I have an 11 year old son whose achievement of Black Belt rank in his Karate dojo was the impetus for surfing lessons. Where better than Hawaii? Who better to teach the son of a Fire Chief than the Honolulu firefighters? And, why not cruise around the Islands while we're there? Thus was born the idea of our family Christmas at sea. I did extensive research, like most fiscally responsible dreamers. I soon found that Pride of America would suit us perfectly, and although we had not done the Freestyle thing before, there were enough positive people reporting good things about this itinerary to quiet those scary little voices that we all hear when we read a negative posting or review. Besides, Christmas was the only week we could all get away, and PoAm was the only ship doing the 7-night Hawaii during the dates that we were interested in. I hit the Cruise Critic boards to get the inside scoop. I followed the suggestions to get the Revealed series of guidebooks, and when the four of them arrived (Oahu, Hawaii, Kauai and Maui) I was immediately overwhelmed. TMI...TOO MUCH INFORMATION. I promptly set about doing my planning much the way we're taught to eat an elephant: one bite at a time. The information was all good, just way too indepth for a cruise, since we didn't have as much time in each place as the books assume. Still, it was helpful to read all the behind the scenes info that only a local can provide. I recommend the guides as a great way to become familiar with the general geography and nature of each island, but in the end, the cruise boards provided a lot more truly useful and applicable advice.

PRE-CRUISE: Coming in from New Hampshire, we decided to do a four-day pre-cruise stay. We simply fell in love with the Marriott Waikiki Beach Hotel. I have to say that if you are doing any NCL cruise, this is the cat's meow...there is an NCL service office right in the hotel lobby, and their service was amazing. On our arrival in Honolulu airport, we were met by the NCL rep, Karen. She guided us, my overtired and travel weary husband, son and me, to our transportation, a bus to the hotel. We never once touched our luggage, she handled it all and transferred it to the bus, we were whisked to the hotel and once there, we were each greeted with gorgeous purple Orchid leis. We proceeded to do our "early check-in" for the ship and also took advantage of this chance to make ALL our advance specialty-restaurant dinner reservations! By the time we embarked on Saturday, we had no lines to stand in and nothing to do but walk on the ship. Take advantage of this service, though I will advise that we had to ask for it specifically. Another CC gem I had picked up on the CC boards.

EMBARKATION: Upon embarkation, which ranks as the best ever, we simply walked on board and picked up our room keys at the proper desk. Being a pre-cruise hotel guest made the whole process easy, but it looked that way for everyone we watched. Our luggage had been picked up early that morning and transferred to the ship for us, we checked out of the hotel early and went to snorkel at Hanauma Bay. We got back to the hotel by 1pm, jumped the shuttle to the pier and just walked right on the ship! We boarded at 2pm, and because our deck (7) cabins were not quite ready yet, we were told we could check our carry-ons in the theatre and roam around freely. We kept our small day-bags with us, for our larger bags the hotel-to-pier transfers were flawless and by 3pm we were in our cabin with our luggage delivered moments later. In the meantime, we had familiarized ourselves with the ship's layout, and had lunch at the Aloha cafe. Everyone was SO helpful and nice and really interested in making us feel very welcome. Read more