Pride of America Cruise Reviews - Reviews

First time visit to Hawaii, this was a perfect way to see 4 islands and get to know them without moving from hotel to hotel and flying. We had a cabin on deck 8, port side with large balcony. Port side is important if you want to see Oahu from your balcony as well as the Napali coast of Kauai. The cabin was smaller than on Cunard's Queen Elizabeth, bathroom same size. However it is all laid-out well with enough storage. Unfortunately our cabin had a door connecting us to the next cabin. Upon arrival we had to call to have it locked. The rest of the week we could hear everything next door: make sure you don't get one of those cabins if you want quiet and privacy. Cabin was clean, mirror was not, drawers had crumbs and dust. Bathroom was clean. Room service fast and efficient. After trying the buffet for lunch the day of arrival we were not impressed and only used it for breakfast. All other meal we took at the specialty restaurants which were all excellent. Make sure you get the "ultimate dining plan": it eliminates the cover charges at the specialty restaurants (for example $30 per person at Cagney's steakhouse), it's a great deal and the specialty restaurants all were outstanding. (interestingly, we did not like the specialty restaurants on the Queen Elizabeth and ate every meal at the buffet which was excellent, much better than on the Pride. If you like quantity go for the buffet on the Pride, if you like quality of food and service, go for the specialty restaurants. Exception was the breakfast buffet which was excellent with a selection worth a 5 star hotel. The excellent sushi counter /bar was almost better than some we visited in Japan a week earlier. There is no cover charge for the sushi counter, however you pay for each item, but with their prices it is still a bargain. Speaking of prices, I found the drink and wine prices very reasonable, especially the "drink of the day" carries a bargain price. Entertainment was very good, excellent variety and quality performers. We did not take any shore arrangements, we rented a car in each port and made our own itineraries, I recommend that unless you don't want to drive. All staff we encountered was friendly, helpful and cheerful, which is amazing when you realize the hours and days they work and that they get the same questions every week again. My wife has a gluten free diet; from day one, from the chef of the buffet to the chefs and staff of the specialty restaurants, everyone went out of their way to accommodate and help her. Especially the gluten free rolls from "Moderna" (the Brazilian restaurant) she asked for and received at every venue we went to, my wife liked very much. Highlight was the cruise along the Napali coast of Kauai with an excellent narative (reason to move from our balcony to the upper deck). Check-in and out of the cruise was very well organized with plenty of agents at check-in. I recommend you take all your luggage off the ship yourself at the end, you can leave at any time that way. This cruise is for families with young or older children, couples young and old and even singles, even though it is not an over the top "party-party" ship and there is no gambling. It has something for everybody, we were impressed how well NCL put this itinerary together with the right time in each port to see the sights. We live on the mainland's East coast but will certainly come back for another cruise with NCL there is so much more we'd like to do on the islands. 

We have done many cruises.  This is our first with Norwegian, and first in Hawaii.  And, it was extremely disappointing. 

The cost of this cruise being virtually double per-person than most others than we have done was the biggest disappointment.  Just not the value.

Getting a balcony (which we normally due)...had bad views...and overall bad stops.  Virtually no stops could you do anything close to the ship, excursions were expensive and much more.

And, quite frankly - again from a value standpoint...disappointed with the service of an American ship (and I'm American and disappointed).  Minus a couple of exceptions...you seemed to bother people if you asked them anything (from the front desk, and virtually most places).

We really like Hawaii...We really like cruises...but not a great combination at all!

The overall care and feeding of us on this cruise was excellent. The ship is clean and the staff for the most part hard working. We met Angel the assistant dining room manager for the Liberty Dining Room the first day at lunch and he gave us lots of very good information.  He was friendly thru out the entire cruise and even came to our table the last morning to say goodbye.  Our room was always clean and room steward left cute towel art each night when he came to turn down the beds. I was impressed with the availability of space to put things in our room. LOVED the balcony on our room.

On the whole the entertainment was excellent.  The various dining rooms served excellent food.

We really enjoyed seeing the Napali Coast the last afternoon.  And the tender operation at Kona was well done.

Only a couple of negatives - at check in the first day we were second in line for the handicapped check in and after the first couple were helped the agent went to the regular line and took two passengers who were not handicapped ahead of us -my nephew is in a wheel chair and I was on crutches.  The supervisor told her to go ahead and check in the non-handicapped couple.  So there we stood waiting while she checked in regular passengers and only offered a weak "sorry" when she began to help us.  We were directed to that line by staff so we assumed we were suppose to be in that line.

First night we ate at the Liberty Restaurant and had an 8pm reservation.  While we were still eating the staff was bringing buckets of water out and placing them near our table to begin washing the counters and floors. We quickly finished and left.

We liked all the islands and it is great way to see them all. Like the choice of different restaurants on board. Entertainment was good. Crew was friendly. 

Cruise has everything you need...stay on the ship, go on excursions, or rent a car. Wide variety of entertainment and activities.  Pool area overcrowded at key times/events, but great poolside parties and music. Would want to do this again, just for the views and cruise ship fun! STAFF WERE WONDERFUL, from housekeeping to cruise/event coordinators to the entertainment and cultural staff....LOVED THE CLEANLINESS!   Loved the 'freestyle' cruising...not interested in dress up nights, loved having the choice.

I have not had more fun on a cruise than the one I just had touring the Hawaiian Islands.  Not only the beauty of the islands, but the cruise staff made all the difference.  Most of the crew members were very outgoing and called me by name after the first visit.  I enjoyed seeing and meeting the Hotel Director and 2nd Officer.  They were both friendly and welcoming.  I would definitely do this cruise again!

Our trip started off with a bad flight situation on United. Delay of 7 hours in Houston. We arrived in Hawaii 930 pm instead of 230 pm as planned, No lei greeting...My husband missed his am tour to Pearl Harbour, had to take a shorter excursion. Marriott Hotel was great, had a great deluxe ocean view room. I did a private tour DONE with Adam great day of seeing the Island one on one, beaches, etc.The cruise was good. You see all the Islands, see where you would like to go back to. Maui and Kaui are the two I want to revisit. Do the tour the road to Hana, we did the helicopter on Sunshine Helicopters over Kaui with Capt. Bogart, excellent..great day.lei making on the ship was fun, the shows at night were good.We ate in the Cadillac diner one day, the Brazilian steak house one night all which was good. After a 5 star Mediterranean  Cruise it is hard to rate this cruise, Ship was clean, we had a 8th floor balcony cabin, bathroom was small, shower small otherwise ok.

A real concern while cruising is cleanliness to me.  Our cabin was dirty when we checked in.  An old dried up lei was on the patio table and the table was full of cup rings and splatters.  Chairs were dirty.  The bed was nicely made, but the bathroom had not been touched except for the clean towels.  Called our steward and she said she was leaving for vacation but would clean our room.  That night the supervisor came to our cabin and asked if the room was clean.  We thanked him for his concern.  Upon returning to our room the second day the bathroom had not been cleaned.  One would think our room would have been spotless as we had complained about it on the first day.  Called the supervisor who inspected the bathroom and pointed out some areas of concern that I had overlooked.  Our room was fine for the rest of the trip.  Ate breakfast only at the buffet and found the service very poor.  Coffee urns were broken, orange juice dispensers constantly empty.  Once we noticed that the bottom of one dispenser was overflowing and notified a staff member who told us to go tell this other person he pointed to.  well we did tell that person who did not even acknowledge us, just started fixing the dispenser.  The rest of the trip I kept thinking if the ordinary areas that people see were not being maintained, what was going on in the kitchens and the air distribution?  Sounds odd, but I believe that if the external areas are neglected, the culture of that ship is compromised.  Therefore, we will never take a Norwegian Cruise again.  This was my second NCL trip and I am very surprised at the Pride of America's lack of leadership.

our trip on the pride of america was just as we expected the staff was great the food was ok the shows were good but short.The room is very small but we only used it for sleeping. The stops were where we wanted to go to and plenty of things to do ashore.

Our 7 day Pride of America cruise was brilliant.  It gave us the chance to really explore 3 of the islands with a great itinerary.  The ship stayed in port for 2 days on Maui and Kauai, which gave us a chance to really see a variety of places.  On the Big Island, the boat was in port on the east side for one night, Hilo, and the west side for one night, Kona.  This too allowed for considerable exploration.  The food, entertainment and ship's crew were all brilliant and made for a relaxed and pleasant time when on the ship.  The ship has a variety of restaurants, if one wishes to experiment.  We stayed with the main dining halls which served a variety of excellent dishes.  Both the boarding process and the exit process were amazingly efficient, better than any cruise we had done before.  The entertainment, particularly the evening shows, was superb.  A quartet of young men did a Jersey Boys show that was really top notch.  Do be aware that the boat does not come into the port of Kona so that passengers are "tendered" to the shore on small boats.  For this one needs to get a ticket, and by the time we got to the ticket's our tendering time was assigned as much later than we wanted.  We were able to go standby and get off the boat at an earlier time, so this was a minor frustration only.  There is a large variety of shore excursions available, but it is also very easy to make one's own way to sites if one chooses.  Really, this was about a relaxing a vacation as one can imagine in what truly is a paradise.

The Pride of America offers a unique cruise tour of five Hawaiian islands- ideal for a first time visit, but the cruise experience itself left much to be desired. As we indicated in another review, the lack of attention to detail on board points to an issue with the leadership. 

food in the main dining rooms was less than expected.. All steaks were tough.  two single beds were put together to make a king . there  was a large ridge down the middle.

Trying to put this in the best light.  The islands are delightful, our excursions were great.  The ship was okay.  Okay as in - we didn't sink.  We had 3 balcony rooms (3 couples) - you'd think they were nice, right?  Nope... the staterooms were Tiny with a capital T.  Yeah, there was a bed and yeah, there was a balcony.  The bathroom was so small that you could sit on the toilet and brush your teeth.  The shower was a cube about 2'x2'.  It was impossible to lean over to wash your feet without bumping your head.  And if you want a bar of soap instead of the dispensers hanging on the wall (shower and sink) you must buy one.  We have sailed Princess, Disney, and Carnival, always getting a balcony stateroom and always having stellar service. Other lines had larger balcony staterooms than this (by far) and all were cheaper - we paid out the nose for these small rooms.  Turns out a Disney cruise to Hawaii is just as cheap and it's longer with better food and bigger staterooms.

And speaking of food, the buffet was an abomination.  Their goal, IMHO, was to drive you to the restaurants, mainly the ones where you have to pay extra. We enjoyed the Cadillac Diner which is a free option. There was a hamburger "stand-alone" on deck 12 that was pretty good but it closed at 6:00 PM.  REALLY?  What good does that do?  We all felt that the food at the buffet was recycled from the previous day. At least it all tasted the same. The dining room (free dining) service was slow and the choices were few.

Our steward was nice but we never saw him except the last night when he came by and made sure we saw him at work - in hopes of a tip beyond the pre-paid.  The crew was quite friendly.overall, but due to the food (or lack thereof) and the miniscule staterooms, we would never go back on this cruise.  After all, I can have bad food and small rooms at home.

Ports of call were great, but the ship was greatly understaffed.  Tables in buffet were not cleared promptly.  Half and half containers near coffee urn were frequently empty. Spills were not cleaned promptly. No staff around to help.

We had little to no contact with room steward.

In the restaurant we ordered  medium to well done steaks - they were raw in parts - not even rare. Very limited menue in restaurants.  

In the smoking area ashtrays were seldom emptied,  If you wanted a drink, you had to go to bar and get it yourself.  They did have a coffee set up in the early am (a nice touch), but the coffee was cold to warm - no where near hot. 

Our last excursion which was to take us to the airport was horrible.  The longest amount of time off the bus (one hour) brought us to the Dole Plantation - a massive souvenir tourist trap. We were dumped at the airport 6 hours before flight time. For 129 dollars a person (we had a party of four) this was a complete waste.

This was my 8th cruise.  My third with Norwegian Cruise Lines. 

Beautiful spacious stateroom.  We loved the balcony.  The bed was the most comfortable we have ever had on a ship.  Large bathroom.

The food was excellent in the buffet.  We ate three times in the formal dining rooms and did not like it at all.  The food there was awful!

We took excursions every day.  It was my Husbands first cruise in Hawaii and the excursions  show

you the real Hawaii and how the people live.  All four islands are so different.   By the end of the curse you know exactly which island you would like to live on.   

We had been led to believe that the NCL Pride of America and its crew were somehow inferior to other cruises.  We found this to be far from the truth.  The ship was clean and well appointed, and the crew was friendly and helpful.  We particularly liked NCL's Freestyle Cruising concept that allowed us to dine and disembark at our convenience, and we never experienced a wait at the Customer Service desk.  Crepes were offered in the buffet every evening, something we had not never had on any of our five other cruises. While the musical entertained was not particularly to our taste, it was well done by talented performers, and the cast was always available after a performance.  Since it's the only ship that sails from Honolulu instead of the mainland U.S., it saves four days of travel time getting to and from Hawaii, which would be important for those having limited time to explore the islands.  Overall, we were well pleased with the cruise.    

the window rooms are very small, and they have bunkbeds hanging on the wall next to the bed, so you have to bend over the bed to avoid getting a corner in the middle of your back. the pop on deck 5 in the theater was bad all week and they would not do anything about it, and paying almost $4 a glass!

Loved everything about this cruise.

-Excellent ports of call (really loved Kauai!). The afternoon cruise along the Napali coast was definitely one of the highlights.

-Great service. Our room "butler" Peter and our concierge Thomas could not have been more helpful and serving.

- Loved the entertainment. Very talented crew members on "crew talent night"

- We were VIP's which included breakfast and lunch served in "Cagneys". All the breakfast items were excellent!

- If you get the chance.. reserve one of the two bedroom suites on the stern. The private deck is amazing! We were always inviting friends we met on the cruise to enjoy it with us.

Had a great time first time on this line Room smaller than other lines we have been on but okay. Food was average, staff great , entertainment good loved Oh What A Night Ship real clean and nicely decorated 

Norwegian was great. Beautiful ship, great crew, good food, wonderful entertainment, super port excursions offered, nice state rooms and balconies.  It was all good EXCEPT the dress codes caused a problem for us.  Our first opportunity to get all dressed up, we 3 couples, the women donned in pretty long dresses and the men donned in their cotton slacks and Hawaiian shirts and we were turned away by the Liberty dining room because the men had dress sandals (not flip flops) but not closed toe shoes on their feet.  It was embarrassing.  Thinking Hawaii / cruise attire our guys brought no dress shoes. They had sneakers but who wants to get dressed so nicely and put sneakers on your feet.  We did see other gentlemen did wear their dirty ol' sneakers into those specialty dining rooms but to us that made no sense.