the tips. We are much like you in that we want to enjoy both Hawaii and the ship. So it seems that by the 3rd night you were over jetlag is that right? Trying to figure out how long it will take us to adjust. We get in Friday afternoon around 4pm Hawaii time after a 10 hour flight from ATL. I'm thinking we will crash early as you did and wake up early Friday for a early tour and sightseeing. Did you experience the White Hot Party at all? I haven't heard many comment on it and was wondering if it was just because everyone was so exhausted and called it a night early or if it was something to be missed.

[ksimpso3]

Loved your review. We are leaving on Nov.30 and arrive 2 days before cruise. I was wondering about the time change and how long it took to adjust, so hopefully by Sunday we will be somewhat adjusted?? Your review was exactly what I was looking for as far as car rentals went. We aren't sure what we are going to do, but we prefer just driving around and finding our own spots to enjoy. Can't wait!!

[beeandkmon]

The time change was really hard to adjust to. We tend to go to bed early at home so we were never going to be people who stayed up all night partying. We had also made the decisions that we wanted to see and do Hawaii and not have that ruined by staying up late partying.

 

We arrived in Hawaii on Thursday and by Saturday night we were able to stay up until 10:30 (which is late for me!) Our evenings had a pattern to them. We would usually come back from our jam packed day and shower and lay down for a few minutes. This really helped re-energize us for the evening. I would suggest letting yourself take a (VERY SHORT) nap in the early evening. If it is too long you won't want to get up! We then would hit up trivia or other early evening activities. Then dinner and the 9:00 main stage show. If there was any other interesting shows or activities we would usually attend. We did not go to any dance parties as that is not really our thing. There seemed to be a lot of people in white the night of the white hot dance party so I am sure it was a hit!

 

I do have to say one nice thing about the time change was that it made it a lot easier to get up early on days we needed to. We had to be up one day at 5:15 for snorkeling and the time change made it easier!

 

I will finish my last day soon. If anyone has any other questions I am more than happy to answer!

[puddles99]

Thanks for a great read that brought back many happy memories . . . if it makes you feel any better, we only saw the show the first night - so you managed to hang longer than we did each night - LOL! :)

[Anniesails]

Thank you so much for your enjoyable review. Congratulations on your recent nuptuals. I also went to Hawaii for my honeymoon in 1974 and your synopsis brought back many fond memories . We will be going back next August with 8 in my group. Have to admit won't be hiking like I used to but am still very excited to go again. Aloha and have many many great years together. :)

[beeandkmon]

Thanks everyone for the nice comments! Once thing I forgot to mention was that NCL has "vacation hero" cards you can send to employees to thank them. We had a great room steward so we sent him one. We were told by one of the trivia hosts that they absolutely love getting the recognition.

 

Our original plan had been to do the NCL Pearl Harbor excursion, but the government shut down ruined that. NCL was great and let us rebook or refund. We decided to do the North Shore tour as we really wanted the ease of not having to worry about getting to the airport on our own.

 

Do NOT do this tour. I knew it was a bus tour but it was really falsely advertised. We didn't even really get to see the North Shore. We did get to stop at the Dole plantation which was neat, but we were only there about 20 minutes. This was not the best day.

 

We got dropped off at the airport around 3:00 for our 5:30 flight. We ate lunch/dinner before getting on the plane. Interestingly enough the couple that had sung in a lot of the shows were on our flights back. The flight back went by really fast. We watched a movie, read, and then slept on and off. Because of the time change we landed at 9:30am on Sunday.

 

We spent Sunday laying around sleeping and loading pictures to our computers. We both had to be back at work on Monday morning. This was really difficult as we just wanted to sleep, unpack, and do laundry! If you can manage to have an extra day off before going back to work I recommend it. However, it was not bad enough that I would give up a day of vacation to come home early!

 

That concludes my review! I'll come check back for a few days to answer any questions anyone may have. There is obviously much more information that I did not include here. Now its off to plan another trip! Perhaps Alaska?

[lostone65]

Thank you for the awesome review! It gives me a lot of ideas for our upcoming POA cruise!