Hawaii Cruise Reviews

Before booking this cruise we had read that this is slightly smaller ship than the mega ships, that it had been redecorated but could use it again. The freestyling dining may not be for everyone and the food could be better. We were willing to accept some minor inconviences after having sailed on ships that were excellent in most of these areas ( one cruise line which had a modified freestyling dinning which was fine), but we did not expect it to be as disappointing as it was. The service in the 2 main dining rooms was most unsatifactory. More times then not, we had to wait in line for breakfast, lunch and dinner and then after waiting were given a pager to hold on to and told it would be another 20-30 minutes. ( The first time we received as pager we were told it worked in all areas of the ship-just not the staterooms. We went to a show and after 40 min returned to the DR when we had not gotten paged. They said- "Oh we were wondering what happened, we paged you" When we said it had not worked, the other staff person said it did not work in the showroom.) Sometimes we could see many empty tables in the dining room so they must not had enough wait staff and/or cook staff. Usually at all meals we had to wait a long time for each of our courses and after the main entree dishes were cleared we always waited 20-30 min before receiving our desserts. At one breakfast after we were seated we waited a good 15 min and no one came to fill our water glasses or offer us coffee, even though we could see the wait staff (6-8 talking among themselves when they should have been waiting on the passengers). We decided to get up and leave and at that time, the restaurant manager came and offer apologies. There were 3 other restaurants on board that required reservations and a cover charge ($10-15 pp). There the food was excellent when in the 2 main dining rooms it was often not very tasty. There was also a buffett on the top deck with indoor and outdoor seating. There was two different entrances and lines but different foods served on each line, so you had to stand in line with one and then if you wanted something on the other side you had to go and stand in another line. They did not provide any trays so once you received your plate and silverware, you had to find a table, set your food down and then stand in another line for drinks. Staterooms were small but acceptable except if beds put together to make a king, the person on one side had to actually climb over the end of the bed to get to the head of the bed. The bathrooms were find- in fact the shower was larger than most. Decor in the rooms and elsewhere was in the Aloha theme but very worn such as the carpet, holes in the walls. They had few activities such as exercise classes - only one yoga class and a few dance classes- about one every other day. Bingo was outside by the pool but wind was blowing so you could only hold on to once card at a time. Seminar on whales was cancelled twice. We had one unexcpected day at sea when we were not able to dock at Hilo due to high winds. They said they would add activities but other than music on deck, one bingo game and several announcements about the shopping you could do or the art auction on board, I really did not see much addition. Many little things could have been better. if you asked for mustard at the buffet at dinner time, we were told it was not available, but yet it was set out at lunch time. Asked for granola one morning when it usually was available but told they were all out. It showed up the next day and we had not docked anywhere.

Great! We loved it.

This was our first cruise, and we were not disappointed. The food was wonderful. The staff were wonderful. It's something we hope to do again in the future.

I was very happy with the ship, the crew and the venues available. The staff was polite and helpful, and the shore excursions were great. My only disenchantment came with dealing with Norwegians direct "help" line. The particular assistant I got (in a call prior to my cruise) was not only abrupt and somewhat rude, but she misinformed me as to when I could actually board the ship. If I had waited until 4 pm--the time she advised would be the earliest time I could board-- it would have been very stressful. The cruise itself was very enjoyable.

I would discourage anyone from using Princess cruiseline. The ship was adequate but not up to the standards of other cruiselines.

All areas of the ship that we went to were clean and in good repair. We were surprised at the size of the bathroom in our cabin -much bigger than we expected. We had three in our cabin and there was enough room. We enjoyed the entertainment at the pool side. We had a hard time getting into the resturants. Some days we gave up and went to the buffet. The eating area around the buffet was very noisy. We took our meals out to the pool area to eat. When we did get into the resturants, the service was very slow. One time we waited over 30 minutes between coarses! The only meal I had that was excellent was at the Tex-Mex resturant. All others were ok. We returned to our cabin several times late in the afternoon and it was not cleaned -beds not made and no clean towels. I had no control on tipping seeing the cruiseline added $10 per day per person. I believe in tipping according to the service. Several times I thought the service was bad enough that I wouldn't have given a tip. Our cabin was at the very front of the ship. It was very noisy at night when we were sailing. The noise from the "crew only" area next to our cabin woke me up every night. Lots of banging and clanging.

The cruise was "bare bones" in comparison to every other cruise I have taken. The ship was adequate, and the staff was fair. The staff seemed really insensitive to the needs of disabled passengers.

We had very high expectations based upon our prior experience with NCL. Unfortunately this cruise fell short of our expecations.

Hawaii is a Paradise, but not one that can be done very well via a cruise ship. Maybe that is why Pride of Hawaii is out of there at the end of February. What a joke!! Yes, you did get to go to all of the islands, however, only 1 of the ports, which was a tender in Kona, Big Island, was even remotely tourist related. The others were in REMOTE areas, all of which were in old sugar cane factories that are VERY run down and rather seedy characters are living, sometimes as homeless near the ports. For example, the beautiful island of Maui.... the only thing close is Walmart and a park that has a beach, However, the beach is home to several homeless and not exactly meeting our expectations. The tourist areas are over 40 miles away, and unless you spend big cash on shore excursions for EACH port, you will see nothing but some cheap t-shirt shops in run down areas. Not exactly what you would expect to be visiting!!

Our Best cruise ever

The ship was beautiful in decor and very up-to-date.

Great Ship and Crew

The ship was well designed and kept immaculate. We liked our room and it was not spendy.

We found the staff excellent. The sight seeing from the ship was an unexpected plus. We got our best whale sighting in years right from the ship

We have sailing on Pride of Aloha for two previous years with rave reviews. We even asked 4 friends to join us this year because we expected the same excellent service and food IN 2008....... BIG MISTAKE. Food quality and choices were poor this time. The ship was short staffed by 300 people according to one employee. It showed too. They couldn't keep enough plates, silverware, food and cleanup crews on hand. We waited 2-1/2 hrs in the dining room for our meal at one point, we seldom found a cleaned table in the buffet area and we discovered that the same food was served in the dining room and in the buttet lines. It was obvious that left overs were served on many occasions and we finally ended up eating off the ship at McDonalds rather than eating on board. We were also double billed for drinks on board and we are still trying to resolve these issues..... SUCH A DISAPPOINTMENT. We love the Hawiian Islands and We love the convenience of cruising to all the ports. Therefore, We are very unhappy to say that we will never use NCL again.

Over all the ship was good, however, this was not the best cruise we have been on.

When booking with we were given the impression that if we "booked today" we had a very good chance of an upgrade in a room from the basic to maybe one with a port hole or whatever. Well we didn't get an upgrade so felt disappointed and then also later realized because the ship was so full that probably it always sells out that time of year and then thought that the sales agent probably knew that we wouldn't get an upgrade but "O well ... it confirmed the reservation" ie: a sale

The Shore Excursions was the only good thing.

My girlfriend Nic and I are in our 20s and 30s and we booked this vacation to experience Hawaii and adventure. I had two major concerns about this trip: #1 I was seasick the entire time on my last cruise and #2 the service from the crew. Our plan was to use the ship as a hotel and early breakfast and dinner. What we got was so much more. We have been on many vacations such as Cayman, Paris, Caribbean, etc. and this trip was one of the best ever. I almost cancelled this trip because of the negative reviews on this and other websites. Thank goodness I did not. I have a theory that either NCL has read these reviews and made massive changes or some people are always miserable and negative even in paradise. As for being seasick, it did not happen - I wore the patch behind my ear (you need a prescription) and the only side effect was dry mouth within the first few hours of wearing it. We ordered the Honeymoon package for $79 even though we were not married yet. We received 1 night free at Le Bistro and choice of wine, champagne and chocolate covered strawberries the first night, 5X7 photo, Champagne and Cake party on Thursday night with other quests. The Easy Fly program for $20 each worked out well for us too. We did our laundry on the ship for $1 per load (bring quarters) on decks 5, 9 and 10. I only saw the comedy show and it was very funny. I heard the magic show and talent show were also good. It was well worth the money. I wish I could have had all my friends and family experience this truly awesome vacation. My best advice is forget all the negative reviews you read on this site (those people are miserable) and you will have an amazing time with your friends or family. Aloha.

A nice ship, but don't go in with high expectations (ie like that of foreign flagged ships). While we had heard on other forums horror stories on almost every aspect of the POH, we experienced none of it. We had a mostly efficient crew. The ship was well maintained.