Review POA Oct. 14

[Sunflower & The Scientist]

Pre cruise.....

 

 

 

Hawaii Review 10/22/2017

 

 

Pride of America Review

 

 

We were on Pride of America the week of 10/14. I always appreciate the reviews people writeafter they return from their cruise. Sonow it’s my turn to try to pass on my review to those who may be interested.Please feel free to ask questions.

 

 

First however, we formed opinions that may not be shared byothers who have done this cruise, or visited the same locations. It’s okay to disagree with me…peopleexperience things differently. My goal isto give my honest impressions.

 

 

We are a middle age couple who have cruised on HAL andRoyal, but never NCL.

 

 

 

We spent two nights at Marriott Waikiki, one night throughNCL, the other on our own.

 

 

Airport pickup Pleasant Holidays—It worked ok. The onlything we could not figure out was why the lady checking off our names as wearrived at baggage claim, welcomed some people with leis, and others of us shechecked our names off the list with her arm laden with leis, yet didn’t give usone. :( Go figure. Yes, petty complaint.

 

 

Marriott Waikiki—Room was very small. VERY SMALL. We eachhad one large suitcase and a carryon. Wehad a difficult time having space to open both of the suitcases and I had tocrawl off the end of the bed in order to get out of bed! It worked, and we were happy to have afridge. We used two of the concierges, one who did a great job, the other was atotal fail.

 

 

Waikiki Beach Restaurants – We are pretty boring eaters. Itwas our happy day to find there is a Subway within a two second walk from theMarriott! Yes, we may have eaten theremore than once. We asked the one failconcierge about restaurants and she told us there was basically only onechoice. HUH???? Seriously, you’d think she could do better than that! We looked at the menu there and it wasn’t us,so we went to the other concierge. Atthe same time we asked her if there was a grocery store within walkingdistance. Indeed there is, and we found it very helpful. They have fresh fruitcut up ready to eat. I’d been dying toeat fresh pineapple, and it was an absolutely perfect way to do that! My husband worked on making a dent in themelon population…we both were in fruit heaven. The little grocery store had a couple little places in it that sold preparedfood. One was grilling all kinds of meatand serving them with rice. Let’s justsay, it was delicious. We found a nicecoffee shop for our morning coffee at a hotel just a few blocks down from theMarriott, actually at a different hotel. We went there twice because we reallyliked it.

 

 

Waikiki Beach – This is where some no doubt, will disagreewith our opinion. We were notimpressed. The homeless situation isvery distressing. There are massivenumbers of homeless, and it makes it difficult to enjoy the beach. This is not foreign to us, we’ve spent a lotof time in San Francisco, as well as San Diego. Both places have huge homelesspopulations. Recently both places havebeen hit by a serious outbreak of hepatitis A and B. There have been a significant number ofdeaths. It is sad to report that as wewalked down the beautiful walkway in Waikiki first thing in the morning, we hadto step around human feces. As we walkedwe watched police arrest homeless who were sleeping in front of the store doorsthat could not be opened due to their bodies preventing the opening of thedoors. Groups of homeless have takenover the picnic table areas, sleeping on the tables and benches, thenclustering there during the day. Somehave set up housekeeping with quite a lot of their belongings covering thearea. They stare you down as you walkby. UNCOMFORTABLE. We heard locals say that the homeless issueis very much in the news, but no one seems to have a good solution. Unfortunately I fear they too will be havingHep A and B outbreaks.

 

 

One kind of funny note about Waikiki is the people that areout and about at odd hours trying to adjust to the change in time zones. We highly recommend spending a couple days inHawaii pre cruise to help adjust to the time zone change.

 

 

Pearl Harbor—We took the Pleasant Holiday Best of PearlHarbor tour. Price wise, it was fairlygood as we had money off and it wasn’t bad transportation. Other than that, there were some issues thatthey need to work on making better. First of all, they tell you to meet your tour outside the Marriott inthe area designated for tours. Fine….well not really! Finding your tour is a nightmare!! A zilliontours are whisking in and out of there and you have no idea where to find yourtour. Very confusing. Once we reached Pearl Harbor, our tour guidedid not give us the brochure he was supposed to give us…so we tried to find ourway around without any help. We went tothe area at our designated time to see the movie then board the boat to theArizona. There was mass confusion…and a zillion people. An elderly man volunteer was directingeveryone. We were ushered in the little theater and were seated and the moviewas playing when he came in and told everyone with our time reservations to leave. But our time was the correct time…so everyonebegan to protest, not to mention we were missing the beginning of this verymeaningful movie. He blubbered on andthen told us to go ahead and stay. Ithink he valued his life more than insisting a large group of people who hadbeen waiting for their appointed time, to leave! :mad: When the movie was over and we were told toboard the boat but the boat was full…and there were many people told to get offthe boat. Fortunately a family squeezedtogether enough to allow my husband and me to sit down. We were told that a cruise excursion was lateand arrived at our time, so they let them in our time slot. But what that meant was that people in ourtime slot who were on tours, could not wait for the next boat to the Arizonaand make it back to their tour bus in time to leave. It was just a very bad experience in a placewhere you don’t want to deal with problems, but rather take in the emotionalexperience.

 

 

The guy who drove thebus (basically that is all he did except to try to force us to call him cousin)blatantly asked for tips. He INSISTED ongrabbing everyone’s hand when they got off the bus. My husband and I watchedfrom our seats and it was obvious he expected a tip in that hand hegrabbed. If people did not do it, heasked them for their “hand.” My husbandand I may or may not have slipped off the bus behind someone who was doing theforced “hand” shake…I’ll never tell. We tipped generously on this trip….butthis guy was really irritating. (n)

Next post will continue with boarding POA.

[Sunflower & The Scientist]

Continuing....

Cruise

 

Boarding POA—Time to leave the hotel and get on board,:D againwith Pleasant Holiday doing the transportation. We had been given the 10:30 time to meet at the bus. Massive confusion and no one knew where to goor which bus was theirs. After waiting we found our bus and were on our way tothe pier. We were dropped off and shownthe door and that is when our lives changed….we suddenly became royalty. All we said was “We are in a suite,” and wewere whisked off to a small room with elegant goodies that weren’t served onpaper plates! No Styrofoam cups of coffee there! Everyone rushed about checkingus in as we wiped the lox and cream cheese off our lips. (ok we really weren’tthat messy) There was a little glitch with us however…our key cards weren’tthere. They were beside themselves…theysaid they had checked ALL the cards and they knew ours were there. Searching and apologizing, one of them ranoff somewhere to seek help, not knowing that there was a reason Zoe Davis wasthere with Thomas the concierge. Theyhad taken our cards to alert the check in people that we were to meet with Zoebefore boarding. Zoe was amazing. She did a fantastic job of finding out wherelatex was used on the ship, and doing her best to insure I would not have anyunfortunate encounters. The reallyexciting thing for me was that she understood the problem so well! I rarely deal with people who understandit. In fact, she had been working onthis for a few weeks prior to me boarding and worked with some balloons andsaid she quickly understood what causes such a deadly reaction in some people. After our little chat we were taken toCagneys. As we slurped our lobsterbisque, (we really didn’t slurp..we have better manners than that) we chattedabout our previous cruises where we squeezed through crowds in the buffet justhoping to find a place to sit and eat. Andhere we were with peace and quiet having a server place the starched clothnapkins across our laps.

 

I must say it took a long time for floor 11 to be cleared togo to our rooms.

 

Suite 11020—We no more got our suite door open when Luciaappeared, and Peter shortly after. Ohmy…we were overwhelmed with the attention to our needs. The entire week…Peter and Lucia wereAMAZING. We have never given additionaltips to our room stewards, just the typical tips. We did on this cruise! We joyfully tipped Peter…what a neat guy. For those of you who have had Lucia, she hada birthday on that Monday, her 61st birthday!

 

The suite…the location was excellent. It was quiet, you did not hear any noiseother than neighboring suite dwellers when on the balcony. Ours fortunatelywere not bad…except for the one quick whiff of cigarette smoke we got once, butdon’t know where that came from. The balcony size was more than adequate. There were two comfortable lounges with atable between, and a nice size table with 4 chairs, quite comfortable for us toinvite another couple for tea. (Note…I read on cruise critic to buy those largeclips and clip a towel over the lounge chairs. I ordered mine off Amazon andwas very thankful for them. They workedgreat…and made these germaphobes very happy!)

 

Hot water is an issue that NCL needs to deal with. It is very irritating to be without hot waterwhen you come in from an excursion totally grubby. Not having hot water was notinfrequent. We complained a couple times and got calls saying they had fixedthe problem. Not. We heard neighboringrooms complaining also. One crew membersaid she had the same problem in her room. When there is hot water sometimes you cannot mix cold with it, meaningyou best be able to move out of the way or get a really HOT shower. We were impressed with the water flow out ofthe shower and the size was real decent as it was a tub shower.

 

The room was a decent size. I may have torn out the makeup vanity and taken it home with me, if myhusband hadn’t promised to have one built for me at home. It’s just lovely having a nice little spaceto get dressed. Yes it’s still small, but it works. We found the storage space was adequate.

 

Restaurants

 

We are not picky eaters. I’m just happy to not cook for a week! But…we admit to food on a cruisenot being the highlight of our cruise. Too much, sometimes just too fancy, oron the other hand, mass made buffetfare.

 

Cagneys—We ate a couple of lunches and one dinner, and onebreakfast. It was good, although themeat portions would have fed us for 4 meals, (and that is not a joke when itcame to the pork chop I ordered) it felt so wasteful! Breakfast the fruit wasbeautifully arranged, but so little and it was not refilled while we werethere. We went to the buffet to get morefruit. BTW, the fruit wasincredible! We ate our weight in itevery day. They had a 7 layer chocolatecake which my husband knew I would order as it had me written all over it….butI took one bite and it was frankly lousy. I didn’t eat it and went for soft serve at the buffet!!! Cagneys carrot cake was the best dessert wehad on board, well besides our favorite….soft serve!

 

Moderno—The salad bar was delightful…I loved it, my husbandnot so much. Neither of us liked the meat and we didn’t stay long. I guess we just aren’t the big meat eaters.

 

Teppanyaki—Who doesn’t love the show they put on. Evidently the guy who did ours didn’t getthat message! He was lousy at best. He wasnew, I think 3 months on board. Thinkinghe won’t last. He just wanted to get done and get out of there. The guy in backof him was putting on a fun show for his group. We yawned and had some not well cooked meats. When we left we walked through East MeetsWest and later called down to make reservations hoping we’d get some good Asianfood there.

 

East Meets West—Seriously, we have yet to figure out whatthey had going on there. Never had eggdrop soup with corn in it…like lots of corn. It’s something you just don’t expect andalthough we like corn, it just didn’t do well in egg drop soup. Pot stickers are always winners…so we didn’t worryabout only eating a few bites of soup. Who knew….corn in the pot stickers! Again we like corn….but in pot stickers?? They were the worst ever potstickers….and I’m not picky cause I love them, but could only eat a couplebites. By this time we were gettinghungry as we 0 for 2. I had fried rice,my husband something else I can’t remember. He said his was ok…but kind of tasteless. My fried rice was lousy.

 

Liberty—We ate in Liberty two times with friends. The service was poor, we were rathersurprised it was not better. One eveningmy husband ordered the salmon dinner with butternut squash, and something elseI do not remember what it was. Ourfriend ordered the same. When their dinners came she her plate had green mashedpotatoes (we were told they were mashed with peas), salmon, and a large pieceof fennel. My husband’s plate came with regular mashed potatoes, salmon and asmall piece of fennel. We asked the server why what was on the plate wasdifferent than what they ordered, and why their orders were different from eachother’s. She was joined by anotherserver who tried to explain that the green pea mashed potatoes was actuallybutternut squash. His mother clearlynever served him butternut squash! One of the servers later came by to say sheasked the chef why they did not get what they ordered and he replied he madesomething else to serve. Well okey dokey…no matter my husband hates fennel anddidn’t want mashed potatoes. There’salways the buffet.

 

Aloha Buffet—We ate at the buffet most mornings because wecould get exactly what we wanted and were able to eat early. Sadly we aremissing the plate of fresh melon, pineapple and papaya we ate in mass everymorning, now that we are home. We mayhave visited the soft serve ice cream more than once…and maybe even filled abowl full and to take back to eat on our balcony. One funny side note story…my husband and Iwere walking out of Aloha each with a bowl of chocolate ice cream headed backto our room. A woman walking in said,“Oh look they are leaving with bowls of ice cream.” Her husband following her said, “That’sagainst the rules.” My husband and I hada good laugh over that as we savored the silky smooth goodness on ourbalcony. :'):'):')

 

[Sunflower & The Scientist]

Continuing....

On Board Shows andMusic Venues

 

We went to one because friends wanted us to go withthem. It was awful, didn’t go to anyothers. Music…being a music teacher Ithink I’ll refrain from commenting on it! ;)Let’s just say it does not compare to Royal at all. We did enjoy beingable to do a little dancing as there was another couple who were good dancersand we were able to have fun doing some ballroom dancing.

 

 

Ports

 

This is where I’m going to most likely make someonemad. We have heard nothing but praisefor every island, and every port. Iguess we just didn’t get it…but we were very disappointed. Please don’t misunderstand that to mean wedidn’t like this cruise, we enjoyed the cruise. We just don’t feel the need toever go back and revisit any of these places.

 

Honolulu—I’ve already covered Honolulu in our pre cruiseinformation.

 

Maui – Sunday we went on NCL Lahaina on your own. It was not pleasant. Six hours is about five hours too long. Itwas a very hot day. The beaches were terrible, tiny and you had to walk azillion miles to get to them and then stand with the million other peoplewanting to use the 20 square feet of sand. The second day we took the sugarmuseum and plantation tour. Seriously they need to drop the sugar museumpart of this excursion. It was a little museum in an old house, and frankly wewalked through and went back and sat on the bus. The excursion redeemed itself at theplantation. It was lovely and perhaps they should just go there forlonger. We could have easily stayedthere longer. They take you on a littletram and show you all the different types of trees. It was interesting andpretty.

 

Hilo --We took the NCL Volcano Rainbow Falls excursion. It was okay volcanoes are interesting, butthe wind was awful and it rained and was cold. That of course was not anyone’s fault. People started going back and sitting on the bus. The lava tunnel…..wow….it was a mess. We were not prepared for wading through waterand mud to get through it. We wereactually able to step around and find ways not to directly get in the water, butby all means, if you have a physical disability, please reconsider goingthrough there. We are abled bodied, andwe found ourselves hopping and skipping to try to get through it, and were alittle concerned that we would slip and fall. They stopped briefly at an orchid place and I’m enjoying the orchid wepurchased to bring home. It was rainyand windy…but we would say the excursion was worth it.

 

Kona – This was our most favorite day. We headed out on our own to walk the town.Peter had told us about the Farmers Market, so after a cup of real Kona coffeeat a nice little place (one of the activity people told us she likes tofrequent), we headed out to find the Farmers Market. We had a fun time looking through everythingthere. One of our wishes since going to the plantation in Maui, was to tastesome of the local fruit. So we bought a star fruit, passion fruit, andsomething else we don’t know the name of. Once back on board we tried them out. (Side note, skip the passionfruit, we didn’t find anything very passionate about it unless you like sourseeds.) The greatest find was an assortment of Indonesian made rhythminstruments. My husband spotted them and knew I would be thrilled. He was sweetto load me up with a wonderful assortment of things that will be fun for mymusic students. Definitely really a funwalk and a fun place. I may have visiteda couple ukulele shops while there also.

 

That afternoon we went on the glass bottom boat NCLexcursion. I had read reviews that weren’t too good on this, but we reallyenjoyed it and would recommend it. (I think it would be especially good forfamilies with children. It is a safe way for them to really get a good look atwhat is under the water.) It is short,but we saw some really fun things including a pod of dolphins with a newbornthat was thought to be only a day or two old. Every time one of the NCL tenderboats would come by, the pod of dolphins would play in the waves the boatcreated.

 

Tendering was easy…and I was impressed with the young menwho helped everyone off and on the tender. We are physically in good shape, but no matter, one guy on each sidegrabs your arms and literally pulls you in the boat to make sure you get theresafely.

 

Kauai—As the boat pulled into Kauai it was fun to watch agroup of greeters on the dock. One guy waved and yelled “Aloha” for the entiretime. We went on the NCL Fern Grottoexcursion the first day. It was okay…just kind of half way okay. BEWARE however, when you get on the boat, ifyou are tall…there is NO WARNING signs that you will hit your head on theoverhead wood structure they have built to house the life jackets. You can’tsee it well so you don’t know it’s there until you have a welt on your head.Ask my husband how he knows, his head is still sore! They will sing to you theentire way. This is a good or bad thing depending on how you view their singingskills. I shall refrain from commenting as I am a music teacher!

 

On the second day in Kauai we had our most excitingexcursion. We went on the NCL snorkelexcursion. We really have nothing but positive things to say about the groupthat ran the excursion. They were reallyfantastic and had a bunch of guys there to help every person have a great time.The guys were very kind and patient and made sure everyone had a good time. I felt it was over my skill level…not aproblem, they made sure I was safe and enjoyed myself. I had one guy with me the entire time helpingme. At the end when you are drying off,they have a lovely assortment of snacks, juice and water.

 

**Controversial topic here…avoid if you will be offended. If you are a person who believes public nudityis acceptable, PLEASE be respectful of those who do not want to see your nakedbody. On this tour they tell you to wearswimwear under clothing. They take youto a location where they tell you to take off your outerwear and put a type ofwet suit. (Not really a wet suit but this is a suit that goes from your kneesup and keeps you warmer as well as helps add buoyancy.) At this time they alsofit people with fins and snorkels. Onewoman disrobed….as in DISROBED. :o Believeme it was not a pretty sight in anyone’s eyes. There was a very, very, tiny bit of covering on a minuscule part of herbody…although later she bore it all when taking the wet suit off. It was not a pleasant experience for everyoneelse.

 

Two things people askabout…

 

Lava Flow—Our suite was on the starboard side so perfect forviewing the lava. We were told the show was better than usual. It was really neat and easily seen.

 

Na Pali Coast—There again was quite a show. We went port side to the highest level. Arainbow appeared that almost made a complete circle all the way across the skyand then across the water to the boat. It appeared slowly and as time went onit became brighter and brighter. Then another rainbow appeared beside it. It was really beautiful and we so enjoyedseeing God’s creation. Then and it startedto POUR…and POUR it did. Guessing that is not unusual since they said that theNa Pali coast has the highest rainfall in the world. Weended up coming home with some wet clothes we could not get to dry out beforeour flight back.

[Sunflower & The Scientist]

Continuing....

Summery

 

This was our first suite. Due to POA having such small rooms we decided on a suite. As people havesaid…do it once and there is no turning back. Loved the suite, loved the perks.(y)(y)

 

Butler and room stewardess were excellent.

 

Food was typical of our other cruises, we aren’t much intoall that food.

 

Having a balcony is still our favorite part of being on acruise.

 

Ports really weren’t remarkable.

 

There were rough waters. It was bad probably 4 nights, one was especially bad. The stewards and servers were sick and Luciasaid in her 15 years on board she had never experienced it that bad. We feltbad for them having to work, they looked awful. We didn’t throw up…but we sure came close!! The last night we were trying to pack to haveour bags out by midnight, and we really had a tough time doing it, because wekept needing to lie down. We were later told that as the season changes theysometimes encounter this.

 

Cell phone reception was remarkably good. Cell towers on islands do reach the ship,especially if you are on your balcony. There were a few times during the nightwe were out of range, but you will find most of the time your cell phone willwork.

 

Wondering what to pack clothes wise? I found what others have said about packinglight was correct. We found that we didwear swimwear a lot. My husband took pairs of swim trunks that looked likeshorts, and found he wore those most of the time. I had sun dresses and the like and that isall I needed along with swimwear. Besure to take a windbreaker and sweatshirt or something like that to wear forexcursions that include going up higher elevations. We also found that the air conditioning wastoo cold most places on board, so a light wrap felt good.

 

 

Let me know if you have any questions….

 

 

 

[easyboy]

That was a comprehensive account! Very informational, especially the contrast of pre-cruise hotel experience with POA’s suite accommodation and perks.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Zeno]

I think it likely that you would have had a better time in the ports if you had done more research and perhaps rented a car in some of them.

 

On Maui, I have to agree Lahaina is somewhat over-rated. We had a lovely time on Maui BUT we drove up Haleakala and went to a beautiful clean beach with amazing views and lovely water and turtles! - which I had learned about doing research. The aquarium is pretty good too.

 

On Kauai, we drove to the gorgeous north shore and then to the Waimea Canyon

 

On the Big island, we drove up the Volcano and to the Black Sand Beach and in Kona we did a snorkeling excursion and wednt to the Place of Refuge.

 

On Oahu we went to Pearl Harbour on our own and had a great day. We visited Iolani Palace and the Bishop Museum. We climbed Diamond Head - all great experiences. But yes the homeless people could be disturbing - although I had a very interesting chat with one woman who offered me a seat on "her" bench.

 

I am pointing this all out because we had a great time in large part because we put a good deal of effort into researching the travel destination. BTW I do understand that some people are not as into research as I am. BTW we are headed back to Hawaii in 2018 and I am already looking into what we might want to do this time.

[Sunflower & The Scientist]

I agree, researching things ahead of time is very important...I did that for a year prior, no lack of research on my part! One of the differences is taking tours and renting a car. We did not want to rent a car...and in the end we had several things that confirmed we had made the right decision. I know it works for most people, but when it doesn't work it is very stressful. We wanted to not deal with a lot of stress.

 

Since returning I have gotten responses from a few friends who had cars, yet felt the same way. My point is not that there aren't some neat things in Hawaii, but rather everyone has individual taste and this wasn't ours, although we do not at all regret going and would encourage people to go.

[Alter Ego]

Thank you for your comments - even the negative. I plan on going to Hawaii for my 50th and I’m pretty sure I will enjoy it. BUT, I’m struggling with whether I would enjoy the POA cruise. It “seems” perfect - and perfectly priced - but I keep thinking that I should do a land trip and see a couple of islands instead. Everyone’s opinions are useful.

[Zeno]

Thank you for your comments - even the negative. I plan on going to Hawaii for my 50th and I’m pretty sure I will enjoy it. BUT, I’m struggling with whether I would enjoy the POA cruise. It “seems” perfect - and perfectly priced - but I keep thinking that I should do a land trip and see a couple of islands instead. Everyone’s opinions are useful.

My only problem with a "land" trip is the amount of time wasted in airports and switching hotels. On our first trip to Hawaii, we did a "land' trip and while we did not regret it, we found our next trip (arrived early in Oahu and then did the cruise) was MUCH more relaxing. Our next trip to Hawaii (after our 2018 cruise) will likely be just to 2 islands (either Kauai and The Big Island OR Kaui and Maui) - as you can see Kauai was our favorite. The cruise is a particularly good intro to Hawaii because it allows one a "taste" of 4 islands - this is why we are doing it again - our friends who will be with us have never seen Hawaii before. Truthfully it does surprise me somewhat when people cannot find things to enjoy in Hawaii but I guess everyone enjoys different things. We loved exploring the areas around volcanoes, beautiful beaches, amazing scenery and really good snorkeling (If you love to snorkel and are going in the summer or late spring or early fall - don't miss "Tunnels" on Kauai - easy amazing snorkeling. Sadly we won't be able to do it on our next trip - north shore beaches are VERY dangerous in the winter)

[Keith1010]

Thank you for your report.

Keith

[FranknBeans]

My only problem with a "land" trip is the amount of time wasted in airports and switching hotels. On our first trip to Hawaii, we did a "land' trip and while we did not regret it, we found our next trip (arrived early in Oahu and then did the cruise) was MUCH more relaxing. Our next trip to Hawaii (after our 2018 cruise) will likely be just to 2 islands (either Kauai and The Big Island OR Kaui and Maui) - as you can see Kauai was our favorite. The cruise is a particularly good intro to Hawaii because it allows one a "taste" of 4 islands - this is why we are doing it again - our friends who will be with us have never seen Hawaii before. Truthfully it does surprise me somewhat when people cannot find things to enjoy in Hawaii but I guess everyone enjoys different things. We loved exploring the areas around volcanoes, beautiful beaches, amazing scenery and really good snorkeling (If you love to snorkel and are going in the summer or late spring or early fall - don't miss "Tunnels" on Kauai - easy amazing snorkeling. Sadly we won't be able to do it on our next trip - north shore beaches are VERY dangerous in the winter)

 

Your best and smartest move would be to do the cruise to get a feel of which island(s) you like the best and then decide which island for land stay.

 

We found that when you do the math its still cheaper to do the cruise because food is very expensive on the islands.

[bsblindab]

We did a cruise in 2015. We had a balcony and felt it was roomy enough for us. While I would have liked the Marriott..we did a Acqua hotel instead across from the Hawaian Hilton..(Still didn't get to see Steve McGarrett) Would LOVE to go back again. However, this time would like to spend a few days either pre/post cruise as the food can be very pricey. We did a luau on Kauai..which was probably my favorite. didn't do any NCL excursions..did some research and booked a few with the locals. My son/girlfriend did however and they enjoyed them. They said next time they would rent a car..especially when you spend more than one day on an island. My only gripe was the French restaurant..We had one of the first reservations and it took 1.5hrs to be fully served. They had a large group they had to prepare for was their excuse..not an excuse in my book especially when we had a diabetic that needed to eat..But honestly I would do this cruise again and again..the plane ride is what kills me :)

[Linda the Book Lover]

This was an interesting review and I enjoyed the pros and needs improvement remarks. Alter Ego the cruise is the best buy when you factor in hotel, air, packing, and unpacking. The DH and I went eons ago on NCL Wind and loved the cruise and everyone we met onboard. The cruise is well worth the money if you just want a "taste" of each island. I am a little hesitant about POA since there is such a wide viewpoint. The DD, DGD, and I are booking all private excursions which I am happy about and looking forward to enjoying.