This was a first cruise for our group of 2 couples, both celebrating milestone anniversaries. We flew into Honolulu on Friday evening and took a cab to the Aqua Waikiki Wave. We booked thru Hotels.com, because they could guarantee a jr suite with 2 queen beds. It was a couple of blocks from the beach and served our purposes just fine. We didn't look into the service thru NCL that would have picked us up at the airport, taken us to our hotel and taken our bags to the ship the next day, that might have been a nice upgrade. Saturday morning we had the front desk hold our bags and walked down to the beach area and did a little exploring before taking a cab to the ship around 12:30. Embarkation went fairly smoothly, just smile and let them take your picture, it's less of a hassle than objecting. We waited for our rooms at a table above the South Beach Pool. We had our first bucket of beer (buy 5, get one free) and grabbed some lunch from the Key West Bar & Grill. The jerked chicken is great. Our rooms were ready in short order so we went to check them out. Being our first cruise, I have no reference to compare cabin size. I'm glad we had a cabin with a balcony, it made the compact layout tolerable. The bed was very comfy and there was plenty of storage space. Our room was acceptably clean, but there was dust on display shelves, so it seemed the cabin didn't get the most thorough cleaning between cruises. We did upgrade dining 3 different nights, Lazy J Steakhouse, Teppanyaki and Little Italy. Little Italy was only fair, I would skip it if we had it to do over. Lazy J & Teppanyaki were both very good. Though dining at Teppanyaki wasn't as leisurely as you usually experience at this type of restaurant. Cadillac Diner was very good, don't miss the Brownie Sundae. The big surprise was the Aloha Cafe! I was prepared for it to be mediocre, and it far exceeded our expectations. It is a bit of a cattle call at breakfast, I highly recommend entering from the aft elevators and going out to the back deck, same food with less congestion. You can send someone in to bring a fruit platter back for your group from the main area. Also, the granola and yogurt mix with berries offered inside was very good. Along with breakfast, we did have supper at the Aloha a couple of evenings, the salad bar was extraordinary. We even grabbed a plate of munchies and brought it back to our table at the Gold Rush Saloon, one afternoon. We rented a Seibring convertible several different days on http://www.hawaiidrive-o.com/. They brokered deals thru Thrifty for $52/day. We used our own portable GPS unit and the books by Andrew Doughty, "Oahu Revealed", "Maui Revealed",etc. to help us get around. The book "Hawaii by Cruise Ship" by Anne Vipond was also helpful. On Maui, we spent most of our time in Lahaina and the area just north and south of Lahaina. In Hilo, we drove to Volcanoes National Park and the Thuston Lava Tube on our own. On our way back to Hilo, it began to pour rain. We were looking for a place to get a burger & beer for lunch and stumbled on the Hale Inu Sports Bar (400 Hualani St Ste 17A). They didn't serve food but it was definitely filled with colorful locals and a live chicken named George. The good people there did steer us to Isle Burger (93 Lihiwai St) where we had a great lunch. At Kona, the tendering went smoothly, we skipped breakfast on the ship and had a wonderful meal at the Fish Hopper overlooking the beach and our ship. I bought a woven palm frond hat from a street vendor who was making them sitting right along the main street. We also tried the Hawaiian Shaved Ice, very refreshing. We wanted to take a tour at the Kona Brewing Company, we arrived by cab at 10:15 for the 10:30 tour and it was already full (they only take 15 people a tour). We heard later that the restaurant there has good lunches. They also offer a 3:00 tour. It seems the current economy is hurting the tourist industry and most dealers seemed willing to come down on their asking prices for their wares. On Kauai, we rented a car the first day and drove down to Poipu Beach to snorkel. We rented snorkel equipment across from the beach and had a great time on our first attempt at snorkeling. There is a little sand island just out from the beach where the shallow water is full of beautiful fish. We also went to the Spouting Horn blowhole and then had lunch at Joe's on the Green at Kiahuna Golf Club. Then we drove back to port and spent a leisurely afternoon visiting at Duke's Canoe Club (3610 Rice St Ste 15C, Lihue). The next day, we had arranged a helicopter tour thru www.adventureinhawaii.com with Air Kauai. The weather was a little drizzly, but the views took our breath away! (A bonus, Air Kauai is the only tour company that shuts off the engine between tours so you don't have to duck moving blades.) They confirmed via our cellphone the day before our tour and their shuttle picked us up and returned us right to the ship. Thankfully we saw the Na Pali coast on our helicopter tour, as the rain increased and the coast was not visible from the ship on our cruise-by later in the day. We spent $20 for the margarita tasting & guacamole at the Gold Rush Saloon on Friday afternoon, it was well worth it. Oh, just a heads up, the air brush tattoos at poolside won't hold up to sunscreen. Almost every server we encountered on the ship was wonderful, not sure what some of the previous critics expectations were, the people we dealt with were super friendly and helpful. As far as entertainment, we enjoyed the musicians, Toby Beau, and the comedian, Joe Yannetty. We didn't see the full magic act, but did enjoy the magician, Fred Becker's participation in the Liar's Club show. I think you have to go into the shows ready to relax and enjoy yourself. The Volcano Viewing was was a truly amazing event on Tuesday night. We opted to pay the $25 apiece for the Easy Fly option for disembarking. We booked our only tour thru NCL for Saturday morning, and went to Pearl Harbor and Honolulu city before being dropped at the airport. Pearl Harbor is an experience not to be missed. I am so glad we choose to see Hawaii for the first time aboard the Pride of America. It was a great week.