5-10 PofAm Review

[ScarletKND]

Here's my review for the PoAM 5-10 cruise. I've cruised twice before with Princess, and this was my first cruise with NCL.

 

The first day of the cruise didn't start very well. Our toilet wouldn't flush, and would leak out the back if you tried. We had to report it 5 or 6 times until it was finally resolved on the second day. I do have to say that once a manager found out about the problem, it was taken care of very quickly and we were compensated for the problem.

 

Other than the toilet problem, we really liked our room. It was larger than the rooms we had been in on Princess cruises. The rest of the ship was beautiful and was in very good shape.

 

The service in the Skyline restaurant was extremely slow the first night. It took us about two hours to finish dinner. For the rest of the cruise, service was great. We were very impressed with how friendly all of the crew members were that we came into contact with. Our room steward was great. He always cleaned our room and turned down the bed. We didn't get any towel animals, but that wasn't a big deal to either of us.

The food in general was good. We thought the buffet food was better than the buffets on Princess. There were a lot more choices, and the quality of food was good. The dining room food was fine. I thought the prime rib was the best meal I had there. We didn't try any specialty restaurants.

 

Those of you who were bumped from the Pride of Aloha should keep in mind that the $200 onboard credit does not count toward your tips. My parents weren't aware of that and realized they had about $170 bucks of credit to spend on the last night of the cruise.

 

Here's a quick breakdown of what we did everyday:

 

Maui:

We rented a convertible from Thrifty and headed to Iao Valley. We got there around 9:30 and easily found parking. When we left, the parking lot was getting crowded with a few cars unable to find parking spots.

We left and headed for Lahaina. We walked through town and had lunch at Bubba Gumps. Lahaina was a really fun town, and I wish we had more time to spend there.

After that, we went to Kaanapali and snorkeled. We were lucky to see lots of different fish and a big sea turtle.

The next morning, we took our Roberts sunrise tour. We did the Haleakala sunrise tour through Roberts. There was some kind of mix-up and one couple was turned away that morning because there was not enough room in the van. They were really upset- understandably so. Luckily our whole group was still able to go. The tour guide was great and went out of her way to make our trip enjoyable.

When we got back, we took the free walmart shuttle and bought some drinks and other souvenirs.

 

Hilo:

We rented another convertible from Thrifty and went to Volcanoes National Park. Part of the road was closed off, so we only got to see Jaggar Museum, Steam Vents, and the Thurston Lava tube. We brought a flashlight and got to explore the dark part of the tube. That was really interesting. We needed a lot more time at VNP, so it is definitely on the list for when we return to the Big Island.

We stopped at Akatsuka's Orchid farm, but it wasn't really worth the stop in my opinion.

We went to Rainbow Falls and Pe'e Pe'e Falls. Both were beautiful and easy to find. Then we drove on Banyan Drive before taking the car back.

 

Kona:

We had booked the Snuba boat excursion, and wanted to try snorkeling before we left. We went to the small beach behind the King Kamehameha Hotel. We saw a lot of fish there and had a great time. It was really convenient since we didn't have to drive anywhere or take a taxi.

The SNUBA excursion left late, but was great otherwise. We snorkeled a bit on that trip too.

 

Kauai:

We rented a jeep wrangler from Thrifty and headed straight for Ke'e beach. Parking was a nightmare. If you are going to go there, get there early. We were lucky enough to see two monk seals just down the beach from there.

We also stopped at Kilauea Lighthouse and stopped at a Subway inside a gas station nearby for lunch.

Then we headed to Lydgate Beach. It was starting to rain, so most people were leaving. We ended up having almost the entire area to ourselves. The rain stopped and the weather was great. We snorkeled there as well and saw a lot of fish. We liked the enclosed area so that we didn't have to worry about currents and big waves.

Afterward, we drove to Wailua Falls and Opaekaa Falls. They were easy to get to and didn't take much time.

The next morning, we walked to the Blue Hawaiian office for our helicopter tour. The walk took about 15 minutes walking slowly. The ride was fantastic and worth every penny. We bought the dvd of the trip, and we'd highly recommend the company.

We stopped at Duke's and got a piece of Hula Pie before getting back to the ship. It was wonderful and the beach there is beautiful. I would have enjoyed spending the day there.

Unfortunately, the Na Pali coast was not really visible during the scenic cruising. I don't know if it was fog or vog, but you could only see the outline of the cliffs. I was happy that we had seen them in clear weather from the helicopter earlier that day.

The next morning, disembarkation was easy! We walked right off the ship when we were called. It was not the same chaos we've experienced on Princess.

 

Overall, we loved the cruise. It was a great way to see the islands. It has been our favorite vacation we've ever had. I'd definitely sail with NCL again. I would have to say that the worst thing about the cruise is the other passengers. We were around some really cranky people that were taking things far too seriously. On one of the lobster nights, we were yelled at by another passenger because she didn't believe that we had reservations because she wasn't able to get any reservations that night. It is amazing how mean people can get when food is involved.

 

I typed this in a hurry between classes, so please forgive any mistakes.

[tropicsgirl]

Thank you for posting your review, I have been waiting anxiously to hear how things went before we go this week. Your trip sounded great and now I am very excited for mine! Did the ship sail by the volcano at night?

[ScarletKND]

Thank you for posting your review, I have been waiting anxiously to hear how things went before we go this week. Your trip sounded great and now I am very excited for mine! Did the ship sail by the volcano at night?

 

 

You're welcome! I totally forgot about that part. Yes, we did sail by and see lava pouring into the ocean at night. It was amazing!

[AussieKathy]

thanks for posting. Did you notice any of the upgrades.

 

New beds

drink on boarding ship

bath robes

fruit bowl in room

made to order crepes in buffet

 

What room number did you have?

 

thanks again

[primetimegirl]

Thanks for your review. I'm glad you enjoyed your trip. We leave for Hawaii this Friday, staying at the HHV Friday night, before cruising on Saturday. Can you tell us anything about the 2.0 upgrades that were to be done while the ship was in drydock?

[ScarletKND]

thanks for posting. Did you notice any of the upgrades.

 

New beds

drink on boarding ship

bath robes

fruit bowl in room

made to order crepes in buffet

 

What room number did you have?

 

thanks again

 

We haven't been on any other NCL ships, so I'm probably not the best one to review the 2.0 upgrades. However, the bedding was nice, except for the mattress pad had stains on it. There were complimentary drinks when we came aboard. We didn't use the fruit bowl in the room, but I did see the option to order it. We didn't have bathrobes in our room though. I did try the crepes in the buffet, and they were pretty good. Mine had a little too much chocolate, but you can't really complain about that! Our room was 7588- an obstructed view cabin.

[AussieKathy]

thanks, I think the bathrobes are only in the balcony cabins.

[canadian cruise queen]

thanks for posting. Did you notice any of the upgrades.

 

New beds

drink on boarding ship

bath robes

fruit bowl in room

made to order crepes in buffet

 

What room number did you have?

 

thanks again

The only 2.0 upgrade we noticed was the champagne on arrival with escort to cabin. That's it.

We had a balcony cabin, the bedding wasn't new, no bathrobes, I ordered the fruit for our cabin and never got it. The buffet was always running out of food (have never seen that on the 17 cruises I have taken). The latte/capp machines rarely worked. One of the main dining rooms was closed the first night so the lines were very long. Left and went to the buffet. The buffet had run out of chicken, fish, veggies and other items. Very disappointing.

[AussieKathy]

The only 2.0 upgrade we noticed was the champagne on arrival with escort to cabin. That's it.

We had a balcony cabin, the bedding wasn't new, no bathrobes, I ordered the fruit for our cabin and never got it. The buffet was always running out of food (have never seen that on the 17 cruises I have taken). The latte/capp machines rarely worked. One of the main dining rooms was closed the first night so the lines were very long. Left and went to the buffet. The buffet had run out of chicken, fish, veggies and other items. Very disappointing.

 

 

I hope this was all just teething problems on the first cruise out. They have two weeks to sort it out before we go. This is our second time on POA and we loved it!

[ND23]

Crepes in the buffet weren't made-to-order. They were made with whatever filling was being used that day (raspberry on the first day when we tried it), and you got to top them with chocolate, whipped cream, and/or grape jelly.

 

No bathrobes in the balcony rooms (we were in 7014, and cruised with a bunch of other people in balcony rooms - none of us had bathrobes).

 

We never noticed any option for ordering a fruit basket to be brought to the room.

 

We never noticed any free drinks/champagne being offered upon embarkation, but we're not drinkers, so we weren't exactly looking for it.

 

We showed ourselves to our stateroom, since we knew where to go. I don't recall anyone offering to escort us there.

 

Bedding wasn't new, and there was no memory foam mattress topper. We slept fine, but probably more from exhaustion than anything. My wife will be the first to complain about a hard bed, but she didn't really complain about it during the trip.

 

The only "2.0" thing we noticed was the first night in the Aloha Cafe. We walked in to the entrance on the 11th floor starboard side, and noticed a "Please wait to be seated" sign near the first drink station. I thought this sounded odd, since I had assumed the Aloha Cafe was more of a seat-yourself-anywhere type of place. We waited a minute or two, and a hostess seated us on the starboard side, between that first drink station and the entrance to the buffet area. This section was taped-off with stanchions and blue tape, and the tables in this section had white tablecloths, and wine glasses and water glasses on the table, and your silverware rolled up in the white cloth napkin already on the table. We had a waiter (Anton) dressed in the Aloha Cafe uniform (Aloha shirt, black pants), come and fill our water glasses and ask us if we would like any wine. Not being drinkers, we declined the wine, and Anton took our wine glasses away. We then got up, went into the buffet to get our plates of food, and came back to eat. Anton would check on us every so often to refill water. Once, when we told Anton we were about to go visit the dessert station and my wife mentioned she was looking for some chocolate, Anton proactively asked us if we would like some milk, which we accepted. When we got back from the dessert station, we each had a full water glass full of milk waiting for us.

 

I talked a bit with Anton about this, and he mentioned this was an experimental thing they were doing this first night, and he mentioned something about it being related to the 2.0 upgrade. My wife filled out a comment card and we raved about it. We never saw this option again on the rest of the cruise.