Anyone cruise the Hawaiian Islands?

[minniecarousel]

DH & I have just booked a cruise on NCL to cruise the Hawaiian Islands. Anyone here experienced that? I think we'll like the informality of it & disembarking for day excursions on the different islands and returning to the ship to sleep.

 

[NCRedding]

We're cruising the Hawaiian islands this summer on NCL (the Wind). I look forward to seeing the area--it looks so beautiful.

 

[tvguy]

On paper they look like great cruises.
I suspect you have see the many newspaper articles on the problems NCL is having with it's American flagged ships in Hawaii. Cruise Travel magazine just did a big story too.
The heart of the problem appears to be the combination of an American wait staff, and automatic, mandatory tipping. Of course, with Freestyle cruising, pooled tips are about the only way it can be done. I guess the original policy in Hawaii on NCL had been they billed you $10 a day for tips, and it could not be adjusted down on the American flagged ships.
According to the articles, several times NCL ended up with very angry passengers, and very bad service....and HAD to refund tip money to passengers....and in some cases, part of their fare too.

My mom has cruised with them since they went Freestyle, but not on any of the American flagged ships (I think they have 2 now). On the non-American flagged ships, they will lower the per day tip, but only if you ask, and only if you got to guest services everyday to lower that days tip. My mom felt $10 a day was excessive since she always eats in the buffets for all her meals.
Myself, at least for dinner I prefer to have the same wait staff everyday, and I prefer to tip them based on their service. I've never tipped less than the minimum suggested amounts because the service I have received has always been great.

 

[NCRedding]

The reviews of the POA have greatly improved as time has passed and the staff has grown more experienced. I too prefer set wait staffs, but find that we can request the same staff if we find someone whom we like. As for the pooled fee, that has temporatily been suspended, so that tipping is at your discretion, although they could at any time reinstate the fee.

We will be travelling on the Wind which is non-American flagged. I have done substantial research on the NCL ships as they are the only Hawaiian option during the summer. I don't expect it to be disney, but do expect to see some beautiful scenery.

 

[seaulater]

We cruised the Hawaiian Islands last October on NCL. We have been on DCL, Holland, Carnival, Royal Caribbean. NCL was our least favorite and most likely we will not cruise their ships again.

We did not like the freestyle dining at all. The food was not anything great. The night we decided to go to the buffet, my DH walked the buffet twice and couldn't find anything appealing to him. That never happens with him. When we went to dinners, we always ended up waiting to get a table for 15 minutes or so and we were in a party of 7.

The only restaurant we enjoyed was the one with teh dessert fondue. But then you had to pay a cover charge to go to that one.

Linda