Hawaii Cruise Reviews

The ship has an American registry so there is no casino. The gratuities are included in your tab so the service is below average. It looked a bit dirty especially the rooms. The food was poor. Although it is freestyle cruising the dining rooms and buffets always had long lines. They were not very organized.

The ship was on schedule and the crew was always curteous . We appreciated the effort to show the best viewt of the islands from the sea. The food in genderal was of good quality. The shows were nice but poor in resources. The cabins are not the cleanest and the beds are unconfortable. There was favoritsm and no clear rules in the restaurant reservations .

I though the service was average or below compared to other cruises I have taken. You always saw the room attendants in the hallways instead of in the rooms

Pride of Aloha and NCL for the matter was horrible. I would never recommend anyone cruising this ship or cruise line. Our a/c was out the whole entire week. NCL claimed to be flying specialist in to fix some of the rooms a/c (about 250 rooms); however, nothing ever got fixed. Coincidently, on the first day of the cruise, another person on the ship found a hidden note in one of the life jackets claiming that the a/c does not work and it will never work, even though they say it will. In fact, for one day, the whole entire ship did not have a/c. The food was horrible. It all tasted the same...similar to Dennys. Also, Freestyle cruising was horrible. We often waited awhile to be seated. For the most part, customer service was bad too. Our room was presented to us dirty. This ship is a little older and you can tell. Overall, their was absolutely NOTHING good about this ship or cruise line. Most importantly, do not buy excurisons from the ship. They are sold cheaper through other vendors when you get there. Also, do not take the first taxi you see to a destination. Ask a native there and they will direct you to a much cheaper way of trasportation. PLEASE LISTEN: especially if you are newlyweds....DO NOT CRUISE PRIDE OF ALOHA OR NCL.......you will be very disappointed....GUARANTEED!

This ship did not "Wow" me. It was decorated nicely, but not great. The only thing great about the Norwegian cruise line is the freestyle cruising. The "all American" help was only a plus as far as language, but not anything else. I would not cruise on this line again to Hawaii.

I was very disappointed. I cruised twice on the American Hawaii Cruise Lines, and one other time on Norweigian. This cruise took place over Memorial Day, and being on an American ship, we figured they would really do special things for Memorial Day. Wrong.....They did absolutely nothing special. How unpatriotic can people be???? Staff was okay but not great. There are advantages that we have now realized when cruise lines use personnel from all over the world. They work hard for their money and nothing is too much trouble. Americans are used to doing bare minimum and it shows.

The Pride of Aloha was a clean ship with a crew that generally seems to be working hard at what they are doing, they just don't do it as well as others. We'd read a number of poor reviews before we went so our expectations were somewhat lower than for the type of service for our previous cruises. It was about as we expected.

As noted above, the shore excursions were grossly over priced. For example, --Cloud Forest Botanica l Walk. $82.29 ! ! ! There was a short drive up the mountain, then a mile and a half walk, then a stop at a coffee plantation where we just heard a short lecture, and had an opportunity to buy coffee (whoopee). $20 would have been reasonable. And the Grand Circle Island tour - $93.19 ! I could have hopped on a bus for $20 and had lunch for $20 - total - $40.

The ship was immaculate, the staff was everywhere & incredibly helpful & gracious. The restaurants were all so elegant & the food was very delicious & beautifully presented. I truly felt like I was catered to hand & foot. All the time on ship I kept telling myself that w would not wait very long to take this same cruise again!!

Service was less than expected. Most but not all crew were less than friendly. We never saw our stewart. Most days at the buffett we had to clear our own dishes to be able to sit to eat. We have been on 2 other cruises and this cruise felt as if we were not cared for. We were traveling as part of 10 person party and everyone had the same experience. Some days we didn't have our towel replaced in our rooms. The bar was not restocked until the last day. Where there was a cover charge for a Restruant the food was excellent and the service was better. The freestyling for dinner was not for us. Our reservations were usually during show times and we only saw 2 shows the whole trip. It seemed that everytime we turned around there was an extra charge for something. I visited the spa and there was an automatic 15% charge attached and then asked for tip besides. The ship was huge but the decor was less than impressive as we have felt on other cruises.

the ship is beautiful and well kept. The services are very poor because of the service charges instead of the tiping system. The crew is polite and the entertainment is as good as any I've seen.

The ship was old and needs to be upgraded. Staff for most part was very nice. This is the second time in a row that I have had a problem with an NCL cruise. Will not cruise with them again. Freestyle crusing is a catchy advertising slogan but cruise is not really freestyle. You don't have the opportunity to eat when you want (unless you want to wait for up to an hour at a main dining room). The activity schedule is poor. Some of the best activites and entertainment scheduled at exact same time.

Overall it was so so. The food on the ship is not very good. If you want good food you have to pay extra and go to a cover charge restaurant. The ship is old and it shows. The walls are thin between the cabins. You can hear everything.

the ship was not the newest but clean and comfortable. The food was excellent. The staff was nice and friendly. The cruise itself was great. We saw a lot and enjoyed.

nice ship but free style isn't all its cracked up to be. had to make reservations days ahead or you couldn't get in to some resturants or had to dine late like 9 or 9:30

This was our first cruise to the Hawaiian Islands and on NCL Pride of America. The ship was beautiful, very clean, had plenty of restaurants and bars. The entertainment was not the best, except for a team of 2 comedians, who were hilarious and used crowd participation. We enjoyed the Freestyle Dining and the speciality restaurants were a positive option. There is an additional service charge for the speciality restaurants, however, after 8:30 pm, the service charge is 2 for 1. We had 1 negative experience with the speciality restaurants, "Little Italy", food was fair and service was awful. The itinerary was great and Hawaii is breathtaking. Shore excursions were plentiful; we were in Maui for 2 days, so we rented a car--it is a nice option, you can do it at your own pace and not be rushed. In Kona, snorkeling was amazing, highly recommended. When the ship was leaving was leaving Kauai (our last day), we were able to see the breathtaking Na Pali coastline and the ship's captain turned the ship around so that both sides of the ship could view it. We stayed in a family suite, in the aft section of the ship. The room was large, a little crowded for 4 people, but our balcony was almost as large as our room. It wrapped around the side of the ship--perfect for relaxing after shore excursions or a day at the pool. I highly recommend the Pride of America--we realy enjoyed it.

The ship was just magnificent. It was a beautiful and very clean ship. The staff was fantastic, and the best part was the ability to meet the captain.

This is a great way to see a lot of Hawaii in one week. This being our first trip to Hawaii, it was exactly what we wanted. If you are used to luxurious crusies, you might be disappointed. I would compare this cruise to staying at a Holiday Inn and eating at Steak and Ale. Reasonably priced and good quality. This is not the Ritz Carlton! But, who cares. You need a floating hotel and you get off at a new port at 8:00 a.m. and get back on at 5:00 and sail to a new port. You really don't even need a balcony because you are only at sea during the day one time. I would do it again in a minute. My father-in-law wantged to stay on and go around one more time!

The staff is overworked with 9 to 12 hour shifts per day without any days off for long stretches. We heard something about four month contracts and one fellow said he had to stay on the ship when he finally got a day off just to catch up with his laundry. The ship is overcrowded and pushy without enough seating and we heard "out of" all the time involving food items, cups, eating utensils, pool towels, etc. We booked several excursions through NCL, but when I booked a couple of more reasonably priced excursions through Roberts, two different NCL employees told me that they "didn't know" where the Roberts bus pulled up when it later pulled up in their plain sight. I feel like that the problem with NCL is upper level management which is so greedy that they will do themselves in. They should put their staff on reasonable shifts, not instruct them to lie and should not overbook the ship so that it is too crowded and constantly out of necessary items. They didn't even have quality coffee or tea, but weak or instant tasting stuff which, of course, they ran "out of" often. My daughter was ready to get off of the ship the third day, and unfortunately, my husband and I felt the same way. The itinerary is beautiful, but the cruise was not relaxing. Also, if you don't want to be trapped on a bus for five hours, don't book the Waimea Canyon excursion. There was very little getting out involved on that one. We cruised on Princess once before and we enjoyed the ship as much as the itinerary and excursions. However, on Pride of Aloha, we didn't breathe easy until we got off.

i expected a lesser cruise when booking our hawaii trip on norwegein but was pleasantly surprised. fun, fun fun. the speciality restaurants (japanese, steakhouse) were really good and worth the surcharge. main dining hall plagued by "freestyle" as quality suffered...food just ok despite good-looking dining hall. waitstaff overwhelmed.. the all-american (generally young) staff was surprisingly helpful and full of quality ideas and funny anecdotes. we thought theatre entertainment was a liitle cheesey.