Flight arrived in Honolulu on Friday around 11:15am.  Rented a car from Thrifty at airport and off we went.Pre-cruise stay at Hilton Hawaiian Village. Awesome resort- way beyond my expectations.  The place is full of things to do and so convenient. Of course, you PAY for that convenience, but nevertheless, great place to stay.  Will definitely stay there again- right in the heart of Waikiki.Embarkation Day-  Arrived at pier around 11:30 and were onboard ship by noon.  They were making palm leaf headbands for the kids, which was neat to watch during our short wait.  Cabin was announced ready by 3pm and all luggage arrived by 6pm.  Not bad.  They do offer free champagne or OJ once you board. However, I did not see any fresh coconut that I had heard about.  We left port shortly after 8pm.  Ship was very rocky this night.  Ship Overall- Nice ship; nothing too impressive to write home about. It was always clean. There is something about NCL pool areas that does not appeal to me although I am not sure what it is yet.  I did like the American theme throughout although some places it was a bit much with the Hawaiian flowers and colors.  The lobby area is gorgeous and probably my favorite part of the ship.  Hot tubs were never regulated, either lukewarm or scalding- that was aggravating since we (usually) enjoy use of them often.  I thought the drinks were a bit pricey for some reason. They do have happy hours, but of course, the drinks we like were not on the (very short) list of happy hour specials.  They do have a nice fitness center.  We did buy the Teen Passport for $30 so the kids could have smoothies and/or milkshakes.  Good deal.  I had read that the seas were rough and usually only noticeable from Kauai back to Honolulu.  This was not the case with our trip.  Our family does not get seasick or normally even bothered by the ships movement.  However, this ship rocked almost every night- pretty good.  The people on stage we having trouble standing some times.  I was baffled too because the seas were pretty calm compared to the seas we have been on during hurricane season.  Perhaps it is just due to the smaller size of the ship or maybe the winds.  I did notice that it was more windy in Hawaii than in the Caribbean.  Not to a bothersome point, but noticeable. So, if you tend to have issues with this- be aware.

Kids Club-  9yo DS went there almost every night- still full of energy when everyone else is dead!  Staff were all very pleasant and very kid friendly. Every time I walked in the staff was not only "watching" the kids but interacting and playing with them as well.  He enjoyed it very much.Cabin - I had forgotten how much smaller the NCL cabins are vs RCI.  As soon as we opened our door, I remembered! I was glad we got the kids a different cabin- we would have been so cramped in that space with all of us.  I think the walls aren't as insulated either OR we had some very LOUD passengers on our deck.  Anytime someone would walk past our door, you could hear every conversation they were having.  We never needed our wake up call as we were awakened each morning with passing people- usually before we were ready to get up.  Safe was broken and according to the engineer beyond repair.  That was a pain because we had to take all cash and credit cards everywhere with us- too risky for me.  We did not have a room service menu in our cabin. I asked for one 4 times during the week- it never came.  They get a little upset when you call up and say "what do you have".  LOLEntertainment- Attended the Second City comedy show- they were hilarious.  Had me rolling from beginning to end.  Magic of Matt Marcy - his tricks are good but I could live without his jokes/comedy.  Comedy of Chris Alpine- he was so so.  Kids attended the Hawaiian show and said it was good also.Service-  We have definitely had better.  Cabin was always clean and tidy but nothing too impressive.  Not one gesture of an extra touch or even asking if we needed anything.  Got towel animals two nights.  Half the time I couldn't even find our attendant if we did need something.  Didn't ruin our trip just not what we are used to.  Service in Cadillac Diner was great.  Food- We did not eat in the main dining room at all. I was a little disappointed about that, but by the time we got ready for dinner, there was a huge wait and we were starving or they were already closed.  We ate at Cadillac Diner- good comfort food and great service.  I didn't realize they served breakfast until the last night so fyi.  Aloha Cafe- always busy and crowded.  They had nice carving stations but in my opinion, were lacking on the side dishes and desserts.  However, the chocolate fountain was always good.  Service was mediocre at best.  We had to ask to have our tables cleared and nobody ever asked us if we needed anything.  The silverware sets are on the tables and were often out after the previous party left which leaves you robbing them from other tables.  Not an ideal system.Lazy J Steakhouse ($25pp) - the best meal we had all week.  The crab cakes are to die for! Seriously, the food is awesome as is the service. Don't miss it.   The main issue I had with the food was the serving times.  Breakfast stops at 10am and lunch doesn't start until noon.  Also, the only dinner venue opened past 9pm is the Diner.  This didn't prove to be very convenient for us most days and I was frustrated with that.Maui Day 1- Rented a Jeep from Thrifty and drove Road to Hana.  Took us 7.5 hours roundtrip and we did not even stop at all the places there were- mainly due to no parking space.  It was a great trip.  I recommend taking along a lunch and snacks.  We found that the roadside stops were crowded and there was not place to park and stop.  The drive itself was not bad.  There are alot of one lane bridges but if you are alert and are attentive to the road and signs, you should be fine.  It was not the scary road I was expecting after reading all the reviews.  It did rain on and off all day but it was nice and added to the experience.  We went past Hana to the seven pools.  Great stop.  They are doing some construction on the park and did not charge the fee that day.  A short walk down to the pools. Since it had just rained- everyone left before we got there and we practically had the place to ourselves! We turned around and drove back down which one would think would be boring since you already drove it, but going the other direction gives you a whole new view and it was not boring at all.  We planned to go to Lahaina that evening to have dinner, but there was a fire and they closed the road down so we went back to the ship to eat.  Got back around 9pm and had no problem finding a parking place.  We had to walk a few blocks but it was free and available.Maui Day 2 - Drove to Maalea Harbor and took a morning Molokini snorkeling tour with Pride of Maui on the Leilani boat.  The boat was not really like the photos we saw on the website but it was sufficient.  The price was decent and they served a light breakfast and BBQ lunch. The only take 35 people per trip, which is what I was looking for. We went to Molokini and snorkeled for an hour.  The snorkeling there was ok but not as good as I recall from our last trip there.  We were supposed to go to Turtle Town from there but the crew said the seas were too rough that direction so we needed up at Wailea Bay.  We didn't see many fish here but saw a few turtles so that was cool.  After the trip we drove to Lahaina and ate dinner at Bubba Gump, strolled through some shops and headed back to return car.Hilo - Rented car from Thrifty. Drove a bit north to the Akaka Falls.  Very nice falls- not a strenuous hike either.  Not to miss.  Great photo ops.  Stopped in the small town right below the falls- can't remember the name but it's about a block long!  Had some Hawaiian Ice and headed back to town.  Car rental agent told us the VNP was mostly closed so we did not go there as planned.  Kids were a bit tired of being in the car so we headed to the beach the agent told us about.  We drove and drove and drove and although we never found the beach, we found some great places to stop and enjoy the view.  We also ended up by one of the volcano steam vents which was way cool to see.  By that time, it was time to head back to return the car.

We sailed past the lave flow this night.  It was very cool to see this close.  We watched from our balcony so we could not hear the narration, but were ok with that.  One of those once in a lifetime moments for me. Read more