Fantastic Hawaii Cruise
Pride of America Cruise Review to Hawaii
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 3
Helpful Votes: 158
7 Night Hawaii (Honolulu Roundtrip)
Sail date: January 12, 2019
Ship: Pride of America
Cabin type: Suite
Cabin number: 9500
Traveled as: Family (older children)
Reviewed: 5 years ago
Review summary
We did this cruise to see Hawaii. We disembarked at every port and did excursions. We saw lots of beautiful sights. We did not expect much from the ship and therefore were not disappointed. The best part of a Hawaiian cruise is seeing the Islands.Embarkation
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Food was much as expected except for Jefferson Bistro. The food at the bistro was substandard and service was awful. We were given our menus and then left alone for 30 minutes. Service was slow quality of the appetizer and main course similar to the main dining room. Dessert was awful. Ice cream had ice chips in it and profiteroles were stale. I would have expected the profiteroles to have a custard filling not poor quality ice cream. The meat at Moderno Churrascaria was over cooked and not as good as the meat I remember on the Norwegian Get Away. The salad bar was good.
The best meals we had were breakfast and lunch at Cagney's. Service was excellent and Food was delicious. The best desserts on board were the Cagney lunch desserts. Did not eat at Cagney's for dinner. East meets west was pretty good for me but my companions did not care for the food. Teppanyaki was typical Japanese steakhouse. I do not care for the format but my companions thought it was the best meal they had on board. I found it very noisy and difficult to converse with others in my group since we were all in a line around the grill. We had a group of 6 and were seated with 5 other couples. I think my local Japanese grill has better food but we rarely go there because we don't like the format. However we did go on this cruise expecting a great food experience. It met our needs.
Onboard Activities
We did not have much time to spend on the ship since we had excursions every day but one. That day we were exhausted by the 3 days excursions prior to the cruise so we basically just chilled. We went into the hot tub that day but the water was tepid. A wine and chocolate pairing was fun.
Entertainment
The Hawaiian performers were great! the only other show I attended was the singing group. They had done a acapella sample the night before as a sample and I love acapella music. Their actual performance was very loud with the ship's band accompanying them and I did not enjoy it. However the rest of the audience were very enthusiastic. Had I known it was not acapella I would not have attended. My husband went to the magician show and he liked it. Occasionally as we were going to dinner we heard the piano player. I would have liked to listen to him but his performances were not during a time we could listen to him. The ship is too small to have a dedicated piano bar.
Service and Staff
This would have been 5 stars except for the extremely substandard service at Jefferson Bistro. We were there when very few tables were occupied and service was awful.
Ship Quality
The ship was clean. I missed the extras in the bathrooms that similar sized Holland American ships have. Our cabin The deluxe 2 bedroom suite had a lot of space but it was very poorly utilized. I disliked the fact that our hanging clothes were in a "dressing room" that had only curtains for privacy. The main drawers for clothes were not in that space. and our hanging clothes were out in the open. There was no under bed storage and the night stands did not have drawers. There were plenty of drawers but they wer all located in the "hallway" to the cabin door. The desk was very small and we had no table to sit at if we wanted to have a room service meal. The dressing room had a makeup table that was worthless
Cabin / Stateroom
The cabin is large and a real 2 bedroom. The 2nd bedroom has two twin beds and ample storage. The 2nd bathroom is compact but not horrible. The Mbath has a tub but I needed a step stool to climb into it. The butler supplied the step stool on request. Very little shelving near the sink however there was a dressing table in the closet with ample shelves. Never found the light for the dressing table. I did not like that the closet was open to the cabin. There was ample storage in the suite but not necessarily in convenient places. There was no table and chairs for us to eat room service meals. For a cabin of this caliber I would have expected a dining table. Balcony was great for viewing the north shore of Kauai. It easily fit the 5 people that gathered to see us approach the island. The cabin was very clean and the bed was confortable. The pillows were feather filled and not as comfortable as I would have liked but also not horrible.
Ship tip
Do not sail with expectations that it would meet the the standards of newer NCL ships
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Ports of call
Port was near our pre excursion hotel. We did 4 excursions on Oahu. The Polynesian culture center was great but our tour guide rushed us through all the shows so we did not have a chance to explore the exhibits. Pearl harbor was great, Unfortunately the Arizona memorial was closed due to repairs. We did see the Bowfin sub and the Missouri. We did two North shore excursions. The precruise one included the Buddhist temple, Parker Ranch and the Dole plantation (with train ride). The post cruise one had the Buddhist temple, the Dole plantation rest stop (no train tour) and the macadamian nut farm. The 2nd excursion filled our time until we could check in at the airport.
The first day at this port we chilled out after 3 days of extra long excursions. The 2nd day i took an excursion around the island, visited rainbow falls and the needle. My companions went scuba diving (private excursion) and snorkeling. Both parties saw whales.
My favorite excursion went to see the Allerton Gardens.
We also did the luau with mansion tour. The show was great. Food was good. Mansion is basically a tourist trap of shops.
Our balcony was on the bow of the ship so we had 1st rate seats to view the Napali coast.
Disembarkation
Because we were going on an excursion, we disembarked rapidly, gathered our luggage and stowed it on the bus.