Our family sailed the PoAM 12/22/07. We had 6 in our group, kids 10&13 to seniors in 2 aft balcony cabins. This was our 1st NCL cruise, 9th cruise overall, cruising RCI, Disney, Princess, and Carnival in the past.

Pre-cruise we flew ATA from Chicago and stayed one night at the Outrigger on the Beach in Waikiki. ATA lost our luggage, which messed up our arrival plans a little. We had taxis arranged and waiting for us, but I finally told them not to wait as we had no idea how long we were going to be at the airport. After about an hour we finally just got in the taxi line and ended up in a limo, fitting perfectly without luggage. This was our first trip to Hawaii and having the taxi prearranged was nice, but not necessary. The taxi lines at the airport moved very well and if your lucky, you get bumped into a limo. ATA called us while on our way to the hotel and had found our luggage, it arrived on a different flight 15 minutes after we left, we just told them to send it to our hotel, which they did. The Outrigger was a great hotel, staff, location everything was great! We walked the beach Saturday morning and my son and myself took surf lessons from Big Todd. Excellent way to start our trip, that was the most fun we might have every had!

We decided to go to the ship fairly early and left the hotel about 11:45 to see about embarking. Our family enjoys the title of being the first in the pool on most cruises. We always wear or carry on our suits so we can get right in. Embarkation was fairly painless, took about 20 minutes total. There was a small line, I think it was right about 12 noon they started letting people on. Read more