Pride Of America Reviews

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Having been to Hawaii more than 20 times during our working life, we thought seeing it from a ship would be an interesting way to go. We flew to Honolulu the Thursday before departure and stayed at the Best Western Plus Coconut Waikiki Hotel, small and convenient to the Waikiki area, We left the hotel at noon for embarkation on the Pride of America. The process went very smoothly as the space is much larger than seen at other ports. Documents and ID are checked, luggage is then dropped off on conveyor belts, person and hand luggage security takes place, then the welcome photo is taken prior to check-in (a good idea in my opinion). Check-in begins at noon, so there are a lot of people in line but the line moved very quickly. The ship's comedian was there talking to the people as they waited which kept everyone happy and not cranky... After check in, boarding was immediate onto Deck 5 which is quite expansive. We were directed to the Aloha Cafe on Deck 11 for lunch. We first found a seat in the Gold Rush Saloon which is next to the Aloha Cafe. We found it to be much quieter and always tried to sit there when we went to the Aloha Cafe for breakfast and lunch. We found the food in the Aloha Cafe to be quite good and we liked the multiple station set up they have. The staterooms were available between 2 and 2:30. Our balcony cabin was on Deck 8. The cabin was small but had adequate storage for 7 days once I figured out where the various drawers were. We did not meet our steward Roberto until the second day but the cabin service was very good and our cabin was always clean and made up upon our return from our daily shore activities. We ate all our dinners in the Liberty Dining Room. Service, with one exception, was outstanding. Since we eat early, we always had a nice window table for two; this was especially nice the last night as we sailed along the coast of Kauai. The food was generally very good. In my case, the kitchen fell down on the beef as the nights I had prime rib and steak, it was dry and tough. The fish dishes were excellent as were the appetizers and desserts. The menu is set up as a three course meal but I noticed some people ordered 4 courses. The other non-charge Dining Room is the Skyline and I was told by one server the difference is the Liberty has a dress code and a different menu. We were with another couple so rented a car on Maui and Kauai to see the sights we wanted to. All of us had been to the islands in the past. We did take the ship's tour in Hilo called Flowers and Coffee with two delightful men in a 24 passenger van. It was definitely the best ship's tour I have ever taken and I have been on almost 50 cruises. The ship is lovely, vibrant colors and spacious public areas on Decks 5 and 6. I especially liked exhibits of the history of Hawaii and cruising Hawaii in the past on Deck 6. The Library is also a treasure. But one really does not have much time to explore these areas as this is a destination cruise. We did not attend any activities or shows but there was a lot to do on the ship from reading the Freestyle Daily. Easy walk off disembarkation was a breeze. The fastest I have experienced on any ship. The lobby area on Deck 5 is so large, it makes leaving easy. There were three stations to swipe your card. We went down there as soon as the announcement was made for Easy walk off passengers and there was no one ahead of us. We spent the day in Honolulu as our flight to Los Angeles did not leave until 8:45PM. Overall I think sailing on the Pride of America is the best way to really experience the Hawaiian Islands since you have two whole days on each of Maui, Hawaii, and Kauai. I went on this ship with some trepidation and low expectations due to the negative reviews on Cruise Critic but I came away extremely satisfied and pleased with the Pride of America, the ship, the service, and the friendliness of the crew.

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We went non-stop from Phoenix to Honolulu on Hawaiian. Love the wide body jets. Left at 8 am and arrived at noon. We had arranged for Robert's to meet us at the airport. They did a great job and were there waiting. Only a small shuttle and 3 or 4 stops before us as we were at Park Shore Waikiki- the far end. It maybe took 1/2 hour. The Park Shore is more like a Motel 6 but clean and we had the cheapest room which we weren't in much. We rented a car at Budget which we had a 10 minute walk to from the hotel. Drove up to the Polynesian Cultural Center which takes about 75 min. The Center is great and we enjoyed the very entertaining show at the Samoan village. We went to the luau which had GREAT food. I have been to a few luaus because of Polynesian friends and the food was so good and authentic. If people say it was bad, they perhaps aren't used to that type of food. The evening show was very good and we were out at 9pm. The next morning we took back the car at ate breakfast at Lulu's which is on the 1st floor of the Park Shore. All I can say is- Macadamia nut banana pancakes- possibly the best thing on the whole trip!! Mark 23 picked us up at 11 and we were at the pier at 11:30. Basically waited a half hour and walked right on. We were able to go to the room at 2:00. Had lunch in the buffet. It seems not many know about the area out back which is lovely and not ever crowded. I thought the food in the buffet was good, some more than others, but if you can't find something you like out of the 40-50 items, I'm not sure what you're going to eat. We ate in the Lazy J 1 night and Jefferson's Bistro 1 night. The best meal we had was in the Liberty on Wed. which was prime rib night. We were in and out in 1 hour. Went at 6 and they had already opened due to the line and we had no wait. My prime rib was perfect, better than steak house, and our service was excellent-also onion soup was great,too.

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For people who have never been to Hawaii, NCL's Pride of America cruise is the way to get a great overview of Hawaii and the fact that you have two days on Maui, two days on the the Big Island (one each in Hilo and Kona), and almost two days on Kauai along with time on Oahu (if you so choose) is a great way to see Hawaii. The ship is beautiful and is filled with patriotic and Hawaiian themes and the staff were very friendly and hard working. I especially enjoyed "the burger king" Calvin in the Aloha Cafe who made the best cheeseburgers, pizzas and calzones. I also enjoyed the comedian onboard and I thought the entertainment was good though I thought the "Not so Newlywed" game was a disappointment because they rigged the winners in which it was obvious that they knew the answers ahead of time. The only other negatives that I saw was that our room steward forgot to clean the refrigerator and I wasn't impressed with the turkey sausage. Other than that, I thought the food was very good and my overall experience was very good. Now for the details: Prior to the cruise we spent four days in Honolulu/Oahu which I highly recommend. It gave us time to do extra touring and to deal with jet lag. We stayed at a nice hotel for the money, the Ambassador Hotel. It was not a luxury hotel, but it was spacious, 10 minutes from Waikiki beach and had an efficiency. We also rented a car though traffic is a nightmare. But it did give us flexibility and we enjoyed our time in Oahu and we walked up Diamond Head, Makapuu point, sampled Giovani's shrimp and did some of the sites downtown Honolulu. If you go to the Aloha tower, there is inexpensive parking $3 for 3 hours) and you can get in the down sites within 3 blocks. If you eat at the Aloha Tower the parking is free for three hours. EMBARKATION DAY: Embarkation went well and it was beautiful sailing out of Honolulu harbor. As we waited in line to embark (which took only about 20 minutes), we were given leis and entertained. DAYS 1 & 2: MAUI: On the first day, we rented a car and went up the Haleakala highway, the Iao Needle and drove in the western part of Maui. On the second day we took the ship's excursion, The Road to Hana. It was a long but beautiful trip with many wonderful sites. A recommendation: Bing Baggies and pack your own lunch from the ship's ample food supply. We did this a number of days. Food onshore is expensive. In Hana, a cheeseburger is from $9-$13. I loved the Road to Hana trip though leg room on the mini-bus was somewhat cramped and the corduroy seats left my knees red, but it was a great excursion. DAY 3: HILO: Port wise, Hilo is not much to write home about but it is the gateway to the Volcanoes National Park which was a great excursion. If I had more time, I might have rented a car instead of the excursion in order to explore more of the National Park. DAY FOUR:KONA: This is the best place for souvenir shopping. We went on the Glass bottom boat which was informative but I wish I had spent more money and gone on the submarine. We really did not see anything on the glass bottom boat that we had not already seen snorkeling in Oahu a few days earlier. This was the only somewhat disappointing excursion we took. DAY 5 & 6 KAUAI: My favorite part of the trip.On the first day in Kauai, we rented a car and went to Waimea canyon and the north shore. The canyon was spectacular and is a must see on Kauai. On the north shore I liked the Kailua lighthouse and the sea caves. On the second day, we took a tour with Wings Over Kauai which was the highlight of our trip. Though not an excursion through the cruise ship, this 65 minute tour is a less expensive option of seeing Kauai from the air. For $120 per person you get a great view of the island. I also like the fact that this is a family owned business and you feel more like friends than tourists with the husband/wife team that runs the tour. We ended our time in Kauai as the hip cruised past the Na Pali coastline so we got to see Kauai by land, air and sea. Definitely my favorite place in Hawaii. DISEMBARKATION: I have taken three cruises and this was the most organized, smoothly run disembarkation of the three I have taken. We were let off the ship at around 8:15 a.m., boarded our bus through Roberts ($7 trip to airport) by 8:30 a.m. and were at the airport by 9 a.m. in plenty of time for our 12:35 p.m. flight home.

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Overall, I have to say this was a great cruise. There were a couple of mishaps in regards to pre-boarding. Because we had the wedding on embarkation day before the cruise left we got to pre-board. The security staff and cruise staff seemed very confused by this. We were told several times we couldn't get our rooms or board. This caused myself (an already stressed out bride) to get annoyed. We did eventually get on and get our rooms. The wedding was simple, beautiful and I couldn't be happier with the staff! I have to agree with the other reviews that Pride of America is more like a floating hotel. We had a balcony stateroom, which made the room seem larger. I was very impressed with the design of the room there were storage compartments everywhere! The fitness room was very nice. I wish they had more times for classes. I really wanted to take yoga, but they only offered it at one odd time. We did take spin though, which was fun. We got off the ship at every port. For shore excursions, we did the Jungle Falls ziplining in Hilo and Kayaking in Kauai. While I loved both excursions, the kayaking is not to be missed. I really wish there were more options for entertainment. It was definitely geared for the 50+ crowd, but then again most of the cruisers were that age. We say the Aloha show and spent a couple of evenings in the piano bar. The show and the pianist were great. The specialty restaurants we went to were Jefferson's Bistro,East meets West and Lazy J steakhouse. Skip East Meets West. I really enjoyed Lazy J and had a filet that was to die for. My husband and father got other cuts of steak and were not impressed. Jefferson's Bistro offered escargot and you can't get that at any old place. We also spent a lot of time at Goldrush Saloon. My husband is a beer snob and he loved the Hawaiian beers offered. Had a great time! Will definitely be back for our anniversary in years to come!

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We just got back and I am still so excited about our trip. We traveled from Vancouver, Canada direct on WestJet, and that was okay, a little boring as about 1 hour out of Vancouver, the satellite TV stops working. You had to purchase your food as well, which surprised me on a 6 hour flight, but I have not flown much lately, so maybe they are all like that now. We had pre-booked Roberts shuttle bus to the pier, and that was great for $7 each. We didn't have to wait at all. Embarkation was very easy, leis and pictures, with some Hawaiian live music to listen to. Our cabins were not quite ready, so we went up to the pool deck for a drink. We had an outside stateroom for 4 (144 sq. feet) and found it plenty big enough for all of our stuff...one thing that made it easier was to actually keep the bottom bunks apart, so we had an aisle in the middle. The room was clean and the beds were very, very comfortable. There are no clocks in the rooms, other than on the phone, so you may want to bring one. The ship was not as tacky as I was worried it might be. It was fairly easy to find your way around, and we enjoyed time on the pool deck and in the various lounges. Drink prices were reasonable. We did some shows - Aloha Polynesia which we enjoyed a lot, and the comedian, who I thought was hilarious. We have seen better shows on Celebrity, but it's not really why we were on the ship anyway. They offer a good variety of things to choose from for all ages and tastes. The man who closed out the crew talent show was amazing, he sang Frank Sinatra so well! One annoying thing was I guess they don't heat the pool, and it was Thursday before it was easy to get into. Also, they never operated the gyroscope, and we never even saw the bungee trampoline, both things my kids were very interested in. We enjoyed attending some of the Hawaiian classes like lei making, and found the port talks very helpful. I also enjoyed the FABBA party very much. My kids choose to hang with us rather than do the kids activities, and as we never really adjusted to Hawaii time, they mostly slept through the evening ones, but all the kids we saw or talked to seemed to really enjoy them. As others have stated, the food was maybe not up to the level of other ships, but it was sure better than how we eat at home. The buffet had a nice selection and seemed clean and fresh. I didn't like the freestyle concept, as we tried to eat in the main dining room each night and never got the same waiter twice, and I missed that interaction. I hear that you can reserve the same table every night if you want, we weren't sure what we wanted to do at first, so reserved day by day until Wednesday, when we reserved the Liberty for the rest of the week. The hostess, Kiara, was great at helping us out, and knew my name and preferences after meeting me twice; she worked in the Cadillac Diner as well. The Liberty had a raspberry chocolate truffle cake that was to die for, as was the chocolate fudge brownie sundae in the Cadillac Diner, which we enjoyed going to. The Cadillac Diner was a little more laid back than the buffet, and everything we tried there was great. It is also open 24 hours, and was a great place to get comfort food like wings, mozza sticks or chicken tenders. The buffet closes for a while (I think between 3 and 5) and it took us a while to discover the Bar and Grill above the pool deck was open then, as was Cadillac. We didn't try any of the specialty restaurants that you had to pay extra for. I figured we had already paid. My kids discovered the free room service, and used that a lot when they craved some time alone. The passengers were a wide cross section of ages, from about 300 kids (including 100 teens) and up. Lots of families. They were about 1/3 American, 1/3 Canadian, then Japanese and Australia/New Zealand compete for 3rd place, followed by people from all over the world. Everyone we talked to was nice. We also found the crew very friendly. Only one surly guy, and he was having to flip burgers late at night and listen to the Karaoke next door, so we figured we could understand. We did hear from a few staff complaints about the amount of work, which kind of dragged me down a bit. Our first port was Maui, and you are in a very industrial area. There is not much to walk to or even cab to easily. However, one of the cruise director staff told us to go off the ship, turn left on the road, and left into the parking lot, across to the beach, then climb to the right along the back and there is a spot that the sea turtles love. Took 7 minutes to find it, wand was so magical to see about 25 sea turtles swimming around right there. We told many other people about it. They are protected, so you need to stay 10 m away from them. We also did Haleakala by sunset, which was awesome, booked through Roberts, as it was cheaper. If I had planned ahead, I would have brought some baggies and ordered sandwiches at lunch time to take for dinner. The second day we were to snorkel at Molokini crater (through NCL)and then to turtle arches. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate, so we had to go to one other location, Coconuts, but it was still a fun day. A humpback breached right near us, which was very cool. Maui has a good bus system, $2 for a day pass, and that can take you most places, so if you just want to travel around, I wouldn't bother booking the NCL transfers. Someone told us it coast them $39 to go to Lahaina and back and they could have saved $35 each. Hilo was raining, which we don't mind, but many people did. I guess the ship docks there so you can go see the volcanoes; maybe next time we will do that. Instead we took in an amazing free, authentic, hula show as part of the Merrie Monarch festival, and walked around downtown and back to the ship. Note - bus service is shoddy here, and there are few taxis. We were told we would have to wait an hour to get one. The shuttle to downtown stops running at 11, so we had to walk back. It took about 1 hour, which again, was fine for us, but if you can't walk that far, I would pay attention to the shuttle schedules. Kona was a tender port, which takes you right into the little village of Kailua. You can swim on the beaches, shop, tour around, etc, all within walking distance. Kauai also has some shops (not as many) and a beach that is about a 10 min walk from the ship, or the two little "malls" have free shuttles. We swam at the Marriott which was great, also they have surf boards and other rentals right there if you want a beach day. We did zip-lining and tubing the ditch (more like a canal), both through NCL and both an absolute riot. One member of our party had some health issues so wanted to be flexible about excursions, so four of our party members were able to hire a cab for 1 1/2 hours here (

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