We arrived 2 days prior to our cruise. The plane ride was a killer. If you can, fly first class. We rented a car from Alamo, and when the nice lady in the lot saw our luggage she upgraded us to a much bigger nicer car for free. We spent 2 days prior and 2 days post cruise at the Courtyard by Marriott on Royal Hawaiian Ave. I had called and requested a "quiet" room based on reviews on trip advisor. This hotel has a beautiful lobby. Very clean rooms and wonderful comfy beds. It is also the smallest hotel room I've ever been in, but it met our needs. We were several blocks from the beach. Parking is $22.00 a day and they have valet parking only. We walked down to Waikiki beach to eat and walk around a bit. We were exhausted from our trip so returned to the hotel at 8:30 (2:30 AM our time) We headed out to Pearl Harbor to be there when it opened at 7:30. The bag check there is $3.00 per bag and everyone's stuff fit in my one larger bag. (There is not lockers)You can only take in a camera. We met 4 survivors of Pearl Harbor. What an awesome experience. We drove to the north shore enjoying all the beautiful sights and then went back to Waikiki Beach and ate at the Hula Grill above Dukes. We got up at 3:45 AM to go hike to the top of Diamond Head for the sunrise. Do not underestimate how far and how difficult a climb this is. When we finally neared the top, there is a tunnel that was already so full of other tourists that we could not go any further and had to go to a lower overlook and missed the sunrise. Embark: We got to the Pier around 12:30 and there was very long lines. It took us until 2:00 PM to board the ship. If we had waited until 2 it would have been better. I have never been on a cruise ship before and I found it clean and beautiful everywhere we went. We had some lunch at the Aloha cafe and at 3 PM they announced our deck 9 was ready. I think our cabin was bigger than our hotel room in Honolulu. Small indeed, but very functional. The closet holds a lot with both hanging space and shelves. (There is a light in the closet)We unpacked our bags and had plenty of room. There are several shelves in the room and some drawers as well. The bathroom mirror is 3 sides, the one next to the wall opens and has 3 small shelves inside. We put all our luggage under the bed. After reading so many bad reviews of the POA, I was afraid we might be making a mistake to make this our first cruise. I can't think of one single bad thing to put on this review. I'm happy to say the worst that happened to us was that one night we only received one washcloth. The food was not spectacular, but fine by all of us as was the service in every restaurant we went to. Everyone was very nice and seemed happy to be there doing there job. They all work very hard. The most negative thing for me was trying to find my way around the ship. It's very large and unlike anything I've ever been on. If I didn't have my husband to lead me around I'd still be there trying to find my way to 5 mid ship to get off! Our first night we did the pub crawl. Had some fun but I wouldn't do it again. Day 1-Maui. We rented a car from Thrifty. Free upgrade to a Jeep SUV. We did the Road to Hana, the complete loop. It is so beautiful, but don't underestimate how carsick you can get. At every stop people were sick in the restrooms and only the driver (husband) of our car did not get sick. Once you get past Hana it's somewhat less curvy but the bumpy rotten road isn't a piece of cake either. I think the back side is every bit as beautiful as the first part. We were relieved to finally get to the winery because there's a long stretch between rest rooms. Back on board later that night we went to the Polynesian show and enjoyed it. 2nd day at Maui. We got up at 3 AM to go to Haleakala Crater for the sunrise. We got there at 5:15 AM and waited 1-1/4 hours for the sunrise that never happened. It was foggy and rainy. It simply got light out and we headed back down another curvy carsick making road. We went back to the POA for breakfast and to change. We went to LaHaina and then on to a Whale Watch with the Pacific Whale Watch Foundation. We saw alot of spouting and a few backs and a couple tails. The highlight of this was when they put the microphone in the water and we could hear all of them sing. - Hilo. Rental from Enterprise was another Jeep SUV. We drove to Volcanoes Ntl Park. We walked through Thurston Lava Tube. The roads all around the park were closed this day due to the gases. From the visitor center we were able to see the top of the volcano and see the smoke and steam vents. We enjoyed it here in spite of not being able to drive the Chain of Craters Rd. We then went to Rainbow Falls and then on to Akaka Falls. Our "sail past" Kilauea that night was rather drab. Just a glow in the distance, but still cool to get to see. -Kona. We walked around the town and went to the Kona Brewing Co for lunch. We did some shopping and took photos of the ship anchored out in the harbor. - Kauai- We rented a car from Alamo and drove to Waimea Canyon. More carsick people (even with Dramamine) but so beautiful. We were all fine once we were there. We then drove to the Spouting Horn and through the tunnel of trees. Kauai 2nd day - We went to the Fern Grotto - kinda lame. I don't know if I'd do this again. Seemed expensive for what we got. Our sail past the Napali Coast was so beautiful and we had a whale breach right by the ship to add even more to this. We saw lots of whales from our balcony. Getting off the boat was not as easy as I've read for some. We chose the last time as must have 90% it seemed. We were the last to get a shuttle for Alamo downtown and it took a very long time to get the car from this location. We had 2 more days on Oahu where we went to Germaine's Luau, we went snorkeling and drove to the north shore and ate at one of the shrimp trucks, we drove as far west as possible on the west shore and saw homeless people camped on the beach. The scenery in Hawaii is unlike anywhere we've ever been. We loved our trip. The flights were long and the time change (6 hrs. for us) was hard to get used to. I'd do it again with first class flights and time spent on Maui instead of Oahu. We thought the Pride of America was wonderful.