Gambling is not allowed under Hawai'i State Law, but as the ships spend about 100 hours in port during the 7 night sailing, the casinos would be shut most of the time anyway.


Mark

You should be fine on the Wind. They have a foreign crew. We were on the Pride of Aloha a few months ago.If you expect a normal cruise experience you will be very disappointed. If you think of the ship as a cheap motel, then you will ber fine. Hawaii is wonderful. Well worth the trip. Just don't expect much from NCL or the crew.

Just got back from Alaska on WIND. Don't take it if you have been on any cruise at all. The foods are no taste and not much choice, dishes are dirty and the crews are okay but no simles at all (maybe they know they have to find a new jobs in 7 months). This ship is old and small, plumming also need upgrade (smell sewer sometimes on the ship)

i cruised on the wind in hawaii in march of 03. we had a fine time, but went with fairly low expectations. we missed a port--in maui, if memory serves--due to a broken engine, which also caused the stabilization to be off. thanks to dramamine, that wasn't a huge issue--although we were both quite sleepy most of the time. you'll be vastly happier on the wind than you would on one of the american-staffed ships; i wouldn't go on the 'pride of aloha' or the 'pride of america' even if someone else were footing the bill...but i'd do the wind again, especially if i could get a good deal for it. it was just fine.

i've also cruised with celebrity (and regent, in asia) and had an earlier ncl caribbean cruise. i'm not convinced that there's a huge difference between any of them, until you hit seabourne/crystal, etc.

it really is all about expectations; you have to realized they're feeding something like 2000 people, so the food's NOT going to be gourmet. (i caused a stir on cruisecritic.com by talking about how really average the food on celebrity was...and not even average, at some meals. perhaps i just have higher standards than most of the folks who cruise regularly.) we did dine almost every night in the 'extra cost' restaurant on the wind, and found that made a difference. the food quality was somewhat better, and we liked the environment.

fanning island was okay, get off early and find one of the hammocks...that's where we spent our day, didn't bother with the 'crafts' the locals were selling.

also, if you haven't already, i echo other posters in telling you to check out cruisecritic.com. very helpful in all aspects of cruise planning, including the 'what ship' and 'what line' questions.

My wife and I (and 11 others in our group) are going to be sailing on the Pride of Hawaii, departing on 2 October. We are excited to be cruising again (our third and certainly not our last). We are even excited about being on a new ship, with an all-American crew.

I've read both good and bad reviews on cruisecritic.com about NCL, the all-American crew, the ships, etc. It becomes readily apparent that it is as karenkay said above, "it really is all about expectations." Of course, if one goes looking for the bad about any experience, one is not disappointed.

It's a vacation, no pressures, etc. If things don't do perfectly, we'll deal with it. Of course, if it's a horrible experience, I'll let ya'll say, "I told ya so! ! !"