Found a good deal that included 2 nights in Honolulu prior to the cruise. Traffic in Honolulu is horrible! Took 2 hours from time plane landed to hotel (7 miles away). Stayed at Waikiki Resort. Not a bad hotel, close walk to beach, shopping and food/drink spots. Get a room on upper floors (we had 1512) to avoid garbage truck and street noise early morning). Decent buffet breakfast included (good luck with Hostess Nazi!). Pearl Harbor tour very powerful. Roberts is a great shuttle service! Went to Duke's for dinner first night - good but very busy. Did Paradise Cove luau second night. Highly recommend! Best food of entire week, and fantastic hula show. Nice pre-meal activities as well.

Embarking was SLOW; they claimed they had several hundred more passengers than usual, then told us that Latitudes members would not get priority check in. Stood in line for about an hour before they finally segregated the Latitudes from others. Room was nice - enough room for everything plus the oceanview room was unobstructed. Cabin Steward nice enough but looked ragged; forgot twice that she had already cleaned our room, and only gave us one bath towel one evening. Kept ice bucket filled as requested.

Food was so-so. Buffet was the best place to eat. Skyline dining room needs to get their act together! SLOW service (over 2 hours for a dinner for 6), waitress did not know the menu, food quality mediocre. We should have eaten dinner more often at buffet, but other couples preferred to be waited on. Cadillac Diner also poor - went there 2nd day for lunch and wanted chicken club sandwich. Asked for no avocado - waiter told me that was good since they were out, and also out of bacon! Out of bacon??? Saw 20 pounds of it on breakfast buffet a few hours ago! Don't be duped by their menu - the ice cream item are NOT included in the prepaid food. Read more