First I would like to thank previous reviewers- without your tips my cruise would not be the success it was!
getting there - its really far from the East Coast- if i had to do it over again I would take the Hawaiian airlines non stop flight from JFK to Honolulu ( 11 hours) and spend the extra day in Honolulu.
flew United from CT to Los Angeles, stayed overnight, the onto Honolulu on Hawaiian airlines Booked Honolulu Airport Shuttle for a driver to come into baggage claim with a sign and take us directly to the ship. Despite having our flight info ( flight arrived 20 min late) there was NO ONE to greet us or even waiting outside - we had to call 3 times and wait over an hour to be picked up and taken to ship- all with out so much as an apology!
8646 and 8648 DO NOT BOOK these cabins
the life boat beneath these cabins is used forteh tender at KONA
we were awakened 3 days in a row at 6am by the nose fo crew lowering the life boat Would recommend a balcony port side on the 9th deck