A great trip. One of the best cruises my wife and I have ever taken.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Quick and Easy. Showed up at appointed time, was in the terminal and through security quickly.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
Mostly the food and drink were excellent. The buffet was better than I expected and the main dining was very very good. Cagney's was excellent.
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
We did not avail ourselves of any of the onboard activities. We did not swim in the pools and did not go to the fitness center. They both looked great.
Entertainment
4 out of 5
There were a couple shows we really enjoyed and a couple we did not. The best of the entertainment was a group named "These Guys Worldwide". They were a very entertaining singing group. We also enjoyed the Polynesian show.
Children's Programs
No children with us.
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
Most of the staff were very very helpful. From the Guest Relations desk to the room steward (she was wonderful) to the dining wait staff. We did have a waiter that seemed to be having a bad day but she was the exception to the rule. The buffet staff was uniformly helpful and kind.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
All was good with the ship. Clean and freshly renovated the ship was not worn or tired in any way.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
The cabin was good for the 2 of us. We had no issues of any kind. The cabin steward (Loree) kept it neat and clean all week and always had a smile for us. The bed was comfortable the small sofa was good and the balcony was a great place to sit. Watched a humpback whale swim by the ship while moored in Kona in the morning. Just wonderful.
Ship tip
Enjoy yourself. If you can't find a way to enjoy yourself on this ship something is wrong with you.
Maui was good. We chose the beginning of February to visit as it is the height of humpback whale watching season. My wife visited a friend that lives on Maui while I went whale watching. It was a great excursion. I saw whales from the bus as it pulled up in the parking lot of the harbor. A really wonderful 3 hours on the water with whales. The staff on the boat was great. They shared a lot of info about whales and helped me understand the behavior I was seeing.
In Hilo we did an excursion to Volcanos National Park. Hilo is very rainy and the day we went it did rain. That said it only sprinkled on us. Heavy rain during the rides from spot to spot with breaks while we were off the bus. The active eruption was something we both were inspired by.
My wife and I loved Kona! We did another whale watching excursion and it was the most wonderful excursion of our trip. We went on a small craft with a total of 12 passengers and 2 crew. The crew knew what they were doing and found a pod of whales that included a mother and baby, a 2 to 3 year old juvenile and a male escort. They played and gave us the show of our life. I did not expect much from this tour but we were really wowed. The crew both said it was the best trip of the season and did not expect it to be matched, maybe ever. Truly a once in a lifetime excursion.
Kauai was a marvelous place and we enjoyed it. That said the excursion was not only the worst we took on this trip, it was probably the worst we've ever been on. The places we visited were beautiful including the "Grand Canyon" and all the other spots we went. The bus was another story. It kept stalling out and that caused lots of issues. When stalled it would then not restart for a minute and a half or 2 minutes. Once restarted it would be another minute or 2 before it would go into gear. This left us stalled in a busy intersection once with traffic try to avoid us. Another stall out at a left turn signal caused the driver to actually run a red light once he got it restarted. I think the tour company should have sent another bus the first time it stalled. "Uncle Willie", the bus driver, was friendly and personable but the sound system on the bus caused almost everything he said to be unintelligible. At the end of the tour we went to an included luau. Again I was quite disappointed. The food was mediocre at best, the staff rude and the crowd so large (roughly 2500 by my guess) that the show as more or less unwatchable from the distance we were from the stage. I would give the excursion only 2 stars.
Thank you for all of the details. Cannot wait for our cruise the end of March. Was excited to hear about volcanoes national park as that is one of our excursions.
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