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Pride of America REVIEW!

kjcombs89

By kjcombs89,
in Hawaii

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TeaTime22

TeaTime22

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I am currently obsessively planning for a POA cruise in May!

 

And am wondering if our port-side balcony room will be facing land or water while docked??

 

You had a starboard balcony...were you facing land or water while docked at the ports?

 

I love sitting on the balcony in the am with coffee or in the evening with a glass of wine....but I don't want my view to be a noisy industrial port!

Any advice?

Thanks!

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kjcombs89

kjcombs89

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I loved that photo of you in the water at your beach house on Oahu...and under the rainbow!!!!! Well, guess that may not be you....but anyway...nice looking place for sure.

 

Life is good.

 

Chuck

 

haha! No Chuck, that's not me...that's the owner of the property that we rented there. :)

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kjcombs89

kjcombs89

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Thanks for the review. I'm planning on sailing POA over my birthday in 2015 and taking my mom who is also glutton intolerant. It's good to know she won't have a problem even though I already know she's going to worry all the time about it!

 

You can actually request gluten free food, however I am used to finding what I need on menus so I opted not to do that. :) It's hard to know ingredients sometimes, and the servers don't usually know what's in stuff. If you stick to the simple foods (like grilled meats and vegetables) she'll be fine.

 

And the buffet has lots of choices as well.

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kjcombs89

kjcombs89

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And am wondering if our port-side balcony room will be facing land or water while docked??

 

You had a starboard balcony...were you facing land or water while docked at the ports?

 

I love sitting on the balcony in the am with coffee or in the evening with a glass of wine....but I don't want my view to be a noisy industrial port!

Any advice?

Thanks!

 

Pretty much ALL of the ports are industrial areas, with the exception of Kona where you tender.

 

In Honolulu, before leaving, our starboard cabin faced the dock (port side faced the water and land, and when the ship leaves, we faced the open sea. Port side faced the city.

 

In Maui, while docked, both sides face a dock. If you look on maps.google. and type in Kahului, you can see the slip where the ship pulls in. There is a dock on BOTH sides, but the ship pulls straight in. You exit on the port side, so that's where the dock would be closest.

 

In Hilo, we faced the dock, b/c I think this was where they turned the ship around and backed it in. My husband took my photo from the dock (I was on our balcony). I remember thinking that was odd b/c on the maps.google photo it shows the ship pulled in forward. So maybe they aren't consistent there.

 

In Kona, you tender so everyone gets a nice view. But it seemed like every time I spotted the ship from shore, starboard side was facing land and that's the side that the tenders were coming and going from. So port side would be facing open ocean there.

 

In Nawiliwili Harbor (Kauai) starboard side faced the dock. Again, if you look on maps.google at the harbor, it's odd b/c the ship pulls into this little opening and then sort of "sidles up" to the dock on the starboard side. Port side would face a little bit of mountains that is on the other side of the harbor.

 

I think the huge benefit of port side would be the Napali Coast sailby. We sort of like watching the activity on the docks too, and we viewing the land as we pulled into port for Maui and Hilo. That was one benefit of starboard side b/c port side faced open ocean in Maui and Hilo.

 

Hope that helps! Have fun planning!!:)

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kjcombs89

kjcombs89

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We have a aft facing stateroom will we be able to enjoy the Napali Coast sailby from our balcony?

Our flight isn't until 4pm do you know if we will be able to go right to airport and check in our bags?

 

Aft facing...you probably can see it as you pass by, but if you are closer to the starboard side you may want to go out on deck somewhere for the best view.

 

As far as the airport goes, I don't know. You'll be off the ship by 9am, so you may be able to go to the airport that early, but that's a long time to sit in the airport. You might want to check out the tours offered through the ship for that day. I'm pretty sure they will hold your luggage while you are on a tour, and they may even offer transportation to the airport.

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ransrider

ransrider

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In helping with planning for our Hawaii cruise, would you be able to list the names and maybe addresses of each port that POA stops at. I did check into the Discover Molokini tour suggested and she asked what port POA docks at. I couldn't answer her for sure but she estimated a cost of $490!!! for an 11-person van to transport between the tour and port. I replied asking if the cost was a typo as I see it's less than 10 miles between the two. We don't want to rent a car so guess this tour is out. Disappointed as the tour sounded like lots of fun.

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kjcombs89

kjcombs89

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In helping with planning for our Hawaii cruise, would you be able to list the names and maybe addresses of each port that POA stops at. I did check into the Discover Molokini tour suggested and she asked what port POA docks at. I couldn't answer her for sure but she estimated a cost of $490!!! for an 11-person van to transport between the tour and port. I replied asking if the cost was a typo as I see it's less than 10 miles between the two. We don't want to rent a car so guess this tour is out. Disappointed as the tour sounded like lots of fun.

 

Yikes! It's really easy to rent a car and return it, and if you go through Discount Hawaii Car Rental it's very inexpensive. But if you have a huge group, it might be more difficult.

 

The ports are Kahului, Mahi; Hilo, Hawaii, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii (tender) and Nawiliwili Harbor in Lihue, Kauai.

 

There are ship sponsored Molokini Tours that provide transportation. You might be better off checking into one of those for a larger group.

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ransrider

ransrider

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Thanks for the quick reply. It is just me and my husband travelling this time which makes the van cost for two unrealistic. I will check into NCL's excursion offerings. Thanks so much for your help. I really enjoyed your review, one of the best I have read on the POA. How did you get pictures to insert with your review?

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kjcombs89

kjcombs89

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Thanks for the quick reply. It is just me and my husband travelling this time which makes the van cost for two unrealistic. I will check into NCL's excursion offerings. Thanks so much for your help. I really enjoyed your review, one of the best I have read on the POA. How did you get pictures to insert with your review?

 

Aw thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

 

To add photos...there's a little paperclip at the top of the text box when you write a message. If you click on that it gives you the option of adding photos.

 

And just FYI...NCL doesn't offer the same Trilogy Excursion. I believe the NCL offered Molokini tour is through the Pacific Whale Foundation. I'm sure it will be good...I hope you have the same crystal clear water that we had! It was amazing!!! :)

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kjcombs89

kjcombs89

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Thank you so much for a wonderful review. Just wondering in Maui port, did you happen to notice any shuttles to the Queen Ka'ahumanu Shopping centre? And if so was it free or was there a cost?

 

Sorry, I didn't notice as we were only hunting for our rental car shuttle. That shopping center is about a mile away though from the pier, so if you are physically able it's definitely close enough to walk.

 

If you search CC for that shopping center, you'll come up with info.

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/search/results.cfm

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  • 3 months later...
kjcombs89

kjcombs89

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Awesome review, we are cruising this September 2015 on POA. How can I buy on-ship credit before we sail? Do I just go to the website? Thanks so much, we are only second time cruisers:)

 

Hi there! I know you'll enjoy the cruise...we loved it and still talk about it all the time...and we are already planning a return trip! ;)

 

As far as on-board credit, you can buy that ahead of time through your account on their website but I believe you will still have to give them a credit card for your account. We have never purchased credits ahead of time (although we HAVE had our TA gift them to us). We have always just put everything on the CC and paid for it in full after we are home.

 

If you don't use what you put on yourself, I'm pretty sure you can get them refunded to you (back to your CC). Same goes with pre-paid excursions. If they are canceled by the ship (due to weather) they will put the money onto your ship account, but if you don't use it up by the end of the cruise, they will credit your CC.

 

The only exception to this is the gift of on-board credit by a TA. You can't get that back...use it or lose it. At least that's my understanding. :)

 

Have a fabulous time!!!

Edited by kjcombs89
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punkincc

punkincc

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Posted (edited)
For those of you who have been on POA- do they have self-service laundry? I read a post in another topic and said that NCL doesn't offer self-service laundry....

 

None of the NCL ships have self service laundries, but they do offer laundry service, and I seem to recall a laundry special of some sort around mid week. Have never used it, but reportedly you can stuff quite a few pieces in the bag. May take advantage of it next cruise as we will be Platinum cruisers get a free bag each.

Edited by punkincc
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  • 5 months later...
bsblindab

bsblindab

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I would love to go with someone who is adventurous to drive around.

Are there any restaurants that you can walk to from the pier..or even a post office. I mailed home some souveniers when we were in Alaska. thank goodness as my luggage would have been wayyyy over.

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GeezerCouple Holiday Sharing Rare

GeezerCouple

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I would love to go with someone who is adventurous to drive around.

Are there any restaurants that you can walk to from the pier..or even a post office. I mailed home some souveniers when we were in Alaska. thank goodness as my luggage would have been wayyyy over.

 

I think you would enjoy checking the Roll Call specific to your cruise:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=359

 

GeezerCouple

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