Let me start by saying that I booked this trip a year in advance and originally we were on the Pride of Aloha. In January, after purchasing my airline tickets, I was informed that Pride of Aloha was being repositioned and we would be moved to the Pride of America. On the Pride of Aloha we had booked a really nice room, the Penthouse at the front of the ship. When it came time, after 2 1/2 hours on hold to switch to the Pride of America, we were down graded to a balcony room; we had to get two as they are so small. In our party there are 5 of us; 2 adults, two teenagers and one adolescent. This was our third cruise, but first, and probably last with NCL. So, with that, we were still excited and off to Honolulu we went. Our flight arrived around noon and we took the Roberts shuttle to the boat. By the luggage carousels, there is a person with a bright yellow shirt, they can direct you to the Roberts bus. Strongly suggest this as it is $5 per person as opposed to $20 per person with other companies and NCL. They load your luggage and take you right to the dock and all for $5; great deal. We dropped off our luggage and went inside where he had to wait in line. It stung that we should have been in the shorter, VIP line, but we were not and remained in the regular line. It took almost an hour to get through the line and checked in. We boarded but were not allowed to get to our rooms so we wandered and got a feel for the boat. Overall, the boat was fine, typical set up of other cruises we had been on. When we got to our rooms we were terribly saddened by the size, they are small. Our room was okay for my husband and I, but the kids were on top of each other in their room. A little upset about that. Storage was good and we were able to slide our luggage under the bed and there were plenty of drawers. Only complaint, only one outlet in the bathroom and it was on the ceiling!!! Not real convenient. Our first day was in Maui; we rented a car and took off for Hana. Beautiful ride and very enjoyable, ON THE WAY UP. By the time you make that trek up the road and to Hana you just want straight roads for the long ride home. We drove past Hana and went to the 7 pools and swam there and then began the drive back. We were all pretty done with that road about half way back. The next day we took straight roads!! :) and went to Lahaina and did some shopping, eating and walking around. It was very nice there. Back to the boat and off to Hawaii. In Kona we rented a car and off to the volcano park which was really great and very interesting and amazing to see. We drove around and visited a beach and went back to the ship as we were only there until 6 pm. We sailed, that night, past the lava flow which was incredible. Next day was Hilo, we had been there before so we just tendered in and did some shopping and went back to the boat. Off to Kauai, we had never been there before and were very excited about this island. We rented a car and went exploring the island. We had a tubing adventure planned at 2 pm, so we headed back for that. What a great time the tubing was. We used Kauai Backcountry Adventure. They will pick you up from the boat if need be and they also offer ziplining. We chose tubing due to our younger daughter being too light to do the ziplining. That was a great experience, but if claustrophobic, you might not want to do. The next day my husband and I took a helicopter ride and that was amazing. Came back to the boat as we left at 2 pm that day. The next day we docked in Oahu. We stayed at the Waikiki Marriott which has the most amazing beds and bedding, almost want to stay in bed all day. We then went and swam with the dolphins at Sea Life Park. That was an incredible experience and would do it again in a heartbeat. You actually swim out to the middle of the pool and the dolphin comes to you and pulls you around and back to the ledge. It was an amazing experience. My complaints are this: why have sooooo many restaurants that charge you a cover charge to eat at. Part of the reason one goes on a cruise is for the food. And unless you love the buffet each and every day, you want variety, a nice meal to sit down to and should not have to pay extra for it. We ate one night at the Lazy J Steakhouse, the food was excellent, our bill just for the cover charge was over $100. Really, why should I have to pay extra to eat at these restaurants, it should be included. I knew this before we went on, but honestly thought the free restaurants would have some decent choices. As for the complaints I have heard about the crew and their service, we did not experience that at all. I had numerous requests and they were always met. Our room steward would say hello and our beds were always turned down with mints. Granted, on Carnival you get the cute towel animals and the room stewards would come talk with us and get to know our names. The wait staff was excellent, always pleasant and talking with us. I only heard one staff say, "Yes only 40 more days", but other than that the service was great. The Kids Club was great and on one occasion we needed an early time to drop our daughter off, they were willing to work with us. I am a picture freak, this is something that upset me about the cruise. On Carnival, when you get off at each port, you stand together as a group and get a shot in front of something with the port name. Great memory, great for the scrapbooks. Here, you get off, they will only let one at a time stand with their silly animals and have their pictures taken. When you go to buy the pictures you have to buy each family member, that is 5 in our case, at $15 per 5X7. That is ridiculous, put us together as a family and take a group shot. I would have bought every port, but not at that price and especially when it is just one of us at a time. Disembarkation was terribly easy, much easier than what we were used to. They allow you to pick up your tags depending on what time you want to get off the boat. And you don't have to stand in line for the tags, they are out and freely available. When our tag color was called we were still eating breakfast. We headed down and all the bags were separated by tag color which made it that much easier to deal with. We walked outside and got back onto the Roberts bus and went to the airport to rent our car. Overall, we had a good trip with some minor complaints but nothing that ruined our vacation.