Is booking hotel with NCL POA worth it?

[ecualumni06]

Hello all and thanks for reading and potentially responding to this post.

I have booked 3 nights with NCL cruise and land package. I am paying $399 per person to stay at Waikiki Marriott. I really want to stay longer than 3 days now that I obsess about it. So I think it would be better to stay like 5 nights at the hotel.

 

I really want to stay at the Moana Surfside, Royal Hawaiian or Halakulani.

But I keep getting sucked into the whole NCL will take care of transportation to the port and take you bags before you leave the hotel.

So my question is, is all that even worth it. I keep reading that I can get a shuttle for $9 per person anyway.

 

Any advise would be appreciated.

 

[mikedw]

I'm booked for July 2011 for my ten year anniversary and I've been researching hotels, use to be a travel agent. I love Marriotts but for what NCL charges I can stay at the Royal Hawaiian and have a rental car, plus a few other things thrown in through Apple Vacations or Travel Impressions. My wife is disabled so I can do without the van or minibus to the hotel, I rather pay for a limo and have the guy waiting for me at baggage claim. Hope this helps.

[Heads&Tails]

Trust me you can do a lot cheaper on your own and possibly add a couple extra nights if you book hotel on your own.

You may want to state your cruise date to get a better idea on where and how much.

[ecualumni06]

So i am going on the cruise Sept 11-18, 2010 and I was thinking of flying in early on Sept 5, 2010 and staying in Waikiki until saturday of the cruise. I am thinking that maybe it would be best to just go it on my own. thanks for the reply

[minimom5]

HI!

We leave for our POA cruise in 2 days and I found (after TONS of research) that some things are cheaper to do on your own and some don't make much difference. The hotel: We are staying at the HHV for 2 nights pre cruise. Thru NCL it would have been almost $400.00 pp per night but I was able to book it on my own for $179.00 through Orbitz. Same with the airfare. Found tickets $500.00 cheaper per ticket. There are shuttles running to & from the airport and pier and if you feel better having that pre-arranged you can do that too. Roberts seems to be a reliable company-good reviews. We also looked into VIP Transportation. We decided not to pre-arrange from airport to hotel-seems unnecessary- but we will arrange shuttle from hotel to pier, 24 hours in advance is all they require. We booked a couple of shore excursions through Robets Tours(gorabbitgo.com) and the rest through NCL(pre booked/very easy) as there didn't seem to be a whole lot of price difference and the convenience was worth it to us. One exception was the helicopter tour on Kauai. We booked directly thru Blue Hawaiian as there was a significant price difference. Hope this helps.

[born2cruize]

I've done it both ways. Our first cruise in 06 was a total NCL affair. It's more of a piece of mind. An NCL rep met us at the gate. Carried our carry-on. Had someone else retrieve our luggage and all of loaded on the bus without any hassles or tipping. Same way at the Marriot. On departure day they picked up our luggage from inside our room and we didn't see it again until on the ship. In 08 and next year we did and will do everything ourselves. Little more stressful but manageable.

[Heads&Tails]

We are doing b2b October 2010. We are going to be staying a week pre cruise a will most likely stay at one of the Aqua hotels as we have done before. Most of them have recently been reno'd. The prices and locations are great, there right in the heart of Waikiki.

There are literally hundreds of hotels to choose in Honululu.

[TrentS]

I really want to stay at the Moana Surfside, Royal Hawaiian or Halakulani.

But I keep getting sucked into the whole NCL will take care of transportation to the port and take you bags before you leave the hotel.

So my question is, is all that even worth it. I keep reading that I can get a shuttle for $9 per person anyway.

 

DON'T get sucked into that!

 

You can do better on your own and the whole transportation and baggage thing is a bunch of garbage. You check out of the hotel the bellmen take your bags from your room down to the front, they or the cabbie put them into a cab, you drive to the pier, the porters take them from the cabbie and onto the ship they go. No hassles, no problems, and almost always cheaper!