Lori,
As promised here are my notes from our Hawaiian vacation cruise:
Outstanding Items. Cory our golf contact was very helpful and got us VIP to get us off the ship to make early tee times. He followed up on every outing to make sure it went well.
Fred and Helen our drivers were great and were a pleasure to take us to the courses.
Specialty Restaurants on board were excellent.
The choice of golf courses was excellent and the whole trip was a good value. Their location is great for the rainy season.
Liberty Dining Room required an upscale dress but was worth it! Also, excellent.
Polynesian Culture Center was not your booking but it was better than it was years ago, and highly recommended. That would include Roberts of Hawaii which is recommended.
Your service and advice were great and you deserve an A+.
Acceptable Items. Waikiki Marriot was OK but the ocean view was very limited.
NCL included tips but service is not indicative of that. (Do the people that do the work get the tips?) Some in the buffet were rude. Other limo drivers need to get the tip.
Problems. Drawers in our suite 8150 were very difficult to slide and pull out. It was quite an annoyance because they are used so much.
Rooms were smaller than other cruise lines’ balcony suites.
The buffet at the Aloha had below-average food and was very difficult to navigate. Access to coffee pots in the mornings was a circus. If we go again we won’t go there.
It was the rainy season in December and we would have liked to have known that. We played golf in the rain at times for two of the days. Lucky to get all five days of play.
NCL charged extra for as much as they could i.e. a milkshake, and sushi was extra cost. Other cruise lines don’t do that and it is not worth the bad PR.
Day of departure from 9 am to 7:55 pm was a problem with our luggage and we weren’t able to book an excursion Friday. Next time we will know.
Overall – a very enjoyable trip and a good value for what we received.
