Aloha is Love - Review of POA in Hawaii with Pics, Menus & More

My husband and I just got off the Pride of America yesterday (Saturday) and arrived home today. It was a long journey and my brain has no idea what time it is. So I am wide awake, uploading pictures of the ship, menus, food, daily activities, and our adventures on the islands. I plan to do a full review and hopefully provide some useful information. Please ask questions along the way and I will do my best to answer. Mahalo to all of you for taking the time to read my review!

A little bit about us, our travel background and our cruise planning.... I'm 29 and my husband is 39. We'll be celebrating our 9th anniversary next month. We absolutely love traveling. Most of our trips have been regular land travel, including flights and two epic cross county road trips. I have an extensive travel bucket list and in three more trips we'll have visited every state in the U.S. My next goal will be to finish every country in Central America with three more trips then move on to South America.

We're pretty new to cruising. I went on one a long time ago that I don't really count as I was a teenager traveling with my parents on Royal Caribbean to the Bahamas. I didn't have anything to do with the planning, and the three day cruise was over before it started. Fast forward to 2012 when my husband I went on a partial transit Panama Canal cruise with Princess. We loved it so much we came home and asked where we should go next. We chose Hawaii and started researching.

Why NCL? We didn't have the time to take a cruise from California and back, plus we wanted to maximize our time in Hawaii as much as possible. I did a little research into flying island to island, but packing, going through airport security and waiting for a flight every few days didn't seem like a good fit for us. A floating hotel was the perfect option.

A week after returning from the canal cruise, we made our first payment to NCL. We booked as far in the future as we could. April 2, 2016 was the farthest available date, so that became our official countdown. Little did we know that we would go on an Alaskan cruise with Princess before we made it to Hawaii. The price was great and I finally convinced my husband to go on a "cold vacation" so I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity. We did a few land based trips and before we knew it, three and a half years had passed by and it was time to go to Hawaii.

Cant wait to read all about it

I was waiting for your review! Just booked this cruise for Christmas 2016, and can't wait. Will be "going back" after spending our honeymoon in Hawaii 33 years ago!! We did it as a land trip back in 1983, and island hopped from Oahu-Maui-Kauai. This time we are bringing our adult kids with us. Being on a "floating hotel" will hopefully have a bit less wear and tear on our older bodies!:D

Have not seen a review of POA yet, so very much looking forward to this.:)

We are sailing on June 4th so I am excited to read a recent review!!!

I did a lot of planning for this trip. I mostly used cruise critic for suggestions and information and then got on trip adviser for reviews. I also borrowed a few books from the library - Lonely Planet and Frommer's were my favorite. I didn't find the directions in the books to be too helpful. My GPS, maps from car rental companies, and mapquest directions were used most often. I booked most activities at least a month or two in advance. Activities with limited capacity and maximum popularity, such as helicopter tours or private guides, were booked several months before traveling. I paid close attention to cancellation policies just in case anything happened. Most places allowed cancellation 24-48 hours in advance, although many charged a small cancellation fee even within the cancellation window.

I was waiting for your review! Just booked this cruise for Christmas 2016, and can't wait. Will be "going back" after spending our honeymoon in Hawaii 33 years ago!! We did it as a land trip back in 1983, and island hopped from Oahu-Maui-Kauai. This time we are bringing our adult kids with us. Being on a "floating hotel" will hopefully have a bit less wear and tear on our older bodies!:D

That's so awesome that you're going back! I'm curious about how much Hawaii has changed in those 33 years.

I'll finally move on to the traveling! Not that everyone is traveling out of Detroit, but just in case someone is, I'll include that. We left our house in the evening on Tuesday the 29h. We were lucky to have a family member willing to make the 45 minute drive to the Detroit area. We stayed at the Holiday Inn in Romulus. It was a nice and clean hotel with a restaurant and a 24/7 shuttle to the airport.

My husband and I just got off the Pride of America yesterday (Saturday) and arrived home today. It was a long journey and my brain has no idea what time it is. So I am wide awake, uploading pictures of the ship, menus, food, daily activities, and our adventures on the islands. I plan to do a full review and hopefully provide some useful information. Please ask questions along the way and I will do my best to answer. Mahalo to all of you for taking the time to read my review!

Can't wait for your review and pics! We are thinking of doing this cruise!

We were up early to catch the 5:30 shuttle to the airport. We flew United round trip. I don't have loyalty or rewards with any airline, so I usually utilize Kayak to search flights then choose the best price and schedule. I knew we'd have to do one layover each way but didn't want more than that and I wanted to be in Hawaii as early in the afternoon as possible. We had a short flight to Chicago and after an even shorter layover, we were on our nine and a half hour flight to Honolulu. Unfortunately, United did not provide any in flight entertainment such as screens on the back of seats and their wifi was intermittent. They did rent out tablets preloaded with movies, tv shows and games for $14.99. Almost ten long hours later, we were finally in Hawaii!

Can't wait for your review and pics! We are thinking of doing this cruise!

Hopefully you can find a lot of helpful information on these boards and the reviews. While the cruise/ship portion wasn't perfect, it was a fantastic way to visit Hawaii for the first time. We felt like we had a full Hawaiian vacation and if we return we now know exactly which islands to go to.

Unfortunately, United did not provide any in flight entertainment such as screens on the back of seats and their wifi was intermittent.

Wow! A ten hour flight with no IFE! I didn't know anyone did that anymore.:eek:

YES! Finally a post drydock review :D Thank you, thank you, thank you. I look forward to reading this one.

Wow! A ten hour flight with no IFE! I didn't know anyone did that anymore.:eek:

I think the wifi not working was unintended. Not having anything else available but offering a preloaded tablet for $14.99 was definitely a profit making move. I've had much shorter flights that at least had TV shows playing on the seat backs though. It was definitely disappointing. I don't know if I would chose United again, especially for a longer flight.

YES! Finally a post drydock review :D Thank you, thank you, thank you. I look forward to reading this one.

I won't be able to compare to the past but I took a lot of pictures of the ship and will try to answer any questions!

Looking forward to your review! Thanks so much for doing it. :)

We are in Hawaii! People were waiting with leis in hand for other passengers. Some signs were marked in English, Japanese and Hawaiian. The woman on the bathroom sign was wearing a flower lei. I was already so happy! Although I went through discount hawaii car rental for all other islands, I used Hotwire to rent a car with National on Oahu. We picked up our bags, went all the way to the left of baggage claim and walked out the doors. Most car rental companies were right across the street. It took about 20 minutes to go through all of our paperwork and we were off. My GPS took awhile to load, but I am glad it did. We took a wrong turn and ended up taking the long way to our hotel. We drove by Ala Moana Beach Park, somewhere we wouldn't have specifically driven to. A giant banyan tree first caught my eye and we stopped to get a closer look. The park was full of beautiful trees, friendly birds, and our first Hawaiian beach.

I love banyan trees! And I made friends with a lot of birds and chickens throughout the week.

On another note, this was also the place we learned about the large population of people without homes living in parks, beaches and on the streets. We were never approached or bothered by anyone - no problems at all.

Can't wait to read the rest - we are leaving for Honolulu next week and will be boarding the POA on 4/23. So glad to have a recent review available before we leave!

Looking forward to your review! Thanks so much for doing it. :)

Your review was one that I read a few times to help plan my vacation, so thank you! I remember coming back from Alaska and continuing to read reviews so I could relive the trip.

Can't wait to read the rest - we are leaving for Honolulu next week and will be boarding the POA on 4/23. So glad to have a recent review available before we leave!

I'm hoping I'll have the review done before that. Either way, have a great time!

My DH wants to do this trip very much. We did a 14-day Hawaii on Princess back in 2010, but it was 4 sea days to the Islands, and 4 sea back, plus the stop in Ensenada Mexico to satisfy the Jones Act requirement that it only left 4 days IN Hawaii. It definitely deserves more than 4-days. Anyway, I am thinking of giving him this cruise as a birthday present when we take his 60th Birthday Cruise Extravaganza in December of this year.

Can't wait to read and see more.

Looking forward to your review. We'll be sailing on May 14.

Was the spa fully functional yet? Were tbey renting cabana type areas on Deck 14 forward?