We took our 3 kids (16, 14, 14) on this trip because they had never seen Hawaii, and they love to cruise. We've sailed with NCL to Alaska on the Star and the Pearl.

Before this cruise, we spent 3 nights in Waikiki at the Embassy Suites. The location was perfect, and the breakfast and happy hour were great! The bad news was that we had a crying baby next door that woke us up nightly and the walls were thin. We spent one day driving to the north shore, and stopped at the Dole Pineapple Plantation. The best thing about the Dole Plantation was feeding the koi fish, the fish were hilarious. We skipped everything else because it was so expensive. By the time we made it to the Polynesian Cultural Center, the kids were tired and didn't want to go. The next day we just hung out around the hotel: went to the Army museum, went kayaking, and got ice cream at the Hilton. That night we went to a Luau at the Paradise Cove. The Luau was okay, but not great. The show at the PCC or at Smith's on Kauai is much better. On Saturday, we went to Pearl Harbor. You need to get there early (8am) or you won't be able to catch a ferry. We had to wait 3 hours for our ferry, so we drove around town while waiting.

Boarding the ship was easy. The kids were happy when they found out that there were 200 teenagers on the ship. Read more