7 day cruise of the Hawaiian Islands
Pride of America Cruise Review to Hawaii
7 Night Hawaii (Honolulu Roundtrip)
Sail date: December 12, 2015
Ship: Pride of America
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 10140
Traveled as: Singles/Friends
Reviewed: 8 years ago
Review summary
This is my 6th NCL cruise, and I enjoyed the week, that visited 4 main islands in Hawaii. The balcony stateroom was fine - and we had (there were 2 of us) had plenty of room. I generally don't spend a lot of time in my cabin, as I am up and out either on the back of the ship, or on a shore excursion. I enjoy the food on the NCL ships, and the buffets work well for me, in particular due to a busy schedule. I booked my shore excursions for us through NCL directly. I enjoyed all of them, but wanted to say one thing about the luau that occurs on Thursday nights, during the cruise, on land. We were 2 people, so I didn't book a table at the event, because the tickets said only when groups were 10+ should you do that. But what happened was that we were seated at an "over flow" table, way in the back, and with several kids, who were hyped up on sugar. I didn't feel the view was very good, and the children were distracting. The food was average Chinese buffet, frankly. What I should have done was to book a table ahead of time, regardless of the size of my party, or attended a Luau in Honolulu before the cruise. So, if you go on this cruise, and book the luau, on land with NCL, be sure to book a table as soon as you are on board at the beginning of the cruise. Otherwise the excursions were all good, and we saw a tremendous amount of the islands in a week. Also, due to the American registry, 75% of the employees have to be US residents/citizens. So you are supporting Americans in booking this cruise. NCL has recently merged with Oceania, so let's hope the cost of the island cruise doesn't go up tremendously. We had a great time, felt the ship was fine (although it gets some renovation in Feb. of 2016 in SF), and would recommend this highly. Just book your luau table asap once you are on board. Mahalo & Aloha!
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Due to the shore excursion schedule eating at the buffet was a better fit for us. I also like to see the mainstage shows, so being able to have a faster dinner than in a formal dining situation, helped, as that first show is at 7 PM. I like mid-ship cabins, as they are closer to main elevators.