I choose this cruise because of the ports. Chance to go to the 4 major Hawaiian Islands. Shortly after the final payment deadline, NCL notified us of an itinerary change. Due to scheduled maintenance (that they knew about far ahead) they were skipping sailing down the Napali Coast in Kauai. (This is the most beautiful part of the island that you can only view by boat or plane/helicopter.) We skipped 1st port of call Maui. As we were approaching the industrial port in Maui for docking- this port was canceled because the Captain deemed waters too rough to dock. Long story short- we didn't dock either day in Maui. Instead they sailed to the Big Island and gave us an extra day on industrial port side in Hilo. In the past year NCL has revamped the menus in their Specialty restaurants and almost doubled the prices. Many of the long time favorite menu items are now gone. You can get a far better meal at a nice restaurant at home at a cheaper price. The ship has a wonderful large library, but the book cases were kept locked most of the time. There were always a shortage of deck chairs in pool/spa area. There were lots of other open deck areas where chairs could have been placed- but they never were. Consequently it was hard to ever sit outdoors in the nice weather. It was evident that ship windows had not been cleaned in quite sometime. I could barely see out of my cabin window. Buffet area was always very crowded. Seemed like the same food choices everyday. They had an excellent Hawaiian ambassador onboard to talk about each of the port stops- but they scheduled him at 6:00 PM each day which would cause issues if you had dinner reservations and/or were trying to go to shows or watch sail aways.
Cabin was good size. Plenty of storage. Ship still has small TVs. No USB ports in room. Picture window was so dirty you could barely see thru it. I am not sure NCL ever cleans the outside of it's ships windows. Location noisy- there was a constant banging and whining noise when ship was at sea. Location good for quick exit on and off the ship as well as access to 5th and 6th floor entertainment venues.
Nothing but a shopping tour. Just wasting time on bus instead of sitting at airport.
Tour of outskirts of Volcano National Park. Neither independent or ship tours let you know in advance that you cant go to the park observatory because there are protestors that have been blocking the entrance for months now.