FireFly's POA 17th Oct Review

[Firefly_Nelie]

Hey all.
Well i am back from my POA cruise. We spent a 3 days before and 3 days after the cruise in Waikiki beach which is why i havent come on here sooner.

Well firstly i would like to thank you all for all the help and guidence you have given me. If you had told me 6 months ago i was going on a cruise i would have laughed. My only knowledge of crusing (apart from in a car) was the Titanic and the Love boat. Ha ha. I had about a million and one questions and you answered them.

Has anyone seen that Gwenyth Paltrow movie Sliding Doors. In the movie they show her life in 2 versions. 1 life is what happens if she catchs the train and the other is if she missed it. Well ill always wonder how my cruise would have turned out if i had never found this site. From what to wear, to where to go and what to do, this site has it all and i am so glad i found you. The only way i know how to repay you all is with a review so here it is.

Ok so firstly I would like to tell you about who was on this trip. Me, almost 27 yr old female. There was my friend Meri, shes in her mid 40s. Her mother lives next door to my parents. As a young teen she looked after her neighbours (me and my sisters) then when she had a child of her own we returned the favour. And that child would be passenger number 3. Chris hes 9. I thik most people found it unusal for neighbours to be travelling together, I know that i dont really know mine since i have moved away from home. Often we got that we were a family. I was thought to be younger (i got asked for my ID when purchasing drinks away from the ship) so they thought Meri was my Mum. (Much to her horror) Now we either got that Chris and I were brother and sister, or that Chris was my son, which i get alot back home here in OZ. Either way it made for an interesting conversation starter when people said things like oh your "son" or "brother" is so friendly. If anyone else was on this cruise. Chris was probabaly w the little boy who out of nowhere just came up and started talking to you lol.

So i would like to get all the bad stuff out of the way first. Dont get me wrong I had a Great time on this trip. I would defintaly go again tomorrw if someone asked me to. However there were a few bumps along the way. So heres a few of the disasters we experienced that could have potentilly ruined our trip. We tried not to let them but i think we will always remember the stress it put us through.

Ok Meri and i organised a special travel money card/ Visa from her bank back home here in Australia. It enabled for us to load money onto the card in American dollars. We could take out cash and use like a credit card. We would know exactly how many dollars were on there in American and not get chargeed huge fees like we were going to with are other debit/credit cards. We decided this was how we were going to pay for our account on the ship. We worked out how much our excursions would cost added extra for drinks and other thing and then added extra for money to be taken out as cash. We over estimated the amount just to be safe. We went to the front desk twice during our trip to get a printout of our expenses(worst case senarios if we had gotten a bit happy with the buying we would pay with a different credit card and pay a huge fee but hey its a holiday) The night before the last day of the trip we settled up our account, so to speak. Any additional charges would just be added and taken off which was fine. Our final bill would be waiting for us in the morning behind our door number. This was all good we got off the ship no dramas. I had figured out that i still had about $150 on the card and me friend had almost $250. Later on in the after noon we went to pay for something on the card and it got declined. We already had probelms with the card earlier in the trip which ill go into later. We got back to our hotel room and called up the bank. It turned out that NCL had taken out an extra $400, leaving us with a total of $19 to spend for our last 3 days in Oahu. Soooooo of course we got angry. Tried to call them up but it was out of business hours. We called them the next day but it was sunday the department we needed wasnt open till monday. We were angry. We had little cash money, we had planned on spending the last 3 days shopping. Although we did have other cards the cost to use them was huge and the fact was we shouldnt have had to use them. We finally got through to someone on monday and well he was quite rude and wouldnt listen. He told my friend the reason it was extra is that "they work out an average of your days spending and ad it to the bill in case you buy anything the last day" WHAT THE!!!! . Isnt that the whole point if having the credit card so you can just charge them. This of course was the first time i had heard of them doing that. (No one on here mentioned that and you all talk about every fine detail, did i miss it?) He told us it was in the Welcome aboard pack. (We never recieved any pack before our trip, so maybe it was in there) Regardless why wasnt it just added on the bottom of the bill or at least metnioned when we settled the bill , when i asked at the front desk they said was it would just be added on. The guy who we called said the money was still in the account it was on hold. Ummm Hello, if its pending we still cant access the money and not to mention our bank informed us that it had already been taken out of the account. We were told that the money would be refunded wednesday and therw was nothing we could do till then. We were real angry and werent sure who to be angry with was it there fault or ours for not reading the fine print. We called the bank again just to double check and then rang back NCL in hopes of getting someone who wasnt rude. We got hold of a lovely girl called Domeniec(sp) with in 2 hours we had our money refunded. Yeah !. The american money was no use to us in australia so we went and spent it straight away. haa haa but i hate to see the kind of fees i am going to pay for the stuff i did buy on my other cards. Dont get me wrong i loved my cruise and i will probabaly cruise with them again but the whole experience did put a bad taste in my mouth . Can anyone tell me if this is what has happened to everyone. I am still going to get my friend to call and maybe find out a litle more about what happened so i can be prepared for my next trip.

Disaster number 2, well really 3, 4, 5 ,6,7 . You get the picture. Our TRAVEL AGENT, from hell. well maybe a bit extreme but......
We flew from our home town of Adelaide, South Australia to Sydney, New South Wales (Australia) for our direct flight to Honolulu. The travel agent wanted us to get to sydney about 2 hours before our flight left and were were like no we will get the earlier flight and lucky we did. Firstly our flight was late. The when we finally got our bags we went in search of the "free, easy bus shuttle"(according to the TA) that woudl take us from the domestic to international airport. Well there wasnt a "free" one and there was some walking. We were told just walk out the front and there it was. Well maybe in make believe land!. The airport staff told us to take the train, its easy and its only 1 stop. Well it was semi easy and it was only $5 but its the point of it all. We get to the international and theres a huge line .We finally get to the front hand over the passports and other travel information and the lady was like "Where is your VISA wavier form". I was like oh we arent going to be there that long. She snapped back with. "Its doesnt matter you still need one". Well i was ready to cry as i figured this was the end of the trip. I told her we asked the travel agent(about a million times to be exact) and she said we didnt need one, sniff sniff. It wasnt all doom and gloom, all we had to do was fill out a form online and the airport had free internet. It was Maybe 730 pm and our flight left at 9. We raced over to the internet but they were all full. Then Meri realised that one guy was on facebook so she loudly asked if someone could get off so we could do The VISA thingy. One guy was nice and got off and said take your time, we got glares from the others. The first from the computer timed out so we had to redo it again and do 2 more. We were shaking i can tell you. We got it done raced back to the counter, we cut through the first class line. All good, bags checked just go to go through all the other stuff which we do and then i look up at the screens and our flight says go to gate it was like 8 so we freak. Meri had to do some reclaim thingy for a camera she bought duty free. We do that then ask the guy there were our gate was and he was like the other side of the airport. We ran. Little kid and 2 grown woman with 3 bags running through the airport dodging people, jumping over things like were were chasing after a villian. We get to the gate and they were like its ok you still got 20 mins. puff puff, WHAT THE. We got a drink went to the rest rooms but we had planned on eating dinner and that just didnt happen. But we got on the plane and to hawaii but oh man for awhile there my dreams were dashed.

We also had an issue when we went to catch our domestic flight the 3 of us werent sitting together, it got fixed so we were but when it happened on the way back i asked why. The TA had put Chris down as an adult. So there airline assumes that 3 adults wont mind if 1 isnt sitting with the others. We got to sit together anyway but still if the airline had to look for Chris they would assume he was an adult. So yeah we are not happy with our travel agent. She also wasnt very helpful with inforamtion on our crusie. Im the one who went on line and found there wesite and you guys to find out anything. She wasnt really good and finding us the best deals either. So my friend is going to write a letter to the company as we were appalled. We are not thinking we are going to get any reinbursment(would be nice) but more so they know about the bad service, how many other people has she put in the same situation

Our next kinda distaser was with our Travel money Visa card. We got it from the bank and there was a PIN on the bottm of the paper. It was behind this sticky pannel you pull away, i guess for security reasons. Well we got the card on friday and Meri didnt look at the pin till tuesday night, we left wednesday. The pin wasnt there. We called the bank but there systems were down, it wasnt until 845 wednesday night while sitting in Sydney airport about to board out flight did we find out we did have money to use in Hawaii. Apparently a batch of the cards were printed with out PINs. MMM Well why didnt the bank get us to check it while we were there. But i suppose we should have checked too so its partly our fault.
I think thats all our disaster if theres more ill write them in the review

Anyway even with all the bad stuff. we actually had a good trip, can you believe it. Haa Haa.

Well ill get the next part of the review up as soon as i can

Heres a pic of where exactly Adelaide is. When we told people we were from Adelaide, South Australia , Australia, they were like "where". The citys aren't in the exact sopt just a general area

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[Firefly_Nelie]

Packing List
2 pairs bathers (swim suit)
1 Sarong
1 Board shorts

Casual
3 shorts (one can be dressed up)
4 tops (one can be dresed up)
Cargo pants
Thin flece zip jacket
Sneakers
Flip Flops
Sandles (can look dressy)

Night/ dinner wear
2 dresses
1 skirt with top
Black Linen Pants
2 Dressy tops
Black thin cotton cardigan type jacket
Black undershirt/tank top
tights

Open toed slip ons

Other Stuff
Small hand bag
beach bag
Small messenger style bag
Hair straightner
Power converter
Basic makeup supplies
My normal shampoo and conditioner but i put it into 100ml containers
Soap
Shaver
Comb, brush. hair ties, hair spray
Sunscreen
Alove gel (for sun burn)

3 pairs short socks
2 normal socks
enough underwear for the whole trip.

Thoughts on what i packed. I did buy
1 tank top
1 hawaiian dress
2 hawai t shirts
I did wear them but i didnt have to. I did pack 1 less shirt as i knew i would be buying at least 1.

I packed my suitcase and then repacked and took heaps of stuff out. Picture below is the first packing. I ended up rolling my clothes instead of folding. Bring 2 swin suits, it wont dry. i didnt over pack once i repacked. Everything got worn numerous times, i didnt wash. If it passed the looks clean and smells ok i wore it again. Bare in mind we did a shore excursion then went back to the ship and swam on most days so i was able to extend my clothes as i only wore them for half a day. Found the ship to be quite cold so do bring a dressy long sleeve top or jacket. I told Meri not to worry about being out on deck and it being windy and needing a jacket for that but bring one for the cold air con. Shes didnt listen to the second part and said i told her not to bring a jacket at all.

Any questions on attire feel free to ask but i will let you know what i wore and when through out the review as this was something i stressed about.

Ill try to update soon

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[jame_g]

I'm not going to downplay your issues, I'm sure it was unpleasant since you didn't expect it. But you asked if the issue with the card was common, and it is.

Basically what you were using sounds like a pre-paid debit card. One of the things you should have picked up here on the boards is that the cruise lines will put holds on the cards to make sure that you have enough to cover your bill. And it sounds like they are usually tougher about the holds with debit cards as opposed to credit cards.

The hold prevents you from spending this amount elsewhere, but doesn't actually subtract the money until they submit the actual charges. It will usually be over the amount you end up spending, and it typically takes 1-2 business days after getting off the ship for the amount to be cleared. Some people have reported it taking 1-2 weeks, especially with debit cards. There are also holds placed on credit cards, but those generally only impact people close to their limits.

So I guess what I'm saying is this is something you probably should have expected and been prepared to deal with. I believe that there have been a few threads on this over the past several months. Sorry it stressed you out, but glad it didn't ruin your trip.

[Firefly_Nelie]

Thanks Jame for letting me know. At the time it felt like the world was going to end Now that its been nearly a week since it has happened we have calmed down. I did want to let other know about it. If we had known ahead of time it would have been no big deal, we would have put a bit more money on the card , thats all.

Thanks

[Firefly_Nelie]

Pre Cruise

I hope you dont mind if i give you a quick recap on the days before the cruise.

Day 1 Wednesday
We flew Hawaiian Airlines and they were really great. We had 9pm flight so we got dinner and breakfast. The dinner was the best meal ive eaten on a plane. We got a nice piece of marinated chicken, potatos, brocolli, carrots, a salad, a bread roll and some Macadamia nuts which i couldnt eat as i am allergic. It was real good. Breakfast was a yoghurt with muesli. Not what i would have picked but it was so yummy. The woman across from us turned to her husband and was like "please tell me this isnt breakfast". I wondered what she expected. Ive never had breakfast on a plane before what have others eaten.

I couldnt sleep on the plane and neither could Meri. I think i am going to avoid night time flights if i can.

We took a roberts shuttle to our hotel. We didnt book just walked out side. It did take awhile but it was good as it gave us a chance to see where we were in regards to other hotels and shops. After a 9.5 hour flight, an hour was nothing. We stayed at the Outrigger waikiki on the beach. We checked in but were way to early so we went and got some lumch at The cheese cake factory. We dont have these back home and we loved it. We knew the meals were going to be big as my sister had been to Hawaii the year before and had told us and given me a menu. We ordered 1 meal each and it was way to much for us but we wanted to give it a go anyway, after that we shared. I recommend the Southern fried Chicken sliders. You get four mini burgers and they are yummy yummy. Meri and i shared this and we got it a few times, some times we got a side order of fries if we were starving but honestly just the burgers were enough.

When we finally got our room Meri was really tired and had a head ach so we left her to sleep and i took Chris out with me. We explored the hotel, found the beach. Went into 1 of like a gazillion ABC shops, for those who dont know. ABC shops have lots of souvineers but also drinks, light snacks any nick naks you may have forgotten. At first they are cool but then you start to see them everywhere and its just like is there any other shops haa, haa. We eventually went back to the hotel It was awesome and so big. You could see the beach if you looked from the left of our balcony and the city from the right. Only a little from each but it was still nice. The room was real big and beds nice and comfortable. The one thing our travel agent did right was get us a good deal on the room. We too were starting to feel the drain so we decided to watch some tv then fell asleep.

Day 2 We wanted a relaxing day so we just walked around the Waikiki beach area, scoping it all out. We went to the hotel pool and lounged around there. For dinner that night we went to planet hollywood and had one of the worst meals of the trip there. I ordered some pasta dish that described it as having a pesto sauce. When i got it there was no sign of green in the whole dish. ok there was but that was the brocolli not the pesto. Pesto is basil basil is green i seriously dont know what it was i got. i also ordered a fruitty cocktail but it was really strong. When they saw i hadnt drank much of it they asked if it was ok so i did tell them. I wouldnt have said anything but they did ask. To me it tasted like nail polish remover. In the end they didnt charge me for the drink but later on i found my self snacking on Maui chips and almond snickers bars, yummy yummy. I'm also allergic to peanuts so it was so gooooooddddd to eat a snickers and then not visit the hospital.

Day 3 We decided that we needed to see more of oahu then just the hotel. We decided to hike Diamond Head. We took "The Bus" it cost us $2.25 each, the price has just gone up apparently. We got a transfer back for that price too so that was pretty good. When you get off the bus you have to walk up a bit of a hill. This is the point where we were like oh wow if im already puffing how am i going to handle the rest haa haa just kidding. You will see a dark tunnel, just walk through there and you will come out and see where exactly where you have to go. Cars drive through this tunnel and there isnt really much of a place for pedestrians to walk so hug the walls of the tunnel and walk single file. The cars have to slow down but we found most didn't. There is a small entry fee to do the hike i think it was like $1. You are given a map and even though you think you wont need it, there were a few times where we thought we had made it only to look at the map and see nope a bit more. The hike is only 0.8 miles, 1.3 km but it can be steep at times and you kinda wind up the mountain so you get quite high quite quickly. At times the path is only one person wide so you kinda have to "pull over" to let people pass. There is a section where you ahve to go through a dark tunnel, there are some lights so you can see. My tip is when walkign through this tunnel. Take your sunglasses off, it makes it so much easier to see :P When you get almost to the top there is a section were you have to climb through a tiny opening. I honestly dont think some of the people who were walking up made it through this bit. You kinda have to do a squat shuffle, haa haa well maybe not that bad but you do have to duck and walk maybe 5 steps. Just bare that in mind. The view from the top is real nice ive got picture below, i was pretty sure i could spot our hotel. On the map we got it says allow 1.5 to 2 hours for a leisurly walk. We did it in about an 1 hour and 20 minutes including photo stops but i do walk at a fast pace.
All in all an enjoyable day for us. I personally enjoying being out in nature and going for hike (i dont do it often, i wouldnt call my self a hiker) Chris said that it was ok, he liked running up the stairs but when i asked him if he thought other kids his ages would like it he kinda shrugged. If you like going for walks then i would recommend it however i wouldnt just do it for the view, it is nice but...

Oh by the way we did the walk between 10 and 1 ish i cant remember exactly when we actually did the hike. It was quite warm but it made comming back down and getting a massive shave ice for heaps cheap so much better

That night we couldnt find anywhere decent to eat and walked a fair distance from our hotel and found a place that had pizza we were dies for italian food. Well we were dieing even more after the pizza we had. It was really thin and so oily. We found a real great pizza place in the 3 days after the cruise but ill get into it then

Any questionsf feel free to ask, ill now move on to the cruise part of the holiday.



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[Firefly_Nelie]

Day 1 of Cruise, Saturday Oahu

We checked out some time after 12, we lugged our already heavy luggage out to the street. One of the Valets organised a taxi for us, we he called us theer was a limo waiting. We were like no no we just want a taxi, he was like its fine. Its the same price we use this guy all the time. We were like what the hell, why not. So we travelled to the pier in style. It was very nice even if it was short. We were cruising along looking out the window. Chris was like where is our ship. Meri and i looked towards the ocean to see if we could see it, then i looked towards the front of the limo and there i see the ship looming above us. I was like " Umm guys look ahead" OMG was pretty much our thoughts. We are first time cruisers , we knew it would be big but not that big. It was such an Awesome sight.

The taxi took about 15 mins and cost about $22

We dropped our bags and checked in i think it took us till about 120pm and then all of a sudden there we were on the ship, Now what. haa haa. We went and got lunch in the Aloha cafe. Wow so much food, honestly i think that there is to much to chose from. I ended up with a slice of pizza and then chucked a bunch of stuff on my plate and made a salad. So that was real nice, the italian dresing was real good to. I know why would i eat salad when i could eat so many other things but i am a picky eater so i was glad to be able to eat anything at all. Our room was ready by mid afternoon. Our room was 9044. i found it to be quite nice. I was prepared for it to be tiny but it was really ok. It would have been nice if there was a bit more room at the end of the bed but it was still ok. We unpacked and found there was just enough room for all our clothes and then put the suitcases under the bed. My friend had all her makeup and lotions and all that in a suitcase style make up bag and she had enough room to put it under the sink. I had bought small versions of shampoo and conditioner and was able to put them in one of the 3 shower caddys. We found out a few days later that the left hand mirror actually is a vanity, it opens up. So i put my basic hair and makeup supplies in there so our sink wasnt littered with stuff.

We toured around the ship a bit more then went and ate dinner. This time we checked out the Cadillac diner. Meri got a vegetarian lasagne and Spinach and Artichoke dip, she said it was really nice. Chris and i got a burger which was nice at first but then it got sickening but i think it was because i was real hungry and kinda scoffed it down. We also got the potato skins but i felt they needed a bit more flavour. We again went and looked over the ship again and watch sail away. Chris went and checked out the basketball court area even though we told him not to. We walked off as he often doesnt listen so you have to and he came hurrying after us. He tripped and fell and gave his leg a good wack but he was alright. We walked off and a few minutes later one of the staff came up to us and asked if some one had an accident. It took us a few seconds to realise they meant Chris. We told him he was ok but Chris asked for some ice. A few minutes later the guy returned with the ice. He then stayed and chatted with us for awhile. His name was Ben and he usually works in the Pink Champagne. He was nice and friendly and was the first of the crew to actually talk to us other than a Hello. It made us feel alot better as we were feeling quite unsure of things.

The first night sleeping on the ship was weird. It kinda felt like when you are almost asleep and you suddenly jolt cause you felt like you were falling. I was also on the pull out couch which was very hard but i put up with it.

All in all a good first day on the ship.

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Will try and post more soon

[Firefly_Nelie]

Day 2 Sunday Maui.
Today we woke up and some how we were now on a different island, haa haa. Its weird i mean you dont really think about it but you go to sleep looking at one view and wake up to another. We were looking forward to see more of the less touristy Hawaii. We got room service every morning for breakfast as we arent really breakfast people. I got toast with butter and Strawberry jam and an orange juice, it was enough for me. Just a note, we found alot of the bread to be real sweet. I guess its cause we are just not used to it.

Today we visited Haleakala Crater, we didnt do a sunrise or sunset visit just a normal visit. There was a bit of a drive but the guide was real nice and talked alot and it was very interesting and funny. The crater was real nice. There is a trail to get a view frow higher up but the view from the bottom is still real good. The trail is not clearly marked, i was one of the first from our group to go up so at times i had to stop and look for footprints, well shoeprints anyway. Take the walk up, slowly not only is it quite rocky but at that altitude you start to loose breath easily. I personally enjoyed it and i think if you liked Diamond head then you will like this too. Its not a high action adventure type trip so if thats what your looking for maybe pick something else. It is really great however. I was quite comfortable wearing cargo pants and a light jacket, i think i would have been chilled in just a t shirt and shorts. Oh i also did this in my Nikes, dont need to bring special walking shoes, in my opinion.
At the pier there are a number of free shuttles to take you to local shopping centers. i think we did take one on maui. It was good to get out and see a little more of the island and people even if it was only a shopping center. It was interesting to see different store names and products we are not used to.

We went back to the ship and had promised Chris a swim in the pool. Leading up to the trip i would ask him waht he wanted to do in Hawaii and his response was rather excited "Can we go in the pool" haa haa, well hes 9. The pool area was nice and i didnt really notice any chair hogs, most of the chairs had bodies in them. I thought the pool could have been bigger and perhaps a little deeper. I think if there were more kids on the ship it would have gotten real crowed real quick. As it was there were only 28 children.

The day before we were asked if we wanted to book into any of the specialty resturants so we booked Little Italy for tonight as we were still craving Italian food. Honestly i was dissapointed with the food. The bread and tomato and vinegar and oil they brought us was very nice however Chris scoffed it down while i was reading the menu so i didnt get to eat much of it. He already had been playing up a little that day so i was easily agrivated. I ordered a Minestroni soup and it was nice but a little salty and i normally add salt to everything. I then went for the penne pesto hoping this would be better than the last i ate. Well it was green that was a plus but it lacked flavour i actually added salt to my pasta. Meri had the soup to but she added lots of pepper as thats what she always does and didnt notice the saltyness. She also got the spinach and ricotta canneloni but found it was all cheese. Cant remember what chris got as he scoffed it down, i swear he has a bottomless stomach. When we got the bill, it was meant to be $10 per person, children under 12(i think ) free, conditions apply. Well when we get the bill they had charged us $5 for Chris. We questioned them about it and they were like ok we can take that off for you if you like, "umm yeah". Not sure why they did that, maybe chris ate to much

Meri had decided she wanted to see a show, the Polynesian Show i think. I wasnt really interested in going and wanted some time to my self. Meri and Chris loved the show and Chris even got pulled up on stage to do the hula. He looked so cute apaprently. I decided to explore the ship. I went to the internet room and emailed home. I wondered around some more. Chatted with a guy who was at the art gallery. From here i was enticed by some piano music. I walked up the stairs and found Pinks Champagne Bar. I sat down on the outer edge and simply relaxed. It was real nice, i wouldnt even know where to go here at home to listen to piano music. I am thinking of looking for some nice piano music on CD as i really enjoyed it. The guy was real good. Ben from the night before walked past and recognised me and stoped to ask if i wantd a drink, i didnt. He chatted briefly then left then came back and chatted for a short time. It was nice that he remembered who i was and was able to chat briefly, it made it feel more personalised. Like i wasnt just another customer like you would get at a bar, i really liked that. Its the personal touchs that make the trip more memorable.

I was able to sleep real well tonight. Ok so maybe it had to do with the fact that the ship wasnt moving lol. Also we had a late night and got up early that would have helped.

Day 3 Maui coming soon.
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[Firefly_Nelie]

Day 3 Maui
Today we split up. When we had discussed excursions we decided that we didnt have to do everything together. Meri wanted to do Zip lining but Chris was to young. I said i didnt mind taking Chris if we could do something i still wanted to do. Ok ill admit it i was to chicken to do zip lining. ha ha Meri did the zip lining and loved it she said there were about 6 and the last one was the most scariest half way through she wanted to stop.

Chris and i did the Iao valley and Ocean Center. I enjoyed Ioa valley. It was nice to get out in nature and look at some pretty impressive sights, i am still not convinced it wasnt a painted mural, lol i guess i still couldnt believe i was in Hawaii. There were a couple of different trails you could take to see a few things there. We did them all. They are only quite short and we walked quite fast looked at the view took a few happy snaps then moved onto the next one. The Ocean center was real great, you could go at your own pace. The sting rays were real impressive especially when you went through the tunnel and they were right on top of you. I got some real good footage of them. The jelly fish were awsome to, they looked like a screen saver. Lol. There was heaps of educational stuff there to read and learn about but Chris and i were just interested in looking. Alot of the exibits are in dark rooms, this makes it easier for you to see the animals in there tanks, however it can be a little scray for young children. Even Chris, at 9 yrs, got a little scared when he realised he wasnt beside me and did hold my hand alot more than usual. Just to keep in mind if you take small children.

We went back top the ship ate at the buffet again and went back to the pool. AHhh this is the life.

There are lots of different actiuvities to do during the day and today we actually did one. Kukui Nut Lei Class. For those who have never seen a "Nut" lei, they are every where to buy in hawaii. They teach you how to make them and supply everything you need. It is quite easy to do so dont worry if you are not good at crafts. At the end of the class you can buy Lei making kits for about $8 for Nut Lei and $5 for a shell. For any Australians out there, do not buy any Nut Lei. By all means do the class and make the lei but at the end of your trip give them to someone as you cant bring them back. We assumed that they were ok to bring in as i know others who have but we declared them and they told us no. We were allowed to bring the shells in after they inspected them but not the nuts.

We decided to check out the Skyline tonight. There was a little bit of a wait but not to long. Although we did get our glasses filled with water,almost to often, we found our waiter to be inattentive. He was taking our order but seemed to be looking around at what everone else was doing which meant he didnt get all our order down and we had to wait for one of our meals longer. I ordered the shrimp cocktail to start and it was quite nice but i thought it was going to be bigger sized shrimp not the 5 cent piece size and i did crunch one or two shell bits. ha ha oh well it didt spoil my meal but just worth mentioning. I got the chicken breast from the always available menu and it was really really nice. If you cant tell by now i am real picky but this was good. I didnt eat my brussel sprouts but hey thats me. Apart from the spaced out waiter the meal was quite good.

Tonight chris decided to go to the Kids club. Before the trip we had discussed putting him in there and we werent really going to as the trip was for all of us. We had shown it to him on the first day to see and he was like yeah i want to go. We dropped him off and decided we would go to Pinks to listen to the piano music again. Very enjoyable and relaxing. The white hot party was on tonight, for those who dont know, you wear white and your clothes kinda glow. Its night clubish with out the sleazy drunk guys . We were concerned how chris would go in the kids club so we checked on him just before the White hot party started. He was dissapointed to see us, haa haa, he was loving it there. There wernt that many kids there so he had the run of the place and the people looking after him. We were like ok, you wanna stay for a few more hours, while we go party and he was like, awww only a few hours.Haa haa.

I hadnt really bought anything white to wear as i didnt think Chris would be going into kids club and i wasnt planning on going alone. i eneded up wearing a white top that had a huge red hibiscus on it with black pants. Meri wore i white skirt and a green top. There were people wearing anything white, basic shorts and t shirts to cocktail dresses, even one guy was wearing the NCL robe, haa ha he looked adorable. We werent sure if we were going to like it, thought it might not be our scene. Well we dominated the dance floor. Haa haa. I swear it was like we were glued to it, we were having so much fun. After the first 45 mintues the dance floor and club did dwindle in numbers, we noticed alot of the older people had left. However they did dance there butts of while they were there and they were probabaly being more sensiable than us as we had early excursions the next day. the music was real great and we kept on dancing, even some of the cruise staff were like how do you ladies do it, you have been on the dance floor more than us and we are so tired. Haa haa the secret is i have been sleeping so much since i got back haa haa. Check out the white hot dance party, its great

We decided to leave around 1 as little boys need there sleep and we felt bad for leaving him in kids club. The Dj called out to us as we left. Hi name was DJ Orlando. Just asked if we had a good time, told us we looked nice (thankyou) just general chit chat. Told us to come back again. He really seemed genuine like some of the cruise entertainment stff we had met that night so we were really starting to love this cruise.

Oh by the way, they often have a video camera out taping stuff like this. I'm one of those people who dances like no one is watching, well unfortunatly theyw ere watching with the camera. On the tv in your room they ahve a channel where they replay back stuff from the cruise and i turn on the tv one day and there i am dancing, haa haa well i got my few seconds of fame.
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See ya in Hilo

[Firefly_Nelie]

Day 4 Hilo.
Ok this by far was the worst excursion of the lot. We did the "Cave, Lagoon and Waterfall Trek" TREK! WHAT TREK?. The description states hike through the backdoor of rainbow falls past mango trees. Ok this is what we really did. Instead of parking the bus where everyone else did she parked it a bit further along and then pointed out a dirt path to take instead. There was a big tree that we looked at and a few people climbed and took photos but it was just a dirt path to take instead of the concreate one thats it. She did take us to look at a few other nice sights and waterfalls but we werent really sure what she was doing. We went and saw a colapsed lava tube which was interesting but i kept thinking when are we going to hike. She then took us to a beach area where they gave us some water shoes. We walked through some wet slimy and slippery ares before they stopp at what i assumed to be the "lagoon" part of the "trek" this is when they got in the water. Now in the description it doesnt say anything about wearing a bathing suit but when you get your tickets for it, it does. We didnt go in the water but Chris did. The point of it was to show you how the top part of the water was cold but below your waist it was warm. I was more interested in looking at the waves crashing on the rocks not to far away. The other guide who was there with his group took pictures for us with a wave crashing behind, so that was nice and i spent some time chatting with him. The tour isnt what it claims to be. i found i was board and kept looking at my watch hoping it would end soon. Although some of the things we saw i would normally be intested in, i was to annoyed as i had paid money for a hike, the only hike on the trip was me telling the lady to take a hike case she kept babling on about nothing. If i knew then what i know now i wouldnt waste my money on it.

The only way to recover from this terrible excursion is to head to the buffet before heading back out to do some more shoppng. haa haa. we took another free shuttle, i think this time we went to Hilo hatties. If you are after matching hawaiian outfits this is the place to go, they had a great selection. I bought my slef a real nice black tank top that says i love hawii on it. The to ii's in hawaii are palm tress. Ive worn it twice at home and gotten comments on it

We dropped Chris off again at the kids club he was winging all day as he wanted to go earlier. Meri and i went off to the Liberty for dinner. we got a real nice waiter/server by the name of Paige. She was excellent. I ordered the Artichike bruschetta and it was very yunmmy, i ordered the streak from the always available menu. it came with fries but we had been eating to many of them so i asked if i could have it with some thing else. I got a baked potato and i could have gotten it with some thing on it but i just wanted butter. i also ordered my steak real well done and for the sauce to be on the side. And i got it. Wow. I am a real stickler for my meat well cooked and it was, ahh i could go for one of there steaks right now. I am not rally a dessert person so most nights i got chocolate icecream but Meri got a coconut cream pie. Her son was so angry when he found out as Meri has him watching Gilligans Island and mary anne makes them and he wanted to try . haaa haa

Tonight there was a rock and roll pool party. So we were glued to the dance floor again. The cruise staff were there again and when they saw us they laughed. "Still dancing i see" Hey its once in a life time and we were going to make the most of it and i always find that dancing is a great way to relieve stress. We saw DJ Orlando again this time he stopped and chatted to us a bit more. Told us about the ship and cruisng and what to expect from it all. It was real nice to see a facw you recognise. From here on in we got a hello and an actual recognition from a few of the cruise staff as they did know us. This made us feel real good and special, as at times we did feel isolated and alone

Tonight was the night we sailed past the volcano. It was real spectacular to see. My camera didnt take real good shots but it was great to see. We had a balcony room so we watched it from there.
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[Zeno]

I am really enjoying this review - lots of details plus a real feel for what the reviewer is like which makes it all more interesting.
Keep it up Firefly!

[flashdog_1]

Thanks for your review. We're leaving in less than a month and just hearaing your experiences makes me excited!

[Firefly_Nelie]

Day 5 Kona
Today we tethered into the pier. I was a little scared about what was going to happen but it was fine. There are people there to help you, so dont worry. We saw dolphins on the way to the pier so that was pretty cool.

Today was our Body Glove Snorkel excursion, by far one of the best. We got a light breakfast while we cruised out to our snorkel site. There were lots of option for you to chose on how exactly you wanted to see the fish. Some skuba dived but i was pretty happy with what i saw just snorkeling. Meri got her self a noodle to help support her as she snorkeled and lots of people did. I am a bit of a fish, so i just had fins. Chris got him self an underwater camera so a few times i dived down and tried to get a bit more of an upclose picture of some of the fish. Chris also got him self a board to lie on, it had a cut out round section with i guess a lense in it so he didnt even have to put his face in the water if he didnt want to. It was also good as Meri and i took turns attaching the boards strap to our wrist and then dragged him around with us. Made it real good as i didnt have to keep looking for him. I had trouble with my mask, i have a weird shaped face apparently, so i changed it a few times and they were real helpful with it. I should have changed my mask earlier instead of putting up with it as i ened up having a sore spot between my eyebrows for almost 2 days after as my mask had been on a little too tight, my bad. There was pleanty of time to snorkel so dont worry about being rushed with this excursion. There is also a slide and a place to jump off the boat from the second story. Chris the little dare devil did it a few times and then kept nagging me to do it to. No thankyou. Haa haa we had a lot of fun. If you do one excursion while in hawaii i think this is it. I saw quite a few fish, mainly yellow ones, i swear i saw the hawaii state fish, the trigger fish, it has a long name in hawaiian and we spent ages laughing while trying to remember the name and how to say it.

We had planned on going back to the ship to drop our stuff off then go back to shore but then we saw the line and we were like ahh lets make chris carry some stuff for us. We took another free shuttle. This time to Target. I know, why would you go to target while your in hawaii i mean we even had target in Oz. Meri and i were having this discussion on the bus as the bus also stopped at the market place and i was like lets just go there. The bus driver was like, well for starters this target has an aloha store, and the market is a few minutes walk from there. So we went to target first, i got some real basic keyrings for the guys at work. They are rubber hawaiian shirts that say hawaii on them and they were like .49 cents. I work with a group of like 10 men of various ages with various degrees of friends ship. So i got them all one, at least its something haa ha. We went to the market to and got some real nice gifts for people. They had some real nice sarongs there, i know your probabaly thinkig there are sarongs all over hawaii but there was one store there that had heaps and they were different from the ones i'd seen else where. More brightly coloured and different patterns.

We went to the Liberty again this time we didnt get great service, another inattentive waiter and he was a bit rude. The meal was nice i got the chicken again, so no real complaints about that.

We went to Pinks and this time we actually got a drink. I got a Mango smoothie, it was really nice and you could hardly taste the alcohol. We stayed there for a bit and then went to the Mardi Gras for Mardi Gras. We were given masks and neckalces. So again dancing like no ones watching. We did notice that the cruise staff dissapeared after maybe an hour. There wasnt really alot of people there but hey didnt bother us more room to dance. The music was real good and DJ Orlando was asking for requests so we had a real good time. Stayed late again, if i knew i would be going to the Mardi Gras as often as i did i may not have booked so many early excursions

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[Firefly_Nelie]

Day 6
Today we were meant to go to Waimea Canyon. We got a letter the day before saying that they had swicthed our excursions as the excursion we had booked for friday(horse riding) didnt have enough people. As it was late notice we could cancel if we wanted with no cost. Meri decided that she had enough of staying up late and then getting up early for excursions so she decided to cancel the horse riding and have a day to relax. I did think about it but ive wanted to go horse riding for some time now and i have no one here at home who really wants to go with me. At least here on the trip i could go on my own and not really be on my own. So i did it. I had alot of fun. It was kinda a bit like heres the horse theres the trail go for it. lol . My horses name was dude and we had a bit of a miscommunication on what we were doing. I wanted it to be a nice slow ride where as he wanted to enter the Kentucky derby. Ha Ha well it wasnt that bad but i a few times he did take off and i was there bounching away. The guide did try and give us tips on how to ride when he was running but i couldnt get it and neither could the guy in front. Man my butt was sore for a few days ill tell you. It was pretty easy to control the horse and stop him when he was running but at first you freak out and your trying to concentrate on staying on rather than stopping. At one tme i did slip a little and thought i was going to fall and my horse did lead me straight into a low branch at least once. The guide whos name i cant remember was really great. He pointed out some movie sights and took pictures of us on our horse. If you can go horse riding at home then you may not want to do it here. You do see some nice stuff and it really was great and i am so glad i did it but... Well if there is other things you want to do in Kauai you might want to do that instead.

Today i think we had lunch at the Cadallic diner. I was so sick of the buffet by then. I had fish and chips which were a little peppery but still quite nice.

Tonight was the Luau. I wasnt quite sure what exactly to expect or what to wear. I had read about all the different Luaus and then couldnt remember what information went with which Luau. I wore skinny jeans with a dressy tank top and gold sandles. i did notice alot more people wearing Aloha wear here than i did on the ship, but there were some fully dressed up and then other in shorts and t shirt and no one looked out of place. There are a few stalls where you can buy arts and crafts so bring your cash. i bought a real nice clay plaque that has a symbol on it that means royalty. Its painted with bright colours. i picked this one over a few different ones as both my self and my husband were named after royalty.(well sorta) haa haa. The drinks were free, even the Alcholic ones, definatly a plus. There were 10 people to our table and you are assigned a table before you leave the ship. The people with us were quite rude but i just smiled at them and was overly nice, haa haa. The food was ok, there was quite a few salalds and rice to chose from. I found the pig to be a little salty (im not really a pork fan) and i didnt go near the poi. The entertainment was nice but i have seen similar stuff before so i wasnt as wowed as first timers but it was still a real good show. Some complained that it took ages to get back to the ship but we didnt really notice.
We didnt get back to late but i decided to get an early night, one of a very few
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[Firefly_Nelie]

Day 7

Our final full day i couldnt believe how fast it went, there was so many things i didnt get to do.
We went to Waimea Canyon today, it was awesome. It was a bit cloudy so my photos are a bit grey but it really was beautiful. I dunno the clouds kinda gave it a more spiritual feel. Ive always wanted to see the grand canyon so this has given me a little taste for it. I loved it, i think the canyon really expreses what Kauai is all about. Mm cant really say much more about it but to go and see it. We got back to the boat about 15 minutes before we were meant to be back by so it was cuttig it a bit close. The tour guide took us for an extra stop to this coffee place. She said we could make the stop if enough wanted to. Hands up if you dont want to go, hands up if you do. I swear there were more who didnt but we went any way. i would have prefered to go back to the ship earlier

I had a bit of a lay down before heading out to explore the ship for what was on of the last times in day light. Meri and chris were tired so they stayed in the cabin. There was a bit of a party at the pool on sail away so i stayed there for that. Once again the cruise staff spotted me and waved. Was told by one of the staff that they had had so mauch fun because me and Meri were on the trip. Ok ok so they may say that to other cruisers but it did feel real so that was nice. I know that i will remember them for quite some time and maybe they will remember me for mmm maybe 2 weeks haa ha. I got some real good photos of DJ Orlando he even posed for a special one for me, haa ha its a silly one but i think thet really represents who he is, check it out below.

W sailed passed the Na Pali coast today. It was cloudy here to but again made it feel real spiritual. There was a Commantary by Malu one of the hawaiian ambassitors while we sailed passed. Although it was informative i did find it intrusive. There i was with this beautiful scene before me and it was like some one had there radio blaring. I dunno how others found it but i just felt that it could have been done with out it. Maybe playing some soft hawaiian music would have been better.mmmm

We ate at the Liberty again this time the rude waiter was really gald to see us, mmm maybe they heard us complaining in our rooms haa haa. The meal was really great but we did however book and we were glad we did as it was real busy.

We dumped Chris again in kids club but he wanted to go for his final night. We went back to the piano bar and had drinks and then went to the mardi gras for the last bit of second city "Scriptless", found them to be real funny. Then we stayed for one last dance party. There was no one there so we took to the dance floor and did our thing. DJ Orlando played what ever we wanted. We danced like there was no tomorrow. A few people and cruise staff ducked there head in and saw us dancing and kinda laughed and smiled. I bet they thought we were drunk. Unfortunatly we werent. Well we had to say goodbye and we got some photos with the DJ before we left so that was nice.

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[Firefly_Nelie]

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[shazz43]

hi have enjoyed reading your post, with the excursions did you do it through the cruise line, were they expensive? or did you do your own excursions, was it easy to do? were there people waiting at each port?
thanks again

[shazz43]

hi were the drinks etc expensive?

[Firefly_Nelie]

Day 8 and the last 3 days of the trip in Oahu
Well we self disembarked today just grabbed our cases walked off the ship. We settled up our account they day before so no dramas. ok so we did have dramas as we didnt realise that NCL would take out extra money because of the type of card we used. That left us quite stressed but hey these things happen.

So with what money we did have, we shopped. We went to the Outlets, Waikele i think. Its a long bus ride and you have to take 2 buses but if your into name brands its worth it, but im not but it was good to get out and mingle. We went to Ala moana shopping center the next day and i found that to be better bought a few nice things. On our last full day i got my self a fake tattoo, hey why not its a holiday. i bought tons of gifts in the International market place. Bargin with them. I bought a real nice bracelet and then relised they would make real great gifts so i went to get more. Almost every store has the same stuff so if they dont have the colours you like go to the next one. I paid $7 for the first one(i think i got ripped off) then this other lady told me $8 i was like i bought one for some one else for 7 and she was like how many you want to buy and i was like 2 so she gave it to me for $12 for too. Not bad, so haggle with them. If your buying for men look out for the great t shirt deals we found one place that we got 8 adults t shirts for $20.

If you want a nice place to eat in waikiki. Check out California pizza kitchen. its near macys and you have to go up the escalator. They had the best focaccias there, oh i could so eat 10 of them right now. Get one as an etree between 2 or even 3 people yummy yummy yummy. The pizza was real good there, the crust was a bit thin but it was still very good, i had a nice pasta dish as well, oh and get a maui punch very nice.

I think one of the most memorbale moments happened on our last day. Chris wanted to go surfing so we got him a lesson and we stayed on the beach to try watch. They were to far out so we were getting hot so Meri and i got in the water. We were in there for awhile when i heard Meri scream Nat. i turn around to see Meri trying to swim back to shore and this dark black thing in the water. I freaked out and started to swim to. I didnt think it was a shark i thought it was a dead body. We were about half way back before we chilled and were like its ok , its just a turtle. Big bloddy turtle. A lady had seen us freak and was like whats wrong, we told her about the turtle and she laughed and was like i want to see the turtle show me. So we went back out with her in front and we looked then all of a sudden it was there in our face, we freaked again and so did the lady, we all laughed. We kept looking for it then i saw it behind this guy. I yelled out to him and he looked back at us then back out to see then i started yell at him to look to his right. He turned around saw the turtle and even he freaked. ha haa. We saw it a few more times and we actually think there were to. Lovely creatures but man when your not expecting it wow good thing i wasnt wearing underwear.

Tips for your trip

We found waikiki beach to be very touristy, if this isnt the kind of hawaii you want to experiece then stay somwhere further out and just travel into waikiki for a look. It is nice but as i said touristy.

Buses where easy to catch, we did for Diamond head, The outlet shopping and ala moana. You can also for pearl harbor. Parking at our hotel was very expensive and the bus is like 2.25 round trip

The international marketplace was open till like 10 pm i think, so spend your days at the beach and your nights here

On the ship
I found the ship to be quite cold, i actially stepped out side on deck a few times to warm up. Bring a thin jacket / cardigan to wear both during the day and night. Also consider nice pants for dinner and afterwards instead of a dress or skirt. We got cold sitting in the piano bar after dinner so i started returing to my room to put on my tights or wearing the pants i had originally brought as a just in case.

Check out the mirrors in your bathroom, one is a vanity where you cant put your makeup and stuff, (well our was in our balcony room)

If your sharing the room with a friend and you want more room than the bathrom to get changed , this is what we did. We stood with our back to the door. opened the furthest door on the wardrobe and then opened the door to the bathroom. The two doors meet i the middle and you have your own little dressing room.

Dont buy Kukui nut leis to bring home to Australia, you wont get through customs

If you get a bit tipsy from a few to many cocktails and start walking funny, blame it on the ships movement.


To sum up my trip.
I loved Hawaii, Its a real beautiful place. I would like to go again but maybe in a few years time, however if some one asked me to go and do the cruise with them tomorrow i would go straight away.

I LOVED THE CRUISE

LOVED IT

I think i am already addicted to crusing. haa haa see what you people have done to me . i am already planning an alaskan cruise just gotta find some one to come with me.

I think the cruise staff made the trip all that much better. It added the personal touch that i was after. If anyone is doing the cruise soon tell DJ Orlando that Natalie and Meri say hello. haa haa
Thank you all so much for all you help and advice and i hope to be crusing again soon

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[Firefly_Nelie]

Originally Posted by flashdog_1

Thanks for your review. We're leaving in less than a month and just hearaing your experiences makes me excited!

It really is a great trip you are going to have so much fun, feel free to contact me if you have any questions

Originally Posted by shazz43

hi have enjoyed reading your post, with the excursions did you do it through the cruise line, were they expensive? or did you do your own excursions, was it easy to do? were there people waiting at each port?
thanks again

We booked through the cruise line, but others on here say that they booked direct with the company and paid alot less but i was happy with what i paid,. Some of excursions you just went out onto the pier and there were people with signs to direct you to wear you go. Other times you met in the hollywood theatre on the ship and then they took the whole group down.

I did notice a few tour buses waiting at the pier to do different types of excursions that you didnt have to pre book and there were also free shuttles to the local shops

Originally Posted by shazz43

hi were the drinks etc expensive?

i mainly stuck to water but i think a soda was like 2.25 cant remember if that was with tax or not. A cold caramel machiato was $3.25 but then with service charge and tax it came to $3.89 . A heavenly colda wwas $8.50 worked out at $9.78. I think may mango smoothies (alcohol) was like 11 all up. I think the prices were not to bad, i expected worse

If anyone has any questions no matter how weird or silly im am happy to answer

[shazz43]

thanks for the replies, also are all the restuarants on the cruise free? did u get any on board credits?
thanks