Nice cruise/Limited Entertainment
Pride of America Cruise Review
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 8
7 Night Hawaii (Honolulu Roundtrip)
Sail date: January 07, 2023
Ship: Pride of America
Cabin type: Oceanview
Cabin number: 7586
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 1 year ago
Review summary
Snorkeling at Molokini Crater was the highlight of our trip.Embarkation
It took longer than usual for the cabins to be ready. My hunch is it’s a staffing problem.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
The Skyline restaurant on Deck 5 was excellent, in my opinion. The appetizers entrees and desserts were delicious. I would have appreciated more salmon selections. I believe I only saw salmon offered one time. The specialty restaurant, Hamilton, was good, as well, but pretty much the same quality as the Skyline. In fact, the onion soup was the same.
I think the buffet restaurant on Deck 11 was lacking in quality-food just did not seem hot enough. The pizza was just okay, it could be cooked longer to be crispy.
Breakfasts there were fine, but again, the eggs and bacon never seemed to be hot enough. The waffles were good, especially with the strawberry compote
Onboard Activities
The pools were crowded so we did not use them much, although we did use the jacuzzi a couple of times and they were very relaxing. One of the jacuzzis was closed pretty much all week, and never reopened.
Entertainment
We were so disappointed that there was only one stage show in the theater the entire week. The show was a Polynesian Dance group and musicians. They performed on night one and they were excellent! The remainder of the week the staff showed movies in the theater-Shrek, Frozen and Avenger movies. I’ve never been on a cruise where there wasn’t nightly entertainment in the theater.
There was, however, a singer/pianist named, WT Greer, that performed nightly in Pink’s Champagne Bar. He was absolutely sensational! I’m not sure he’s continuing, however, because he mentioned it was his last night of the cruise.
Service and Staff
Some staff were great. We had several head-servers and assistant-servers in the main dining room on deck five, that were truly awesome. We also had three or four servers who were a bit grumpy, like they were doing us a favor. There were two excellent employees at the wine and beer bar on the deck eleven dining room. The woman there was so kind as to keep explaining the confusing Hawaii Beverage Package.
Our room steward never introduced himself the entire week as other room stewards have done in the past and there were some minor things that he neglected to do.
Ship Quality
I kept noticing that the stairway carpet never seemed to be vacuumed, but the carpet in the hallways to the cabins were very clean. Other than that the ship seemed clean and well-maintained.
Cabin / Stateroom
Ship tip
The snorkeling adventure to Molokini Crater in Maui was awesome!
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
We used public transportation on the first day in Maui and we traveled to Lahaina to shop and go to Emily’s Beach. It was a good experience. The bus only cost us $8.00 for two people for a day pass. The second day in Maui, we took an official ship’s excursion- it was the Snorkel Adventure to Molokini Crater. It was truly an awesome and unforgettable experience!
We took a free shuttle to Richardson’s Beach and Carl Smith Beach. Both beaches were beautiful and we were able to see turtles at a distance.
We enjoyed Kona. It was nice that there was shopping that was close-by and that there wasn’t quite as much walking as the other ports. We rented an umbrella and chairs and enjoyed swimming at the little beach right by the waterfront. Kona is a charming little town.
We rented a car and went on an excursion that was not an official ship’s excursion. It was Backcountry Adventures inner-tubing. This was so fun and not to be missed the next time you visit Kauai. It was very exciting- inner-tubing along a vast aqueduct system and through tunnels (with guides) located in a former sugar plantation.
We also visited Waimea Canyon and went up as far as Kalalau Lookout. The view was amazing-looking out over the Na’pali Coast.
Simply amazing! We enjoyed the fact that the Captain took his time taking the ship along the Na’Pali coast. What a great job he did turning the boat ever so slowly and allowing the passengers to observe whales along the way.
Disembarkation
The disembarkation process was very crowded and there was a very long line to disembark. We were not in a hurry, though, and we simply waited, so it was not an inconvenience. Picking up our luggage went very smoothly since we were in a later group to disembark.
I will say, in regards to lines, that there was a huge line to exit the ship for excursions at Kona. They had to tender passengers off of the ship (which we were aware of) and the line took up two floors and we waited over 50 minutes to exit the ship.
I think if the staff had been informing the passengers about the wait time and what the issue was, it would have made it easier to wait.