POA review 6/20

[can]

What a wonderful vacation we just had! Cruised with our family of 4 (2 boys, 7 and 9), my mother-in-law, 3 Sisters-in-law and their spouses.

 

We spent 3 days pre-cruise at the Sheraton Princess across the street from the beach. We were right in the thick of things, lots of people, street performers, shops, restaurants, people walking around until the early morning. It was great for 3 days, but I'm not much of a city girl and wasn't sad to see it go. But I was ready for my cruise anyway!

 

We did a couple tourist-y things - we went to Turtly Bay Resort, let the kids swim, then drove to Polynesian Cultural Center. We stayed for the Luau and the show following. I liked the luau, but I have nothing to compare it to. The host/MC (?) was super friendly. I was so sleepy from our flight from Michigan I had a hard time enjoying the show, I sat most of the time with my eyes closed. How did I like PCC? It was ok.... But like I said, I was tired and it was very hot.

 

We also visited SeaLife Park. My husband called it cheesy. I'll agree, it seemed tourist-trapish. My kids did love our dolphin swim. They sold us the $18 pictures to prove we'd done it. We didn't stay there long. I couldn't wait to leave and stop along the coast. We stopped at Sandy Beach (most un-original name ever :) ). The surf was up! There were probably 100 or so people surfing. My kids got in the water to their ankles. There was officially "no swimming", but that doesn't apple to surfing! They were a blast to watch. (I think I'll stick to snow skiing). We stopped again at a blowhole. Scenery = BEAUTIFUL!

 

Probably my favorite thing I did in Honolulu was the hike up to Diamond Head. With our rental car it was a quick trip from our hotel. The sign said to allow 40 min to hike the .8 mile trail. That is what it took us. The trail is uphill and rocky. There are some stairs and a tunnel. Suppose we could have gone faster except the sun was beating down on us. What a view you get from the top! We bought their certificate at the top. We gave a lift back to a family with 2 young kids. Someone told them it was a 20 min walk from Waikiki..Wrong. The had walked all the way then did the DH hike. I was impressed especially when she told me she was PG. They were grateful for the lift. Never got your names - hope you had a good vacation!

 

Hubby and my eldest son went to the Arizona Memorial on early Sat morning before we left for the cruise ship. I thought my 7 yo was too immature. While they were gone I took our clothes to the laundramat. They got back around 12 and off we went to the ship!

 

 

To be continued.....

[can]

Man, that ship is HUGE, was my first thought when I saw the ship! Getting on the ship was very easy. They had a special line for Latitudes members that was short. We walked right up to the counter, bypassing a longer line. Once on the ship I was greeted with champagne and found all my family already enjoying lunch by the pool. My family and I grabbed lunch at the Aloha buffet and took it outside, too. In no time at all, our floor was called as being available.

 

Our room, 9636, was small! It was extra squashed having the two boys with us. Not too big of deal though, we really just slept in the room. Glad we had a balcony, it added a little living space onto the room. My hubby, who in the past has suffered from sea-sickness, is positive that having the balcony helped him. We slept each night with the balcony window open. So nice to hear the waves splashing.

 

I'm not a good one to ask about ship amenities. We ate in the Liberty, the Aloha, and Cadillac Diner. I thought the food was good (I'm very NOT picky). I've seen some complaints about dining time. We never experienced that in the Liberty. Even with 13 of us, we never had a problem with length of time.

 

We didn't take advantage of the shows on the ship. Frankly, we did so much in the ports, we would come back, eat, socialize a bit, and go to bed pooped. Others in our family enjoyed the comedian, the polynesian show, and the Newlywed show. We chose to skip these!

[can]

So many options - How to choose?!

 

We rented a car and were off to explore. Our first stop was the Ioa needle. Second, we headed over to the NW shore line past Lahaina. My husband's co-worker had told him about some good snorkling spots. We had our snorkels and suits with us. We stopped at a beach. The water was WAY to rough to snorkel. We had the beach basically to ourselves, the boys played in the waves. I laughed so hard watching them. When they were done we stopped at the showers to rinse off. They had sand everywhere, and I mean everywhere.

 

Because of another tip from the same coworker, we continued on up the coast. We stopped frequently for pictures. This is the Hawaii I think about when I picture Hawaii. Rocky cliffs with waves crashing, secluded shoreline, such beauty! (I came home with over 400 pictures). We kept driving trying to find a blowhole the coworker told us about. We never did find it. No matter, the scenery was so incredible it made the drive so worthwhile. We go to the point on the map where the rental car company had said was forbidden. Onward we went. The road became one lane but the traffic was 2 directions. One side of the road was a dropoff the other side was a cliff face. Was this really a road?? There were no signs, no painting on the road, not really any gaurd rails. You basically tried to find a wide area in the road to pull over for opposing traffic. Once we had to put the car in reverse and drive backwards a bit to allow opposing traffic to pass. Again, the scenery was postcard perfect. Every turn brought new incredible views. We eventually came to the town of Kahakuloa. There was suprisingly quite a few cars out here in the middle of nowhere on the one lane road.

 

We found out why there was so many cars - There was a big brush fire near Lahaina and they closed the road that connects Lahaina and Kahulua, where our ship was located. My MIL, 3 SIL's had taken an excursion to Lahaina. There were stuck there. NCL put up 2 bus loads of people in a fancy Sheraton and gave them food vouchers. My extended family made the most of it and it sounded like they had a great time. (Quite an expense for NCL).

 

Suppose there's the advantage of booking excursions through NCL. If it would have been us stuck we would have been on our own. But then we didn't get stuck as we were on the "forbidden" road. No bus could've made it down there.

[can]

Our second day in Maui we had booked a snorkel trip through mauiadventures.com. Our boat was the Maui Magic. We had kept our rental car overnight so we could drive ourselves over to Maalaea, where the snorkel boat was docked. Quick drive over there, made really easy by the rental car. We booked an early boat and showed up really early. We poked around a little at the Maui Dive shop before our tour.

 

We went out to Molokini. I was expecting more fish, there were really hardly any! It was very choppy, maybe they were smart and swam out deeper. We moved to another snorkel sight. Darn it, I can't remember the name. They said that we would probably see sea turtles there. I paid extra for the chance to "snuba". (scuba, but your air tank is floating on a little raft above you.) What a cool experience that was! I had an up close look at a sea turtle that swam right towards me. I got a little alarmed when it came really close. I have an underwater camera and took some amazing pictures. I was really getting the hang of it when it was time to surface. I was last up, the guide motioned me over and laughed when I shook my head "no". I'd love to snuba again some day.

 

Very friendly boat crew. Very good with our 7 and 9 year olds (who, by the way, loved their snorkeling experience!) The crew made the excursion so nice!

 

To be continued...

[kezza]

Can, thanks for a great review, waiting very patiently for the next installment. Can't wait to read the rest.

 

so looking forward to our cruise in August.

 

Kerri

[can]

Rented a car from Thrifty. Our destination was Volcanos National Park.

 

We headed directly for VNP. Most of the Crater Rim drive was closed due to high Sulphur levels. The park ranger at the Visitor Center was so passionate and informative about his subject you could tell he loved where he worked.

 

I thought Thurston Lava Tube was extra fun. We brought flashlights as suggested here. We went about 100 steps past the point with no lights. The kids were so spooked we had to turn around. I still don't know how far it would've gone. There was a nice hike on a crater floor that we skipped. We viewed from the rim people walking and it looked very cool to walk on that flat black surface. The temperature was even cooperating as it would've been cool enough to walk on the black lava floor ... but we had so much else we wanted to see we skipped this adventure. Next time!

 

We left VNP and continued on to the black sand beach in Punuluu. A sea turtle was feeding among some lava rocks. We were all amazed. The girl at the little gift store gave us great advice on a little diner in the next town south, Naaleehu, where we at at the Haua House. When I stepped in the front door I felt like I was in a time warp from the 50's. What a good lunch we had there. They say they are the southern most restaurant in the U.S.

 

Again ... so much to do, so little time. We were quite a ways from our ship by this time so we turned around and headed back. We had enough time to stop at Rainbow Falls which is right in town. Pretty - the boys liked a huge Banyon tree by the falls better than the falls themselves.

 

We returned our car and back to the ship for us.

 

To be continued...

[smrtypnts]

Loving it so far, Can. Thanks for posting!

[can]

We got up early and grabbed the first tender to shore. We had scheduled an excursion with Captain Zodiac snorkeling. Thanks to CC'ers I did not book this through NCL but called Capt Zodiac Direct. Saved a little $. We waited together, those that booked through NCL, and those of us that didn't. Their boat was docked right next to where the tender dropped us off - very convenient! There was a teensy beach right next to the pier where early morning exercisers were swimming. (How wonderful would that be? Instead of an early walk, these people can take an early swim.) My kids jumped in the water to play a bit before our boat left. Nice that the tender and Capt. Zodiac left from the same dock area.

 

Capt. Zodiac boats are rubber rafts. They seat 8 passengers on each side. You were required to hook your foot under a rope on the floor (they called it your "feet belt" :) ). You really needed the extra rope .. HOLD ON ... the Zodiac bumped and sped through the water. There was a lot of whoops and yells and shreieks of delight. We all loved it! We met fellow CC'er there - HI, BluebonnetGirl!! We spotted a pod of about 30 (?) spinner dolphins snoozing and drifted past them.

 

I said we had no fish to view at Molokini's. Well this stop made up for it! What a variety of fish we saw! So glad I have an under water camera. My complaint is that it ended too soon. Before I knew it, they were calling us back to the boat. My kids really loved this snorkel site. I felt like a kid, too.

 

On the way back our captain said - "what in the world is that?" Was he just trying to make it more exciting for us?, he had spotted 3 bottle nose dolphins which are bigger than their spinner dolphin cousins. They came really close to our boat, we saw one was a calf. the captain said they see bottle nose dophins about once a month. My camera battery had died by this point. I sure hope the womain who said she'd email pictures to me comes through!!

 

I was pooped by the time we got back. We tendered back to the ship, took a shower, and ate lunch. I got a 2nd wind and took the tender back (by myself :) ) Kona was great to walk around in. I found some locally made items that I bought as souviners. I could have spent a lot of time poking around here! .... next time!!

 

to be continued....

[can]

We woke up the next day in Nawiliwili - that's even fun to say. This is the place I encountered the rudest people on our trip - we had a slight encounter with some over zealous port authority employees. Nuff said!

 

We had trouble deciding what to do at this port. Again we rented a car. From reading on the website I had narrowed it down to 2 things - Waimea Canyon or a North shore drive. (or a really rushed tour of both). We opted for a leisurely drive up the northern coast. My Mother-in-law went with us this day. We stopped first at Wailua Falls. These were so pretty. Our guide book said you could take a hike to the bottom of the falls, I didn't see any such trail.

 

We drove a little further and stopped at Opaeka'a Falls. This was further off the road but pretty, too. But then are water falls ever NOT pretty?

 

We made it up to Kilauea Lighthouse. Such beauty. Again ... pictures worthy of postcards! By this time the kids were getting antsy - too much scenery for them. The clerk at the gift shop gave s 2 great tips. One for a good lunch stop, the other for a nice beach for the kids to swim. The beach named Anini, was shallow and had shade trees close to the water. Perfect for us to watch. They could have stayed here all day, but us mean parents dragged them out.

 

I was determined to make it to the end of the road so we continued on to Ha'ena State Park. My youngest boy and I walked a little way up the Kalalau trail. We only made it about 200 yards. It is steep and had huge rocks that you had to climb. At one point I wondered if we were on an actual trail, but then some people appeared on the trail in front of us coming down. We stopped at a fabulous view of Ke'e beach and took a picture. Outstanding!! I mean really really beautiful.

 

By this time it was time to turn around and head back. Glad we choose the relaxed day but bummed we didn't see Weimea Canyon. The ship seemed empty at dinner this night - we were told that 800 people had booked an NCL luau at this port. Sure made for some quick restaurant service for us that night in the Liberty!

 

To be continued...

[Pink Me Up]

Can, Thanks for the nice reviews ! Awesome ! You did very good job with your cruise reviews and much thoughts was put into it !:)

Thanks for sharing ! ;)

[kezza]

Can, thanks for an awesome review. Any chance of posting some photos on here??

Awaiting the next bit.

 

Kerri

[kezza]

Can, thanks for an awesome review. Any chance of posting some photos on here??:D

Awaiting the next bit.

 

Kerri

[Squaretop]

Thanks for the review. One week to go!

[Nelie]

Hey Can i am enjoying your reviews they are great. I will be going oct with my friend and her son(9) . So it should be real fun any tips or suggestions would be great

[karen327]

am looking forward to the end of your review. Have enjoyed reading it.

[Louise45]

Thanks for the review. We are going back in March. I was wondering about your experience with Thrifty car rental at Hilo. So many have complained about how much time they spend just trying to get the car. Did you have a good experience?

[can]

A day a lot of people stay on the boat. Nope - we were off early for our Mud Bug excursion. This was the only excursion we booked directly through NCL. This was one of my favorite excursions. (Firefly - this is GREAT for a 9 year old!!) It was pricey but we loved it. My thought was to keep the boys active, too much scenery and they get bored. What a blast this trip was. We got good and dirty but were able to jump in a waterfall that they had led us to. My kids especially loved the waterfall. They were brave and jumped from a ledge into the waterfall. We had rented 2 mudbugs; I wanted to drive, too. There were about 12 bugs in our group led by 2 friendly, funny guides.

 

This excursion had all sorts of warnings and a liability form a mile long. But in the end the mud bugs were a lot less bumpy than our Zodiac boat trip and I always felt very safe. The warnings scared all of our group, especially those with the bum knees. I really think anyone could have gone and enjoyed it. They even offered a driver if you wanted one.

 

I loved how we went from desert to rainforest in 2 miles. We all liked zooming through a tunnel that had been dub during the sugar plantation days. What a fantastic day this was!

 

They lent us pants and a Tshirt to wear over our bathing suits, though the loan was not required nor were suits (just if you want to swim at the waterfall, but don't skip this part - when would you get this chance again?) They lent us a helmet (mandatory) and goggles (optional). A lot of people bought bandanas to wear over thier mouth. Probably a good idea - once I was laughing so hard and a dirt clod flew right in my mouth. :)

 

My 9 yo ended up the dirtiest on the tour. My hubby took a lot of pleasure in hitting every puddle. My son had on this white swim shirt, that I had to throw away when we were done. Nice goggle outline on his face when he took his goggles off!

 

 

To be continued....

[can]

Louise - I, too, had read about some rental car problems. Truly, we never had a problem! I had signed up for the "blue chip" program with Thrifty but then never used it. Our first Thrifty rental in Oahu went smooth as silk in the non-blue chip line. I asked my husband why he hadn't used the Blue Chip line, and he said he forgot we had signed up for it. Our other Thrifty experience was in Hilo, and again, no problems. I stood in the Blue Chip line he stood in the normal line. The normal line was quicker. It took about 10 - 15 minutes tops to get the car. Our other 2 car rentals were from Avis (I had some coupons from them from mycokerewards.com) Again, smooth, no problems.

 

A couple times my husband went and got the car then came back for us. And twice we went with him.

[can]

Keeza - I have my pictures in walgreen.com. when i click on the insert image button and I type in the address of the photo it just goes like this

 

 

And no picture appears.

 

But here is the address and I think it can be clicked on to view the pic.

 

http://photo1.walgreens.com/slideshow/AlbumID=628937001/PictureID=17063978001/a=8337417_8337417

 

Wonder why my 'insert image' doesn't work.

 

I'd love to put pictures here. I have some GREAT pictures.

[can]

What a bummer - they made me get off the ship!

 

Thanks to CC'ers we had a nice last day. Our flight wasn't until 11 pm. What to do? Some in our group booked an excurision. YUK, no more travel, please. We booked a "day room" at the beautiful Hawaiin Hilton Village. It was $89.00 and we had it from 9am - 9pm. My eldest son stayed in the room most of the day (pooped!), my younger son swam in their pools. My SIL and BIL took a nap. What a perfect way to end our vacation. I had never heard of such a thing as a day room! It was perfect. (took taxi from ship to HHV and back, about $18 one way).

[can]

Forgot to mention this:

 

We rented our gear for the week from Snorkel Bobs in Honolulu. We returned it to a Snorkel Bobs in Kauai. (snorkelbob.com) I was able to call my optometrist and get my eye glasses prescription, then when I reserved my gear I gave them my Rx. I could actually see using my swim mask. I am blind as a bat and if I couldn't have done something like this I never could have snorkeled. The kids liked the equipment, too. They used it in the ship pool. We carried it with us on our travels. We had stopped to swim more than once.

[glyn]

What a bummer - they made me get off the ship!

 

Thanks to CC'ers we had a nice last day. Our flight wasn't until 11 pm. What to do? Some in our group booked an excurision. YUK, no more travel, please. We booked a "day room" at the beautiful Hawaiin Hilton Village. It was $89.00 and we had it from 9am - 9pm. My eldest son stayed in the room most of the day (pooped!), my younger son swam in their pools. My SIL and BIL took a nap. What a perfect way to end our vacation. I had never heard of such a thing as a day room! It was perfect. (took taxi from ship to HHV and back, about $18 one way).

So did you go back to the pier or to the airport? Our plane doesn't leave until 5:15 and I was thinking about doing the Pearl Harbor but didn't know what do for the rest of the day.

[Nelie]

Hey Can. Thanks for your review i think its one of the best i have read on here.

 

I would love to do Mud Bugging and the kid i am travelling with would love it to, not sure about his mum though.Do you know if you have to book in pairs i read something like that on here some where. I may have to see if his mum will let me take him on his own and she could do another excursion or just stay on the ship, we will see.

 

I have i guess an unusual question for you. What did you wear. I have read numerous post about cruise wear and it all seems to be directed at a older crowd (no offence). Just wanted to know what you and your family wore not only on excursions but also when you dined at night, (where did you dine too) I'm in my mid to mid to late 20s and my friend is in the mid 40s. Also what was appropriate for your kids to wear to.

 

Thanks

[magroo]

So many options - How to choose?!

 

 

Because of another tip from the same coworker, we continued on up the coast. We stopped frequently for pictures. This is the Hawaii I think about when I picture Hawaii. Rocky cliffs with waves crashing, secluded shoreline, such beauty! (I came home with over 400 pictures). We kept driving trying to find a blowhole the coworker told us about. We never did find it. No matter, the scenery was so incredible it made the drive so worthwhile. We go to the point on the map where the rental car company had said was forbidden. Onward we went. The road became one lane but the traffic was 2 directions. One side of the road was a dropoff the other side was a cliff face. Was this really a road?? There were no signs, no painting on the road, not really any gaurd rails. You basically tried to find a wide area in the road to pull over for opposing traffic. Once we had to put the car in reverse and drive backwards a bit to allow opposing traffic to pass. Again, the scenery was postcard perfect. Every turn brought new incredible views. We eventually came to the town of Kahakuloa. There was suprisingly quite a few cars out here in the middle of nowhere on the one lane road.

 

It's a shame you missed the blowhole. It was pretty cool, but there's no sign. You had to stop where all the cars were. We misssed it ourselves at first, but a local we met in Kahakuloa told us where it was so we found it on our way back on that "fun" 1 lane road.

[magroo]

We got up early and grabbed the first tender to shore. We had scheduled an excursion with Captain Zodiac snorkeling. Thanks to CC'ers I did not book this through NCL but called Capt Zodiac Direct. Saved a little $. We waited together, those that booked through NCL, and those of us that didn't. Their boat was docked right next to where the tender dropped us off - very convenient! There was a teensy beach right next to the pier where early morning exercisers were swimming. (How wonderful would that be? Instead of an early walk, these people can take an early swim.) My kids jumped in the water to play a bit before our boat left. Nice that the tender and Capt. Zodiac left from the same dock area.

 

Capt. Zodiac boats are rubber rafts. They seat 8 passengers on each side. You were required to hook your foot under a rope on the floor (they called it your "feet belt" :) ). You really needed the extra rope .. HOLD ON ... the Zodiac bumped and sped through the water. There was a lot of whoops and yells and shreieks of delight. We all loved it! We met fellow CC'er there - HI, BluebonnetGirl!! We spotted a pod of about 30 (?) spinner dolphins snoozing and drifted past them.

 

I said we had no fish to view at Molokini's. Well this stop made up for it! What a variety of fish we saw! So glad I have an under water camera. My complaint is that it ended too soon. Before I knew it, they were calling us back to the boat. My kids really loved this snorkel site. I felt like a kid, too.

 

On the way back our captain said - "what in the world is that?" Was he just trying to make it more exciting for us?, he had spotted 3 bottle nose dolphins which are bigger than their spinner dolphin cousins. They came really close to our boat, we saw one was a calf. the captain said they see bottle nose dophins about once a month. My camera battery had died by this point. I sure hope the womain who said she'd email pictures to me comes through!!

 

I was pooped by the time we got back. We tendered back to the ship, took a shower, and ate lunch. I got a 2nd wind and took the tender back (by myself :) ) Kona was great to walk around in. I found some locally made items that I bought as souviners. I could have spent a lot of time poking around here! .... next time!!

 

to be continued....

 

We did this one, too. Very fun!! But keep in mind for those that want to book it...it's kinda like being on a big jet ski. High speed fun.