VERY DISAPPOINTED!
Pride of America Cruise Review to Hawaii
Contributor Level:
Deck Hand
Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 2
7 Night Hawaii (Honolulu Roundtrip)
Sail date: December 02, 2023
Ship: Pride of America
Cabin number: 4000
Traveled as: Family (older children)
Reviewed: 11 months ago
Review summary
We are a family experienced in cruising. Since we reside in Fl we are frequently taking cruises ( 5-6 times a year) on any vacation / school break opportunity. All our previous cruises destinations were out of the USA: Mexico, all parts of Caribbean, Central America, Panama, etc. It's been our dream to visit Hawaii for years, and we finally booked this trip without reading any reviews or having anyone we know taken this cruise before. We assumed that for $5,600 for one interior cabin for 4 we would be amazed by the ship, scenery, entertainment, etc. Unfortunately, we have to admit that out of 30+ cruises we previously went to, this was by far our least favorite. First of all, we never been serviced by Americans on a cruise before. Usually cruise entire crew consist of foreigns from all parts of the world. It's very sad to admit that our observations made us conclude that the overpriced tag we paid for this cruise is only due to the simple fact that an American citizen crew is employed ( 90% of their crew), not foreigns. I am glad to support fellow Americans IF service provided would worth it, but unfortunately it's zero stars all across all categories! First: they don't want to work and they don't mind to demonstrate you their attitude! Several times beverage stations ran out of coffee mugs during busy breakfast times in buffets. Three workers would be standing right near the station chatting with each other. I would bring to their attention that the station has no mugs on which one out of three turn her head to me just to say: " Hey, just go all the way straight, pass the food station to opposite wall and grab a mug from that station!" and continue her conversation with other two coworkers! It happened to me twice! Also, the white coffee mugs are all DIRTY!!! I would turn 4-5 mugs before find one not spotless, but more clean than others before I can grab a hot tea! Same situation with the wine glasses in restaurants. After being seated, I ordered wine but then realized that out of 4 glasses on our table just one was clean. The others had even previous customer's lipstick still on! So disgusting! If you want more bread while dining, assistants waiters would bring you but they would make it obvious they are being bothered with your request. The crew members don't cover their endless tattoos on all visible body parts ( I've never seen this on other cruises before!): hands, necks, even fingers, and proud to demonstrate their sexual orientation or tell the customers stories about their personal life, overtime pay ( which obviously paid by us, customers) or complaint on their managers ( those stories I've heard of myself while dining in the buffets and restaurants). This was very unprofessional to say at least! Also, I am not trying to be rude, but just sharing a real experience: don't expect to be serviced fast if most crew members are overweight and barely moving their feet plus talking too much instead of working. Entertainment was a HUGE JOKE!!! What they call an "evening show" is nothing what we've seen on all other cruises ( even Margaritaville out of WPB port which is the least expensive type of cruise ever) where gymnasts performing their acrobatic skills, where dancers and singers really giving you a WOW type of performance with cute outfits and beautiful music, decorations, special effects, even ice skating. Pride of America call a "show" a boring 45 minutes singing of unknown to most people on board type of songs by 4 young men. Only one out of four actually had a pleasant voice and a pleasant appearance. Then other two nights were comedy shows ( both 45 min: one adult only, one family friendly). I have nothing bad to say about this part. Orlando knows how to make people laugh and he has a nice personality, but " an evening show" should be more than that! The band performing outside: I would rather seat in silence than hearing this absolutely disturbing voice of a red haired lady who was "singing". It was THAT bad, that I couldn't tolerate her high pitch and her "OOOOH", "AAAAH". The food: overall it was Ok, not great like elsewhere such as Disney cruise, celebrity, Royal Caribbean. I can't comment on any lunches, since we missed all of them being on the islands, but the breakfasts were absolutely the same every day and they ran out of dry apricots and raw nuts pretty much on day 3. There was no smoked salmon we saw on absolutely every cruise, even least expensive ones, there were no rye or dark bread at all, no fresh juices either. Fruits ( other than pineapples) were really bad, and actually made me sick the 2nd day, so I never touched them again. The GYM / SPA is another disappointment! They were offering a small claustrophobic type of sauna / steam room without any single window for $100 extra plus 20% service fee per person. There were no free gym classes! They wanted $20 for each 45 min gym class, even a simple stretch class. Most cruises we went to had access to saunas with windows overlooking the sea complimentary, and also offered free zumba, yoga, kickboxing classes. The only gym classes I recall were for extra charge elsewhere were spin ( cycle) classes. Announcements: it could be better at least. We ran into a problem that assuming it's hot outside we went to visit a volcanoes, but did not think of packing any warm jackets. It's our first time going to this region, but not the first time for the crew, so they should had a courtesy to warn customers that it would be extremely windy, and the temperature would drop to 49F from 70F by the sea. Huge difference, so we wasted our trip to the volcanoes, as we only had sleeveless shirts on. After just a few steps we wanted to ran back to the car to warm up. The room service was like on other cruises, which was to our satisfaction ( I think because we got lucky and a Philippino or an Indonesian looking guy was servicing us), but we went thru other floors and saw plates, towels, glasses and random objects sitting outside of the rooms. The tours offered on a cruise were extremely overpriced. There was nothing below $110 + tax per person, so for the family of 4 you are immediately looking to spend almost $500 just for one little tour ( or over a $1,000 for nicer tours), so we did not use cruise tours. We rented cars on all islands and went on exploring things on our own. Also, we found out on the 3rd island that there was a free shuttle from port to airport, which would be nice if someone on the ship would announced that. All car rental places were based inside of the airports, so we always took Uber there without knowing. The medical center. My son was complaining at sore throat, so I wanted to come to get him tested for strep, but the medical office hours were 9 am to 6pm! We couldn't wait, as being from the eastern time zone, we were leaving ship by 8 am the latest and then at 6pm we were still dining, so this was very inconvenient. Also, just FYI there are no complimentary "office visits" like elsewhere. if you step your foot inside the medical center ( even if you just having a headache and need an aspirin) you are subject to $149 office visit charge. All testing, medication are separate charge. I still would't mind paying if they had extended evening hours. In conclusion: NEVER AGAIN, and won't recommend this to anyone! For a fraction of the price we paid to pride of America, you can go to the same 7 nights cruise on a brand new ship ( built in 2021) of Celebrity cruise line out of Ft Lauderdale or Miami and have absolutely amazing experience with 5 stars service all the way! Don't waste your money on this one! It's so sad it's called Pride of America, as there was absolutely nothing to be proud of!Embarkation
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Onboard Activities
Entertainment
Children's Programs
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ship tip
Don't go to this cruise, t doesn't worth the money
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
Disembarkation
16 Comments
ciprian 10 months ago
We sailed on Pride of America & had a fabulous time, staff were fab, did our homework on stops, hired cars & saw so much of the Hawaiian islands.
It’s an older ship but with a lovely, easy layout.
We are seasoned cruisers with many other cruise lines under our belts & would not hesitate in booking this ship again.
HarryMess 11 months ago
For those that may not know, the pride of America is a U.S. flagged ship. This allows the ship to stay in Hawaii and do Hawaiian only ports of call. If it were a foreign flagged ship, it would have to include a stop at a minimum of one foreign port like Ensenada (or Vancouver, BC on Alaskan itineraries). By staying in Hawaii, the pride has the most port intensive and Hawaiian encompassing itinerary of any Hawaiian cruise. The downsides are U.S. tax and employment laws and the fact that they cannot use casino revenue to offset operating costs. In short, if you want to experience the most time in Hawaii, there’s no better opportunity but if you’re looking for the best cruise value or experience, look elsewhere.
1960cruiser 11 months ago
I wasn't going to read that overly long review which was probably just full of petty complaints. You chose that cruise and if you put extra time in to do research, you would have realized that is a higher price cruise due to being an American ship, rather than a foreign flagged one.
PaulzyJC 11 months ago
This whole statement makes no sense: "The medical center. My son was complaining at sore throat, so I wanted to come to get him tested for strep, but the medical office hours were 9 am to 6pm! We couldn't wait, as being from the eastern time zone, we were leaving ship by 8 am the latest and then at 6pm we were still dining, so this was very inconvenient. Also, just FYI there are no complimentary"
PaulzyJC 11 months ago
I'll just add that if you're going to visit a new part of the world, do your due diligence to check the weather and the type of climate so that you have the responsibility of bringing the proper clothes. Don't expect the cruise line is going to do that for you. Also having sailed on NCL before, it's been my experience that they actually display the weather in the daily log, on the television set in your stateroom, or in other parts of the ship.