My wife and I are used to traveling on our own (or in very small tours) both in the US and Europe -- so this cruise (POA 4/9/2011 sailing) was quite a new set of experiences all around. I'm writing this more for other first timers - this info is probably old-hat for the regular cruisers. Since I have no other cruises to compare, I will simply focus on my first impressions and you must forgive my naivetE.THE SHIP: Generally, we thought that the ship was attractive and well maintained and we personally have no need for over-the-top opulence. Our basic priorities are (1) it floats, (2) it reaches each port on time, and (3) it looks and smells nice. One nit-picky issue that we both kept noticing was in the elevators... in many cases the floor selection buttons were cracked and looking a bit ratty. I'm sure this was from people bashing them repeatedly but it was interesting how this detracted from the overall look of the ship - perhaps because one has nowhere else to look when you're traveling with others in the elevator. THE CREW: We are pretty independent travelers and don't require (or even feel comfortable with) constant pampering. We found the crew of the POA to be generally quite friendly or (at worst) simply polite & restrained. We never saw any of the attitude problems described by others on this (and other) forums/boards but we also aren't the type of people to be highly effusive or out-going either so we really didn't expect this of the crew.DINING: We started this trip with a budget and decided early on that we were more interested in spending our $$ on shore activities versus food or other "extras". For this reason we pretty much stuck with the Aloha buffet or Liberty main dining room. Generally the food was just fine with us although the buffet started to wear on us towards the end of the week - probably more a sign of our over-eating than a decline in the food quality (or quantity). Probably the thing we noticed the most was that the quality of the desserts in the Aloha buffet tended to be a bit simplistic and repetitive... but we could always drown our sorrows in quantity vs. quality. I am a big soda drinker at home and wrestled with whether or not to go with the Soda Package... but decided to just drink the iced tea instead. Two reasons for this: (1) NCL generally offers Pepsi products through their fountain drinks and I am a Coke fan and (2) We were out on excursions each and every day and many of the excursion companies provided soft drinks anyway.My wife is very focused on proper food sanitation and she felt that the restaurant staff was generally following good procedures. We saw (and used) hand sanitization stations at every main entrance - along with posted "sanitation police" personally dispensing hand cleaner and attempting to encourage proper sanitation amongst the passengers (unfortunately, I still saw more than a few passengers refusing to avail themselves of either). With all the discussion of "sick ships", this was of great interest to us and we felt the POA did their part.THE CABIN: We had a balcony room (Rm 8636, Category BE, Port side)... the room was very compact but highly efficient and workable... but I am very glad that we paid the extra for a balcony since I am a pretty big guy (6' 2", 215+ lbs) so it offered me some extra space to move around in as well as a quiet refuge - overall it made things a bit more manageable and enjoyable. I can't begin to tell you how special it was to awake in the early morning light and open the balcony door to watch (and listen to) the sea go by while we lay in bed - and then see several whale spouts and see some pods of dolphins break the surface as well. We even got to see a couple of sunrise rainbows - a special treat. We did have two complaints about the specific cabin - the blanket cover had some staining and there was a slight smell of urine & mildew in the bathroom - in hindsight we probably should have complained but we have suffered through far worse in our travels. Since we knew next to nothing about the science of cabin selection this was an interesting experience. I would say this was a pretty good location in my opinion because (1) it was roughly towards the center of the ship both horizontally and vertically - minimizing roll (although I don't think either of us is susceptible to motion sickness), (2) it put us right above the tenders/life boats - we enjoyed watching the crew prep and hoist these for our tender ride into Kona -- because the tenders were immediately below us, we didn't have someone smoking on the balcony immediately below and having it waft up into our faces, (3) Based on the POA ports and itinerary, I believe that the port side is preferred over starboard - one reason being that the hot afternoon sun seemed to be on the starboard side for most of the trip whereas we got the early morning light.PORTS & EXCURSIONS: Our whole reason for booking this cruise was to see the islands so we booked at least one (and sometimes two) excursions per day. Without exception we found the excursion operators friendly, informative, and (sometimes) funny. The NCL excursions are a bit pricey and you can find many alternate (and equally dependable) operators that provide similar offerings (Roberts Hawaii being one). Keep in mind, however, that some of the smaller (or single activity) operators may be significantly less expensive but will expect that you provide your own taxi/transportation and may also not provide snacks or other meals so research accordingly. Our biggest lessons learned were (1) The POA shore excursions start EARLY (around 7:50 to 8:15 AM)... some of this is to avoid the higher winds/rains that happen in the afternoon due to the trade winds but it significantly impacts how early you start your day and what you do (or don't do) in regards to on-board activities, and (2) Be wary of the NCL "Activity Level 2" ratings - we did several of these and found HUGE differences in the levels of physical exertion required. In the section below I have tried to cover the specific excursions that we took in greater detail -- because I wish that I had found similar information when I was doing my initial research.Sunday - Best of Maui & Ocean Center: Basic but informative bus tour by Polynesian Adventures (Gray Line Tours), my wife LOVED the Ocean Center aquarium.Sunday - Whale Watch & Sunset Cruise: We were at the tail end of the whale watching season so we were not sure if we would actually see any whales on this excursion. Pacific Whale Foundation provides some BIG powered catamarans for this outing - I believe that one boat can hold two full busloads of tourists but recognize that not all will get comfortable seating... we were lucky that we got some shade in the late afternoon. We did get to see some whales fairly close by, including one female & calf that stayed on the surface for long periods of time - although we didn't see any spectacular breaching. This was an informative cruise but a bit over-produced (in my opinion) with an accompanying guitarist providing background music throughout the trip.Monday - Instead of going with the NCL excursion, we booked Aqua Adventures directly for our Molokini & Turtle Arches snorkel adventure. I wanted a smaller boat for our snorkeling opportunity and was VERY PLEASED with Aqua Adventures. They are family owned/operated, run a smaller boat with approx. 35 tourists (compared to 100+ on similar NCL offerings), offer more time in the water versus some of the other operators (especially if you minimize your "lunch time", also offer SNUBA (which we did not utilize), and were VERY friendly and easy going. We are really glad we booked them instead of the NCL provider - although it cost us a bit in taxi fare to get over to the harbor (about $35 taxi fare each way). In fairness, Molokini is probably a bit over-sold as a snorkeling location compared to other sites throughout the islands - you will see only a moderate number of fish with only a limited variety - but I had a sea turtle surface only 6-8 feet in front of me and it took its sweet time checking me out - quite an experience. Remember that it's illegal to harass/touch the sea turtles. All in all we thought it was well worth it. By the way, they DO offer Optical (Rx) masks in a variety of strengths - this is generally the case for most of the larger outfits but not always true for the smaller ones (as I was to find out later in the trip).Tuesday - Kilauea Volcano Biking: This bike tour was provided by Nui Pohaku and here I would say that the NCL activity level was misleading. As the description correctly states, this is NOT a downhill only bike experience... you are required to do some moderate uphill climbs as well. I bicycle commute during the summer so I have some reasonably good leg muscles and only felt a little exertion... but my wife rarely bikes at all and she found the overall experience far too strenuous for her. Luckily they provide a van to cart anyone who sags early and the tour itself was really great - the tour leader really knew his stuff and talked extensively about the flora and geological conditions. I would heartily recommend this tour but I would have rated it as a 2.5+ Activity Level (vs. snorkeling, downhill biking, or tubing).Wednesday - Ocean Kayak & Snorkel: I lost my notes on who actually provided this tour. Once again, this is more of a 2.8+ Activity Level... I found it physically exhausting to kayak the required distance - my wife and I just could not get the paddling down right. Add to this was the fact that once you are at the snorkel site, I found out that they did not have Rx masks (which I should have thought to ask about BEFORE the trip) and they also do not provide fins - which makes it difficult to maneuver. I had wrongly assumed that they provided some dry bags for small belongings - so we ended up leaving almost everything including extra sunscreen back in the van. We made it without having to be towed but it was a close thing - I guess I need to work on my upper body strength.Thursday - Combo Tour Waimea, Wailua, and Fern Grotto: Basic but informative bus tour by Polynesian Adventures (Gray Line Tours). Here is where the bus driver makes all the difference. We had two different bus loads and when we got up to the canyon, it was pretty well socked in by clouds. The other tour bus operator pretty much gave up immediately and took off - I'm not even sure anyone got off the bus. Our bus driver told us to go ahead and go up to the view point and just be patient - she said it almost always opens up for some views if you are willing to wait a bit. She was absolutely right and we saw some wonderful sights. The last part of the tour was the ride down the river to the Fern Grotto. I think this was a bit disappointing and over-produced with some simple hula dancing and music - but my wife says she enjoyed it... in hind sight I wish we had opted just to see Waimea and Wailua.Friday - Tubing Adventure: "Tubing the Ditch" was quite relaxing and fun. Kaua'i Backcountry Adventures was the tour provider. We got wet, had fun, and learned something in the process - all good things. What was not made clear in the NCL description is that MOST of the tubing is done in either heavy shade or in the irrigation tunnels themselves - no need for sunscreen but bring along bug repellent just in case (we forgot ours but others shared). If you are highly claustrophobic then some of the tunnels might be a problem but they really are safe and sound and it was really quite fun.ON-BOARD ACTIVITIES: This was probably our biggest disappointment since we found that we could only sample a small fraction of the available activities due to our shore excursions. As previously noted, most of the shore excursions start EARLY. So when we include getting ready to go + eating breakfast, it was typical that we needed to awake around 5:15-5:30 AM! This meant that we were pretty tired by the time 8:30 or 9PM rolls around so we ended up having to skip many of the evening activities. We were both surprised that things like movie screenings were only offered once at mid-day, meaning that anyone on shore excursions would miss them... we couldn't understand why they couldn't run movie screenings almost continuously during the afternoon since it requires so little in the way of crew oversight. Luckily we aren't particularly into the casino action so didn't miss that this is unavailable.