Just returned from PoA-13 days of full activities

[MTV43]

Our group consists of 4 families, 8 adults between 50 -55ish and 8 teens between 12-18. The 8 males and 8 females spent 13 days of full activities. We did a lot, ate a lot and spend a lot.

This is our sixth cruise, we sailed Western, Eastern, Southern Caribbean, Bahamas and Alaska. We cruised with Princess, Royal Caribbean and Carnival. This is our first trip to Hawaii and also our first cruise with NCL. One family is also cruised RRC and Carnival, the other two families were their first cruise. I found that all the negative comments from previous review such as slow dining service, no drink offered at dinner, luggage left in the hallway, not a lot of activities, no 24 hours buffet, etc. were all true. However, they were not that bad, it is just matter of taste, expectation and the Freestyle dining experience. We had excellent dining service, prompt response from front desk when we had issue with our cabin. All crew members always greeted us with a smile. It was the best way to sample each island, every good itinerary, beautiful weather, we enjoyed every day of our trip with our family, friends and a warm welcome from all the crew members and locals from each island. If the foods were better, it would be a perfect cruise, but food is just matter of taste. Instead of writing a detail review, I just summarize all the places/activities we done, hotels we stayed, car rental at each port, parking tips. If you have any specific questions about these topics, just post your question, I will try to answer. I also keep all the Freestyle Daily from NCL.

Car rental - We rented from Thrifty and Avis at all the ports except Kona. Shuttle from pier to airport (Kahului, Hilo, Kaui) were fast, short drive 5-10 minutes. Thrifty will pick and drop off between airport and cruise ship pier at Oahu. Kona, we rented from Dollar at King Kamehameha’s hotel. It is across the street from tender dock. It was a little more than at airport but it worth the time (ie. Van at airport is $76, at hotel is $90). Reserve it early because there are limited spots at the hotel. We satisfied with all the services. Tips: booked early for best rate.

Hotel – One night pre-cruise, we all stayed at Aqua Palms located across from Hilton Hawaii Village. It was clean, convenient, free continental breakfast, just only juice , coffee, muffin and fruits such banana, orange, apple. A bottle of water at ABC is $.99 and $.50 for an apple, so it was adequate to fill the empty stomach before boarding the ship at noon. Four nights post-cruise, 3 families stayed at HHV and my family stayed at Ilima at Waikiki, the best budget hotel we had ever stayed. I got internet special rate of $75 per night plus tax around $84ish for a studio with full kitchenette, free parking, free internet. It was clean, large room, convenient location, safe to walk at night. It located 1 block to International Market, 2 blocks to Waikiki beach. My friends stayed at HHV for $219 plus tax, $24 parking and $18 internet per night. They came over to our studio one night for dinner, they wished that they had reserved Ilima. Tips: don’t wait for last minute to book your hotel. Reserve directly with the hotel, all have 1-3 days cancellation. We sailed in August, I reserved Ilima back in March, around April HHV had a special of $135 per night which was a best deal. My friends waited until July to reserve. They had better view, but they never stayed in their room beside sleep and shower and paid $900 more than us. Beside, the teens liked Waikiki area. A lot to do/see at night, a lot of place to eat (from $-$$$), a lot of shops ($-$$$$). They were over at our place more than HHV.

Activity :
Oahu- Surfing lesson at Waikiki, Diamond Head, Hanauma Bay, Pearl Harbor, Maze at Dole Plantation, Rock jumping at Waimea Bay, Polynesian Culture Center (we were surprised that our kids really enjoyed PCC, especially the culture presentation), Chinatown. Beach: Waikiki, Hilton Hawaii Village, Sunset beach. Shopping:swap meet, International Market, Ala Moana mall and Haleiwa town.

Maui- Sightseeing: Iao Valley and Haleakala National park. Beach-surfing, snorkeling, sunbathing: Kaanapali beach park , Lahaina, Kihei. Shopping: Kihei.

Hilo- Sightseeing- Volcano National park, returned to ship for lunch and headed out to Alaka falls.

Kona - Snorkeled at Kahalu’u beach park and then shopped around pier. Kona is the only port has some unique boutiques around the pier.

Kaui - Sightseeing Waimea Canyon, Spouting Horn, North shore. Zipline at Poipu area. Beach- snorkeling, sunbathing, swimming: Tunnels, Haena and Lumahai beach parks are all in the same area, beach at Marriott hotel for relaxing, swimming and surfing. There was free shuttle from pier to Marriott and the shopping area, however the walk was only 10 minutes, and it was faster to walk then wait for the shuttle. Marriott property is nice, lot of shade, the beach area is also nice, and you can rent surf board, boogie board. The ship sailed at 2:00pm so it was a nice, relaxing area for few hours. Shopping: walking distance from pier and Hanalei town at North Shore

Snorkeling: We only done shore snorkeling, we snorkeled at Black Rock (Maui); Turtle beach (Kona); Tunnel beach (Kaui); Hanauma Bay, Shark Cove (Oahu). They are all free except Hanauma Bay $7.50 per person plus $1 parking. Hanauma was totally disappointing compared to other places. We swam with turtles at every place.

Surfing lesson: The best island to take lesson is Oahu. For beginner, Waikiki is best. Within an hour, all of the kids already stood up. It is best to take the lesson before the cruise, at any time during the cruise, the kids just rented the board and surfed.

Parking: Waikiki – It is hard to find reasonable parking space around Waikiki in the evening. There are few spots offer flat rate of $5 or $8 per day on Kuhio Ave. If you just want to spend few hours around International Market area, there is a lot with meter parking of $1.50 per hour on Lewers and Kuhio. We were there on Friday night and there were plenty of empty spots. If driving on Kalakaua Ave toward the beach, there is also a place with meter parking. Hilton Village: you can park at the mariner park next to Ilikai hotel for less. Our friends asked for two parking access cards at HHV, so we can park there when we visited them, so we only paid $24 per day for two vehicles. When they came to Waikiki area, they can park at our hotel for free as visitor. Chinatown: meter parking along the street is for only 1 hour. Park at municipal parking garage right on Smith street, every reasonable rate. Cruise Ship Pier #4: there are about 10-15 spots before the security gate. We parked our vans there, checked in and came out to return the vans to airport and Thrifty shuttled us back to the pier.
Maui (Kahului port)-free parking right when you exit the security gate. There are about 50 spots, you can also park around the sea wall. If there is no more parking at those two places, tell the guard and they will let you park along the road. If you drive to Kaanapali, there is free parking cover parking garage (about 20 spots) “Beach Access Parking”. It is between Sheraton Maui and Kaanapali beach hotel. The Whalers Village parking is $2 every 30 minutes, with $15 minimum purchases, you will get 3 free hours.
Hilo- the guard will let you park your car after entering the gate if you need to return to the ship for lunch.
Kaui – the guard will not let any car past security area. There is no parking around the pier except for $20 overnight rate right in front of an office building. There is spot to park while you are in the car to wait for your party.

PoA Experience:
Embarkation and debarkation was a breeze. We were in and out in no time.
Cabin – We had 4 OB cabins on deck 7, per square footage it is small than Grand Princess and Carnival Valor, but it seems larger and it looks nicer. However, it cannot beat Carnival’s bed. We only meet our room steward once when we arrived and once at the end of the cruise. Our cabin was cleaned every day. We all agreed that they did not really vacuum the bottom of the bed, I found empty water bottles. No towel animal, but that did not bother us.
Luggage delivery – I read a complaint in one of the review that one couple found their luggage left in the hallway. That is true, I saw one of our friend’s suitcase in front our cabin, their cabin was at the end of ship and our cabin is at mid ship, so I walked around the corner and there were all on the luggage. So we just looked for our bags and took back to our cabin. Again, this did not bother us, I guess that all the luggages were brought to the nearest elevator and the room steward will bring to your cabin. So it depends to how busy they are.
Evening activity – there is not much going on, but since it is a port intensive, so we usually hit the bed around 10ish. Our teens said that there not a lot to do, so they got together and played card in the game room.
Freestyle dining and service – You can reserve for the entire week and request for the same waiter/waitress. It seemed to work better for large group, however with large group, we can only reserve the time from 5:50 to 6:30 and 8:00 – 8:30 and request for the same waiter/waitress. To us, it worked better than traditional style. For the overnight at Maui and Kaui, we reserved at 8:00, the other nights we reserved at 6:30. Except for the second night (overnight at Maui) was a lobster night, the dining room seemed busy. Other nights, there were plenty of empty tables for 2 and 4. We had our diner every night at Skyline restaurant because we liked our waiter. You can wear jeans or short. At Liberty, only kids up to 12 can wear jean or short. The table had our name on it, we just walked direct to our table, some night we finished our meal within 1 ½ hours, other night it was over 2 hours. We don’t feel the rush of getting out for the second seating like traditional dining. PoA does not have a person to go around and take your drink order. Your waiter will do it, so ask your waiter for it. As opposed to other cruises, ask each night if you need it. Example- Other cruises: after the first night, ice tea was automatically brought to me. With PoA, I had to ask for it each night, even through we had the same waiter. We just simply asked with a smile and got everything. My friend was just joking when she asked for some special off the menu. Our water happily asked the chef to make it for her and every night he surprised us with something new each night. Our dining room service was excellent.
Foods – the menu is good, different selection each night but we don’t like the taste, it is either too salty or too bland. There were two lobster nights, one on Sunday (1/2 lobster with grouper); and one on Thursday night (1/2 lobster with claim, mussel over pasta). Our teens checked out the buffet before dinner and they said it served the same food each night except lobster night. If you return from excursion around 4:00 pm and expect to grab something from the buffet like Caribbean cruise, you will be disappointed. Aloha Café did not serve 24 hours, lunch from Noon to 3:00pm and dinner from 6:00 – 9:00. Key west bar and grill served only from 1:00 pm to 6:00. Cadillac dinner is the only place served from 11:00 am 5:30pm and 6:00 pm to 2:00 am.

The teens had to get up early each morning and they were busy from morning til wee hour. They had no complaints and said that surfing was their highlight.

Hoping this helps someone in planning their trip.

MTV

[Jeanny]

wow!! I love reading other cruisers reviews! Thanks so much!!!!

[maroons]

My two teens had the same experience - up early every day for shore excursions, to sleep by 10 PM every night because we were all so tired. They were not impressed by the teen stuff on the boat either, so they made their own fun. They had a blast and I imagine they would both say this is the best vacation they've ever been on. Each day was packed with a ton of fun on shore. My daughter did do a couple of the lei making classes on board the ship. They were free and she absolutely loved that. They also played shuffleboard several times, which I thought was hilarious. They had me playing with them one afternoon. They went to a couple of the shows at night and mostly made fun of them, but they thought that was hilarious to go to goofy shows and laugh about it later, so that actually worked out just fine! Our service both at the Skyline and from our room steward were good. We sailed 7/25.

[Host Michell]

Some great tips in there! Thanks for sharing with all of us (I made a note about the hotel you used in Waikiki -- sounds great).

Should you cruise again, please do be aware that delivering your luggage to the hall outside your cabin is standard practice (they generally won't enter your cabin), and I don't know that any cruiseline offers a 24 hour buffet. I know Carnival and HAL don't (my 2 most recent non-NCL cruises).

[georoc01]

Originally Posted by MichellP

Some great tips in there! Thanks for sharing with all of us (I made a note about the hotel you used in Waikiki -- sounds great).

Should you cruise again, please do be aware that delivering your luggage to the hall outside your cabin is standard practice (they generally won't enter your cabin), and I don't know that any cruiseline offers a 24 hour buffet. I know Carnival and HAL don't (my 2 most recent non-NCL cruises).

Princess Does..Horizon Court is open 24/7.

[cruiseman40]

MTV:

Thanks for posting and a great job with the review.

[dianelevene]

Thanks for all the tips. I am starting to really plan what to do on each island for our group which will range in age from kids (9 and 10) to grandparents.

I am not surprised that the buffet was closed for a while in the afternoons. We had the same experience on our last several cruises which were on HAL, NCL and Costa. I think on most cruises we have ordered from room service if we get back in the late afternoon and need a snack.