Pride of America Cruise Reviews - Reviews

The cruise was great in general. The locations were awesome and the ship was outstanding for the most part.

Excursions: We took seven excursions and were pleased with all of them. Yes, some would be boring to a 25 year old daredevil, but for my money...excellent. The Zodiac boat and snorkeling was my favorite.

Entertainment: The entertainment was great and included the following for the two of us: Several shows in the main theatre (magician, music, variety) participation in the Not so Newlywed Game and Battle of the Sexes, food prep demonstrations, napkin and towel folding, bingo, several trivia games, game room, poolside activities, and others that I can't remember. Participate and you will have a blast. Sit around and wait to be entertained...you won't.

Room: The room was 132 square feet so there is no point in mentioning that the room was small. However, the room was spotless and the furnishings were up to date and in great repair. Our cabin steward, Kurt, was fantastic.

Food: The food in the Aloha Café was great (buffet) and the chef's would prepare many dishes to order the way you requested (pasta, eggs) and much of the food was prepared in front of you at the stations. I don't rate the Aloha great because of quantity, but it really was good. The Cadillac Diner was also great with perfect omelets, bacon, and wings. Remember, this is a diner and not a wing restaurant, so, they have hot and mild...but excellent wings. Liberty, East Meets West, and Skyline were all good with great service. The food was hot and came out in a timely manner. Moderno's on the other hand didn't impress us. Yes, we got a ton of meat, but the flavor profiles and some textures didn't sit well with us. It could be that we were never hungry enough to appreciate the plate of meat.

Cruise director and staff: Always present and available.

Take the cruise. Get out and participate. Then, you too will rate it a five star.

Overall experience was good.  Food was very good.  Didn't find the staff all that friendly or helpful as a whole - several didn't seem to be enjoying their work.  The ship seemed a little crowded for the spaces available.  We had great weather for our cruise which helped make the experience that much better.

We took this same cruise 6 yrs ago for 30th anaversary. Our son was getting married in Hawaii so we extended trip by repeating cruise. It was every bit as great as the first time.

Very good experience.  Entertainment very good.  Did not like cabin in fwd section of ship, as it made the cruise very rocky at night.  Also, the food could have been lots better.

We had some difficult moments on this cruise. Our room steward told us on check in day this was his last day. On Sunday no one came to our room to bring clean towels and clean our room.  We ate in the Italian Restaurant and waited forever for our food and their was nothing special about the food.  The food in the Liberty dining room was just okay.  We felt that the cruise line was trying to sell the specialty restaurants to make money.  We were very disappointed in the quality of service and food on this ship.  We have cruised 12 other times and the service and food on those was so much higher quality.  On this ship we had to address room, dining room, specialty restaurants concerns. This was our most expensive cruise everything should have been Top Notch and it definitely wasn't.  We booked our excursions through Norwegian and they were the BEST.    The nightly shows were wonderful and we enjoyed dancing in the evening.  We go on a cruise to be pampered and until we addressed several issues then the pampering started.

The shore excursions were OK.  Some like the helicopter adventure is well worth doing.  The road to Hana is over hyped even in the limo ride.   There were not enough seats available for the specialty restaurants.  There were some in our group that did not find attractive activities for the evenings.  The drink specials were less than acceptable.   

We had a great time! We had an excursion every day.... while enjoying the shows ,dinners, and other entertainment while on the ship every evening. The staff was really friendly and talented. Thank you for the great time!( Best way to eliminate the days at sea and see Hawaii  all in a week)

Was a pleasant experience for the most part. Our concierge, Thomas Meir, did a fantastic job in helping us with several situations requiring local knowledge.

Our butler, Amanda also was helpful in putting together a special event in our suite.

All of the crew seemed to genuinely enjoy their jobs and were most pleasant to work with. Particularly Lenora the restaurant manager in Cagney's. 

We loved this cruise! We chose the cruise as our way of "island hopping", and had a great time! The staff was very friendly and personable. They worked very hard to make sure guests were comfortable and involved in all the fun things the ship has to offer. The shows in the evening in Hollywood Theatre were awesome! The excursions we did were very organized and on time. We feel we saw a lot of the islands in the short time we were there! The tour guides were both very informative and knowledgable. They gave great pointers about places to see, etc. The ship itself was very nice, but I was a little underwhelmed, as I have cruised on bigger, fancier ships in the past. The décor was very well within their theme "Pride of America", and there were renovations occurring while we were on board. This was only  minor things (revarnishing handrails, and installing new carpet) that did not interrupt our enjoyment of vacation, as most of the work took place overnight. We would recommend this cruise! Great experience!

We have cruised about 7 times  previous to this.  We had cruised on Norwegian one time before and were disappointed in all aspects of it.  I was reluctant to take this cruise but since it was the only cruise line that just sails around Hawaii, decided to give it another try.

The ship is Beautiful!! The Pride of American has a totally American theme to it from the Liberty Restaurant to the Hollywood Theater.  The crew, I would say, is probably 95% American  and while foreign crews are wonderful, there was no language barriers and everyone was easy to communicate with and have fun with. The food was outstanding and abundant.  The dining rooms ran like a well oiled machine, with Douglas at the helm.

The whole activities staff were funny and entertaining...Jasper, Gary, Krystal , Gretchen and Joseph were all outstanding. The entertainment was way beyond my expectations, especially Chris Alpine the comedian.  

The excursions were great.  If there is one complaint I can make is that nowhere in the cruise postings was the fact that you had to be tendered to go to Kona.  We had booked an excursion there but I am disabled and there was no way I could get on the tender.  The excursion description had said it was handicapped accessible.  I was disappointed but we went to the Excursions Desk and they immediately reimbursed us.  

The cruisers covered a wide age range, which was refreshing since we had previously cruised on Holland America where everyone was, for the most part, elderly.  In fact, at two ports we stopped at there were hearses waiting!  We are senior citizens but enjoyed watching the younger generation and their children.

It was over too fast.  We definitely need to go back someday.

We are in our 60's, and this was our first trip to Hawaii.  I am so thankful for the cruise ship service that took us to multiple islands so we didn't have to make our own arrangements, drag our luggage around, and spend more time waiting in the airport for the short flights.  The Shore Excursions were varied and excellent.  All our drivers/guides were so knowledgeable, friendly, and even funny.  The food was good on the ship; it was kept clean, and there was adequate on-board entertainment.  They were very organized and efficient getting us On & Off at every stop.  This is an ideal way to visit the islands.  It was our 15th cruise overall and the FIRST to have fast internet!

This was a great way to explore four islands, including Oahu, in a little more than a week. The entertainment was fantastic. The food and food service was a little below what we have been accustomed. Everybody on the ship was very friendly.

This cruise is a great way to see all the major islands of Hawaii while also having a great time on a beautiful cruise ship. The islands are diverse and have different natural attractions from the volcanos to the fern covered valleys of Kuai.

Accomodations were clean and maintained well daily.  Food was great.  I only wish we had more time each day on shore.  Not sure why the ship had to leave at 6 PM each day, and 2 PM on the last day.

Interisland cruise is the best way to go for first time visitors to Hawaii who do not know what island to visit.  We saw four beautiful islands and with two days in port on two of the bigger islands, you have time to see some of the beauty.  We rented a car and did some driving which was ultimately cheaper than excursions as there were four of us traveling together.  However, in keeping a car overnight, there was no place to park near the cruise ship and so we had to turn it back in and then pay again.  This was not a pleasant experience - in Maui.

The Pride of America is a beautiful ship, with a wonderful crew.  The ship was easy to get around on and we did not get turned around in moving about the ship.  Shows were good, good food - no complaints.

We have cruised on other cruise lines (Carnival) and this experience on Norwegian was much better - better quality of food and more consciousness of keeping germs out of the dining areas - no one got sick - and the last cruise my family went on (6 of us) - everyone got the virus, and then the ship denied there was a problem.

We had a nice time on this cruise.  Our room were clean and comfortable--shower was a little small but its the same on all cruises.  My only complaint would be the quality of food.  We were all vegetarians and were disappointed in the food--but again we were not expecting excellent food on a cruise but could have been better.  Otherwise I would definitely recommend this cruise--saw some beautiful sights.

1. No baggage cart or porter standing by in the unloading area.

2. Extremely small cabins.

3. Quality and quantity of food below average.

4. Dinning room service was horrific. Servers had little or no personality with no guest interaction. Service was slow and sometimes absent altogether. It took an average of 2 1/2 hours to get through every meal and as a result we missed two shows even though we were seat at 6-6:30 Pm.

5. Many shipboard instructions, both written & verbal were imprecise, ambiguous and unclear.

6. Charged $68.00 for laundry when flyer advertised " $24.00 per bag if submitted by Tuesday night. Mine was submitted on Monday.

7. Crew and staff poorly trained in all areas of customer service.

We thoroughly enjoyed our recent cruise in Hawaii on the Pride of America. The ship is beautiful and relates to many areas of the USA and the was extremely friendly and professional. The food was very good especially @ Cagney's Steakhouse and the itinerary was great! We got to see several of the outer islands surrounding Hawaii and enjoyed them tremendously. If you've never been to Hawaii, go and take this cruise on the Pride of America and see more than Honolulu which is also nice.

While the itinerary was perfect, the ship was not so much.  The food was mediocre at best, the staff not as welcoming as other ships we have been on.  Our room steward was wonderful.  The bartender at the bar on deck above the pool never even gave me a smile once.  The same at the saloon bar.  We enjoy the dining room experience.  The experience at the Liberty was not up to par.  Limited menu selections, service was very slow, even though we always went early, so they were not very busy.  The food and service was so bad, we gave up and went to the buffet.  We NEVER eat dinner at the "pig trough".  We would probably not sail on Norwegian again due to this experience.

The 7 Night Hawaiian Cruise is a great cruise to see and explore the Hawaii Islands.  The cruise ship is somewhat modern in design. The Liberty Restaurant (complimentary) has great meal selections every night.

The disappointment of the cruise is the fact that there is no casino due to Hawaiian gambling laws. There is no duty free shopping on board the ship. There isn't that much to do for children and teenagers. There were majority older passengers on the ship. There wasn't much night life participation. This may have been due to the six hour time difference from Eastern Standard Time.

I recommend booking excursions and activities everyday and enjoy the islands as much as possible. I booked most of the excursions independently, and the prices are cheaper than what NCL offered.