POAM 9/17 Just Back another opinion

[celebrate]

Aloha everyone. We are just back from the 9/17 sailing. We are very tired so I will be doing a more extensive review tomorrow...hopefully.

I must say I have been reading some of the comments and have decided that this cruise or any other is what you want to make of it. Everyones expectations I can see are going to be entirely different.

Getting on ship was pretty easy. If you are held up at all it is by customs and once you are through them NCL has many booths and it only takes a few minutes to get your card on board. We went around 1:00 and even though there was a big group there we "sailed" through and had no problems.

 

My comments from now on are my own thoughts and if I disagree with anyone I am in no way "putting down" what they have to say as we all will be seeing it differently.

 

I am too tired to write anymore tonight so will put as much as I can here tomorrw but I must warm you most of it is POSITIVE.:D

[CruisinMK]

Looking forward to your review.

I'm going oct 15th so any tips/advice you can provide are appreciated!

[hot cookie]

Yup, Celebrate, I must agree with your opinions on this cruise! Unfortunately we didn't meet up on board (so many things going on after embarkation.....), but we both agree with your statement that all in all, it was a pretty good cruise! :)

 

I can't wait to read your review!

[celebrate]

I am back feeling a little better today. So lets get going. After embarking on the ship which I said was fairly easy we decided to go to a restaurant for lunch. When asking the way we were kind of pushed to go to the buffett (which I am sure they had instructions to do) so we tried it and and if you couldn't find anything you liked there then I would say you would probably wouldn't like anything the rest of the time. It was excellent and had so many choices.

Yes, the rooms were not ready when we arrived but by the time we were through lunch we decided to find our room and it was all ready and in good shape.

Dominique who ended up taking care of our room couldn't do enough for us. When we asked for decaff coffe she said she didn't have any but would find us some no matter what and when we arrived back to the room there were 6 packets sitting there. We did find out if you wanted clean towels that you had to leave them on the floor of the shower or bathroom like a hotel and they gave you clean ones. If you left them on the rack they did not change them. Conserving water on the ship and the Islands is a big thing.

We then unpacked and after that toured the ship and met Tracy and John(Yorkshire) at the wine bar. I am sorry hot cookie that you and the rest never showed up. We would have enjoyed meeting you. We had dinner and met Yorkshire several times and intend to keep in touch. We did get to meet lovscorgis and their beautiful daughter at the end...wish we had met soorner!

 

I will jump to a few things about the ship. We did none of the specialty restaurants so i can't comment on them. Ate mostly in the Skyline and a few times in the Liberty. We made a reservation the day before for the next day around 7:00 7:30 and 8:00 at night so we never had to wait in line. No the servers are not the same as those on international ships and never will be. But we found them all bending over backward to do what ever they could for you. Some were much better than others but the less experienced ones still tried very hard. Sometimes it was a little slow but we always made the shows and who wants to rush dinner on a ship anyway...being waited on etc.

The food was not gourmet but enjoyable and I do think they could offer more choices..my only complaint.

If you want wine , order by the bottle..cheaper in the long run.. and they store it for you to bring up whenever you want. As for bringing on alcohol, they probably will take it. i happened to bring on a bottle of opened vodka in my suitcase because i had it at my hotel and was not going to throw it out. They never took it or held my bag. I did not drink it either and used it when I got back to my hotel again.

The breakfast buffett, which I guess others did not like was fine for us. There were lots of choices and I am not sure why they did not like it. I would say potatoes were the only thing that was not varied or great having only the one kind. But there were so many other choices...and the eggs if bland ..well there were lots of choices to spice them up or make them better, you also could have had fried eggs , and omlets which I had every day with ham, tomatoes, cheese, mushrooms etc and you could have had scrambled eggs from that station and put any of those items in them.... They had lox, bagels, muffins, pastries, toast and cereals,lots of fruits ...PINEAPPLE which was so delicious..every day lots of it....where we on the same ship?

 

The lunch buffett also had lots and in the late afternoon they always had things out at the open part of the Aloha Cafe so you could always eat when you came back from an excursion. Tons of desserts were available and a soft serve ice cream maker...yum yum

Never made it to the Cadillac Diner..so no comments on that.

On to the shows...Rich the cruise director was, sorry to say, not the best. But the shows were enjoyable...this is not Broadway in NY.. and the kids did an excellent job. Rebecca Lowe was wonderful with a beautiful voice but is leaving the ship for another. I hope her replacement is as good. We did not go to the disco parties except for one night...my dh does not dance much..but they seemed to be really good and i am sure a fun time. we did not do any afternoon activities as we were too busy.

Lots of picture taking ...your choice to do or not..you don't have to purchase any if you don't want to so why not take some.

The Chocolate Buffett was ...yes to die for...but some people were such pigs walking out with plates piled high ..I am sure they never ate half of it..There was still more than enough for everyone though.

 

Yes we got to do the cruise by the volcano..and to me it was fun. No it was not up close and not a lot to see...but that is just not feasible as there is no way the ship can get close and be safe! You have to use your imagination some on that one.

The cruise by NaPali coast was awsome. i do not see how anyone can not enjoy this. We had rain and fog just before coming up to the cliffs and then the sun came out leaving several big rainbows some going down to the cliffs. This was just beautiful..topped off by a brilliant sunset....if you cannot find a few moments of awe and beauty in this then i feel sorry for you.

Our excursions were quiet ones and not adventurous and I will tell you more on them and the ports in my next post.

 

if anyone has any questions ask away and if you want send an e-mail and i can answeryou seperately.

 

As for pre and post info. I will try to answer questions on Honolulu if i can. We did not get around the island as I had wanted to...which means we have to go back Ha..

We went to to Pearl Harbor..very emotional thinking about all those that are buried there...climbed diamond Head...go early.. very hot... bring water.. beautiful at the top

Swam in the Pacific on Waikiki...just beautiful wish we had more time to do that...it was very HOT and sometimes humid when we were in Hawaii. Bring plenty of sunscreen and use it a lot to avoid a bad sunburn. Rode the busses so can helpm you out some there. Ate at tha Cheese ake Factory..good variety...VERY CROWDED..plan to wait..get your name in and then go shop around a little to kill time.

Also got to Dukes...also Very busy but fun...we ate in the bar area for a quick meal.

Went to the CELEBRATION Show ate the Sheraton Princess K...do it off the internet,(if they still have the special it is less , you get a lei and are seated before the general public.) We did the buffett, very good and the show was excellent. We did this in place of a luau and enjoyed it very much.

As for the hotel itself, beautiful lobby, great eating areas, nice pool. The rooms will have to be redone in a year or so...but a motel 8..no way. A decent 3 * hotel. Check in was 3 and check out 11 as most hotels are...but they have a courtsey room and you can shower and change there which we did before out 10:00pm flight. You also get 35% off if you eat at any of their hotels..pretty good deal! Our hair dryer didn't work and in less than 5 minutes we had a brand new one and then later received a $15.00 dinner coupon for being inconvenienced! Did we all stay in the same Sheraton Princess K? i say for the price we paid it couldn't be beat. just be careful of the room as there is street music that can keep you awake if your are a light sleeper. The music from their pool area is over by 9:30 so that is no problem

 

Ok enough for today the time change is catching up and after doing laundry all day i am tired and I had to make my own lunch!!!

I will not change spelling errors or typos so deal with it ..Mahalo:D

[penorment]

Celebrate, I am glad you had such a good time. You seem able to stop and smell the roses and skip the thorns. These positive reviews give me hope!!!! Though I have to admit in 6 cruises, I have never been impressed by the breakfasts (of course I am usually running late and can't wait for the cooked to order eggs...I move really slow in the morning and am married to one of those morning people!!)so I only have myself to blame. What cabin tyoe did you have and how many days did you do post and precruise. Did you rent a car in Honolulu? How did you work out getting to the pier and returning the car? I think I would lkie to eat at Duke's but I have kids so the bar probably wouldn't work for me. Do they take reservations?

[conchqn]

Celebrate, Could you please clear something up for me? Can you make reservations for all the restaurants, not just the specialty ones? If so, does that you don't have to wait in line? Thanks, Pat

[jcinzano]

go to an ABC store, they're every 5 feet in the islands. there you will find tons of those little plastic airline bottles of vodka, rum, etc. put a them in your pockets before you go through POAM security... and volia! booze on the cruise.

[CruisinMK]

I'm going October 15th. The one thing I fear is a 2 hour dinner, I could handle it fine, but not some of the people I am travelling with! I will try some of the tips offered here.

[lhall85917]

Thanks so much for sharing your experience. Its great to read a positive review!!

[hot cookie]

Oh Celebrate, I wish we could have met up on board! Unfortunately, it just wasn't meant to be I guess! I think you summed up the cruise beautifully - it actually was a very nice, fun-filled week. We found all the crew to be very receptive to any request ( we actually found 2 people from our home-town - GO STEELERS!!!!) and it was a lot of fun to talk about "back home" and how they got recuited onto the ship.

 

I also agree with you about the Aloha buffet.......a wonderful assortment of foods at each meal. The peel and eat shrimp available at lunch were the biggest, tastiest I've ever eaten! And the deserts???? Did I mention I gained 5 pounds last week? :o

 

Rich, the cruise director, didn't bother me at all.....at least he was trying!! He had a "goofy" way of acting which might have been off the wall for some - but hey....I've seen some cruise directors that were real stick-in-the-muds, too, so I appreciate that he at least tried. Maybe he was trying a little "too hard" because his parents were on board last week?

 

I had posted somewhere else that I was a a little bit disappointed with the volcano......maybe it was me, but from all the build-up I heard beforehand, I expected it to be a much more dramatic presentation.

 

The shore excursions we went on were not too adventurous, either, I'm afraid. We went on the submarine dive, the luau, the clear-bottom boat ride, and....ahem, the booze cruise!! And we loved all of them! We heard alot of people complaining about the luau, but we thoroughly enjoyed it.....a delicious buffet, an open bar, plus appropriate entertainment for the islands.....a good time was had by all at our table!

 

Thanks again, Celebrate, for the wonderful review!

[sunshine 229]

Celebrate,

 

Thank you for posting the review and so many details. Getting it all down in type can be daunting especially when you are jet lagged.

 

I am very happy to hear that most everyone posting here had a good time on their recent POAmerica cruise and happy that you got to see both the lava and the Na Pali coast. I hope this means that future cruisers will be getting to see those too.

In the end there will always be some people who enjoy any cruise more than other people do, but lately, there do seem to be many more positive reports on this ship, so I've got to hope that means that things really are improving.

[celebrate]

Penorment..i am not a morning person but managed to to eat breakfast. i only eat a half of a muffin or bagel at home so maybe that was why i was ok with the buffett. We had an inside cabin on deck 9 aft.. had a good size bed ..two twins together and enough room to store our clothes and i bring lots. DH is 6'2" about 200 lbs and he said the shower was ok , yes it is small but he managed. Our room had 2 bunk beds that pulled down..if you had small kids i guess it would be ok..but older kids would make it tough to move around when they were down I am sure.

 

We arrived Wed. evening so had Thur. and Fri. pre cruise No we did not rent a car so I really can't help you there. If you are not using it the day you board then it might be easier to turn it in the night before and take a cab...they said nor more than $20.00 for the 2 of us and luggage...if you have more you may have to look into a van..maybe someone else can answer what to do with the car.

Post cruise we left on a 10:00 pm flight on Mon. so we had lots of extra time. Yes you can make reservations at Dukes and i definately would do that or you will wait forever. Hope this helps:)

 

conchgn...yes we did reservations the morning before the next night and did them in The Liberty and Skyline. The Liberty usually filled up faster and they filled up quick for Formal night and lobster night. Then you just tell them you have a reservation and they bring you in...no wait...now don't tell everyone on the ship or it may get harder to do:D

 

Jcinzano..Never thought of that...those small bottles..but don't they cost more? I didn't drink mine anyway as i did wine..but a good idea...and yes they charge so much i wouldn't feel bad about doing it.

 

Hot Cookie...Well maybe if I had met you i could have danced the night away with you! Glad you enjoyed your excursions. Having fun is what you want to do. Rich didn't bother me and yes maybe he was trying too hard.

Oh and Go Patriots...Ha ha;)

 

For those of you who don't rent a car and do the ship excursions I must say that the drivers .. (we had all native Hawaiians)..did just a great job. They gave so much insight and information about the background of Hawaii, the people and were truly very interesting and there fore the bus rides were not so boring. One told a story about Poi and how it was used by a mother mixed with water for her premature baby to eat as it was dying and could not eat anything. The baby lived and is now a healthy man...and it turned out that it was her son. So Poi may not be so bad after all.

 

We did Volcanoes National Park and the lava tubes. It was a little chilly there so you may want to bring a jacket or something warm. You do not need a flashlight in the tubes as they are lighted. We enjoyed this very much. Also did Waimea Canyon..beautiful.. scenery but not as awesome as The Grand Canyon. We took the bus to Lahaina...lots of shopping...the big banyan tree is there. But if you want to see the Whaling Village you have to take a shuttle there. They did not tell us that ans we did not allow oourselves enough time to see it. i was very dissapointed as that was my main object of going and shopping was second.

Then we did the Maui tropical Plantation and Iao Valleyasnd needle. That was very different to. If you don't like seeing the beauty of this land and are not into nature...you probaly wouldn't like these.

I really wanted to do the down hill bike ride but I have to have an operation on my foot so passed on that. I have it on Oct 12 :eek:

 

We hung out at the pool at the aft end of the ship and it was less crowded. And if you get a chance go to the Champagne bar and listen to W.T.Greer he is very good.

 

Getting off the boat we had a nice breakfast and then went to the Goldrush bar to watch some of the Nascar race while waiting. Wasn't too bad. if you have an early flight , just check with them and let them know you have to be off early and they would put you with the first group I am sure..on go on your own which i think is before 7:30. i would say though, if you havn'y booked a flight yet...do not book an early one as our ship was delayed a little as there were so many boast and traffic they day we came in.

 

Back to Honolulu if you want a fast inexpensive breakfast go to keoni's @ 2375 Kuhio Ave.

 

Any other questions just ask and if i can answer them I will. I also found a place that sells jewerly wholesale. There is a lot of coral and such and some gold and Pearls. i got a pearl put in a ring that I brought with me. So give me your e-mail if yoou need to know that.

Aloha and i hope you all enjoy your trip as much as we did.:)