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

[Kmix78]

I'm interested in this cruise; can't wait to read your report!

 

 

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[MrsPhoenix91]

Thank you for sharing the beautiful pictures! And yes, Hawaii is known for its significantly large homeless population.

[MandyMommyof2]

Looks like your trip is off to a great start!! I have such a love for Hawaii. :) I am in the midst of planning a 16 year Anniversary trip right now :roll eyes:.....husband doesn't know it yet...lol. Wanting to make it to Kauai this time though. I had mentioned wanting to try this cruise in the future so we could get a taste of all of the islands in one trip. I can't wait to read along and relive some of the sites from our previous trips. It was an eye opener for me too, when we first went and I seen the homeless. Like you, we were never bothered or ask any questions. I am going to have to read your Alaskan review. Thats on my travel bucket list. Yours sounds like a great one!! Can't wait to read more!

Edited April 12, 2016 by MandyMommyof2

[AryMay]

I am very much looking forward to your review. Back when you did your Alaska review I was so excited to read it because you returned right before we left on the same cruise. (I had so many questions!!)

 

This time we were the ones to cruise first! We were on the San Francisco to Honolulu cruise on the POA right before your cruise! Instead of doing a review on Cruise Critic, I've been writing about our experiences on my blog. I'm not getting it done as quickly as I had hoped, but I will continue! I'm sure you will have yours done first.

 

It will be interesting to see if the projects on the ship were finally getting finished. There were parts of the ship closed off when we sailed March 16 - March 26. In fact, the cruise was delayed by a day just because of work not getting completed on time during the drydock.

 

Thanks in advance for all of the effort that you will put into doing a photo-review...I know from experience it is a labor of love! :)

[olemissreb]

Can't wait to read more of your review. My sons, mom and I will be on the POA in May 2018 so I'm in the beginning planning stages.

[Molokai-Chuck]

sjmbruce ... standing by for your stories and photos!

[Beagleluv6107]

We are planning this cruise for our 10th! [emoji173]️

[sjmbruce]

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

 

The spa was open but unfortunately I didn't inquire about available treatments. They did have a book describing all of the spa treatments in our stateroom.

After the full decks I lose count of which one is which, haha. There were these areas above the pool that were semi private and had two loungers:

others faced the ocean and were towards the front of the ship:

there were also a few areas like this overlooking the pool:

 

During our cruise, they weren't renting or reserving those spaces.

Edited April 13, 2016 by sjmbruce

[sjmbruce]

Looks like your trip is off to a great start!! I have such a love for Hawaii. :) I am in the midst of planning a 16 year Anniversary trip right now :roll eyes:.....husband doesn't know it yet...lol. Wanting to make it to Kauai this time though. I had mentioned wanting to try this cruise in the future so we could get a taste of all of the islands in one trip. I can't wait to read along and relive some of the sites from our previous trips. It was an eye opener for me too, when we first went and I seen the homeless. Like you, we were never bothered or ask any questions. I am going to have to read your Alaskan review. Thats on my travel bucket list. Yours sounds like a great one!! Can't wait to read more!

 

Go to Hawaii and check out Alaska :) I am a bad influence when it comes to traveling.... my opinion is go everywhere! But seriously, Alaska was beautiful and Hawaii was amazing.

[sjmbruce]

I am very much looking forward to your review. Back when you did your Alaska review I was so excited to read it because you returned right before we left on the same cruise. (I had so many questions!!)

 

This time we were the ones to cruise first! We were on the San Francisco to Honolulu cruise on the POA right before your cruise! Instead of doing a review on Cruise Critic, I've been writing about our experiences on my blog. I'm not getting it done as quickly as I had hoped, but I will continue! I'm sure you will have yours done first.

 

It will be interesting to see if the projects on the ship were finally getting finished. There were parts of the ship closed off when we sailed March 16 - March 26. In fact, the cruise was delayed by a day just because of work not getting completed on time during the drydock.

 

Thanks in advance for all of the effort that you will put into doing a photo-review...I know from experience it is a labor of love! :)

 

I remember planning Alaska at the same time as you and then noticed you were going to Hawaii at the same time as well! I'll have to check your blog out soon.

[sjmbruce]

We are planning this cruise for our 10th! [emoji173]️

 

That was our original plan but we were so excited to book April 2016 became our cruise. Once May 2017 came out we decided to just stick with our booking. It's a perfect anniversary trip!

[sjmbruce]

After the beach park, we finally made it to our hotel to check in. We had reservations for three nights at the Stay Hotel on Koa Ave. a block away from Waikiki Beach. It is not a hotel for people used to fanciness and amenities on top of amenities. The Stay Hotel is older although they have recently done some updates and continue to do so. It was pretty clean and relatively inexpensive for the area. It was less than $450 for the three nights. They had very limited parking for $25 per night. The staff were friendly and helpful. They had beach stuff and towels available. A grab and go breakfast was packaged every morning with muffins, fruit and pastries. The only negative for me was it was very loud every single morning from street traffic and construction. I'd recommend it to those on a budget and I would stay there again.

our view from room 803:

[sjmbruce]

We spent the remainder of our afternoon at Waikiki beach. The sand and water were nice, but it was always crowded.

Our first night we had dinner at the barefoot bar at Duke's. We ordered hummus for an appetizer:

I had a veggie burger that was disappointing as it was not homemade but frozen. My husband ate fish tacos that he enjoyed. Either way, it was fair pricing for the area. By the way, the pricing at most restaurants were expensive for this Midwestern woman. Almost everywhere was around $20-$30 per entree. Here's the website for Duke's with their menus:

http://www.dukeswaikiki.com/menus/barefoot-bar

Regardless of the food or price, we were siting on Waikiki beach while a band played and this as our view:

We stayed and watched the sunset then walked back to the hotel. We went to bed pretty early and lost the fight to the six hour time zone difference jet lag. It worked out fine though, as we were planning to wake up early and hike Diamond Head.

[greatlakesgirl]

Love the pics, keep 'em coming! :)

[we b cruzin]

Thank you for your review and pictures. My DW and I are booked for our 20th Anniversary in November 2018. It's a loooong way off but we are excited and want to learn as much as we can about the ship and the ports.

[rstephenrrtx]

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!

 

Also flying United from Houston to Honolulu for an 8.5hr flight. Disappointed to hear about the IFE. Were you on a 757 I suppose?

 

Guess I need to load up my tablet with movies before hand.

 

Rns

 

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

[ruag8tr2]

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.

 

Great start. Very interested in your review. Thanks for posting.

[dexddd]

The spa was open but unfortunately I didn't inquire about available treatments. They did have a book describing all of the spa treatments in our stateroom.

After the full decks I lose count of which one is which, haha. There were these areas above the pool that were semi private and had two loungers:

others faced the ocean and were towards the front of the ship:

there were also a few areas like this overlooking the pool:

 

During our cruise, they weren't renting or reserving those spaces.

 

Thanks for the update. The brown seating areas were there and open for our sailing. The white areas, 10 I think in all, were wrapped with white cellophane and didn't have any chairs. I was suspecting they'd put some soft loungers like the brown ones in there and rent them out like but that is nice they are free.

[sjmbruce]

In addition to mountains of laundry, going back to work, and helping my husband study for his finals, I can't seem to physically get off the ship. I still feel the rocking of the boat and it makes for some interesting walking! Dizziness aside, I'll move on to Diamond Head.

The original plan was to wake up super early and start climbing Diamond Head before the sunrise started in order to avoid the heat. Sleep won over though and we didn't leave the hotel until 6:15 or so. It wasn't too hot and we discovered it was crowded with people who had stuck with their sunrise plan. There were tons of people heading down as we climbed up with almost no one else. Even the top wasn't too busy. The climb wasn't easy with lots of uphill switchbacks, a tunnel, lots of stairs and a spiral staircase.

Edited April 13, 2016 by sjmbruce

[sjmbruce]

I don't want to talk anyone in or out of climbing Diamond Head. You know your own limit. On one hand, we're not super fit people that exercise all of the time. On another, we've done some difficult hikes in the past few years. This was not an easy walk in the park but it certainly isn't the hardest hike either. We took a break when we needed one and climbed the stairs steadily. The views were certainly worth it.

[sjmbruce]

It took us 90 minutes to go up and come back down Diamond Head. Waiting in the parking lot was a truck selling food, fruit and smoothies. We bought a smoothie and a bag of pineapple. Both delicious. We hopped in our car and headed toward Hanauma Bay. I knew that it filled up quickly so I wasn't planning on going for certain. I figured if we found parking we'd go check it out and maybe snorkel. If not, we'd move on. Well, we moved on. The parking lot was full and they were turning people away. People were parked on the side of the road for a few miles walking toward Hanauma Bay. I'm sure it was worth it but we had more to see, do and eat. We found ourselves at the halona blowhole. What gorgeous scenery.

We weren't at the actual lookout but parked on the side of the road before the blowhole. There's also a beach there that you can apparently climb down to and access a trail, but we decided not to.

It took 20 minutes of watching and waiting but we saw the blowhole blow (?) twice. How awesome! It would also save us some time and driving later on in the trip.

Edited April 13, 2016 by sjmbruce

[sjmbruce]

Random tip that I just thought of: We brought snacks with us from home. I packed a suitcase, a carry on and a backpack. In my backpack I brought chips, nuts, sunflower kernels, pumpkin seeds, dried fruit, dark chocolate and granola bars. They were good to eat on the plane and helpful to have on all of our adventures. Later on we would add fresh fruit and boiled eggs from the ship to our snack stash and bring them with us when driving around the islands.

Edited April 13, 2016 by sjmbruce

[sjmbruce]

Now we were ready to find some beaches. The first one we came across was sandy beach. It was beautiful, but one of my guide books rated this as one of the most dangerous beaches on Oahu. The waves didn't compare to what we'd see on the north shore later on, but they were really rolling in. We stood in the water just up to our ankles and could feel the pull, so we spent some time on the sand and decided to find water we could get into.

Edited April 14, 2016 by sjmbruce

[punkincc]

Now we were ready to find some beaches. The first one we came across was sandy beach. It was beautiful, but one of my guide books rated this as one of the most dangerous beaches on Oahu. The waves didn't compare to what we'd see on the north shore later on, but they were really rolling in. We stood in the water just up to our ankles and could feel the pull, so we spent some time on the sand and decided to find water we could get into.

 

 

Enjoying your review. We were on the first cruise post dry dock. How was your weather, in general? We had no real rain, but it was very hazy all week, something I'd never seen in Hawaii.

 

Someone told us the locals call Sandys Beach, "Suicide" beach because of all the deaths and lots of neck and spinal injuries from the rough surf.

 

Just down the road, I guess it must have been by the high lookout over the blow hole, we saw a handmade memorial to those who have climbed over the fence and fell to their deaths. Flowers and little tributes left in memory, along with all the names. Believe me, I'm sure it kept more than a few where they belonged. Hawaii does not play.

[sjmbruce]

Enjoying your review. We were on the first cruise post dry dock. How was your weather, in general? We had no real rain, but it was very hazy all week, something I'd never seen in Hawaii.

 

Someone told us the locals call Sandys Beach, "Suicide" beach because of all the deaths and lots of neck and spinal injuries from the rough surf.

 

Just down the road, I guess it must have been by the high lookout over the blow hole, we saw a handmade memorial to those who have climbed over the fence and fell to their deaths. Flowers and little tributes left in memory, along with all the names. Believe me, I'm sure it kept more than a few where they belonged. Hawaii does not play.

 

The haze must have lingered as it was still hazy on Oahu. The rest of the time was sunny and warm expect for in Kauai. Our first day it rained and was cloudy most of the time and dipped down into the 60's. The second day there it was cloudy in the morning. The sun finally came out around noon, just in time for us to get ready and leave.

You're not kidding, Hawaii definitely does not play. I took Hawaii's dangers seriously. There's a lot of places I would have liked to see but didn't think the risk was worth it.