We recently completed a cruise on the POA. It was our second time on NCL and our eight cruise overall. We upgrade this time to a Penthouse Suite. The cabin was a good size and well appointed with plenty of storage room. We had a great time and the weather was also good. The ship was in great shape and the crew we interacted with were all pleasant and professional. This is contrary to a number of negative posts on-line (Cruise Critic) about the POA crew but we never encountered any of that. Check-in was very smooth as the concierge was waiting for us and another couple. When our cabin was ready we found everything we requested was in place. Additionally, there was a bottle of champagne chilling and a bottle of red wine along with the non-alcoholic wine from Pleasant Holidays and 3 bowls of fruit. Our butler, who was great, told us the champagne and red wine came with the suite. We had no prior knowledge of this and there was nothing indicated on the NCL website about this perk. Additionally, our butler asked why we had non-alcoholic wine and I explained I was told it was due to Hawaii’s liquor laws. He said that wasn’t exactly true. Guests in suites used to get 3 bottles of liquor from NCL but they switched it to wine. He did change out the wine to “real” wine. He also went over the letter that was in our cabin that detailed, as suite guests, we were entitled to private dining at Cagney’s everyday for breakfast and lunch. Again, no prior knowledge of this very nice perk. We found the food and service to be good in both dining rooms (dinner) and the specialty restaurants we tried, Cagney’s X 2, Jefferson's Bistro, and La Cucina. One negative occurred in the bistro when a guy wearing a t-shirt was seated in spite of the stated/written dress code and a sign at the hostess station.

No shore excursions were booked with NCL as we rented a car two times and did private touring. At Kauai we did water canal tubing booked with Kauai Backcountry Adventures. It was about an $18 taxi ride from the ship. It was a lot of fun but beware the water temp was 68 degrees. While touring in Maui we had lunch at Mama's Fish House that was recommenced by our butler. Great food and located right on the beach with a $1M+ view. Our disembarkation went extremely well. We had “Priority” tags for our luggage and the luggage was waiting for us 25 minutes after we docked. A short walk to the waiting taxi for the trip to the airport that only took about 30 minutes! Overall, a great trip and we agreed we would sail the POA again.