Pride of Aloha Aug 13-20 Review

[Toddcan]

We just returned from our Aug 13-20th Pride of Aloha Hawaiian cruise aboard NCLA. In a word: Wonderful - a trip of a lifetime!

 

Longer review:

Sunday Aug 13th -

Checkin: We boarded the PoAl in Honolulu. We arrived on a flight from the mainland that arrived at 2pm. We went directly to the port. There were very helpful and friendly staff all over the place to direct us. Luggage checkin was first, and was a breeze. After showing our reservation forms, they tagged all of our luggage with our room number (9341). We then were instructed to go to checkin. This took all of 5-10 minutes. We were there at about 2:30pm. Got our Lei's etc. We could have boarded the ship, but we had a friend in Honolulu, so we spent a few hours at her apt about 5 mins from the port. We arrived back on the ship at about 6pm. Luggage was waiting for us at our cabin.

Cabin: The cabin was very small, but we expected this. We booked cheap on the room, and found it very much what we expected. It was clean, and bright. The closets were large enough for all of our clothes, but we did have to have clothes stacked on the night tables too. Had this been a cruise with some days at sea, the cabin would have felt too small, for sure.

Food: We had a very long day, and just went to the buffet (Hukilau). It was perfect for what we wanted at that time. We ate at around 7:00pm There was no line to speak of at the buffet. Water and juice were free.

Entertainment: There was lots to do that day. Lots of embarkation partying on the pool deck. We watched a bit of this, and then went to the forward deck (outside of the outrigger lounge) to watch the ship leave port. Lots of music, laughter, friendly staff.

Overall: A perfect, tiring first day to the cruise. We hit out pillows at about 9pm. We were coming from the East Coast, so we were 6 hours off.

 

Mon-Sat

I thought about doing a day by day review, but in the interest of time, I'll do a quicker summary.

Breakfast: We found ourselves at the Hukilau Lanai (back deck of ship) for breakfast buffet and really loved it. That, or we were at the Crossings breakfast buffet. Same food, more or less: steam table breakfast foods: scrambled eggs with cheese, bacon, hash browns, pancakes, oatmeal, sausage, etc. Lots of fresh fruits: pineapple (of course), cantelope, watermellon, pears, peaches. Pastry table: (this is where you can put on 5 lbs on your cruise) lots of breakfast pastries like muffins, croissants, fruit filled pastries, etc. They even had a cold cereal table with milk and a wide assortment of those little boxed cereals. IF you wanted, you could order off the menu at the crossings. We usually hit breakfast at around 7-7:30am. No lineups to speak of. The only delay at the crossings, was just to seat you, which took all of 30 seconds per party.

 

Lunch: We were never onboard during the day - not once. So we cannot comment on the lunches.

 

Dinners: We made it a point to try out all of the restaurants. On Monday morning, we went to the revervation desk to book all 3 specialty restaurants for the week. We booked our times and dates:

Monday: 6pm seating for the Royal Palm Bistro: wonderful cuisine, excellent service. The view was the least appealing of all the specialty restaurants: it looked over the pedestrian walkway at deck 12, aft. Not a huge deal, but we were all dressed up, and had a window table, only to watch a ship load of ppl walking around looking at us, and us looking at them. This was our least favourite one, but still I give it a 8/10. With a better view, it was a 9/10.

Tuesday: 5:30pm seating for the Pacific Heights. Food was excellent. View was wonderful, no pedestrian walkways, but still overlooking the outside. The host was interesting. He was a guy, but very feminine, shaved eyebrows with stenciled in new ones, even his tag said "hostess". He was wonderful, and we enjoyed him a lot. 9/10

Thursday: Kahili 6:00pm seating. The food was the best, but it was slow. We had to ask them to hurry desert so we could make a 7:45 pm show. We got in about 10 mins into the show. Normally the dinner was easily within 90 minutes. This one was close to 2 hours. 8.5/10. Would have been 9.5 had the service been faster.

Wednesday: Room Service dinner: Nothing special, but we ate in our pajamas at 11pm - this was just after the volcano sail by, so I'm sure they were busy! :)

Friday and Saturday: Palace Restaurant: We were going to hit both Palace and Crossings for dinner, but found a WONDERFUL waitress (Tisha, I think) at the palace, so we ended up there for both nights. We were hungry early for both days, so we ended up getting there at opening: 5:30pm on both nights, so no problems getting in right away. The food was almost as good as the specialty restaurants. Dress codes were in effect. No shorts. They may have let in dressy jeans, I'm sure, but we went in dockers/skirt type dress both nights.

Excursions, Daytime: We booked a rental car at every port except Kona. I'd highly suggest this if you want to see the island sights. We booked online ahead of time with Thrifty. We preferred to see the island sights, so the car worked out great for us. Some ppl stuck around the ports and did swimming, snorkling, scuba, parasailing, helecopter rides, etc. We took some of the excursion destinations and drove there ourselves. Eg: Volcanos Park, Lainahai (spelling is prob off -Maui shopping Meca), Kauai north shore drive, etc. We did the dolphin excursion in Kona - our only ship bought excursion. We had a blast the entire time. One thing for sure - we were well exhausted by 9pm nightly. Our latest night staying up was on Wednesday to see the volcano flows. They were simply spectacular! A week previous, a 40 acre sized portion broke off into the ocean, so the new lava flows were wonderful!

 

Entertainment: We saw only 4 shows. The magician/comedian (twice - different shows), a comedian pair, and a Cirque-dela Sea show. 3 shows were in the main auditorium, the other was in the blue hawaii bar. We were always 20-30 mins early for the shows, and had excellent seats. The only exception was for the Cirque de la Sea show where we came in 10 mins late due to a long dinner. We had crummy seats for that one. No problem though.. dinner was late, so we did not expect front row center seats. :). Overall, I give the entertainment a 8/10. We had a lot of fun.

 

Sunday Aug 20: Disembarkation

What a breeze! We attended the 20 min disembarkation briefing in the theatre 2 days before, so we knew what to do. We grabbed luggage tags on Saturday, and left out luggage out side our rooms on Sat night at about 9pm. The hallways were full of luggage. We picked an 8:30 disembarkation time only since we wanted to brab breakfast first. We kept the ship account on our Credit Card, so at 8:20 am, we simply walked off the ship, scanned out ID cards for the last time, went to the luggage area matching our colour, grabbed our luggage and we were done. From the time we left our room after breakfast, we were at the harbor, luggage in hand no more than 10 minnutes later. We were staying on Oahu for 10 more days, so we grabbed the Alamo car rental shuttle which was right there. Voila! That's it.

 

I did not go into any detail about our daily activities off the ship since this is an NCL forum. If you want recommendations or details about what we saw on the island, email me. Toddcan@yahoo.com

 

Overall. 8.5/10 We were here to see Hawaii, not spend time on the ship. We viewed the ship as a floating Holiday Inn, and except for the expected small rooms, that is pretty much what we got- a floating hotel. The dinners were above average for specialty restaurants, and very good for normal restaurants. The great thing is that our holiday inn was at a different Hawaiian Island each day :)

[cruizinwithkids]

Nice review - sounds like you did your homework ahead of time and knew what to expect.

[Zeno]

Great review with useful details about embarkation, disembarkation and dining.

I liked it because most people hardly mention the main dining rooms.

[newlywedcruisers]

Great review, thanks for taking the time to create one. I am VERY glad you had a good time on a PO ship, hope it doesn't take to long to get over post cruise depression.

[Toddcan]

Interesting how the good reviews get buried to page 2 and beyond so quickly. No wonder people get worried about taking cruises: the first page usually contains the bad reviews since they tend to promote more discussion.

 

By the way, our cruise director's name was Fith Fithian. Yup. Say that 10 times quickly. Cruel parents. Just cruel. :rolleyes:

[CruisinMK]

Nice review.

[cruizinwithkids]

I just booked POH for 2008. Now as another CC member said I can start wishing my life away waiting for 2008. Oh and of course worrying if I'll be able to use my MBNA points if NCL is sold. Good thing I always have something to worry about.:)

[Jolie]

Thanks for such a detailed, but concise review! You really gave us a lot of great information!

[jerseyjk]

I for one really appreciate you taking the time to write up a detailed review. I'm booked on POAl in April and have already gotten into the "floating hotel" mindset you describe. Thanks.

[yancycruiser]

Thanks Toodcan for posting a great review. It is refreshing to read one like yours since most of the reviews have leaned toward the negative side. We will be on the Pride of Aloha on January 5, boarding in Maui. I am contemplating car rentals on all the islands and have heard good things about Thrifty.

 

What time did you pick up your car at each port and if you don't mind tell us where you drove in Honolulu and maybe the other islands?

 

You can also tell us some must do things in Maui since we will be staying there an additional six nights after the cruise.

 

Again, thank you for taking time to share your experiences.

[mack320]

I've been very nervous since we bought the trip!! Bad reviews!! I'm feeling better!!!

 

By the way, how do you get the cruise countdown that is showing on some of these threads?

[lucylovesvacations]

I also want to add my thanks for a great review. We will be cruising on January 14, 2007 and departing from Honolulu on the POA.

[Sharkin]

Toddcan,

When the ship was cruising by the lava flows, was the port side or the starboard side towards the island?

[Toddcan]

Toddcan,

When the ship was cruising by the lava flows, was the port side or the starboard side towards the island?

 

As the ship approached the lava flows, the best view was on the Starboard (right) side. However, the captain turns the boat 360 degrees on a dime, so everyone gets a view. But, it turns around back to where it started (starboard), so we got a bonus view again.

 

Now, I dont know if EVERY time they cruise they approach the same way, but that's how it was on our side.

[Toddcan]

I've been very nervous since we bought the trip!! Bad reviews!! I'm feeling better!!!

 

By the way, how do you get the cruise countdown that is showing on some of these threads?

 

Click on the cruise countdown itself, it will bring you to their website. There are several that do this.

[Toddcan]

Thanks Toodcan for posting a great review. It is refreshing to read one like yours since most of the reviews have leaned toward the negative side. We will be on the Pride of Aloha on January 5, boarding in Maui. I am contemplating car rentals on all the islands and have heard good things about Thrifty.

 

What time did you pick up your car at each port and if you don't mind tell us where you drove in Honolulu and maybe the other islands?

 

You can also tell us some must do things in Maui since we will be staying there an additional six nights after the cruise.

 

Again, thank you for taking time to share your experiences.

 

We embarked in Honolulu, and when we disembarked back at Honolulu, we spent 10 days on Oahu. So, any information I can give you prob won't apply to you. BUT.. if Honolulu was a port stop for me, I would do 2 things: Pearl Harbor, and Waikiki Beach.

[Sharkin]

Thanks Toddcan. It looks like the itinerary we are considering is the same as the one you were on, so I assume the more preferred side will be the same.

[willysgrandma]

We did the POA in 2004. We also booked cars at every port and di no excusions off the ship.

 

in Maui, I can absolutely recommend the Old Lahaina Luau - we did it on our own and it was better than the one offered by the ship that day.

 

We also did the Road to Hana in a few hours, vs. doing it all day with the ship.

 

Lahaina is a lot of fun. There is a dock there that you can book things to do, such as a boat trip to Molokai (sp?), fishing, etc.

[yancycruiser]

Thank you willysgrandma for the information on Lahania. We will definitely do the Old Lahania Luau.