Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

Quick Review POAM 12-17

gsb

By gsb,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

Recommended Posts

gsb

gsb

Posted
Posted

This from a first timer on NCL--mostly CCL and RCCL in the past.

 

Please excuse outline form--will try to get back for questions.

 

First--the negatives

 

1. Second day on Kauai--had to leave at 6 am due to no contract for dock. Why we didn't tender that day??? Just went around in circles for the short trip back to Oahu the next morning. Many were upset as they had to cancel excursions, cars, etc.

 

2. Entertainment on the ship--very weak--one "production" show a night followed by one dance theme program (50's, 70's, etc.) in the Mardi Gras--other than that--nothing--no piano sing along, no lounges for dancing. Not one midnight comedian. the same juggler/comedian put on three show--he was good, but enough's enough. And of course, no casino--not NCL's fault.

 

3. Balcony cabin 138 ft--small, but well appointed--

 

4 Crew--all US--most of them unhappy--nice, but unhappy. Had a major

exodus about 6 weeks before in Maui--Shortage most noted in cabin stewards and waiters in the two main dining rooms, accounting for the well documented wait times and poor service.

 

5. Specialty restaurants full after first day(only two of the four Japanese tables were open due to having only two cooks. People complained about the Skyline and Liberty being their only choices. We made our reservations the first thing on board for the whole week.

 

Enough of that--now some positives

 

1. Great looking ship--very bright colors throughout. Liberty dining room is the prettiest we've ever seen, with its red, white and blue theme and rich mahogany and cherry woods.

 

2. Specialty restaurants--very nice on the whole--enjoyed freestyle with no set times. East meets West and Jefferson Bistro were 1/2 price the first night--did the JB. Supposed to be better than the Lazy J. Great looking room--Lazy J is very plain. Filets, escargot and bananas flambe made us change the Lazy J on Wed to the JB. Great the second time also.

East m West--another great meal--great chef and food.

Little Italy--plain room, food okay.

 

3. We were on a VIP list and got great seating and service in the Liberty on Thursday--LOBSTER night. Lobster was surprisingly good as was the rest of the meal. Had a 6 pm reservation.

 

4 Aloha Cafe--very good variety and quality. Fresh cooked hamburgers, dogs, pizza. Good salads. Ice cream 24 hours, but ran out of cones on Wed for the rest of the cruise.

 

5. Had a nice cocktail party with the captain and his staff.

 

6. Good popcorn in the Gold Rush bar--also nachos and sauces.

 

7. 3 or 4 art auctions with champagne.

 

8. Very nice, well equipped gym--I used weights only once--on the Friday we were unfortunately at sea.

 

9. Nice library--underused.

 

Great cruise to see the islands--maybe that's why they don't have much going on on the ship.

 

Rented from Thrifty on all ports--join the Blue Chip Club for free--unbelievable service--eg--we hopped off the shuttle in Honolulu and the driver yelled out to the inside man our name as a blue chipper--forms ready to sign and our Chrysler 300 setting right in front waiting on us.

 

One big tip--cancelled our car in Kona--just wanted to snorkel anyway. There's a free--yes free shuttle with a big sign on it sitting right ouside the gates. A man and his wife run the service--they ask you rent your snorkel equipment from their source at the beach if you need it--also donate a little for gas if you like. They take you to the best site on the island--many, many varieties of fish, big green sea turtles, octopi, lobster, etc--best I've ever experienced and I've snorkled at a whole lot of places. Car was going to be the most expensive by far on Kona, so it worked out very well.

 

Will try to get back for your questions. :) :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Happy ks

Happy ks

Posted
Posted

I love Hawaii and I would love to take this cruise, the good along with the bad! We've cruised Hawaii twice and both times it was awesome.

 

I guess if we have the opportunity one day to go on this particular cruise, we'll plan on cleaning our own cabin!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
karfest

karfest

Posted
Posted

Thanks for the review- it's nice to see the negatives didn't spoil things for you:)

 

I was planning our helicopter flight for the second day in Kauai- I guess we should change that?? Does it happen often that the ship has to leave? You would think NCL would have preference in the docks. oh well...

 

it's been sooooo cold here- how was the weather in Hawaii?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
CruisinMK

CruisinMK

Posted
Posted

Ships cannot tender in to Kauai. Either they get a reserved spot on the dock or skip it.

 

I agree entertainment could be a bit better. Including more players/singer outside of main show at bars, etc..

 

The standard rooms are really tiny, smaller than other ships for sure.

 

I had a much better experience than you did with crew, but sounds like they were understaffed for your go due tue the recent end of contract switchover. Understaffing would make anyone grumpy. I loved the specialty restaurants, especially Jeffersons& East west, but didn't try Lazy J.

 

Was interesting to hear your experience with Thrifty. They used to get a lot of complaints, sounds like they are really improving. I had good luck the one time I used them at Kona, they happened to show up just as I got in line. They dropped us off right at ship afterwards with no wait. There was a long wait in line to check out the car however. Awesome value.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
electricron

electricron

Posted
Posted

Are they smaller? Really that much smaller to be noticeable.

 

Inside cabin sizes on all NCL ships.

Pride of Aloha 147 sq. ft.

Pride of America 132 sq. ft.

Crown 160 sq. ft.

Dawn 142 sq. ft.

Dream 136-142 sq. ft.

Jewel 143 sq. ft.

Majesty 108-145 sq. ft.

Spirit 149 sq. ft.

Star 142 sq. ft.

Sun 145-191 sq. ft.

Wind 135-144 sq. ft.

Yes, the Pride of America's inside cabins are small, but the Majesty has smaller cabins.

 

Let's check out the balcony cabins too.

Pride of Aloha 154 sq. ft. balcony 48 sq. ft.

Pride of America 178-233 sq. ft. balcony 40-95 sq. ft.

Crown No balcony cabins

Dawn 166 sq. ft. balcony 37 sq. ft.

Dream 167 sq. ft. balcony 40 sq. ft.

Jewel 167 sq. ft. balcony 38 sq. ft.

Majesty No balcony cabins

Spirit 161 sq. ft. balcony 40 sq. ft.

Star 166 sq. ft. balcony 37 sq. ft.

Sun 150-173 sq. ft. balcony 48 sq. ft.

Wind 167 sq. ft. balcony 40 sq. ft.

 

Wow! Surprisingly, the Pride of America has the largest balcony cabins, with potentially the largest balconies. Considering the breakdown of the Pride of America's cabins classification, that isn't bad.

 

Pride of America cabins:

Total Inside Cabins 229

Total Outside Cabins 846

Total Outside Cabins w/o verandas 140

Total Outside Cabins w/ verandas 654

Total Cabins & Suites w/ verandas 706

Suites 52

 

If you wish to book a balcony cabin on your Hawaiian cruise, I suggest booking the Pride of America vs the others.

If you wish to book an inside cabin on your Hawaiian cruise, I suggest you book the Pride of Aloha.

And we all know that when the Pride of Hawaii enters service next year, it will be the only choice to book a courtyard villa or garden villa suite.

 

Each ship NCL will have in Hawaii will cater to a different group of passengers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
lhall85917

lhall85917

Posted
Posted

Interesting, thanks for posting! I was wondering how much smaller our POAm balcony would be than the ones we had been in on the Star - looks like it will be slightly bigger! We were in the Star balcony with 4 people and 2 and never had a problem, should be just fine on POAm with 2!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
electricron

electricron

Posted
Posted

I missed that earlier. Can't be right every time.

From what I can tell by looking at the deck plans, class J, K, KK, L, M, and N have the smaller cabins.

 

The smaller N cabins numbers are 5101,7114, 8156, 8157, 8315, 8355, and 8356. (7)

The smaller L cabins 8154,8155, 8355, and 8356. (4)

The smaller K cabins are numbers 8134-8153, 8158, 8335-8354, and 8359 (42)

The smaller KK cabins 9143-9167, 9315, and 9335-9359. (51)

The smaller J cabins 0126-0146, 0149-0152, 0326-0345, and 0346-0350. (50)

 

That's a total of approximately 154 inside cabins at 121 sq. ft. and 273 inside cabins at 147 sq. ft.

Of the 154 cabins, most are on decks 8, 9 , and 10. Just 2 are not on these decks. Deck 10 has 50 small cabins, Deck 9 has 51 small cabins, and Deck 8 has 51 small cabins. Looks like one would be better off booking Decks 4, 5, 6, and 6A cabins if you're wish a larger inside cabin.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
beachchick

beachchick

Posted
Posted

I have a question about your leaving Kauai at 6 am (bummer). How far in advance were you told about this? My concern would be that for an overnight stop, we would rent a car for both days and park overnight at the port. (In fact, we've done that on Kauai before.) I have to assume that you were given enough notice for pax to be able to return rental cars before leaving. Otherwise, that would be a rather large problem, IMO.

 

Just curious.

 

beachchick

Link to comment
Share on other sites
jame_g

jame_g

Posted
Posted

Don't trust the itin's that NCL sends out with your cruise docs. They may be wrong. Mine stated we were leaving Kauai on the 2nd day at 2pm. But I had already noticed discrepencies on the NCL website. In one place it stated 2 pm, in another it stated 6 am. When my TA checked, NCL stated that we would be leaving at 6 am. When I got an upsell, my new Invoice reflected the 6 am departure.

 

At this point, I would not count on being in Kauai on the second day after 6 am unless you have double-checked with NCL. Don't count on your original invoice, itinerary, or even your cruise docs being correct. Other people here have stated they found out after boarding their cruise, but I'm not sure how many days in advance. I don't know how often this happens, but it appears to be fairly frequent right now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
cruzegirl

cruzegirl

Posted
Posted

Glad to hear of your review and that you had a good time.... I cruised the same ship in October... loved it..... And our crew was good... Slow and still getting used to it all but good.... The one thing I still find interesting is the confusion over Kauai.... I thought they would have fixed this by now.. They told us (our group) that they will always leave Kauai early for the scenic cruise of the Napali coast line.. They, NCL, will never be in Kauai on day 2 past 6-7a.m. because of that... Yet there is still that confusion for passengers with the way the itinerary is printed... Interesting.. But I still loved the cruise.... I would love to see it be 9 days so there is an additional sea days....lol..... :D ... I was exhausted at the end of the trip.....

Link to comment
Share on other sites
DaisyL

DaisyL

Posted
Posted

Let's check out the balcony cabins too.

Pride of Aloha 154 sq. ft. balcony 48 sq. ft.

Pride of America 178-233 sq. ft. balcony 40-95 sq. ft.

Crown No balcony cabins

Dawn 166 sq. ft. balcony 37 sq. ft.

Dream 167 sq. ft. balcony 40 sq. ft.

Jewel 167 sq. ft. balcony 38 sq. ft.

Majesty No balcony cabins

Spirit 161 sq. ft. balcony 40 sq. ft.

Star 166 sq. ft. balcony 37 sq. ft.

Sun 150-173 sq. ft. balcony 48 sq. ft.

Wind 167 sq. ft. balcony 40 sq. ft.

 

Wow! Surprisingly, the Pride of America has the largest balcony cabins, with potentially the largest balconies. Considering the breakdown of the Pride of America's cabins classification, that isn't bad.

NOT TRUE .... PoAm balcony cabins are all 138 sq.ft. .. in this case you must subtract the balcony size hence the balconies will differ in size . For example, the balcony cabin size on the Dawn is truly 166 sq.ft. plus 37 sq. ft. balcony ...

 

Just be aware before you book since a PoAm balcony cabin may not be very comfortable for more than 2 people. ....

Link to comment
Share on other sites
electricron

electricron

Posted
Posted

Here's the deck plan for the Pride of America:

 

deckplan.gif

 

Are you suggesting that the cabin size for 10532 is the same as 10534?

 

I only reported the square footage as posted on another web site.

I see no reason why they would use different standards for one ship vs another. Never-the-less, what you state could be correct since I haven't personally measure the cabins myself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
CruisinMK

CruisinMK

Posted
Posted

Look closer at the symbol after the cabin number on your chart.

Do you see the square instead of the triangle?

10534 is a handicap cabin, while 10532 is a regular balcony.

 

Handicap cabins are 50% bigger inside (but 3rd passenger strictly forbidden).

All the non-handicap balcony cabins are 138 sq ft inside, they probably shouldn't have included the handicap ones in the stats.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • Special Event: Q&A with Laura Hodges Bethge, President Celebrity Cruises
      • ANNOUNCEMENT: Set Sail on Sun Princess®
      • Hurricane Zone 2024
      • Cruise Insurance Q&A w/ Steve Dasseos of Tripinsurancestore.com June 2024
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...