POA Which side best for viewing

[ParrothdJH]

Sailing POA next week, have a balcony cabin on the starboard side. Whic side of the ship is best for evening sail by Mount Kilauea and scenic cruisng by Napali?

[DoubleB]

I am interested in the answer to this question also. We are booked on the Pride of Aloha September 10th. We originally had a balcony cabin on the port side, but they moved us to the starboard side, same deck midship. Our travel agent couldn't really tell us the reason for the move, but she said it was an upgrade. Is it? As far as I can tell from diagrams, the cabins would be exactly the same except they are on opposite sides of the ship.

[mitsguy2001]

I have been told that if you embark at Honolulu, you are required to stay on the starboard side, and if you embark at Maui, you are required to stay on the port side. By trying to do a mock reservation from both ports, that does seem to be the case. I do not know whether or not port vs starboard is a good enough reason to choose one embarkation port over the other.

 

Does anyone have any responses to the thread that I started about the Pride of Aloha?

[mitsguy2001]

I have been told that if you embark at Honolulu, you are required to stay on the starboard side, and if you embark at Maui, you are required to stay on the port side. By trying to do a mock reservation from both ports, that does seem to be the case. I do not know whether or not port vs starboard is a good enough reason to choose one embarkation port over the other.

 

Does anyone have any responses to the thread that I started about the Pride of Aloha?

 

(sorry, double post since I was having a problem)

[dcp81]

We had a starboard cabin and it was great for viewing the volcano. You approach with it on the starboard, turn 180 degrees so the port side can see it, then the starboard side can see it as you leave. You get a longer viewing of the volcano on the starboard side.

 

The Na Pali coast is only visible from the port side.

 

At almost all ports, except Kona (which is tendered) the starboard side is more scenic. The port side usually had views of trash containers and cargo bins. At Kona, the port side viewed the Kona coast, while the starboard side saw open ocean (and an occasional whale). The starboard side also faces the Aloha Tower in Honolulu, so you get to see the performers on the pier as you leave.

 

For these reasons, I chose starboard. The Na Pali coast is clearly visible from deck 6, which has no plexiglass or windows to affect your view. You can view the coast from there if you choose starboard. It was not as crowded as the upper decks and pool areas.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Aloha

 

Don

[mitsguy2001]

How were you able to choose your side? I was told that if you embarked at Maui, you were required to stay on the port side, and if you embarked at Honolulu, you were required to stay on the starboard side. And, if I try to book a mock reservation, that does seem to be the case.

 

Since it sounds like starboard is better: is that a good enough reason to board at Honolulu rather than Maui?

[dcp81]

We booked through a local travel agent and at the time, there were cabins available on both sides of the ship. We embarked out of Honolulu.

 

In checking availability now, I do see that the Maui embarkation balcony cabins all seem to all be port side forward. Perhaps a travel agent will be able to show all available cabins, not just the 5 or 6 that show up online.

 

Don

[mitsguy2001]

Yes, I notice the same thing, that regardless of whether you embark at Maui or Honolulu, only the forward staterooms appear as being available. We'd prefer a midship stateroom; hopefully if we use a travel agent we could get one. I wonder why it only shows the forward rooms; I have been told that they are the least desireable.

 

If we go with a balcony cabin, I assume it is best for us to go with a Category BC midship room. The BD and BE rooms never seem to be available, and I would assume there is something "wrong" with those rooms, so I assume they should be avoided.

 

If we decide to go for just an oceanview rather than a balcony, what deck and category would you recommend? The only cruises my girlfriend and I have been on is Disney, and we had an oceanview. But the Disney staterooms are much bigger than the POA staterooms, so we thought that maybe having a balcony would somewhat compensate for that. But it is expensive. And, she said she heard that the water near Hawaii is rough, so she is somewhat nervous about Deck 9 (the lowest deck with balconies). But it seems that the lower decks are all either above or below public areas, so they might be noisy. So, I personally think the best option might be for she and I to splurge for a balcony, and try to be as midship as possible. What is your opinion? Also, it doesn't seem that the lower decks have any midship staterooms; that kind of defeats the purpose of being on a lower deck.

 

For Disney, there is a website that shows a list of noisy staterooms, as well as a website giving reports of individual staterooms. Is there a similar site for NCL that we can use?

 

And, what is your opinion on Maui vs Honolulu?

 

Thank you very much.

[meowann]

Sailing POA next week, have a balcony cabin on the starboard side. Whic side of the ship is best for evening sail by Mount Kilauea and scenic cruisng by Napali?

 

We sailed on the 13th............the night of the Kilauea viewing was very windy, all we could see was a flame in the distance....way distant.

I was told by a crew member that most nights the captain will actually circle so everybody gets a good view......he said sometimes they get so close it is frightning. Alas, no such luck for us. Pray for calm winds :(