Hawaii

[lorimay]

I don't know if any of you read The DCL Blog run by Scott Sanders ( I read over there all the time).
Anyway, he has something posted on how DCL still has Hawaii port adventures up. So I went and looked at the port adventures, there are port adventures in there for Victoria British Columbia. As far as I know, no Hawaii cruise has ever included Victoria stops. Mine didn't last year and the ones in 2012 were round trip from California.
I find this very interesting......

 

[dclpluto]

I don't know if any of you read The DCL Blog run by Scott Sanders ( I read over there all the time).
Anyway, he has something posted on how DCL still has Hawaii port adventures up. So I went and looked at the port adventures, there are port adventures in there for Victoria British Columbia. As far as I know, no Hawaii cruise has ever included Victoria stops. Mine didn't last year and the ones in 2012 were round trip from California.
I find this very interesting......

No need for a Victoria stop going to Hawaii. So who knows

 

[lorimay]

No need for a Victoria stop going to Hawaii. So who knows

Well they could, last year we sailed from Honolulu to Vancouver, so we could have made a stop there.
When we sailed Los Angeles to Vancouver in 2013 we stopped at Victoria, it was beautiful.

 

[dclpluto]

Well they could, last year we sailed from Honolulu to Vancouver, so we could have made a stop there.
When we sailed Los Angeles to Vancouver in 2013 we stopped at Victoria, it was beautiful.

I was at victoria the first time DCL went there . But going to Hawaii I would rather spend another day in Hawaii than Victoria.but will book a one way in a heartbeat. Round trip probably think about it but will probably book it than may or may not go on it.one way there will be nothing to think about.
I was on the Vancouver to Hawaii cruise. Than 8 nights at aulani

 

[lorimay]

I was at victoria the first time DCL went there . But going to Hawaii I would rather spend another day in Hawaii than Victoria.but will book a one way in a heartbeat. Round trip probably think about it but will probably book it than may or may not go on it.one way there will be nothing to think about.
I was on the Vancouver to Hawaii cruise. Than 8 nights at aulani

Don't you find it kind of strange that the Hawaii port adventures has Victoria port adventures incorporated? I really do, I know those options weren't there last year then I was booking my excursions.
I'm wondering if they may be doing a couple one ways this year again.
I do agree with you though, I would rather the extra day in Hawaii then a day in Victoria.
Another thought, we were not allowed to do B2B on the Hawaii cruise Honolulu to Vancouver. Do you think if they make a stop in Victoria that could change the situation for people wanting to stay on the ship for the repo cruise that follows?

 

[NancyIL]

Don't you find it kind of strange that the Hawaii port adventures has Victoria port adventures incorporated? I really do, I know those options weren't there last year then I was booking my excursions.
I'm wondering if they may be doing a couple one ways this year again.
I do agree with you though, I would rather the extra day in Hawaii then a day in Victoria.
Another thought, we were not allowed to do B2B on the Hawaii cruise Honolulu to Vancouver. Do you think if they make a stop in Victoria that could change the situation for people wanting to stay on the ship for the repo cruise that follows?

What wasn't allowed last year was b2b Honolulu to Vancouver and Vancouver to San Diego. The PVSA forbids a Honolulu to San Diego sailing with no distant foreign port stop. A stop in Victoria will not change anything.

 

[lorimay]

What wasn't allowed last year was b2b Honolulu to Vancouver and Vancouver to San Diego. The PVSA forbids a Honolulu to San Diego sailing with no distant foreign port stop. A stop in Victoria will not change anything.

Right, we wanted to do that and weren't allowed. So a stop in Victoria doesn't change that, ok thanks.
Do you have any idea why they have Hawaii and Victoria port adventures listed together?

 

[disneymath]

so my "other cruiseline" search was a bust ... basically, there are no other options than PoA in the summer months.

Some lines have the odd one-way / repo cruise during other times of the year, though they seem to be quite long even compared to the DCL roundtrip and one-way itineraries.

 

[jdb in AZ]

They do have a lock on that particular market. Since we are a larger group and want to see more than one island, PoA does have some appealing features though I wouldn't expect it to compare to a DCL cruise.

We are looking at it from a floating hotel perspective and a ride betwwen the islands moreso than a typical cruise experience. We aren't really foodies, so we aren't looking for out of this world dining experiences, but tasty meals with some variety is not too much to expect I hope?

We spent 11 nights on the Magic in Norway&Iceland, so I may look into other cruiselines with one way Hawaii itineraries since we are ok with longer cruises.

The food isn't worth waiting an hour between courses. The young adults in our group couldn't wait to "jump ship" and go to Pizza Hut. Our pregnant niece was looking forward to lots of great cruise food -- she ended up losing weight.

 

[NancyIL]

so my "other cruiseline" search was a bust ... basically, there are no other options than PoA in the summer months.

Some lines have the odd one-way / repo cruise during other times of the year, though they seem to be quite long even compared to the DCL roundtrip and one-way itineraries.

Royal Caribbean and Celebrity regularly have one-way cruises between Vancouver and Honolulu in late spring and early fall, and they are usually between 10-12 nights long. My May 2017 cruise on Radiance of the Seas is 12 nights, and its Hawaii itinerary is pretty similar to that of Pride of America - with the addition of 5 sea days.

 

[disneymath]

Royal Caribbean and Celebrity regularly have one-way cruises between Vancouver and Honolulu in late spring and early fall, and they are usually between 10-12 nights long. My May 2017 cruise on Radiance of the Seas is 12 nights, and its Hawaii itinerary is pretty similar to that of Pride of America - with the addition of 5 sea days.

I was focusing more on July / August and I checked Christmastime too ... any ones then seemed to be more the 20+ day variety. (Full disclosure, I just used the vacations to go website to get a quick overview.)

I'm tied to the school year calenday for the foreseeable future, so late spring / early fall are not even a possibility. That May 2017 itinerary sounds awesome though, have a great cruise!

 

[disneymath]

The food isn't worth waiting an hour between courses. The young adults in our group couldn't wait to "jump ship" and go to Pizza Hut. Our pregnant niece was looking forward to lots of great cruise food -- she ended up losing weight.

Oh, that doesn't sound good. When did you cruise?

PoA is supposedly just finishing / just finished? a multi month dry dock ... that could be a good thing, right?

 

[jdb in AZ]

Oh, that doesn't sound good. When did you cruise?

PoA is supposedly just finishing / just finished? a multi month dry dock ... that could be a good thing, right?

It's been awhile, but friends have been on subsequent cruises (two groups of friends on two different cruises) with NCL America and have noted similar experiences. I do hope PoA gets their act together. If they didn't have the monopoly on that particular itinerary they would have been out of business years ago.

 

[RedSox68]

Sorry it's not going to happen. Alaska is the wonders money maker, their bread and butter.

Wonder if when the new ships come out, assuming the PC is done its expanding project, they will put another ship on the west coast just for trips to Hawaii, maybe even Hawaii to Australia or Asia, etc.? That would be a new money maker for sure.

I agree about the round trips to Hawaii -- it gives you zero time to see enough. At least one way, like European cruises, you can fly in early or leave later and spend time in the port city.

 

[RedSox68]

It's been awhile, but friends have been on subsequent cruises (two groups of friends on two different cruises) with NCL America and have noted similar experiences. I do hope PoA gets their act together. If they didn't have the monopoly on that particular itinerary they would have been out of business years ago.

I agree -- they are too confident with their stronghold and don't give a crap about service. Funny thing is, they had three ships over there. Right before we sailed in 2008, they decided to shift two ships out and reposition them. One of the ships they took out was the Pride of Aloha! In order to use it elsewhere, they had to change the whole decor inside! Now why in the world wouldn't you leave the Pride of Aloha there and take the Pride of America, say, back to America? It made no sense at all. It was a beautiful ship (Pride of Aloha) and not that old. I would much rather have sailed on a ship around Hawaii with Hawaiian decor than a ship with Williamsburg type decor.

Meal stories: We spent money on the steak house onboard (can't remember the name) and it was not worth it. The server we had was one of the worst and was very distracted. He actually opened up the payment folder from the table next to us and let out a very audible and disgruntled opinion of his tip. Very inappropriate. We went to the main dining room only one night, and sat for 20 minutes with no water and no menu. The server was waiting on a large party and kept ignoring us. Suddenly another server showed up and asked us if we wanted to see a dessert menu! We just got up and left.

We did not find the food at the buffet too bad. It was average, but not the worst.

The best experience we had was the meal at Jefferson's Bistro. Great food, nice ambiance and they sang to us in Acapella for our anniversary!

 

[COASTIEandMATE]

Disney built Aulani in Hawaii = more cruises to Hawaii!!

 

[Jess_S]

NCL Pride of America has an American crew with U.S. labor laws and unfortunately you won't get the same quality of service as other cruise lines. If you do go that route, keep your expectations very low. It was a beautiful ship but isn't as well maintained as DCL ships. Can't beat the itinerary, but the food and service are a joke.

I have sailed POA and I completely disagree with this statement. Every crew member I dealt with on POA was friendly and helpful. Compared to the crew on other NCL ships I've sailed, everyone on POA was comparable or better. I think any difference in service you notice between DCL and POA is really a difference between NCL and DCL as lines and not a reflection of poor American work ethic. As a line, DCL has better service by far in my opinion -- but that makes sense given the price.

I agree that the food on POA leaves something to be desired. Most things were just okay. I think they are catering to a demographic that wants bland food. There was a day that I ordered a butternut squash ravioli dish and the waiter explained no less than 3 times that it was squash ravioli in a white sauce and not plain ravioli in red sauce. Apparently, he had gotten multiple complaints about this even though the menu was clear. Same thing with a dijon mustard porkchop dish. We were told up front that it actually tasted like -- gasp -- dijon mustard. There had been complaints that the dijon porkchop had a dijon flavor. (I'm a vegetarian, so I didn't order the porkchop and can't comment. The ravioli was decent).

Aside from the food, I loved the POA. Hawaii is an amazing place and POA is the only itinerary that lets you do an in depth exploration of each island. With the overnights, you can rent a car and explore on your own all day without worrying about missing the ship. The Na'apali Coast sail-by and the night time volcano sail-by are particularly great experiences that you can only get from being on a ship. NCL's anytime dining really works well with this itinerary because you don't have to worry about being back for meals at a certain time.

I have nothing bad to say about the ship either. NCL ships are a different style from Disney ships, but the POA was well-maintained and clean. There were plenty of venues for relaxing at night with some music and a cocktail and some fun cultural events during the day like hula dancing and lei making. Because of the time difference between Hawaii and the continental US, the ships were pretty dead at night. We found that to be true during the land-based portion of our trip too, so I think that Hawaii is just not really a place for nightlife unless you are in Honolulu.

The one area where I think NCL outdoes DCL is in the spa. We had a great spa treatment on the POA without any pressure to buy more. And there were nice areas in the spa to relax before and after. In comparison, on the Wonder, we got changed in a busy gym locker room before our massage and there was no where to go after besides back to the cabin -- and let's not discuss the sales pitch at the end.

So, in summary, if you are looking for a way to see as much of Hawaii as possible without the hassle of flying between islands at a price tag that's significantly lower than a land-based stay, the POA is a great option. If you are planning to spend a lot of time on the ship eating, then the POA is not for you. And if you are planning to go to Hawaii to take the free shuttle to Wal-Mart at every port so that you can complain in the dining room each evening about how the Hawaii Wal-Marts are not as good as the ones in Cleveland, then you are probably the family that sat next to us at dinner a few nights on my POA cruise.

 

[NancyIL]

I have sailed POA and I completely disagree with this statement. Every crew member I dealt with on POA was friendly and helpful. Compared to the crew on other NCL ships I've sailed, everyone on POA was comparable or better. I think any difference in service you notice between DCL and POA is really a difference between NCL and DCL as lines and not a reflection of poor American work ethic. As a line, DCL has better service by far in my opinion -- but that makes sense given the price.

I agree that the food on POA leaves something to be desired. Most things were just okay. I think they are catering to a demographic that wants bland food. There was a day that I ordered a butternut squash ravioli dish and the waiter explained no less than 3 times that it was squash ravioli in a white sauce and not plain ravioli in red sauce. Apparently, he had gotten multiple complaints about this even though the menu was clear. Same thing with a dijon mustard porkchop dish. We were told up front that it actually tasted like -- gasp -- dijon mustard. There had been complaints that the dijon porkchop had a dijon flavor. (I'm a vegetarian, so I didn't order the porkchop and can't comment. The ravioli was decent).

Aside from the food, I loved the POA. Hawaii is an amazing place and POA is the only itinerary that lets you do an in depth exploration of each island.With the overnights, you can rent a car and explore on your own all day without worrying about missing the ship. The Na'apali Coast sail-by and the night time volcano sail-by are particularly great experiences that you can only get from being on a ship. NCL's anytime dining really works well with this itinerary because you don't have to worry about being back for meals at a certain time.

I have nothing bad to say about the ship either. NCL ships are a different style from Disney ships, but the POA was well-maintained and clean. There were plenty of venues for relaxing at night with some music and a cocktail and some fun cultural events during the day like hula dancing and lei making. Because of the time difference between Hawaii and the continental US, the ships were pretty dead at night. We found that to be true during the land-based portion of our trip too, so I think that Hawaii is just not really a place for nightlife unless you are in Honolulu.

The one area where I think NCL outdoes DCL is in the spa. We had a great spa treatment on the POA without any pressure to buy more. And there were nice areas in the spa to relax before and after. In comparison, on the Wonder, we got changed in a busy gym locker room before our massage and there was no where to go after besides back to the cabin -- and let's not discuss the sales pitch at the end.

So, in summary, if you are looking for a way to see as much of Hawaii as possible without the hassle of flying between islands at a price tag that's significantly lower than a land-based stay, the POA is a great option. If you are planning to spend a lot of time on the ship eating, then the POA is not for you. And if you are planning to go to Hawaii to take the free shuttle to Wal-Mart at every port so that you can complain in the dining room each evening about how the Hawaii Wal-Marts are not as good as the ones in Cleveland, then you are probably the family that sat next to us at dinner a few nights on my POA cruise.

Royal Caribbean's Hawaii repo cruises occasionally have an itinerary as good as POA's (plus 5 sea days) - such as their May 2017 cruise from Honolulu to Vancouver that's almost sold out: http://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruis...cyCode=USD&sCruiseType=CO&sailDate=05/05/2017

 

[clten]

Funny thing is, they had three ships over there. Right before we sailed in 2008, they decided to shift two ships out and reposition them. One of the ships they took out was the Pride of Aloha! In order to use it elsewhere, they had to change the whole decor inside! Now why in the world wouldn't you leave the Pride of Aloha there and take the Pride of America, say, back to America? It made no sense at all. It was a beautiful ship (Pride of Aloha) and not that old. I would much rather have sailed on a ship around Hawaii with Hawaiian decor than a ship with Williamsburg type decor.

I believe they couldn't leave the Pride of Aloha as the only ship sailing Hawaii because of the 3 ships they got an exemption for, it was the only one that was completely built outside the US. (PoAmerica and PoHawaii started as US built hulls; the Sky, turned Pride of Aloha, turned Sky again started as a foreign flagged vessel). Now between POA and POH, I believe they were similar in size but the POH was a little bit larger. Considering how poorly they were doing when they pulled the other two ships I can understand why they kept the smaller ship even if the theming wasn't as good as the other ships would have been.

 

[jdb in AZ]

I have sailed POA and I completely disagree with this statement. Every crew member I dealt with on POA was friendly and helpful. Compared to the crew on other NCL ships I've sailed, everyone on POA was comparable or better. I think any difference in service you notice between DCL and POA is really a difference between NCL and DCL as lines and not a reflection of poor American work ethic. As a line, DCL has better service by far in my opinion -- but that makes sense given the price.

So, in summary, if you are looking for a way to see as much of Hawaii as possible without the hassle of flying between islands at a price tag that's significantly lower than a land-based stay, the POA is a great option. If you are planning to spend a lot of time on the ship eating, then the POA is not for you. And if you are planning to go to Hawaii to take the free shuttle to Wal-Mart at every port so that you can complain in the dining room each evening about how the Hawaii Wal-Marts are not as good as the ones in Cleveland, then you are probably the family that sat next to us at dinner a few nights on my POA cruise.

When we were in Maui the gangway slipped, trapping a passenger's leg between the ship and the gangway. While the crew stood by like deer in the headlights, other passengers helped the woman before she suffered a serious injury. The crew reset the gangway but refused to test it -- they left that up to the passengers to see if it would hold.

My niece's stateroom host didn't service their room til about 4 p.m. each day. He did have time to flirt with a female host -- they were too busy flipping towels at each other to do their jobs.

The American work ethic led to a wildcat strike just before our cruise. I've never heard of that happening with a foreign crew.

Our cruise was one disaster after another, beginning with booking. Our travel agent got so fed up with all their issues she refused to do business with them ever again, and notified several other agents to boycott NCL Hawaii as well. If all cruise lines had poor service like that, the agents would lose any repeat business.