POH Review 2/12-2/19

[maui07]

Aloha.

My husband and I are in our late twenties and booked this cruise as a last minute trip to celebrate my husbands b-day. We live on maui and both work in the tourism/resort industry and used to work for the cruiseline industry.(Myself as Youth and my husband as AV for Celebrity) We have been to all the islands before so we were going more to enjoy relaxing onboard rather than be busy in port all day, allthough through my husband's line of work we did do a few "touristy" things in Kona (parasailing) and Maui ( sunshine helicopter and trilogy molokini trip) for fun.

 

Embark was a breeze, we flew hawaiian air to Oahu around 3 pm, and were onboard by 5:00 pm with no lines at the pier due I 'm sure to our later arrival. The ship was great, very clean and the staff and crew were professional, fun, and always friendly. I personally feel some people have a problem with the "american crew" do to the lack of servent behavior they are used to by an international crew. I however, enjoy treating people as an equal without the sub servant attitude.

 

We made our dining reservations a few hrs after we boarded and were able to get what we wanted and later in the cruise we changed a few reservations depending on our mood and had no problems. The food was good, not fine dining by any means (although Cagneys was excellent). We ate twice at paniolos, twice at Cagneys, once at Papa's and once at Jasmine. We never ate in the main dining rooms. The buffets were your typical buffets, lots of choices. We only ate breakfast and lunch once and they were good as well. ( we did this at the buffet)

 

Entertainment on board was good, we went to all the nightly shows including the late night comedian in the spinnaker lounge. All the entertainment was on par with what you would expect on a cruise.

 

Overall, the cruise was excellent, we had no complaints about anything, other than hearing other passenges moan and complain about small and petty things that personally wouldnt even be worth a breath of air by myself. If you go into the cruise optomistic you will have a wonderful experience. Don't let other people's negative comments about no juice at lunch, or a dirty glass here of there ruin your vacation. Enjoy the beauty that the hawaiian islands offer and you will have a wonderdful cruise experience. Aloha.

[CruisersfromMD]

Thank you for the very nice review of your cruise. You are right, I have read many negative reviews about the American crew etc., but if you go with a postive attitude and treat the staff as you would want to be treated, I think it will be OK.

 

Since it sounds like you spent a great deal of time on the ship, do you have any recommendations or favorite places on the ship, other tips etc.?

 

Looks like from my research that there are 2 evening shows most evenings to accomodate different dining times, so that is good.

 

This is my first time to Hawaii so we are looking forward to seeing all the islands and ports via this cruise.

[maui07]

Aloha-

You will have a great time on your cruise, all the islands are unique and beautiful in their own way. My advice would be defenitely try to make your dinner reservations the first night of the cruise, you dont need to do this immediately when you get onboard but defenitely the first night, you will be much happier this way and avoid the "wait". All the nightly entertainment has 2 shows (7:30 or 9:30 pm) except the last evening and the first maui overnight (one show) so you can definetely make atleast one depending on what time your dinner reservations are. I agree with most other people and say rent a car on Maui, you will have the freedom to see what you want and to explore the island at your own pace(free parking at the pier) We went into this cruise treating the staff like you said "how we would want to be treated" and found the return attitude friendly and overly accomidating. That would be my biggest tip, the crew work long, hard hours and if you approach in a polite manner they are more willing to help, this is my own personal experience. Good luck and feel free to ask me any more specific questions. Aloha-

 

ps. for a late night or mid afternoon snack, the blue lagoon was great, especially the kona coffee cheescake :) Yum!

[IMCSICK]

ps. for a late night or mid afternoon snack, the blue lagoon was great, especially the kona coffee cheescake :) Yum!

 

We'll you've convinced me!

 

We've seen a few posts indicating 1/2 price promos for early-birds in the specialty restaurants has been discontinued...were any offered on your cruise?

[maui07]

No, POH does not offer these 1/2 price early bird specials, we did ask and were told no. Papa's (italian) and paniolos (tex mex) are no fee specialty restaurants, I think alot of people thought that they were "charge " restraunts and by the time they found out they were "free" they were booked up allready.

[IMCSICK]

Thank you Maui07 -- we'll definitely make our reservations as soon as we get onboard!

[vacacountdown]

I thought NCL just changed the reservation policy and only allow reservations to be made 24 hours ahead of time. Was this not implemented on POH?

[maui07]

No, we made our reservationas for the entire cruise the first night we were onboard. You have until 4:00 pm the day of to make reservations for that eveing.

[beachchick]

Aloha-

You will have a great time on your cruise, all the islands are unique and beautiful in their own way. My advice would be defenitely try to make your dinner reservations the first night of the cruise, you dont need to do this immediately when you get onboard but defenitely the first night, you will be much happier this way and avoid the "wait". All the nightly entertainment has 2 shows (7:30 or 9:30 pm) except the last evening and the first maui overnight (one show) so you can definetely make atleast one depending on what time your dinner reservations are. I agree with most other people and say rent a car on Maui, you will have the freedom to see what you want and to explore the island at your own pace(free parking at the pier) We went into this cruise treating the staff like you said "how we would want to be treated" and found the return attitude friendly and overly accomidating. That would be my biggest tip, the crew work long, hard hours and if you approach in a polite manner they are more willing to help, this is my own personal experience. Good luck and feel free to ask me any more specific questions. Aloha-

 

ps. for a late night or mid afternoon snack, the blue lagoon was great, especially the kona coffee cheescake :) Yum!

 

May I add "and the warm chocolate brownie"? Tasty brownie topped with smooth vanilla ice cream and chocolate fudge syrup...Oh yeah, that's a perfect "pick me up" any time of the day or night.:D

 

beachchick

[CruisersfromMD]

Thank your for the feedback Maui07.

 

My DH and I are looking forward to our cruise. We are also excited about our upsell to a Penthouse Suite right on the front of the ship and the HUGE balcony. We love having breakfast on our balcony in the mornings and we are looking forward to our view.

 

We have all of our dinner times and places planned out so we will do that just after we board. (We may also have dinner on our balcony on one of the nights we are docked.) We have read that the conceirge service we get with help us with this and our butler may meet us when we check in to also assist with taking us somewhere to make the reservations.

 

We plan on doing Lahania on your own through the NCL shuttle as we weren't sure what parking would be like there and at Kannapali Beach area. Do you think if we rented a car, parking won't be a problem in those areas?

 

We are golfing on the 2nd day in Maui so we don't need a car for that.

 

We arrive in HNL 3 nights ahead of the cruise to rest, get acclimated to time change and see some of the sites in Oahu.

 

I will write a review when I get back.

[tray]

First of all......maui07.......thanks for your review/information!! We've still got 3 months to go and I can't stand the excitement!!

 

Couple of questions:

You mentioned there was only one show on the overnight in Maui. Do you remember what time that show was? Just trying to plan ahead where we may want to eat (and at what time) each night. Also what about that last night? Was there a show and if only one....what time?

 

Did you do the Road to Hana? Did you drive it yourself if you went?

 

Did you like Paniolos better than Papas?

 

That's all for now! Thanks for taking your time to answer all these questions!! I'm glad you had a great trip!!

[maui07]

Aloha-

I want to say that the show on the maui overnight was at 8:30 or 9:00 pm, it was the "crew" talent showand the last night of the cruise the show was at 9pm I belive,it was a variety show of the weeks entertainment. I live on maui so I ofcourse have been to hana, and have driven it several times. When my parents come to visit, they prefer to take a tour so they can focus on the beauty of hana rather than staring at the car in front of theirs bumper, to each his own I guess.

 

We ate at paniolos 2x's and papas 1x, they were both good, I really like tex mex so I prefer paniolos, the fajitas and the taquitos were my fave (the rice and beans are awful though-minor detail :)) but papas was good too, the lasagna was good as well as the pizza and caesar salad.

 

As for parking in lahaina and kaanapali, it is not too diffucult,they have large "pay" parking lots that you can get validated for and a few free parking lots that fill up quickly. Beware, they will ticket you if you park past the alloted time, I know from experience :)

[tray]

Wow....it must be awesome to live in such a beautiful place. I can't wait to see it in person!!

 

Thanks for all the wonderful information!

[Blue Lark]

I enjoyed your review of POH and will be cruising in February '08. We will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary and had spent our honeymoon on Maui. Can you tell me more about the car rental. We would like to rent a car for the two days we are there and tour the island. What is the best way to do that? Go through the cruise line, so that if something happens to the car they will not leave us, or go through a rental car company?

[CruisinMK]

May I add "and the warm chocolate brownie"? Tasty brownie topped with smooth vanilla ice cream and chocolate fudge syrup...Oh yeah, that's a perfect "pick me up" any time of the day or night.:D

 

beachchick

 

 

OK that sounds good. I think I will only get 50 of them on my next cruise

[mlprahl]

No, we made our reservationas for the entire cruise the first night we were onboard. You have until 4:00 pm the day of to make reservations for that eveing.

 

Actually it has changed on PoH. We were on the 2/26 sailing and they did revert back to the day/day before policy rather than being able to do it for the entire week when you first board. In reading some posts here, it appears that the 2/19 sailing on PoH was the first week they made the switch.

[beachchick]

OK that sounds good. I think I will only get 50 of them on my next cruise

 

Well, okay, but only if you intersperse the chocolate decadence from Cagney's for those "in between" times...:D

 

beachchick

 

p.s. The apple pie (more like an individual mini-pie) with ice cream from Cagney's was a big hit with my pie-loving DH--and he's pretty picky about pie, usually preferring the ones I make.;)