My wife and I arrived in HNL Friday, Jan. 24,
2003. We had to build in a couple of weather days -
it's been a tough winter back East!
We left our hotel about 11:30 a.m. on Sunday,
Jan.26, and were in our balcony cabin on deck 10
forward on the port side, at 12:10 p.m. After
lunch in the Market Cafe I went ashore about 2
p.m. There was a long line of anxious cruisers by
then.
Dinner at the Versailles Restaurant featured
prime rib and salmon - a great way to start a
cruise - both were delicious. We have cruised with
HAL, Celebrity, Costa, RCCL, Cunard and a couple
of other lines that are no longer around. We were
pleasantly surprised that the food was as good if
not better than our previous cruises. The staff
and crew were all friendly and we did not notice a
decline in service because of the automatic
ally-deducted tips.
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My wife and I really appreciated the vegetarian
line in the Market Cafe. Although not vegetarians,
we try to limit meat to no more than once a day -
and that usually is at dinner. A plus was that it
was never too busy and you could almost always
find a table quickly.
Also, AS others have mentioned, the shower is
super. The bathroom area is compact but very
efficient ("supersized" people may have a problem,
however.}
Thirty minutes after our departure from HNL, the
power went out except for emergency hall lights.
It was restored in about a half hour and the
captain said a "transformer on the propeller"
failed. I presumed he meant the Azipod propulsion
system.
Because of the problem, we had to skip Fanning
Island (Kiribati). We would not have time to get
there and back without full power, the captain
announced. As a result we spent all-day Monday in
Hilo and all-day Tuesday in Kona - both on the Big
Island. Wednesday was our only day at sea.
Thursday and Friday we anchored off Lahaina, Maui.
Saturday we resumed the original schedule and
docked at Nawiliwili, Kauai. At 7 a.m. Sunday we
were back in HNL. It was a very quick but
enjoyable and relaxing week!
We were disappointed we missed Kiribati and
were looking forward to a day on a remote Pacific
island. Perhaps we will be able to deliver the
boxes of pens and pencils we bought for the school
on Fanning Island another time. However there
there is a bill in Congress that would allow NCL
to be able to skip the foreign port and remain in
Hawaii all week.
Many passengers were happy to have more time in
Hawaii. We made the best of it and did our own
shore excusions. The highlights for us were two
whale-watching trips on Maui with the Pacific
Whale Foundation. The foundation has a booth (slip
10) as you turn right from the tender dock. It
cost us less for two trips than one with the
ship's excursion. (We did get a 10 percent senior
discount the first day and then joined the
foundation the second day and got a 15 percent
discount and a free t-shirt!)
Bring a pair of binoculars - it helps while
whale-watching.
We thank previous reviewers for several good
tips.
