On POA 9/3 - 9/10....very nice cruise...but....

[DocRock143]

Hi all...just spent the last week on POA. Some initial concerns re Hurricane, but none materialized. A little bumpy the first night, the rest of the cruise smooth sailing...not even any rain. We stayed in Suite 10000 right square in the center of the ship, in the front. We are hard core Princess fans, but took POA due to the Hawaii multiple island 7 day itinerary and flying in and out of Honolulu.

 

High points / low points

1. Great butler service and concierge attention from George and Thomas respectively. Both met every need. Dinner reservations, no problem - Thomas made sure all our seats were by the window, whether in Liberty dining room, or specialty restaurants. Never a line to get a table in the Liberty dining room. Suite spacious and well maintained. However, bathroom area is not separated from bedroom area by a door (for the toilet, there is a glass door, but not very private). Very narrow balcony, but that's specific to this cabin.

 

2. Good tours

Don't miss volcano national park on the big island. Overall, tours way too expensive. Cheapest 3 - 4 hour tours cost $95.

 

3. Shows/Comedian/Magician-illusionist

Comedian and magician excellent. Production shows so/so. No live orchestra, just recorded music. Plenty of room in the theater for all shows, even front rows had empty seats.

 

4. Cruise Director - Jasper / Staff

One word for Jasper - obnoxious.

Rest of cruise staff very helpful and pleasant. Very friendly. More older non-dining room cruise staff than I have seen elsewhere.

 

5. Food

Very good, not excellent. Specialty restaurants better than main dining room. My bride ordered a fancy fruit mango flambe dessert...it looked like canned DelMonte Fruit cocktail, compete with heavy syrup...seriously!! Princess cruises food several levels better overall.

 

6. Ship

Just refurbished. Excellent condition...but some public areas with carpet bunching that saw folks tripping on.

 

7. Embarkation/Disembarkation

Smooth and easy, but embarkation may have been good because suite passengers. Leaving ship easy and organized.

 

Overall, a very nice cruise and we enjoyed ourselves. Nothing on the cruise, including observations above, was a big deal to make us not enjoy. Would potentially cruise again with NCL, I think.

Edited September 12, 2016 by DocRock143

[dexddd]

Interesting to hear about the carpet. The carpet they put in the public areas was really nice when we went on just after the drydock.

 

We also had Thomas and George.

[Clarea]

Appreciate the feedback.

[pattyj 1204]

Thanks for the quick report. Glad to hear you had a good time. I'll watch out for the ripples in the carpeting. But by Feb. they will have the areas fixed.

[Host Jazzbeau]

New carpet sometimes stretches, but that can be fixed. Hopefully it will be before we board on Oct. 8 :)

[easyboy]

Thanks for sharing your experience.

[BirdTravels]

Thanks for the review. We love the forward facing suites (even if the balconies are not as big as those on lower decks).

[Freckles_51]

Interesting to hear about the carpet. The carpet they put in the public areas was really nice when we went on just after the drydock.

 

We also had Thomas and George.

 

Hi dex, agree the new carpet was nice but we noticed that the carpet on the stairs was lifting in several places right after drydock. :eek:

[dexddd]

Hi dex, agree the new carpet was nice but we noticed that the carpet on the stairs was lifting in several places right after drydock. :eek:

 

Hi Freckles. So I can blame the tripping on the carpeting and not the cocktails?

 

As far as look, I thought the carpet they had put in was pretty nice looking but I was surprised that they didn't replace all of the carpet like in stateroom hallways. In the areas by the stairwells leading into the hallways they put in the new carpet for a few feet then it was back to the bright blue carpet that was there before. That wasn't all floors but quite a few.

[Freckles_51]

........ In the areas by the stairwells leading into the hallways they put in the new carpet for a few feet then it was back to the bright blue carpet that was there before. That wasn't all floors but quite a few.

 

Yes I thought that was odd.

 

The Getaway has the same hallway carpet with the fishes....no rebellious fish though...I cannot remember if there was a rebellious fish in the new POA hallway carpet....was there?

[dexddd]

Yes I thought that was odd.

 

The Getaway has the same hallway carpet with the fishes....no rebellious fish though...I cannot remember if there was a rebellious fish in the new POA hallway carpet....was there?

 

Yes, pretty sure the new brown carpeting they did put in the stateroom hallways had the rebellious fish. I'd have to check some pics to be 100% sure but I was looking for it on the ship so I'm pretty sure it did.

[punkincc]

That tiny rebellious fish was definately there in our hall carpeting.

 

I did not notice any areas of lifting, but there were some areas of mis matches like near the stairs and even some halls which had not been redone at all. My thought on the carpeting was that they had probably either run out of carpeting or time before drydock ended and that those areas would be completed later. I can't imagine they would spend that much money on a total refurb and then leave it that way permanently. Does the ship still have the mismatched carpet 6 months later?