My thoughts: Journey to Hawaii- Day 1

The trip from Taipei to Honolulu was exhausting primarily because we had to wait nine interminable hours in Kansai International Airport in Osaka. However, all that was forgotten as soon as we stepped out of Honolulu's Airport. We were immediately greeted with soothing warmth, a nice respite from the cold weather in Taipei (yes Taipei can get cold). Looking silly in our heavy winter coats, we quickly doffed our coats and packed them in our suitcase.

Since we didn't have to board our cruise ship until later in the afternoon, we decided to take a stroll through Waikiki Beach and the shops nearby. Although we weren't hungry, we wanted to taste some sushi because the sushi in Hawaii is actually pretty good--an observation we reached from our last trip to Hawaii. Not to mention we really miss having American style sushi--rainbow rolls, dragon rolls, volcano rolls, etc....

After our afternoon "snacks" it was time to board the ship. There was a line but the line was definitely shorter than when we went 1.5 years ago. Overall, I noticed that not only were there fewer people, many of the people present were older. There were fewer children and fewer honeymooners, a deviation from our cruise. Is it the economy? Or the season? I'd say it's a bit of both.

Pride of America is very similar to Pride of Hawaii. However, Pride of Hawaii is noticeably newer and better maintained. Although Pride of Hawaii is only 15% bigger, it appears significantly larger to me. I enjoyed the shows on Pride of Hawaii better. As far as the restaurants are concerned, some are better and some are worse. But, I don't like how we have to pay a cover for Italian restaurant (which was "free" on Pride of Hawaii). I also don't know how Pride of America can claim that "East Meets West" is an Asian Fusion restaurant when in reality, it's just serves Americanized Chinese food. I definitely would NOT pay $15 cover charge had I known we would be eating really bad Americanized Chinese food. Everything was either too sweet or too salty. It was without a doubt the worst restaurant on the ship.

The shows were good (the ones that I attended anyways). There was a really funny comedian and a really good magician. The rest of the shows didn't look appealing so we didn't bother going. I wish they had more dance shows or acrobatic performances--primarily because we went a bunch of people who didn't speak English very well.

In summary, I would definitely go on NCL again, probably not in Hawaii though. As much as I like Hawaii, taking two cruises is enough. Not to mention there are so many other places in the world to explore. I will post the pictures from the other island if/when I get around to it.