I have wanted to cruise on a Hawaii-only itinerary since NCL resurrected the idea with the Pride of Aloha. The early reviews were awful, and I decided to wait. My parents, who have never cruised, broached the subject in early 2007. After my initial fear of being trapped with my parents on a ship for a week subsided, I started to look into it. My travel agent tried really hard to talk me out of booking an NCL cruise, as she knows my parents. They're, uh, particular. And they're wealthy enough to afford any cruise, but they also love good value. I ended up checking out the NCL website, and booking direct be calling their number. I secured two Penthouse Suites on the 12th deck. We all started to get really excited! A couple of weeks before the cruise, I went back to the NCL website with my cabin info in hand to prebook some excursions. My parents are golfers, and I read on the boards that some of the best excursions fill up early. By the end of this review, you'll realize that the prebooking excursions was the lowest point of the entire cruise. It sounds silly, but it just was not set up in a customer friendly way. I sailed on Mercury last year, and the excursions on Celebrity are set up where you can sort through them and choose them online really easily. It made the anticipation even greater to know what you were booked for, and I was happy to know that I would not have to wait in any lines once onboard. the same cannot be said for the NCL system. You have to first print out the list of all excursions for the entire cruise which was like two or three hundred long, then find the days and times of the excursion you're looking for, then put that info into the computer. If you fill a slot for a day and then change your mind, there is no way to "unfill" that slot. So, I started over, finished the form, and sent it to NCL. A screen popped up indicating that I would receive a confirmation within 72 hours. This never happened, and when I contacted the NCL shore excursion department, they could find no trace of my order. It was too close to embarkation, so I resigned myself to booking onboard. the day of embarkation was getting really close, and we were all starting to feel giddy! Pre-hotel We all flew into Honolulu a day early and I arranged a pick up service through Carey Hawaii. Well-dressed driver was waiting for us at the gate, collected our luggage, and walked us out to his black Escalade. He took us to the the Royal Hawaiian, where I had reserved two rooms for the night. We got our rooms, and did a little walking and eating before turning in. The hotel was something else. Right out of an old movie about what Hawaii looked like years ago. They call it the pink palace, for obvious reasons, and we really enjoyed it. We had two rooms in the original section of the hotel, which is old (creaky floors, no balcony, high ceilings) but with enormous character. I understand that they have a newer "tower", but you might as well stay at the Sheraton across the parking lot. I also found out that you can enjoy any of the Starwood properties along Waikiiki no matter which property you're staying at. So, you could be down at the Sheraton, and still enjoy the service and beach at the Royal Hawaiian, and, I assume, charge things to your room back at the Sheraton. I'll have to remember that for when I travel to Waikiki and my parents aren't footing the bill! Carey Hawaii picked us up the next morning after a leisurely breakfast right on the beach at the Royal Hawaiian, same driver, same vehicle, and we were all very pleased. Embarkation We arrived at the port early. We were told by NCL that embarkation started at 1:00 pm, but thought that we'd try our luck a little early. I'm glad that we did! There was nobody on the dock, and we breezed right in, right up the stairs where there was no one in the check in pavilion. We collected our ship cards in about three minutes, and walked aboard! It was great! We were greeted by tons of staff when we set foot onboard. It looked like they had every available member of the kitchen staff there assisting in greeting guests. My father walked through and asked a cook where the best food on the ship was, and the cook replied immediately "the buffet, best food you'll have all week, because I'll be making it for you!", to which another cook replied "the Bistro if the best restaurant on the ship!", and this went on as my father couldn't help but needle all of them. It was really funny, and a great way to feel like we were in for a very fun week. All the way up to the 12th deck, all of the ship staff looked right at us with a smile and an "aloha" or "good morning". It was really great, but I had the past reviews in my head, so I was still keeping a very open mind so as to not be disappointed. Cabin Since we were so early, the ship was telling guests that no rooms were ready, that we could make ourselves at home in the Aloha Cafe or at the pool and it would be announced when rooms were ready by deck. We went up to 12 anyway, as there's only a handful of cabins there, and I figured since they're all suites maybe they're done. There was a staff member on 12 telling guests, again, that cabins were not yet ready. We told him that they said at the gangway that 12 was ready and that's why we were there (a big lie). He called down to someone, and said that, yes, the cabins were ready and we could go right in! I felt guilty for about three second until I opened the door to my cabin, and then my guilt melted away! It was smaller than I had expected, and "suite" is a very loose term. It's one big room with a curtain down the middle separating the bedroom area from the sitting room area. There is one flat panel TV that swivels, so you can see it from either "room". Small, but well appointed and clean and comfortable. There is a dressing area/vanity/walk through closet, and the bathroom. the bathroom was also a little smaller than I had expected in a "suite", but really nice and very clean. The balcony. Oh, the balcony. Easily the best part of the cabin. It was absolutely huge. i have no idea if all of the Penthouse Suites have balconies like this, but on deck 12 they do. And on both sides of the ship, as I was on the port side and my parents were starboard. There was a large round table with chairs that the four of us ate breakfast on VERY comfortably each morning PLUS two full size chaise lounges and a side table. And all with a lot of room to spare. We had 6 people in the cabin one afternoon, and it was cramped. We had fifteen people on the balcony to view the lava one night, and there was still plenty of room! It was a real luxury to have so much private space on a cruise ship.

Ship and Activities We went on a little ship recon after unpacking. We all decided that the ship, while a little over-the-top with the americana-thing, was really nice. All of the public spaces were very clean, and throughout the day, every member of the crew continued to greet us in a very warm and professional way. From reading the posts here, I knew to try to arrange reservations for dinner that first day. We went down to the reservation desk, where the very attractive hostess helped us with reservations through the first few nights only. We were not allowed to make reservations for the entire week. And I mention "attractive" because she was, and my 70 year old father (who, apparently, decided to choose this cruise to explore his wilder side) was flirting with her in a way that was making his son very uncomfortable! After reeling him in, we decided to go up to our cabins for an embark toast and proper send off. What we didn't realize was that we wouldn't set sail until later that evening, so we ended up toasting our good fortune and heading off to dinner. Here's another thing that we found out. ALL of the restaurants are totally wear-what-you-got casual on the night of embarkation. This was really good to know. Also, the restaurants are all first come, first served, with no reservations. Also good to know. One thing struck me throughout the cruise was how little there was organized to do onboard. I'm comparing this to a "traditional " cruise, where I guess you might have sea days. But the Freestyle Daily was one page of activities in very large type and three other pages of ads and shopping stuff. There were always one or two things done with the Hawaiian ambassador and the daily trivia game, but that was it. In NCL's defense, we were at the Gold Rush (draft beer+my dad=that's where we're going) one early evening, and only two people showed up for the advertised trivia game, although more utilization of the Hawaiian ambassador would have been nice. My Alaska cruise on Mercury was not like this. There were a solid two or three tightly spaced pages of things to do all day, every day. Not that it really bothered us during the cruise, as we were excited to get off the ship and explore Hawaii, HOWEVER, I have one word for you...bingo. On a cruise ship, don't knock it till you've tried it! I've never played before, but I had so much silly fun on Mercury that I was kind of looking forward to it. But, alas, NCL wanted us to get off the ship, so that's what we did. Which brings me to: Excursions Now, remember we had nothing prebooked. So, I called down to the Shore Excursions desk and spoke to Tim, the manager. He was totally apologetic and understanding and helpful. He got us on what we wanted, and actually found a conflict with what I had planned that didn't show up on NCL's website (maybe why my choices weren't accepted?) which he cleared up. He had all of our tickets waiting for us at our door by the time we returned from dinner that first night. The first day was Hilo, and we took Secrets of Puna. Wow. I read some good things about this tour on these boards, but nothing could compare to the actual experience. We were met inside the pier by our uniformed guides. I understood that the groups were small, but there were a lot of people checking in and walking out to the vehicles with our group. We were walked out to the vehicles, which were a collection of SUV's and vans, all very nice. Our guide explained that the same company runs several different tours, and that our group was only two vehicles of 7 for our tour. So, we were off! The guide was great, very friendly and energetic with a lot of knowledge. We watched a short documentary put together by the company about how the local people perceive the volcano and what their lives were like before the lava destroyed their homes. It was really moving, and informative, and gave us a much deeper understanding of the place we were about to visit. The stops included the new lava field at the volcano where we could see the smoke and steam from the lava, a beautiful black sand beach (no swimming here), lunch at a farm where we were able to crack open macadamia nuts ourselves (and some of us drank a little champagne!), and a swim with giant sea turtles in a natural lava pond heated by the volcano. The best day of our entire cruise, hands down. That night, the ship cruised past the active volcano (where we had been earlier that day!), and we could see the red lava dripping down into the ocean. It was very special to see that, although absolutely none of my pictures came out. The next two days were on Maui. The first day we took a zipline adventure through the forest. very fun, and especially entertaining with my parents, but the guides, one in particular, were a little weary. It was clear that they do this A LOT. Zipline was fun, but once was enough. The next day in Maui, we rented a car on our own. We were a little tired so we just checked out a few things and then returned to the ship. That night, we used the car to go to Mama's Fish House. What a place! The food and service were really good, and it was a very enjoyable evening, but it was incredibly overpriced. It was easily $100/person by the time we were done. But we were on vacation, right? So, being the good sport I am, on the way out of the restaurant we bought (are you ready?) T-SHIRTS!!! Did I mention my parents were paying? Next was Kona. None of the excursions really caught my eye. A lot of water stuff, which i had already done. We rented a car again, and explored the island. Absolutely beautiful country. Totally different from the Hilo area we were at the first day. just dry arid lava plains that butt up against lush green oasis that are the Kohala resorts! So surreal. Returning the car to Hertz at the Kona airport was the only real hiccup of the cruise. I had the day planned down to the minute, perfectly. We got back to the airport well before the posted last shuttle to the port time. But here was no shuttle. We waited and waited and asked. the shuttle was on it's way. A shuttle arrived, and people got on, but it was for the airport only, so we waited. The posted time came and went, with no shuttle. Now the airport shuttle returned, and the driver got out and started to argue with another driver about who should take us back to the port. My dad started to get a little upset, which is not good, so we got on the airport shuttle and he took us to the port where we were still able to catch the last tender to the ship. This was the only time I was a little stressed during he entire cruise, as I had booked the car on my own. The "we'll leave you behind if you book on your own and are late" threat on the NCL website kept playing through my head, and I thought how wonderful it would be to watch the ship sail off into the sunset (literally) with all of our belongings. Didn't happen...PHEW. And no thanks to HERTZ! Next stop, Kauai. We did the "mudbugs". Came extremely enthusiastically recommended by the ship's crew. I was nonplussed. It was fun, but not exactly what I had expected. I was expecting to go through the valley where Jurassic Park was filmed, and an old sugar cane tunnel, none of which were pointed out or explained to us. We spent a lot of time sitting in our vehicles at idle waiting for the guides to set up photo ops for us to drive through, but they never gave us any information about where we were or what we were seeing. It didn't feel like their best effort, and I understand from others, that my particular day was not typical of this tour, so I'll leave it at that. It was hilarious to see my parents covered in mud from head to foot! plus, I realized that I had booked them on excursions where they had to wear hardhats on two out of the three! the next day on Kauai, we were kind of pooped, so we took it easy onboard. We actually had a great time relaxing and talking on the aft section where the outdoor Aloha Grill is. Million dollar views you'd be hard pressed to find at a resort.

Restaurants/Food The biggest surprise of the cruise. We were never disappointed with the food. The food ranged from average (Little Italy, Lazy J Texas Steakhouse, and Cadillac Diner) to excellent (Teppanyaki and Jefferson's Bistro). We made some strange decisions, though. Like skipping lobster night because my dad is allergic to shellfish. We went to the buffet. It was awesome, there was nobody there. Everyone was getting lobster! Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love lobster, but it was a treat to have an empty buffet all to ourselves! PLUS, the captain was carving the prime rib! It was surreal. I looked up, very surprised, when asked if i knew how to carve and saw the jacket that said "Captain" on it. Then I recognized him from his picture. My dad asked him the usual questions about who was steering the ship while he was serving our food etc. Very funny. The captain was making pizzas the next day. The night of the big luau, we went to Jefferson's Bistro. We had heard of slow service, but didn't experience that at any of the restaurants. Jefferson's Bistro was also very empty due to the luau. We were told that the luau is a huge money maker for NCL and they get almost 1,000 people to go. More room in the Bistro for us! We never ate in the two main dining rooms, Skyline and Liberty. We never had need for any kids services, so i can't comment. And both of our cabins were clean every day no matter when we returned to them. We had two different cabin stewards (my parents and i), and both were excellent. And the warm "aloha"s and good morning/afternoon/evenings continued every day of our cruise. It was just an incredible experience. My dad, in particular, really enjoyed himself. Much more than he thought he would. And the freestyle cruising thing worked well for us, as we liked being able to make a reservation at someplace different, and not get too dressed up (in Hawaii, after all). My mom was a little disappointed that she wasn't able to get super glammed up, but she got over it. We looked out the window of the Teppanyaki room while having dinner one night. the sun was starting to set, and the mountainous coastline of Maui was rolling by framed in the window. We all let out a collective sigh, and thought where else in the world could you have this view every day. And then they kicked us off. Actually, disembarkation was as easy as embarkation for us. We walked all of our luggage on, and we walked all of our luggage right off without a problem. Our Carey Hawaii driver was there waiting for us. It could not have been more simple. We were extremely sad to have to get off the ship. I feel like our experience was exceptional. We embark with no expectations except to enjoy ourselves, and we made some decisions that really made the cruise for us, and kept us from experiencing some of the difficult areas that I've read about. I thought that the crew and staff, from the Captain down, were absolutely beyond reproach. It was what a cruise with family should be. Easy, entertaining, relaxing, and, apparently, fattening. I know that NCL is having a difficult time with their Hawaii program. but I hope that they figure out a way to make it work. We were all proud to be sailing on an American flagged ship with a (primarily) American crew earning American (ie not third world Bahamian) wages. It's a great project, and a cruise that i would happily take again.