2007-02-06 03:48:23 · 5 answers · asked by jerrrsj 2 in Travel ➔ Cruise Travel
I was on an NCL America ship in Hawaii over the new year. Overall, it was a fair cruise. I have also been on Carnival and Royal Car., and NCL stack up against them quite well. Here are some details:
Entertainment - good for a cruise ship, tallented actors and singers, limited alternate activities for days spent at sea. I spent most of my time drinking and/or sun bathing.
Food - Freestyle dining is not all it's hyped up to be. You can eat any time, but have to pay extra to go to the "nice" eating establishments. Food quality is fair, but sub par to most fine dining establishments you would find on land. Service is slow, but friendly.
Accomidations - Very sub par, even with an ocean view stateroom. Cleaning staff is highly ineffective - never go the "extra mile" that makes them worth the "built in tip" you must pay at the end. We went without soap for a whole day without getting replaced, sheets were always made but never replaced.
Shore excursions - Way too expensive for what you get, sometimes double what you would pay outside the cruise line. Very hard to line up your own shore excursions with time constraints. Make sure you do a lava hike! Also, utalize public transportation in places like Maui to get to the other side of the island for really cheap ($1 - 2$ for bus)
Overall - the cruise is nice if you are a first timer in Hawaii. You get to see all the nice touristy places without worrying about food or transportation. If you really want to get the most out of Hawaii, rent a condo or get a hotel in Kauii or maui (by far the best two islands in my opinion) Good luck!
2007-02-07 07:16:04 · answer #1 · answered by JamesW 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
NCL is one of the most popular lines for Hawaii. Their Hawaii cruise is one of the best. I'm not sure what ship you are looking at or which ports you are planning, but I have always been pleased.
The thing with NCL is that they have what they call freestyle. Some people love it, some people hate it. Basically, it gives you more choice than some of the other lines, you can choose when, where to eat, etc. Like I said, some people like this, others don't. The people that don't like it usually say that you have to wait too long to be seated, similiar to if you went to a popular restaurant in your home town, there is some waiting. Also, NCL has a lot of restaurants that have surcharges, meaning extra money to eat there. So you need to figure that into your budget.
The best thing to do is look up some reviews on the ship (see link). You need to keep in context though and really read the reviews so you know what was actually bad if there was something negative, some people can be very hard to please. Then you can see if the ship sounds right for you.
I've always enjoyed NCL. I don't know if I would say it is one of my favorite lines, but it is far from my least favorite. They have very nice cruises.
2007-02-06 15:50:02 · answer #2 · answered by tech_fanatic 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Norwegian to the Caribbean is excellent so don't doubt the Hawaiian route would be anything else but excellent as well. Norwegian is one of the top cruise lines right now. My brother and sister in law were on the Caribbean cruise, first class from departure to return...they loved it. We are expecting to do the Hawaiian cruise on that cruise line in early 2008 (10 couples so they'll have their hands full ;)
Our travel agent highly recommended Norwegian to us as well and recommended that if we wanted a great time and incredible treatment...to go Norwegian.
Enjoy!
2007-02-06 12:02:00 · answer #3 · answered by dustiiart 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I just went from December 25 to January 1 on Norwegian's Pride of Hawai'i and I hated it. It was my third cruise and everyone I talked to (first timers and cruise veterans) thought that the CREW was RUDE and it just wasn't very fun.
To put it in perspective, any cruise ship sailing under the U.S. flag has to abide by U.S. labor laws like paying overtime. Norwegian said that 75% of our crew were Americans. Picture +/-1,200 rude waiters or waitresses, housekeeping staff, etc. from anywhere you've stayed stateside and confine yourself on a ship with them for a week. Not to mention all of the unhappy guests...
I did have a blast doing the excursions on the islands, and if you must go, I highly recommend Kauai ATV Mudbugs and the Secrets of Puna tour from KapohoKine Adventures, they were definitely the highlights of the trip. I'll be sticking with Royal Caribbean in the future.
2007-02-06 16:24:04 · answer #4 · answered by cabinfemur 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
amazing!!!!!
2007-02-06 11:55:41 · answer #5 · answered by Ashley A 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋