We stayed in the Marriott at Waikiki beach. It was nice to register for the cruise at the NCL office located in the lobby. It is very close to the beach and shopping. I think we all liked Kauai the best because it is not very built up and the roads are well marked so it is easy to drive around. I would not recommend renting a car in Kona because of the traffic in the city, but if you go north there are some nice resorts and beaches. Just be mindful of the time, it will take a while to return the car and get back to the ship because of the traffic problems they have there. Either take a shore excursion or just walk around the port area. The first church in Hawaii and a historical palace is within easy walking distance as well as lots of shops. There is also a nice swimming area in the port if you want to do that instead. I would recommend a room on the starboard side of the ship. You'll see more of the islands from your room and see the remote cliffs on Kauai as you sail by. Bring a zoom camera to take pictures of the active volcano lava flow from the boat. On the east side of the big island they had the main road closed and there isn't another way around it except to double back the way you came.

The ship is beautiful, but the food wasn't all that great. Most of the food was just warm. We went to the Japanese restaurant and I recommend it. The food is great. We also went to the Lazy J, which was a disappointment. The waiter didn't get the drinks right, we ran out of water, and the overall service was pretty bad. There is an outside eating part of the Aloha Cafe on the back of the boat. It has a wonderful view, but lots of kids were running around in that buffet so go early or late if you don't have young kids. The portions at Little Italy are pretty large. Make sure you make all your dinner reservations immediately when you board the ship, otherwise you won't get in the speciality restaurants. We rented a car and drove around to see as much as we could. Thrifty seemed to have the most shuttle buses of all the car rental agencies. We waited so long at one port for a Hertz shuttle we ended up taking a taxi to the airport pickup location. We also got a flat tire and when we called Hertz we were told AAA would call us back. They did call fairly quickly, but stated they could not even leave for at least an hour to come and change the tire. My husband ended up changing it. I also got a car that had the ABS light on the whole day. Not good if you are planning on driving up to the top of a volcano.