POAM review

[cruise4fam]

We were gone to Hawaii from 9/4 - 9/18 with a 7 day cruise on Pride of American. A little background info we are a married couple 39, 40 with 2 children. This trip was just for the adults and no kids & we have been planning this trip for 9 months so there was much anticipation going on for us. My husband was deployed for 6 months and this gave us something to do together and look forward to.

 

Cruise background – We have cruised 20 times. 1 Holland, 4 RCCL, 4 Princess, 8 Carnival, 3 NCL

 

NCL is not my favorite cruise line but this was the intinerary that we really wanted to do. I was very pleased with NCL over all.

 

We arrived at HNL after about 8 hours traveling and a 4 hour time change. We never really caught up with till the last couple of days before we left.

 

Arrival day we just hung out at our hotel and relaxed. We stayed at the Hale Kola which is an all military hotel. You can not beat the price if you can stay there. We were right next to the Hilton Village. We were right on Waikiki Beach and easy walking distance to many things.

 

2nd day we just relaxed and toured around to different spots around the Island. Watch out for traffic it seems to be pretty regular most of the day with some times more traffic. For dinner we did hit Dukes. Which everyone is right it is excellent the prices are $18 – 30 but portions are a good size and we split a meal. This price does include the salad bar which is great and has many options. We did get the Hula pie and loved it.

 

Embarkation day – We were up & out by 5:30am with the time change and maybe the excitement we walked on the beach and saw our boat sail past us. This made things seem more real to us that the day was finally here. We left our hotel by 10:00 – 10:30 and dropped off our Alamo rental car. The Alamo shuttle then took us to the pier and dropped us off about 20 feet from where we needed to be. We walked inside and handed in our luggage and then sat on a bench till it was time to check in. A bit of confusion goes on here people walk in with luggage and nobody is really there to direct you to the luggage drop off. As we sat on the bench and people were looking around for what to do we just tell those head to the back to give in your luggage. By about 11:30 they let us head in to check-in which is a breeze maybe 2 minutes at most. Then they say go wait in line and we will start boarding by 12:00 – 12:15. This did happen and by 12:40 we were having lunch in the dinning room. Rooms were not ready yet so we had lunch and checked the ship out. By 3:00 pretty much all levels were able to get to the rooms. We were on level 8 and had room 8141. The room was small but what cruise line has a big room. But since this was only 2 of us it was not so cramped as other times. We had a balcony room which if you can afford it you should have it for Hawaii. We almost did not get a balcony and at the last minute we were able to get an upgrade and got one. We used it a lot in the early mornings and at night I was very thrilled we had it.

 

 

Pride of America – Before I left I read tons of reviews and was prepared for an American crew that was rude and couldn’t care about you. That the boat was just ok. Maybe I am an easier person to please or just expecting less made things a surprise for the better. But wow the POAM crew was excellent!!!! I did not run in to one person who did not say hello or ask if they could help me. Crew members are helpful and will give you great tips on places to see while in port. Room 8141 was clean and stayed that way by the steward. We only saw him a few times and he was so nice and asked if he could do anything or if we needed anything to make our stay better. The boat it self was very clean and I looked the worse thing I can say was there was some spots on the windows. I liked the décor and found it will up kept.

 

Food – The buffet was great tons of choices and stations to choose from. Nice salads and fruits and just a great variety of things to choose from. They even have a chocolate fountain at dinner which is the 1st time I have seem this on a buffet. We had breakfast every morning in the buffet and you name it they pretty much had it. We ate in one specialty restaurant which was the Bistro. They had a half price night on the 1st night so we ate there. Most nights they did have a half price at certain times. Usually it was the Bistro and I think also East meets west if you went in early I think between 5:30 – 6:00. We did eat all other nights in the Liberty and skyline. I thought the foot was good and has many choices. Plus you have a menu for that’s always available with steak, chicken, salmon. The only thing I didn’t really enjoy in the dinning room was the desserts. Then we headed up to the buffet for dessert.

 

Shows – We did one night which was a magic show. The magician was good and also very funny. Otherwise we did not hit any other shows.

 

Ports – We rented a car for the 2 over nights.

 

Maui -We drove the road to Hana very pretty but if you have a weak stomach it is not for you. Very long also it takes about 7 hours total. We also drove up to the crater and saw all the bike riders coming down hill for the sunrise. We headed to Lahaina which is such a cute place to walk and shop. We had lunch in cheeseburger in Paradise right on the water.

 

Hilo - We did one tour the VNP we wish we would have rented a car since you don’t get that much time to really explore around. We also stopped at the Mauna Loa macadamia Nut Plantation they will give you samples….yummy

 

Kona – We snorkeled at turtle beach and it was awesome. We found sea turtles and tons of fish. When you get off the boat there is a shuttle bus across the street for $10 round trip.

 

Kauai - We drive to the Waimea Canyon beautiful drive. We also did some shopping in different spots.

 

Car Rentals – Both ports were Alamo they were by far the cheapest we found for the time we needed it. They provided shuttles in both ports with no problems. Overnight parking was not a problem for us at all. Maui right by the boat there is about 40 spots. We got back about 6:00 and had no problems finding a spot. Kauai a lot right by the pier wants $15. By the shopping center closest to the pier wants $10 and they shuttle you right to spot you need to get on the boat. We choose to use the $10 lot and it worked perfect for us since we headed to the shopping center that night to walk around.

 

Disembarkation – Very easy we choose to carry off our own luggage and were able to be off by 7:45. We had friends who came to pick us up so we wanted off quickly. You can stay on till 10 if it suits you. We spent an extra 5 days after the cruise with friends.

 

I am sorry if this is a long review but I found this sight helpful myself and hope if any one has any questions I can help. Sorry if I have made any errors or if some one doesn't agree with me. :)

[Chrissy24]

Your review was very nice! Simple and to the point! Thanks for taking the time to post it!

[lambs2]

Thank you for your well written and descriptive review. Sure brings back the memories of our fantastic Hawaiian vacation and week on the Pride of America in 2006! Aloha!!! :D

[CruisinMK]

THANK YOU for the review!!

[hawaiibound2008]

Thanks for the great information. We are getting ready to go in about a month. I'm a planner and am trying to figure out if we need to make reservations for a certain resturant, order room service, or be prepared to go to a certain place to have the best view and enjoy the lava flow and Napali coast line. What time would be a good time to to prepared for those things to happen? Any other tips let me know. Thanks for all your help.

[cruise4fam]

Thanks for the great information. We are getting ready to go in about a month. I'm a planner and am trying to figure out if we need to make reservations for a certain resturant, order room service, or be prepared to go to a certain place to have the best view and enjoy the lava flow and Napali coast line. What time would be a good time to to prepared for those things to happen? Any other tips let me know. Thanks for all your help.

 

I am also a planner and you can get a little crazy with all the planning I did. I wanted to make the most of my time so I planned as best as I can and just hoped for the best. The best place for us to watch the lava flow was from out balcony. No problems we saw everything. This I think was around 9:00 - 9:30. So I am not sure if another deck works better. The Napali coast we watched from the deck and it's so pretty. :) I think this was just around 5:00. We then went to dinner at the Skyline and sat and watched as the ship turned around and saw the whole thing again for the dinning room. I was at Skyline as soon as it opened which the lines were very long. I did get to the dinning room about 15 minutes before to look at the menu and just ended up staying in line.