PoAm Review 9/1/07

[ehough]

Pre-Cruise Hotel: We basically needed a cheapo hotel just for the one night before the cruise. We ended up at the Aqua Continental. Definitely not luxurious, but it had a good location, and we ended up just crashing anyway, so it was good enough for our purposes.

 

Embarkation: We had to be out of our hotel at noon, but embarkation didn't start until 1. Still, we had nowhere to go and 3 suitcases, so we headed over to the pier, intending to hopefully be able to sit somewhere until we were allowed on. Luckily when we arrived at noon we were allowed right on and it was SO quick and easy. I'm sure this is because we were there so early, but there were no lines. We then headed to the Aloha for lunch. We didn't end up getting our luggage in our staterooms until about 7pm, though, which was kind of a bummer because we wanted to be able to unpack.

 

Stateroom: We were on deck 7, obstructed view. I was pleasantly surprised to see that our entire view wasn't obstructed- we could easily see out over the lifeboat. The room was nice but I have to say the shower was a disappointment! Ladies, don't count on shaving your legs in those showers :) It was quite a feat for me, being 5.5 months pregnant. Quite a small shower, and I had issues with the water- sometimes I couldn't get any hot water, and other times the temperature would randomly switch to freezing cold, then really hot, etc. But, other than dreading having to take a shower, it was a nice room and we had no issues (although we could very clearly hear the piano player at night in Pink's Champagne Bar, which was a problem on nights we went to bed early. Luckily we were usually so tired it didn't bother us for long!)

 

Dining: We're not big on fancy dining so take that into account!

 

Dinners: We ate in the Liberty once and the Skyline once, and both meals were quite good. However there were some times we were so famished we didn't want to wait to eat, or we didn't like what was on the menu, so oftentimes we ended up in the Aloha. The food in the Aloha was good, although we ended up there so often that it got a little monotonous by the end of the cruise. We tried Little Italy, which was excellent. My only complaint is with the Cadillac Diner. The food was good, but the service was the only time we experienced BAD service onboard. There don't seem to be enough tables to meet the demand there, for one thing. There was quite a line while we were eating, and the host/servers just ignored the people in line! They didn't even tell them it would be a few minutes- just plain ignored them. Maybe they hoped they would go away if they didn't acknowledge them? We had one server take our order and then he went MIA. We were approached by another server telling us he was taking over for the original server. Fine. Then were told that our original server had misplaced our meal order so we had to order all over again. And then our second server disappeared! We are really not sticklers about service but even for us, it was out of control. The staff just really seemed to have a "We don't care" attitude, and it was the only place onboard we felt that way, so we just avoided the Cadillac after that.

 

Lunch: We were usually off the ship at lunch time so we ordered room service the night before and then brought sandwiches with us off the ship- this worked out really well. We had lunch in the Aloha a couple of times with no issues (and when we did make it in time for lunch, we assembled sandwiches on our own to take with us the next day).

 

Breakfast: I would not recommend hitting the Aloha for breakfast on the first morning. It was a nightmare! Just very busy. There was nowhere to sit- we ended up having to sit at the kids' tables (quite a sight). It wasn't nearly as busy the rest of the week as it was the first day. We did room service one day and while that worked well we preferred just running upstairs and grabbing what we wanted. We also did the Skyline one day. It was okay- took a little longer than we like our breakfasts to take, and it's really the same food as in the Aloha.

 

Entertainment: We went to almost all the night shows. I really enjoyed the dancers. There were two comedians who worked together and we did not go to their show because we're chicken :D They did a bit at the variety show the first night and it seems their comedy was very...interactive. Pulling people out of the audience, basically. We're not really a fan of that kind of thing so we stayed in our stateroom where they couldn't find us! There was another comedian later in the week and he was funny, and the magician was good. Nothing was mindblowing but certainly entertaining.

 

Hilo: We rented a car through Thrifty. We were one of the first people off the ship, but let me say that the shuttle situation was not ideal. There's no real line...people just huddle together outside the terminal, and you don't know who's waiting for which company. Then once the shuttle finally arrives, there's a massive rush of people and whoever gets to the shuttle first gets on. We had to wait through three shuttles until finally a Dollar shuttle took us. The main problem was that Thrifty was allowing entire groups of 5, 8, etc. on the shuttle instead of only taking the drivers! I'm sure it would have been much, much faster if they hadn't allowed large groups on. We had reserved an economy car but ended up with a convertible PT Cruiser. We went to VNP and it was really nice to be able to see things at our own pace. A very interesting place!

 

Maui: Also rented from Thrifty- the shuttle situation was much better here. Reserved a convertible and ended up with a Mustang convertible. The first day, we did the Road to Hana. It was really neat, we enjoyed ourselves quite a bit. We had Maui Revealed with us and it was really helpful in pointing out stops. It did take us three hours to get back, and then there was a terrible accident in Paia that completely stopped traffic, but it was worth it. We got back at around 6pm only to find there was no parking available. We were told by the shuttle driver to ask the people at the pier where to go if there was no parking, but they looked at us and said, "You're on your own." So we headed back to Thrifty since we had no clue where to go, and the lady there told us we could park at the Maui Mall with no problem. The next day we went to get our car and found an orange neon sticker on the side of the car, threatening to tow us. So, I'm not sure I'd go with that advice- I'd return the car and rent it again the next day. The second day, we went to Kaanapali Beach and it was beautiful! We really enjoyed it. Great snorkelling.

 

Kona: This is the one port we did not rent a car. We just couldn't find anything we really were dying to do. We started off just walking around the town, looking at shops, but I could tell DH was getting bored. So we asked a cab driver how much it would be to take us to Kahaluu Beach, and he said $15, so we took it. I have to say, Kahaluu was not what we were expecting! We were expecting a sandy, somewhat large beach....and it was really rocky and quite small. We hadn't brought our snorkeling gear with us because we weren't sure we were going to a beach, so perhaps we would have enjoyed it more if we had been able to snorkel. But it was packed- in the water, you literally had people within in arm's reach of you at all times. And it was really not a good beach for me, since I'm pregnant- we had to climb over large rocks to get in the water. Overall, not the beach to go to if you just want to swim or lay on the beach, but I'm sure, based on how many people were there, the snorkeling is probably fabulous. The tendering wasn't a big deal here- it ran pretty smoothly and quickly.

 

Kauai- Once again rented with Thrifty and the shuttle was a breeze. We had a Dodge Avenger- it felt rather large, but worked for our purposes. The first day we went to Waimea Canyon and then Spouting Horn. Then we just drove around Lihue. We were done pretty early so parking wasn't an issue here- we parked at the little market as instructed by our shuttle driver. The second day we went to Kalapaki Beach- it's very close to port. It was really nice. It kind of looks like the Marriott wants you to think it's their own private beach, which worked in our favor because it was pretty deserted. It also worked out well since the boat leaves port early that day- we didn't have far to go.

 

Disembarkation- Not a problem. We were the second to last group called and there were no lines..just walked off, got our bags, and headed to catch a cab (which was kind of ugly. Lots of people and not enough cabs!)

 

Post-Cruise Stay: Due to a conference DH was attending, we stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village for the first three nights. It was very nice! No complaints other than the fact that I think our housekeeper was an early riser- nothing like waking up to a vacuum cleaner at 7:30am. But it was a lovely hotel. After the conference we moved to the Holiday Inn (couldn't afford the Hilton Hawaiian on our own!). It was nice, clean- very basic. The only downside was that it was right across the street from the construction at the Hilton so we had to hear that every morning (can you tell I'm a light sleeper when it comes to sounds?). We pretty much spent the entire time in Honolulu on Waikiki Beach. It was nice to be able to just relax after a week on the cruise. We did do Pearl Harbor, USS Bowfin, and the Battleship Missouri one day, but other than that- it was the beach for us. We rented a car from Alamo, which worked out, but we probably wouldn't do that again. We walked pretty much everywhere.

 

Overall it was a really great vacation! Any questions, just ask.

[Carl2860]

Thank you for your post. Did you dine at the Bistro?

[ehough]

We did not dine at the Bistro. We didn't want to pay any extra for our food, and I'm a notoriously picky eater anyway so it probably wouldn't have been worth the money for me to eat there :)

[judyf]

Nice review thanks for taking the time to post.

 

Maui parking is the main downside of doing rental cars.