Midnight Blue

My partner and I are on the Celebrity Solstice on June 3 to Alaska. It's our first time on Celebrity, but definitely not our first cruise. Looking forward to it!

"Perhaps the secretive Friends of Dorothy is just too old fashioned for the modern day poof. The same as the hanky code. I'm 49 and don't know what it all means! Hanging from right side means you top, or is it bottom? and as for the colours :confused:"

Right is bottom, left is top. Happy to answer color questions as well. :D

But back to the topic...

My partner and I have tried the FOD meetings on several of our cruises on different cruise lines (Carnival, Royal, NCL). Poor to zero attendance on all of them. I'd love to have more interaction with LGBT couples on board, of any gender. We're on the Celebrity Solstice June 3 Alaska cruise next....

I am also interested in how easy (or not) it is to use Uber from Pier 91. After returning from the cruise, my partner and I plan to pick up our rental car and go to San Juan Island for a few days. We don't plan to use a rental car company that has a kiosk at the pier (for various reasons, we prefer Avis), so we need to get to the downtown rental car location. I've read elsewhere on this board that getting a taxi at the pier upon disembarking can involve a long wait -- although perhaps using Uber doesn't really address that problem if lots of people from the ship are also requesting Uber rides.

In addition, we'll be in Seattle a few days prior to the cruise, staying at the Inn at the Market. I'd like to use Uber for a couple of trips around the city -- I assume from what I've read on this board that there shouldn't be any real issues with that?

Thank you in advance for any information you can provide.

Thank you guys for the feedback! I love hearing about other people's success! It seems whether or not my stomach will be able to handle going back to bread everyday for a week will be a toss up .. I will definitely have to test it out before the trip. Like one of you said I have major problems with self control with these things, I will not eat one piece of pizza probably 2 or 3. That's kind of what scares me about allowing myself to have bread once a week, is that I will just start back having it for every meal as soon as I have it again once. I'm kind of that way with soda, I've quit a few times before, but once I'm back to drinking it it goes straight back to everyday. But when I've quit and I'm in the zone (which I've quit both soda and bread right now - 3 weeks no soda and 2 1/2 weeks no bread except maybe a few croutons on a salad) When I'm on a roll I don't want to mess up my streak so I'm good at controlling myself, but if I have it once I find it hard to control.

 

It has definitely been easier than I though it would be, giving up bread seemed absolutely impossible to me before, as bread, noodles, rice, etc. are my weakness more than sweets. My number two to bread is probably cheese so at least I can snack on that when I'm craving something yummy.

 

If anyone has any websites with good low carb recipes please share! I haven't really stuck to any specific diet have just mainly been using pinterest to find info on low carb and LCHF diets and food and have generally stayed within that, although probably not completely low carb due to still eating fruit daily.

 

The weight loss has been decent but kind of strange with this kind of diet. I weigh myself every morning (bad I know) and some days I will gain weight for a day or two, then suddenly drop 3-4 pounds, even though my eating habits don't change much between those days. Not sure it that's normal for this or not, when restricting calories I would always drop 1/2 pound a day almost perfectly when I was being strict.

 

Anyways, I'm just rambling at this point, but thank you guys for sharing your stories and feedback!

I'm on a lifetime low carb eating style (prefer that to "diet") thanks to being diagnosed as a Type 2 diabetic a year and a half ago. I've lost 60 lbs. -- I've been plateaued for a few months (no surprise) but have switched up my exercise and I think that's helping. By the way-- you don't have to go "no carb." I eat carbs at every meal- I'm just careful about how many and what kind.

In that year and a half, I went on a Med cruise and did just fine. I didn't look at it as a time to go crazy and eat anything I wanted but instead allowed myself have a small treat each day. I also was careful to continue my daily low carb snacks in the morning, afternoon and evening so I wouldn't be frantically hungry at meals. And the nice thing about a cruise is you don't need to feel guilty if you don't eat everything on your plate-- and there's lots of choices that will work for someone looking for lower carb options!

Here are a few great low carb websites to look at- I don't have the URLs handy, but just Google the names:

I Breathe, I'm Hungry

Fluffy Chix

Nom Nom Paleo

I'm going on an Alaska cruise in June and am having fun planning my eating strategy! Good luck to you!

I'm also a Type 2 diabetic (controlled by medication and diet) and I echo the comments of others that it's absolutely possible to eat well on a cruise. Although for me, that doesn't include fruit -- if I'm going to eat a carb, it's going to be something I really want. Some fruit actually impacts my blood glucose more than eating a "real" dessert! And yes... sugar free doesn't necessarily mean carb free.

I'll echo what everyone else has said.

I was diagnosed as a T2 diabetic about a year and a half ago... just before a Mediterranean cruise with many ports in Italy. I thought I was doomed. :(

In fact, it was MUCH easier to find things to eat on the ship than it was on land. Plenty of choices at the buffet. Always the ability to order multiple vegetables in the MDR. Eggs in many forms for breakfast (just avoid the pastries, cereal and for some of us, the fruit). It worked out absolutely fine for me.

If your wife hasn't found the community forum at the ADA website, I highly recommend it. The bottom line is that each one of us as diabetics will react differently, and the only way we learn to manage our disease (not cure it, but manage it) is to test our blood glucose regularly at appropriate times, watch the carbs carefully and exercise.

You sound like a wonderful support for her -- that will make all the difference in the world. I know I can't do it without my family of choice helping me every day.

And not to pat myself on the back (too much), but I've lost 60 lbs. and my A1c has been 5.5 -- in the normal range -- for 6 months now. :D

The Garden Villa on NCL's Jade was pretty spectacular. But I'm looking forward to trying Celebrity's Royal Suite -- not as big as the Garden Villa, but the overall package of benefits that come with it is very nice.

I see you just got off the Jade in the Haven 3 bedroom. May I ask you a question please....

 

First of all, have the rooms been updated? It appears the Jewel was re-done recently and the colors have been toned down. Is that the case with this Jade? Or is it still the bright Pink/Orange/Greens?

 

Also, is it feasible to move a sleeping couch to the family room? For Privacy for all of us. We have 7 family members and would like to have the singleton sleeping in the big family room as opposed to the Master Bedroom on pull out. Any sense that that would be an options?

 

Thanks for your time!

The Jade has NOT been updated -- it still has the Hawaiian theme decor from its time as the Pride of Hawaii. I'll admit it's a little... incongruous... to be sailing through the Mediterranean Sea on a ship that features lots of tropical stuff, pictures of surfboarders and a life size statue of King Kamehameha in the Grand Pacific Dining Room. My family found it kind of endearing, though, maybe because we sailed the Pride of America in Hawaii last year, so it was kind of a connection for us between the two cruises.

And despite the fact that the ship has not been redecorated, it's very well kept. But I can promise you, that Garden Villa is VIBRANT!! LOL.

On moving a pull out to the living room area: I suppose it wouldn't be impossible, but it also wouldn't be easy. There's room for it in the living room, but the bedrooms are a *long* way from that living room (seriously, it's a big suite) so it isn't a matter of just moving something a short distance. You also would then have a big piece of furniture taking up a fair amount of space in your living room. The living room is dominated by a very large (really LARGE) white leather semicircular couch that probably couldn't be easily moved. Anywhere you put the bed in the room that I can think of it would block a door to the private outside area or impinge on the dining area. In addition, the front wall of the suite is all windows looking out over the pool area -- during the day, no one can see in but at night, people on the deck below absolutely can see someone standing at the window, so you'd have to be careful to pull the curtains every night. Having said that, the best option for your purpose might be be the chair in one of the bedrooms (can't remember if it's the second or third bedroom) that folds out into a twin bed. It could be moved easier than one of the couches and during the day could at least be used for seating.

It was a wonderful suite and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Hope this information is helpful.

I and my family have RomeinLimo booked for 2 tours on our upcoming cruise -- a tour of Pompeii and Herculaneum and one of the city of Rome. I have no worries that the company provides excellent service, as evidenced by the reviews on this site and elsewhere and my own experience so far.

My issue is this: just a few weeks ago, I was diagnosed as a Type 2 diabetic. Good news is my blood glucose levels are not wildly out of control and I've made some good progress already in stabilizing and lowering them. But a significant part of keeping that progress going rests on two things: (1) eating regularly and (2) eating "lower carb" (not "no carb," but being mindful of and limiting the carbs at any given meal).

On both the Pompeii/Herculaneum and Rome tours, we'll be on tour during what would be the time I would need to eat lunch (between say 11:00 am and 1:00 pm). I will have some appropriate snacks with me, but I truly need to eat an appropriate meal in order to keep things stable.

So, finally, to my questions:

1. Does anyone have experience with RomeinLimo and needing to schedule a meal during a tour? Was it a problem?

2. I have noted in several reviews mentions of the RomeinLimo guides taking people to their favorite restaurants. I'm good with that as long as the restaurant has something other than just pasta. I assume most would, but if anyone has experience with managing dietary restrictions while on a RomeinLimo tour, that would be helpful.

Finally, I realize that what I ultimately need to do is write the ever-highly-praised Jany and let her know my issues. I will do that, but I thought others' experiences might help me better frame my communications with her.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Midnight Blue

My family will be in a Garden Villa on the Jade in about 5 weeks -- any thoughts on best butlers on that ship?

(While I'm here, I'll give a shout out to George on the Pride of America.)

As a native Houstonian, I have to say you're not going to find a great hotel in the part of town near the port. There are some lovely ones in town, but I suspect that may be farther away than you want to be from the port. So just downgrade your expectations!

 

Regarding the food…. I have read here many times, poster comments on the quality of the food. So much so (and no, we are anything but fussy), I called the cruise line prior to the cruise. Esp after reading about the catastrophe with deck 13 and bathroom flooding, and room configurations. I have never called a cruise company before, but considering the price of this cruise, I had my concerns. :(

So to be fair to the POA and correct some inaccurate information....

I was one of the passengers involved in the bathroom "flooding" and room configurations issue last year. The alleged "flooding" was in the Grand Suite, which I stayed in last November (2013). It had been reported by the guest 2 cruises before me that there was a serious leak (I don't believe the word "flooding" was used) in the suite's bathroom, and as a result, I contacted NCL corporate headquarters prior to my cruise. Because there was no other comparable suite on the ship, I elected to stay in the suite even with the leak and NCL gave me a significant amount of OBC as compensation. In fact, when I got in the suite, there was no flooding, as I noted in my extended review of our cruise. (Search on my handle, Midnight Blue, to find it.) If you stepped on one or two tiles in the bathroom, a little bit of water seeped out between them. Putting down a hand towel was more than enough to solve the problem -- or one could simply avoid stepping on those tiles.

The room configuration issue was a different story. NCL truly dropped the ball on the drydock of POA -- for months, no one at NCL seemed to know what had actually been done to the ship, and the descriptions of the rooms were wrong on the website and were not changed, even after NCL was told how incorrect they were.

As for the food -- that is, of course, highly subjective. I consider myself a bit of a "foodie" and I've been fortunate enough to eat at some really top notch restaurants. I don't expect that level of food on a cruise ship. Applying what I think is a reasonable standard and expectation of food quality on a cruise ship, overall, I found the food on POA to be fine. For what it's worth, the biggest foodie in my family actually quite liked the buffet.

Guess not good, lol

 

 

Tapatalk via iPhone5

It was fabulous. I posted an extensive review here on CC. Just search for my posts. :)

They do offer taxi service. Book them as a taxi.

Unfortunately, they're refusing to do that. For whatever reason.

Texancruzer-- so I sent them the link you posted and was told--again-- that they won't just take us to and from Taormina. There's one additional stop on that "tour" (although it appears to be short). I'm beginning to think there must be some issue with being a tour service v. functioning as a taxi that's at play here and for whatever reason, they can't appear to be a taxi service. I may just go with it, because it's the option that's closest to what I want. Thanks for your help.

My family (3 adults) will be on the NCL Jade this October, docking at the port of Messina. We would like to to visit Taormina for the day. Here's the deal:

1. We would like a car service to take us to Taormina and then back to Messina. We know there are cheaper ways of getting there, but just go with me on this -- we'd like a car service.

2. We'd rather not leave our transportation to chance by taking a cab and none of us like riding on the kind of big bus NCL is likely to provide as transportation there and back.

3. We don't want to go anywhere but Taormina. No Mt. Etna, no Godfather tour. Just Taormina.

I tried to book with Sicily Limousine, but they won't have the driver just take us to Taormina. They tell me we HAVE to take one of their tours and go other places. :confused:

Anyone have any options? Again, I realize this isn't the most cost effective way of doing it, but for a number of reasons, cost isn't a big factor here.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Thanks, all. Just to be clear, I never intended to have car service the other days we'll be in Rome. I just wanted to be sure that for the one day we'd be doing a formal tour, Rome in Limo could accommodate picking us and our luggage up from the cruise port and then when the tour was complete, taking us and our luggage to our hotel (as opposed to requiring that we be picked up and dropped off at the same place, or not being willing to have our luggage along for the ride on the tour).

My family will be on the NCL Jade in late October/early November on a cruise that starts in Venice and ends in Rome. We have three days in Rome before we go home -- Saturday, which is the day we leave the ship, as well as Sunday and Monday (we fly home on Tuesday).

In my perfect world, I'd like to use Rome in Limo on Saturday for a private tour (just me and my two family members) to see the city and then have the next two days to go back to areas we liked and explore them more fully. But of course, we'll have all of our luggage since we're leaving the Jade. I've come up with two possibilities, but don't know how workable they are -- your thoughts and alternatives are welcomed:

1. Disembark early, take a cab or car service to our hotel, have the hotel store our luggage. Rome in Limo would pick us up at our hotel for the tour. That would mean starting the tour.... when? 10:00 am? Would that work?

2. Rome in Limo picks us up at the Jade and.... what? Puts our luggage in the trunk of the touring car for the duration of the tour and then drops us and our luggage at our hotel at the end of the tour? Is that even an option?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Could someone clarify whether the prices listed on the RomeinLimo web site are per person or per car? For example, if one books the tour in the sedan that holds up to 4 people, is the price per car or does each person pay the quoted price? Thanks so much.

Happy, happy dance because I just booked this exact suite for November 12, 2014....:D

Very excited to read the comments from veteran Jade passengers -- I just booked my family into the Haven 3 Bedroom Garden Villa Suite for the November 12, 2014 sailing to the Eastern Med! :)

For my last post, I’ll do a quick rundown of things my ohana and I did off of the POA:

Maui (first day) – Road to Hana with Valley Isle Tours

I’m glad we did the Road to Hana tour and with a couple of caveats, I think Valley Isle Tours did a nice job.

The Valley Isle buses hold about 12 people and have very comfortable “captain’s chairs.” Our tour guide was Pu (pronounced “Pooh” as in “Winnie the Pooh”). She was born and raised on Maui and clearly is proud of her culture and heritage. I enjoyed hearing her stories and the information she shared. It didn’t hurt that she had an absolutely lovely voice.

A warning is in order here, because truly, the Road to Hana can be nausea inducing. I ride a Harley and I’ve ridden my bike over some really twisty, elevated roads (including the famous “89A” between Jerome and Prescott, Arizona) with no problems, but I found myself gulping Dramamine on this road. So be prepared. Also, be prepared to have someone in your bus (like we did) who talked... and talked... and talked.... He. Would. Not. Shut. Up. EVER. This certainly isn’t Valley Isle’s fault – it’s just one of the hazards of taking an organized tour. But it definitely made an impact on our day.

What Valley Isle does have control over is where you stop on the tour. Clearly, all of the tour companies have arrangements with certain places to stop, and they aren’t necessarily the most interesting places on the road. On our tour, we whipped through Hana itself (which looked kind of funky and cute to me) in favor of stopping at some unidentified place that grows ginger flowers to eat the lunch provided as a part of the tour. But first, we had to make it through a bit of a sales pitch for shipping tropical arrangements back to the mainland and walk past some pretty junky trinkets. We also stopped at Charles Lindburg’s grave, which felt like nothing more than a time filler. Toward the end of the tour, we stopped at local winery – of course, if you purchase a bottle to take with you, you’ll be charged a $15 corkage fee to bring it on the ship, which makes this not a very interesting stop. (When Pu was told about the corkage charge issue she was quite surprised and said she wondered why no one from the ship ever bought any wine.) It’s also worth knowing that because of the heavy traffic on the road, you don’t really stop at any waterfalls – mostly, we just drove by them... very... very... slowly.

The tour is long – we left at a little after 8 am and didn’t get back to the ship until almost 5 pm – so don’t plan on anything else for the day. Despite my few criticisms of the tour above, I think it was a good way to see the Road to Hana and a large part of the island of Maui in one day. I wouldn’t do it again, but I would recommend it to anyone visiting the island for the first time.

Maui (second day) – One member of my ohana went on the Molokini Crater snorkel excursion. The tour uses a big catamaran that holds 100+ people. She said it was fine, but she didn’t see that many fish. She did see some turtles. I and my other family member rented a car and went shopping in Lahaina. The shopping was not exceptional, but the town was pleasant and we had a great lunch at Kimo’s looking out over the ocean.

Hilo – My family arranged for a private tour with Mary Lou’s Tours. We visited Volcanoes National Park, the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut plantation, a very small local coffee grower/roaster, Rainbow Falls and a black sand beach. The tour used a small van and Mary Lou herself drove us around. VNP was the highlight of the day – the rest of it wasn’t all that exciting. But we did get to see a good part of that half of the Big Island and Mary Lou was quite warm, friendly and enthusiastic. The tour started at about 8:30 am and we got back to the ship about 3:30 pm. You could do much worse than this tour.

Kona – My snorkeling family member went on the Captain Zodiac snorkel tour and gave it an unreserved two thumbs up. She loved the smaller boats and said she saw more different kinds of fish in the first 30 minutes than she saw during the entire time at Molokini Crater. Highly recommended.

The other family member and I went shopping in Kona. Truly not much to shop for there other than t-shirts, knick knacks and, of course, coffee. Still, it was a beautiful day in paradise and who can really complain about that?

Kauai (first day) – My ohana rented a car for a self tour of Waimea Canyon. I’m glad we chose this option as we had had enough of scheduled tours and activities by this time. We took our time getting to the Canyon, and the drive was not particularly difficult. It’s quite beautiful, and definitely a sight to see, but seeing the canyon doesn’t take that long (unless, of course, you plan to hike in the vicinity). We spent maybe a half an hour at the canyon.

On our way back to the ship from the canyon, we stopped at Kauai Coffee (the largest coffee plantation in the U.S.) where we sampled many of their roasts and had several shipped home. Kauai Coffee offers a free tour or you can do a short (about 15-20 minute) self tour on well marked pathways with various information signs scattered along the way. Following the theme of the day, we chose the self tour and thought it was interesting.

After Kauai Coffee, on a whim, we decided to take a little detour through the town of Old Koloa. This turned out to be the absolute surprise gem of the entire vacation. The land around the town originally was a sugar cane plantation, and the town was the “company town” where all of the plantation workers bought their food, hardware, clothing, etc. Nowadays the “town” (really a short row of buildings) is made up of restaurants and unique/unusual shops.

We ended up eating at two food trucks that were parked just down the street from the town center – one was Mexican and the other Thai. Both looked to be permanently or semi-permanently parked in the location as they had picnic tables with umbrellas in front of them. We ordered Diablo shrimp from the Mexican truck and spring rolls from the Thai truck. Both were really excellent and all the better for the feeling that we had made an off the beaten path discovery.

My family also hit all of the stores in Old Koloa and found a number of reasonably priced, not mass market gifts for ourselves and for folks back on the mainland. I really recommend getting away from the tour buses and their stops and instead making your way to Old Koloa.

Kauai (second day): I and one of my family members stayed on the ship and visited the spa again. Our third family member took the shuttle bus from the port to a group of shops at a nearby Marriott. He found some fun T-shirts and one or two other items there. Mostly, we viewed this as our “day at sea” in preparation for the sail by of the Na Pali coast. (The ship leaves port at 2:30 pm on this day, so there isn’t a lot of time to do anything on shore.)

Off the ship and back on Oahu: We had most of Saturday and Sunday to explore Oahu, and wanted to get out of Honolulu for at least part of the time. Here’s what we did:

Oahu (Saturday): We rented a car and drove around the edge of the island to the North Shore. On the way, we stopped at one of the famous North Shore shrimp trucks – in our case, The Shrimp Shack. It’s permanently parked next to Ching’s Convenience Store (which has been providing convenience since 1935). We got poke from Ching’s and garlic shrimp from the Shrimp Shack, and enjoyed our lunch sitting at picnic tables just a few feet (and one narrow highway) away from the Pacific. Ahhhhh.

Moving along, we stopped to take a look at the surfers surfing the Banzai Pipeline and then ended up at the small, funky North Shore town of Haleiwa. Haleiwa is the home of Matsumoto’s Shave Ice, which some say is the best on the islands. I don’t know if that’s the case, but it definitely was delicious. Great little shops, a wonderful island vibe – if I ever go back, I’ll definitely spend more time in Haleiwa.

Oahu (Sunday): Sunday morning we made our way to Pearl Harbor with the idea of paying our respects at the USS Arizona Memorial and visiting the Mighty Mo (the USS Missouri).

If you buy your tickets for the Arizona in advance on line (which I recommend), you will be told you should arrive an hour in advance. Actually, I recommend arriving much earlier than that in order to fully experience the museum that accompanies a trip to the memorial. We had purchased the audio self guided tour which is narrated by Jamie Lee Curtis. (Her father, Tony Curtis, served in the Pacific in WWII.) The museum and audio tour were beautifully done and completely engaging. I think it’s very helpful to have been through most of the museum before going to the memorial itself, and we thought the hour and 15 minutes or so that we had for the museum wasn’t really enough.

To visit the Arizona, you board a small boat piloted by Navy sailors. You are (quite rightly) reminded that you are visiting sacred ground – a burial site. I won’t say much about the actual memorial except to say that it was incredibly moving. I’m not ashamed to say that I was moved to tears, especially when a member of my family who served in the Marine Corps stood at attention and saluted the tablet memorializing the names of the Marines who lost their lives that day. A visit to the Arizona is simply not to be missed.

Next, we were scheduled to take the shuttle to the Mighty Mo – but my family decided that we were too emotionally and physically worn out to do that. Instead, we went back to the hotel room we had kept in order to shower and change for our flight home.

And so, that evening, we bid aloha to Hawaii... a vacation none of us will ever forget.

Mahalo for joining me on our journey – and may your visit to Hawaii be as beautiful and unforgettable as ours was.

In this post, I’ll round up my thoughts on various activities on POA. Without a doubt, a cruise on POA is port intensive so I didn’t participate in any of the activities like the games or the hula dancing or lei making. But I did take advantage of a few shipboard activities that I’ll describe below.

Mandara Spa: I visited the spa twice, once for a massage and once for a facial. The other members of my family also had massages, and one had the Fire and Ice manicure.

The spa was not huge, but it was attractive, and I thought the relaxation room was particularly nice with some comfortable couches, low lights, soft music and fruit infused water on offer. The women’s dressing room was small, but included a wet and a dry sauna (I assume the men’s dressing room did as well).

All of my family members thought our massages were quite good, and that’s high praise as one member of my family is a professional massage therapist. I rated my facial as fine, but probably not worth the price, and my family member felt the same way about her manicure.

On the plus side, very much on the plus side, no one tried any hard sell of products at the end of the treatments. I’ve had that on other cruise lines and I absolutely hate it. So thank you NCL and POA for that!

There were some in port specials during the cruise (package deals for multiple services) and on the last two days of the cruise, they offered 10% off “signature services.”

You should be aware that the spa automatically adds a gratuity but includes a line on the bill for “additional tip.”

Fitness Center: I will quickly admit that I never actually used the fitness center, but I did walk through it several times to get to the spa, so I feel qualified to comment on it. :D To me, the fitness center looked brand new – very bright and clean. There are numerous treadmills, quite a few free weights and some other basic fitness machines. There also is an aerobics room – some classes (like Zumba, Boot Camp cardio and yoga) were offered throughout the week for an additional fee.

The Pool: POA is an older ship, so the pool is smaller. But the pool area was nicely maintained and the loungers looked new or nearly new. And again, because POA is a port intensive cruise, loungers were always available. (No need for blue dots, at least not on my particular cruise!) There was a separate kid’s pool and hot tub, but I didn’t really check them out.

The Shows: I went to two shows while on POA – “Never Too Old to Rock and Roll” with Toby Beau and “Oh What a Night,” a tribute to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.

Toby Beau is a one hit wonder from the 1970s (and is a duo with a back up band, rather than a single person, just so you know). I’ll show my age and admit that I actually know the words to Toby Beau’s one hit, that 1978 smash “My Angel Baby.” (Go ahead, look it up. Then I dare you to get the chorus out of your head for the next month. ;)) The band does covers of a number of 1970s and 1980s vintage rock. I wouldn’t say this is the absolute best show I’ve ever seen in my life, even on a cruise ship where in general my standards are lower, but I’ve gotta admit – these folks worked hard to entertain an audience of people who had mostly never heard of them. They get big points from me for effort. And it was a free and a moderately entertaining way to relax at the end of a long day spent on shore.

“Oh What a Night” was also entertaining – both because the band members were so engaging and because of the somewhat... mature... female passengers who apparently were quite taken with the band members. Suffice it to say that there’s only one Frankie Valli, but the show was free and fun (and not overly long), so no complaints.

The Shops: No cruise is complete without shopping, at least in my opinion. POA had a small selection of shops, one mostly knick knack souvenir type things, one mostly clothing, and a Na Hoku jewelry store. The Na Hoku store was quite large and offered Hawaiian themed jewelry as well as diamond jewelry and the like at a variety of price points. Na Hoku has stores in every port that I recall, as well. I didn’t cross check the prices, but the on board prices didn’t seem particularly outrageous to me.

Of course there was no duty free shopping because you don’t go into international waters, but the stores also stay open in port. No big sales, either – there was a 50% off sale the last day in the souvenir store, but it was a very limited selection of items that looked like they had been hauled out just for the sale. There was also a t-shirt sale (buy 2 , get one free as I recall).

Next up: What I did on the islands (and it probably will be a few days before I get to this one).

Thank you So Much.. looking at the pictures all i could say was "OH MY" I want that lanai!!

Absolutely!!! That lanai was absolutely the best! :)

Embarkation:

If you've read any other reviews of POA, it will come as no surprise to you when I say the Honolulu cruise terminal is... industrial... at best. It's like a big metal warehouse. It makes the Galveston cruise terminal look plush, and that's saying something!

We took at taxi to the terminal, arriving about 11:30 am and immediately looked for a porter. In Galveston, they're all over the place -- you practically trip over them. In Honolulu... not so much. But they were there if you looked (look for guys in matching aloha shirts -- they were blue the day we arrived) and once we waved one down, he quickly swept away our checked luggage. Off we went to check in.

NCL does a nice job with embarkation, at least for suite guests. First stop was security, where we showed our cruise tickets and drivers' licenses (since we're U.S. citizens). We also were handed a letter that said the just ended POA cruise had a higher than usual incidence of diarrhea, and we should be certain to wash our hands frequently and thoroughly. (There were hand sanitizers all over POA -- even in the elevators -- and I was glad to see the "washee washee" crew was in full force. The member of my ohana who had never been on a cruise became fascinated with the focus on sanitation and made it point to never miss a sanitizing station. :cool:)

Next, we put our luggage and ourselves through the appropriate metal detector and X-ray machines. We were directed into a cavernous room where we were given leis. To the right of us were a number of folding chairs with people watching a performance of traditional Hawaiian dances while they waited to be allowed on the ship. Directly in front of us, at the back of the huge area, was a line (pretty long) of folks waiting to approach what looked basically like an airline ticket counter to check in.

At this point, if you are a suite guest, it is critically important that you find someone from NCL and ask them where suite check in is located. It isn't marked, and I was told that it occasionally is moved to a different area of the giant room. So do NOT be shy -- ask.

We were directed to the left, avoiding the big line, and into an area with some chairs and one NCL representative at a table. He checked us in, took our photos and issued our ship ID cards, directed us to the tea, coffee and cookies and told us the concierge and butlers would be down in just a few minutes. Check in took less than 10 minutes and sure enough, Thomas (the concierge) and George (the butler) showed up shortly afterward. After a few minutes of small talk while we waited for a few other suite guests to check in, they whisked us off to the ship.

Soon we were on board the ship and in the Napa Bar, with glasses of champagne in our hands. George took our carry on luggage and promised he would take it to our suite. Thomas gave us some information about our suite perks and a rep from the spa and shore excursions told us about their offerings. Then we were escorted into Cagney's for lunch. The spa rep came around to our table and we booked massages for the afternoon.

If you're keeping track of time, it's now about 12:30 pm -- so for us, only an hour from hitting the port to eating lunch on the ship. Not bad at all. Thomas expected the suites would be ready by the time we finished lunch, but they weren't, so off we went to the spa. (More about that in another post). It seemed they were running a little late that day getting the ship turned for the new passengers, as our suite wasn't ready until around 1:30 pm or so. But that was no big deal, and I really appreciated the ease of embarkation.

It took a while for our luggage to arrive -- so long, in fact, I started quizzing my ohana on whether they had anything in their luggage that would send them to the "naughty room!" They didn't, and all of the luggage did arrive eventually. Again, things seemed to be running a little behind for the ship's crew, but it was truly no big deal.

Getting off the ship in port:

As a suite guest, getting off the ship in port was a breeze. At George's instruction, we let him know when we wanted to get off and he came to our suite and escorted us to the head of the line. At Kona, the tender port, Thomas took us back through the crew area and ensured we were the *last* people on the tender so that we would be *first* off in Kona. Getting off the ship simply required us to swipe our ship ID card; getting back on required our government ID, ship card and a trip through a metal detector, with our bags going through an X-ray machine.

Final debarkation:

Although getting off POA was the last thing any of us wanted to do, it was amazingly easy. We didn't have to commit to a debarkation time. Instead, we told George we would debark around 9:00 am and would need a porter and a taxi. He showed up at our suite and along with Thomas, again escorted us to the head of the debarkation line. George and Thomas walked us to where our checked luggage was waiting, brought over a porter, called the cab to be at the front of the terminal and went all the way through the terminal to the taxi with us, where they wished us a great trip home. Total time to get off the ship -- 10 minutes, max. It just doesn't get any better or easier than that.

Up next: stuff we did on POA.