Pride of America Recap - Sail Date 7/9/2016

[moethecat]

Pride of America Recap - Sail Date 7/9/2016

 

Hello. Just finished a cruise on the POA. Decided to post a recap for prospective future cruisers and others.

Pre Cruise day and First Day:

 

We arrived a day early in Honolulu (around 2:30ish) and used Hawaii23 transportation to travel to the Marriott Waikiki. Cost was $30 for the three of us. The driver was friendly and the transport SUV was clean. Seemed to be a bit of traffic heading to the Waikiki area so we arrived and checked in at the hotel around 3:30ish. The pre cruise night at the Marriott Waikiki was part of the NCL package. Hotel was very nice. Essentially oceanfront. Our room was spacious, clean and the balcony had a decent view of the ocean. The NCL check-in at the hotel was efficient and there were food and drink places nearby. (ABC stores everywhere!!) At check-in at the NCL desk, our cruise security photo was taken and we were provided with a few other cruise documents. For most of the first day we slept. After around 12 hours of flying we were tired and 6 hours "jet lagged".

 

The next morning, we walked down to the beach and spent a bit of time in the water. Nice beach and we watched the surfers, paddle boarders and the Pride (in the distance) returning from its previous journey. After getting cleaned up, we had breakfast at a Wolfgang Pucks restaurant that was nearby. Decent food but nothing special. Breakfast was followed by a walk of a little more than half a mile along the main beach front road and a stop at a Ross's to pick up a few things for the cruise. Upon returning from the walk, we packed up and headed to the lobby for transport to the ship. Our initial assigned transport departure time to the ship was 11:45 but we were a bit early in packing and were able to get on to the 11:30 bus to the ship. That was kind of nice.

 

Once at the port we breezed through check-in and were on the ship a few minutes after 12:00. Our state room was not ready so we headed up to the Aloha cafe for some lunch. Nothing really special about lunch but a burger, fries and a slice of pizza was all I was looking for. After lunch we sat in the shade by the pool and listened to the band play some music.

 

The ship was clean. Actually probably very clean. No "bad" smells. Kind of nice being on a recently refurbished ship. Felt new. Around 3:00, cabins on decks started being coming available to occupy. Decks 12 and 13. Then 11. Then 10 and 4. 9 and 7 and so on. Unfortunately, the people on deck 8 staged a sit in to block the stairs to our deck (7). I guess they were unhappy that their cabin was not ready and this caused a somewhat lengthy delay in making it to our cabin. Probably would have been better for us to try and reach the cabin via one of the stairways not so close to the middle of the ship and then walk across to our cabin.

 

The remainder of the day was unpacking and a nap. Still was a bit jet lagged and once we left port I needed to adjust a bit to the ship moving. Usually takes a day or so to adjust. Somewhat late night dinner at Aloha cafe, a getting to know the ship walk around and then back to sleep for a few hours.

 

Cabin: Port side balcony. Cabin 7660 towards the aft part of the ship. The cabin was close to an elevator and the main dining rooms. (Liberty and Skyline) The aft part of the ship also has the Aloha dining area which was nice to be near. Hollywood theater and Mardi Gras lounge were towards the front of the ship but the walk to them was not very far. There were three of us staying in the cabin. The cabin had plenty of space and was quiet (had been worried about noise from the Liberty dining room which was directly below). The balcony was very nice to have even though most of the time the ship was in port. Port side is certainly better for viewing the Na Pali coast will the Starboard side likely would have been better for viewing the lava flow. Room was clean. No issues. We had the mini bar emptied and used it as a fridge. Overall very satisfied with the room.

Cruise Staff: Throughout the whole cruise the cruise staff was friendly, polite and helpful. I liked having a cruise staff made up of people from all round the U.S. The first day I wore my University of Maryland shirt and it turned out to be a good conversation starter with the cruise staff. The staff seemed willing and eager to share a bit about themselves. Where they were from, how long they had been on the ship and so forth. Always seemed to be someone around to clean up plates, direct you to where you wanted to go or answer a question. Late at night there were a few maintenance tasks going on. Replacing pieces of carpet, touch up painting and various other things. Kind of was nice to see them taking care of the ship. Overall very satisfied with the cruise staff.

 

Other Cruisers: Other cruisers were friendly on the cruise. Always seems to be a few people upset because the pepperoni pizza needing another couple of minutes to cook or something else very trivial. But people seemed to be in good spirits and enjoying the cruise. A good mix of couples, families and people celebrating special events. (birthdays and anniversaries).

 

Even though we brought a case of water and some soda on to the cruise, we did purchase a soda package for the cruise. After the July 9th cruise water and soda can no longer be brought on to the ship.

 

That was a recap of Friday and Saturday. Good start to the cruise. I'll add the next days, etc later in the week.

[Clarea]

Looking forward to the rest.:)

[Keith1010]

Enjoying this.

 

Keith

[SheehanDJ]

The pre cruise night at the Marriott Waikiki was part of the NCL package. Hotel was very nice. Essentially oceanfront. Our room was spacious, clean and the balcony had a decent view of the ocean.

 

We stayed there when we spent a week in Hawaii, used Marriott points so it was free, excellent hotel. NCL crew members stay there for a night or sometimes two pre and post contract, we met a few of them at the pool bar, could they tell some stories.

[titangas]

Thinking of taking this cruise next summer, looking forward to more - Following

[greatlakesgirl]

Nice start! Looking forward to the rest!

[eyemd1]

Thanks for the info.

I'm anxious to hear about the excursions, did you do private or ship's tours? We are traveling with a 12 year old and are from the east coast as well.

[mgfiest]

great stuff... we looking at 2018 and was hoping to hear first any info... keep it up.

[moethecat]

Thanks everyone for the comments!

 

Cruise Day 2 - Sunday

 

For excursions during the cruise, we booked five through Roberts and one through NCL. Monday was the road to Hana in Maui through Roberts. We were in a small van/shuttle with a total of about 20 people. The road to Hana is a must do. Amazing ride. Amazing sights and an amazing driver. The driver was very informative, funny and really seemed to enjoy his job. Multiple stops, multiple waterfalls and just a great trip. We actually traveled well beyond Hana and circled around the mountain and back to the ship. The excursion included visiting two national parks and seeing the black sand beach. One of my regrets from the trip was not tipping the driver more. He was fantastic.

 

Before the excursion (and actually each day) we had breakfast at the Aloha café which opened at 6:00. Always something tasty to eat. Eggs, pancakes, waffles, etc

 

Sunday evening, after taking a nap, we dined at the Skyline dining room. Nothing really special here. Food was tasty and the service was good. Following dinner, we sat and listened to acoustic guitar at Pink’s Champagne Lounge. We did this quite a few times during the cruise. Carrie Stone was the guitarist/singer. She was excellent and her music was a highlight of the cruise. (More information about her can be found looking up her name on the internet). She took requests, played some of her own songs and really made us feel welcomed.

 

Cruise Day 3 – Monday

 

Monday’s excursion was through Roberts to the Haleakala crater. Overall the excursion was good but not great. The driver just seemed depressed, kept talking about sugar cane leaving Maui (last harvest this year) and seemed angry at other drivers. The crater was interesting. We were not able to go to the summit because we were in a large bus. (only smaller buses and vans allowed to the summit) We did stop at the main crater viewing point and visitor station. This was around 10,000 feet above sea level. The excursion had only two stops, halfway up the mountain and the crater viewing point. It was interesting to be above the clouds and the excursion was a chance to get some great panoramic pictures.

 

After returning from the excursion, it was a quick nap. (common theme each day) Dinner (my fiancée’s 50th birthday dinner) was at Moderno the Brazilian steakhouse. Moderno is at the very aft part of the ship. There was a lot of food…. Maybe 10 different meats. Very tasty meal and Moderno was worth dining at. My daughter and myself were still trying to get over a bit of motion sickness but still enjoyed the meal. The staff song happy birthday to my finance Brazilian style which was kind of cool.

 

Following dinner, we went to the Gold Rush Saloon and listened to karaoke for a little while. The karaoke was fun however the Saloon was a bit crowded. So we headed back to Pinks Champagne bar to listen to some more acoustic guitar and songs. The show closed out with a crew member singing a song. He was a top ten finisher on the first season of America Idol and had a fantastic voice. Not sure what his role currently is on the ship. Great way to end the show.

 

Off to bed after the show. Great first four days of vacation.

 

More to follow and I will try to post some pictures soon.

[riclop]

Thanks for the recap.

[moethecat]

 

 

 

 

 

[Cruzin4Lifer]

Very thorough review and nice pics! Looking forward to the reading the next installment!

[moethecat]

Background:

This cruise was my fifth cruise and first on NCL. The previous four had been split between RCCL and Carnival. The cruise was my second seven-night cruise with the others being shorter in duration. First cruise outside of the Caribbean.

 

One thing I left out of Monday was the latitude members get together. It was a fun event and everyone was very friendly. The Captain spoke for a while along with a few other crew members. My fiancée won a bottle of wine and some chocolates. That was kind of neat!!

 

Cruise Day 4 - Tuesday: On Tuesday we arrived in the morning at Hilo on the Big Island. The Big Island was different then Maui and Maui was different then Oahu. Each island and stop was unique and each island seemed to have a unique personality. It would not have felt like we saw Hawaii without seeing each of the four main islands.

 

 

Our excursion at Hilo was Volcano national park and Rainbow falls through Roberts. The bus driver was excellent. Probably one of the best we had during the cruise and likely the most informative. Our first stop was Rainbow falls. Although the falls were interesting, they were a bit below expectations. As we left the falls I wondered if that was all there was to them. It was not what I would call a wasted stop but probably something I would not have minded skipping. The next two stops were the macadamia nut factory and the orchid garden. Both were interesting but not spectacular. It was fun to sample different kinds of macadamia nuts at the factory and they had a free self-guided tour which we didn’t do because we were busy ordering lunch. The orchid garden was nice as well. They had a self-guided tour for a few dollars which we didn’t do. We did have lunch at the garden and browsed around the store. At each island we bought multiple postcards and sent them to ourselves. This was one of the stops where we bought a postcard.

 

 

The main part of the excursion was next which was volcano national park. We made four stops in the park. The lava lubes were a bit underwhelming. Seemed like just a very damp cave to me. The steam vents, which was a quick stop, were neat to see. The 1974 lava flow and the “steaming crater” were the best stops. Both were amazing! Walking on the lava flow and seeing trees and shrubs springing from the volcanic rock was amazing. Our shuttle driver gave us a brief but very informative background on the flow. The “steaming crater” (not sure what else to call it) was amazing as well. It was a bit in the distance but an incredible sight.

 

 

After a long excursion my daughter and myself grabbed a quick bite at the Aloha café while my fiancée napped. The show on Tuesday was an illusionist. My daughter and I went to the show which was in the Hollywood theater. The show was above average and I would recommend seeing it. The show won’t blow you away but will be entertaining.

 

 

Being that the ship had started to head to Kona, we were starting to feel a bit motion sick. This had nothing to do with excessive rocking or anything unusual with the cruise. Just seems to happen to us. So a power nap was in order and that it was we did.

 

 

Unfortunately, my power nap was a bit too powerful. I awoke at 9:55 which was 10 minutes past when we would be passing the newly started lava flows. I raced up the stairs from deck seven to the aft part of deck twelve. By this time, we had passed the lava flow and everyone had gone back to having fun with other activities. However, we were not that far past the lava flow and I could still see the lava throb and glow in multiple streams down the mountain. It was a bit surreal. As the flow faded into the distance I headed back to my cabin for the night.

 

 

Cruise Day 5 - Wednesday:

Wednesday we arrived at Kona. Before tendering to Kona we used the hot tub at the aft part of the ship near the Waikiki bar. I guess a lot of people were sleeping in as we had the hot tub to ourselves for a while.

We tendered a bit early to Kona and stopped at an ABC store to pick up a few things. The excursion on Wednesday was through Roberts and was called Historic Kona. This actually was an excursion I considered skipping but was glad that I did not. Our bus drive was good but not exceptional. The first stop was a Kona coffee plantation and shop. If you are into coffee this would be heaven! I am not but still enjoyed tasting the brews and viewing the museum. We did purchase quite a few different blends of coffee at the shop. An added bonus was the property had a lava lube in the back! I actually thought this lava lube was better, albeit smaller, than the one at volcanos national park.

 

Our second stop of the excursion was Puuhonua O Honaunau National Historical Park. Here we did a self-guided tour of the park. Probably not a must see but an enjoyable park. It was a bit hot out so we hurried through things a bit. The last stop we made was “The Painted Church”. The church was rather interesting. Actually, the story behind it was rather amazing and a very good unadvertised and unexpected stop. The church was the last stop we made except my fiancée got dropped off of the bus early so she could do some shopping. My daughter and myself grabbed lunch on the ship and took a nap before dinner.

 

For dinner on the ship we tried the specialty dining restaurant of Teppanaki. Teppanaki is inside the East Meets West dining area around midship. We arrived a bit early and went to look at some of the shops and the photo gallery place. (This is where you purchase pictures the ship’s crew has taken of you. We posed for every one we could!) At 7:30 we were seated along with two other couples. Teppanaki is a Japanese Hibachi grill. The experience was fun but not a must do. The food was tasty, the chef was entertaining and our table mates were very nice. They did offer a very interesting cocktail that my fiancée enjoyed and my daughter (and myself) enjoyed trying to catch the shrimp the chef tossed at us.

 

 

After dinner it was a listening to a few songs at Pinks Champagne bar and then were off to bed.

 

One thing I have not mentioned is that I attempted to grab a croissant and latte at John Adams Coffee Bar in the morning a couple of times but they did not seem to open very early. Also I tried to grab some food at the Cadillac diner late one night but it was a bit confusing as to how to order carry out so I skipped it and just went back to the cabin for some rest. Lastly the gelato stand on deck 11 between the main pool and the Aloha café was not open for business yet. Kind of a disappointment but at least free soft serve ice cream was always available in the Aloha Café!

 

 

Six days of vacation done. More to come…

 

[moethecat]

 

 

 

[mgfiest]

This is very informational... noticed you used Roberts instead of NCL.. I went to their website and seem their excursion were longer then NCL.. prices really not much diff maybe a few $ less.

[moethecat]

This is very informational... noticed you used Roberts instead of NCL.. I went to their website and seem their excursion were longer then NCL.. prices really not much diff maybe a few $ less.

 

I have to correct what I said early. We did 6 excursions through Roberts. Not 5. We did the 5 excursion package and added on the Road to Hana.

 

The Roberts excursions were less crowded which was nice.

 

Booking the 5 excursion package plus the road to hana via Roberts was $285

If we had booked individually through Roberts it would have been $377

If we had booked through NCL it would have been $644.

 

Yes I believe the Roberts tours were longer then NCL. In addition most ran at least 30 minutes longer then scheduled. Probably one ended early and one ended on time.

[moethecat]

 

 

 

 

[moethecat]

 

 

 

 

 

[moethecat]

 

 

 

 

 

[moethecat]

All caught up on pictures :)

 

Next days recap coming soon...

[tempus137]

If this was your first NCL cruise, how did you get into the Latitudes cocktail party?

[kbklcamp]

Gorgeous pics. Thx for the details. I'd love to cruise hawaii

 

 

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[D&N LUV 2 TRAVEL]

Thanks for taking the time to provide us with a detailed review and great pics.

We will be on the POA next Feb and were thinking of using Roberts for the Pearl Harbour and city tour of Honolulu and maybe at other ports.

Do they use the big highway coaches or smaller vans for their tours ?

We are used to the personal touch provided with smaller groups and not to fond of the larger buses for tours.

[cincicruisers]

Great review.

[horseymike]

Great Review