My wife, son, mother and I traveled from Seattle on 4/15/07 to Hawaii on the POA. This was my first cruise as well as my first visit to Hawaii. We arranged our Cruise tickets separately from our Airfare so that we could use air miles to cover the airfare. We arrived at the Honolulu airport at 1pm and made our way down to the taxi station to get a taxi to the Aloha Towers which is where the Ship is located. We were lucky enough to get a limousine to pick us up and take us to the Ship all at the cost of a taxi, appx. $20. What a great start! Of course when we returned to the airport after the cruise, we took a minivan taxi which was also nice and comfortable for the same price.
Upon arrival to the port, we were immediately greeted by some baggage handlers that took all our bags and instructed us on the documentation needed to get through the security check point. This was very helpful and we were able to check in with our tickets within 10 minutes. Not a lot of people were there at 1pm since the Ship did not sail until 8pm that night. I assume later in the day, more people showed up and probably took a little longer to check in. As we boarded the ship we were given brief instructions on the sanitization stations and helpful information to guide us through the cruise. Our baggage would be delivered to our stateroom at 8pm after we left the port so I recommend carrying on anything you need in the nearterm(medications, etc.) We checked out our staterooms(9128 & 9129) and to our surprise, the room was fairly big with ample space for storage in the closets and hangers for clothes. We kept a couple suitcases under the bed to save room. All in all, we were happy with the size of the rooms, plus these rooms were near the elevators which gave us easy access to the other parts of the Ship without the noise I might add.
There was a sail away barbeque but we had already partaken in the buffet since we had arrived so early. We found the buffet lacking as the typical foods were served and we spent most of our meals in the main restaurants with no extra charge. We usually ate dinner in the Palace and breakfast in the Crossings. Wait time was a little longer in these restaurants but the food was warm and higher quality. You get to choose from a menu everything you want to eat including appetizers, entree's and desserts. We generally had appetizers, salads, entree's and then desserts. Of course, a few nights we had a couple entree's especially lobster night. The specialty restaurant Royal Palm was good but you have to pay a fee of $15/pp. We did this once on the trip as we found the Palace restaurant to be satisfying to our needs. One tip is to eat at the restaurants as soon as they open which gives you the best opportunity to eat quicker as well as get a good table by a window. For some reason, we had to ask and ask and ask to get a table by the window sometimes asking 3 or 4 people to move us. It paid off and if they give you lip, remind them you are paying for that table by the window. Don't be shy in asking for what you want as most of the time they will accommodate.