WARNING: DO NOT ASSUME THAT THERE IS A BENEFIT TO BOOKING THE ENTIRE PACKAGE (CRUISE, AIR, TRANSFERS, ETC.) THROUGH NCL. We were to arrive on 7/28 to board our cruise that day (leaving from LA). They do not give you the air information until 30 or so days prior to leaving. Even then, I had to initiate any contact with NCL to get information needed for the trip. I was concerned about the departure flight since it had us arriving in Honolulu close to 4PM on the day of departure. I called the morning of the flight to confirm our flights and was informed that our connecting flight in San Francisco was delayed by 4 hours! I immediately called NCL to see about making alternative arrangements and the fun began. They told me to contact the travel agent. The travel agent said "no", the entire package is through NCL, call them. Called NCL again, they said call United. I called United, they said changes had to be through NCL. I called NCL again and they said not to worry, the ship would wait. This was about a 4 hour experience! Every person at NCL gave a different response, however, one thing was consistent, they were all very rude!! At this point, we went to LAX to try to figure out if United had any alternatives that would get us to Honolulu sooner since I was uncomfortable with the NCL response. United agents were terrible. They couldn't even confirm my seats on the flight out of San Francisco to Honolulu at all. They were unwilling to look for other flights to get us to Honolulu sooner. We caught the flight to San Francisco and discovered a very long line of other POA passengers at the customer service desk at United. Apparently, there were over 100 of us on this flight that were scheduled to board POA that day. United was telling everyone not to worry, the POA was going to wait for the flight since there were so many of us. There ended up being 3 other United flights to Honolulu from San Francisco that left before ours, but none us were able to leave sooner. Shortly before leaving San Francisco, we were informed that the ship would leave without us. The agents for United assured us that there would be representatives waiting in Honolulu to help us with Hotel, meal vouchers, and arrangements to get to Hilo the next morning. I called NCL and they were again very rude. They explained that there would be representatives waiting in Honolulu with our arrangements made. We finally all made it to Honolulu at about 9PM Hawaii time (midnight to us). When we got off the flight, we were met by the rudest people yet. They were literally yelling at the passengers to gather in a corner of the airport. They were extremely rude to those of us who hadn't received a flight confirmation to Hilo the next day. We told them that we were told that all arrangements would be given to us when we arrived. We stood in our assigned "corner" of the airport for 2 hours without being given any additional information. They handed out one sheet of paper that had local hotel information for our overnight stay. We then had to follow the rudest person of all (a representative (supervisor) for United) downstairs to a ticket counter that had no one working. We waited there for another hour to get flight information for the next day. I was given a flight for noon the next day on Aloha airlines to Hilo. I asked for an earlier flight and they said they were too busy to look for other times and that we had to take what they gave us. At this point, we were exhausted but still had to back track to get our luggage, then catch a shuttle to a 2-star at best, local motel. We were given no meal voucher at all which, I suppose, didn't matter since there wasn't anywhere to get anything to eat anyway. Needless to say, my 15 & 16 year old boys were starving at this point! We were told by a local that this happens weekly with NCL passengers. I woke up at 4am to call Aloha airlines myself and did secure an earlier flight to Hilo (of course, on my own). When we finally caught up to the ship, I had hoped that they would make some attempt to make up for all of our trouble. We arrived hungry, frustrated and exhausted. NCL gave us a voucher for a bottle of wine and offered to take fake "embarkation" photos of us later in the trip so we could purchase them! By the time we were onboard, we were much too tired to see any of Hilo. We went straight to our cabin to nap. I also submitted a 4 page letter to the officers of the ship explaining our ordeal. We never heard a word from anyone in response.

OK. Sorry for all of that, but, needless to say, it was a tough start. Our balcony stateroom was of fair quality and our cabin stewart was nice enough. The overall food quality was fair at best. Actually, the best food experience that we had was with room service. They had a decent selection and the person that delivered it was very pleasant. We ate breakfast at the Aloha buffet most days and it was average but without much selection. The main dining rooms were mostly fair with a few good items. The boys really enjoyed the cadillac diner but the service was probably the worst here. We did eat at Lazy J's Steakhouse on the last night which was a real disappointment since it has a $20 pp surcharge. The food was less enjoyable than the main dining room.

We rented a car and did our own thing at all ports. The Helicopter ride that we booked through Jack Harter on Kauai was the highlight of the trip. What a beautiful island! Our only shore excursion booked through the ship was the luau on Kauai. It was a bit of a cattle call due to delays getting us all there but a great experience once we arrived. Read more