Pride of America Cruise Reviews - Reviews

My family recently sailed on the Pride of America for the first time. The ship was very nice and we were all very impressed with how clean the ship was and how beautiful Hawaii is. The food was disappointing at the Aloha cafe when we first got on the ship but this improved greatly by the next morning and the rest of the cruise. All the other restaurants that we ate at had good food. My wife and I especially liked the fish at the Cadillac restaurant and I liked their hot wings and ice cream as well. The shows were mediocore compared to Royal Caribbean's entertainment. Our balcony room was cozy and we had plenty of room under the bed to store all of our luggage out of the way. I must say however that the room attendant never introduced herself to us and our room was not made up until late in the afternoon. NCL must either hire more people or people with a better service attitude in the future if they want me to cruise with them again. Furthermore I was not impressed to find that all the restaurants close at a certain time of day and we find that after coming back from an excursion one day that we had to wait for about 1/2 hour before being able to eat. This is not acceptable to me.

The Ship was so beautiful, new and modern. Lots of dining choices. Well kept, clean and easy to get around in. The only thing is this cruise needs to be 10 days so you can really spend enough time on each island. It would be worth more money and to really see enough of Hawaii.

Its the best way to see the Hawaiian Islands but the food is very mediocre. You end up spending a little more on the specialty restaurants because the dining room food is very ok. The atmosphere is very very casual. The show are ok. The cruise staff was very entertaining and the staff are very sweet. However, we all preferred Royal Caribean than NCL.

The dining experience on this cruise was not as good as what we experienced on our Carnival cruise, but it wasn't that bad either. Freestyle dining was a definite plus. The staff was friendly and tried really hard to meet our needs, though it seemed at times that they were either overworked or understaffed or both. This cruise had a great itinerary and was an excellent way to see the islands. There were two great bonuses that we really enjoyed: 1) After leaving Hilo, the ship slowly cruised past the island's active volcano and we got an incredible view of the lava flow at night! 2) We sailed past the Napali Coast of Kauai on the last day of our cruise and were treated to another breathtaking view. We even spotted a family of humpback whales there. Overall, a great honeymoon experience.

The ship was clean, and the service in the specialty restaurants was great. My cabin stewart was great.

The crew was very friendly and helpful. our room was always clean. The food was good but service was slow.

We went on another Hawaiian Cruise and bragged so much about it, that my parents wanted to spend their 50th Anniversary on a Hawaiian Cruise. We had three adults in our room and asked ahead of time for a large bed and small bed on the floor (my daughter has RA) didn't get it, went to the front desk and the girl didn't want to help us out just said everythings booked, I'll put you on the list. I said I would even purchase a separate room for her, nope booked up. A friend of ours just complained about his room and got an upgrade. The food, if you didn't pay extra for a sit down meal, you had buffet or you had to call way ahead to get a reservation in a decent restaurant or eat at nine o'clock at night. It was like a feeding trough. They didn't tell you until you were on the ship that each person is charge $10.00 a day for each day for tipping, well compared to how we tipped on our last cruises they didn't get much, for the fact that I'm not going to be told how to tip. Our bathroom was always out of towels and /washcloths, we had to hunt someone down most of the time when we wanted to take a shower. Bed on top was only made twice on a seven day cruise. Everytime we booked an excursion it was like they show on T.V. cattle going here, cattle going there and you know that the cruise ship and excursions were in business with each other. No one came to meet us when we got off the airplane to take us to the ship, don't they care if people show up or not, we had to pay $45.00 to get from the airport about 4 miles away to the ship, people don't automaticley know what to do when they get off the plane. Last time we went on a ship, it was so relaxing, not rush, rush, rush, we wanted to get away from that world. If you want to do everything yourself then this cruise is for you. No personality, no welcome feeling, let's hurry up and get you through this cuz we got another one coming through. My daughter fell in the buffet-cafe because there was gravy on the floor and she slipped, another passenger helped her out, then a wait staff person alerted security , she said she was alright but her wrist hurt so we took her down stairs, the nurse and doctor took very good care of her then security came down and took pictures of her shoes all we wanted was to make sure she was okay and they treated us like we were going to sue. It was just one thing after another, with these people.

The staff on the cruise were extremely friendly, however, I totally dislike the free-style dining. However, since I have been on NCL before, I knew what I was getting into. If you are a first time cruiser and are looking for a fantastic shipboard experience, I would not recommend this cruise line unless you are traveling with at least 6-8 friends. On most cruises, you get to meet and become friends with the people who sit at your table for dinner. That is such a nice feature that doesn't happen with free-style cruising. You also get to know your table waiters which also doesn't happen with free-style cruising because you never see the same person twice. The food is below par in every dining room that is free (included in the cruise price). If you want to pay the extra cover charge and eat in the speciality restaurants, the food is superb! You also have to make reservations to eat at the speciality restaurants and you can't always get a reservation when you want it. The last time I did this tour around the Hawaiian Islands, they had barbeques out by the pool, which were fun, and they had craft sessions, i.e. lei making, which wasn't available this time. Last time they also had Bingo, which wasn't available this time. They had a couple of good comedians that I enjoyed. But the musical show had a lot of technical errors, bad lighting, bad sound...not very professional. I love cruises and have been on 8 of them but I would not travel on NCL again.

Overall the ship was great. We spent most of our time onshore so we didn't indulge in too many onboard activities. The exercise room was the best we've seen. The buffet in the Aloha cafe was as good or better than Princess. We managed to make reservations at the Italian restaurant the first couple of night and that was good. Jefferson's Bistro was OK. After the first several days people were standing in line at 7:30 AM for reservations so we ate in the main dining rooms after that. They were okay, not great. The steward for our cabin was fine. He made up the room while we were gone and turned down the bed when we were at dinner. Just remember to set the wheel by the door. The only problem was that we inadvertently booked a cabin with two bunk beds. These were directly over our big bed and were up against the window. We didn't have any place to sit down as most cabins did. The cabin was clean and in good condition. Fortunately we made all of our stops pretty much on time. The itinerary was great. We especially liked the cruise along the Kauai Pali on the way back to Honolulu. Beautiful scenery, lots of whales, lovely sunset. We rented a car on most islands and did our own thing. That worked out very well.

ncl is the worst cruise line. Our filght was delayed 4 days ncl would not help or change our cruise. We had to catch our ship on it's third day We mised two nights pre hotel they would not change it two the end for us. Cruises only could not help and ncl just said to bad. We have travel insurance and they said we had to try to catch our ship because you can only get 1,000 per person for a delay. Save your money fly to hawaii it is easy to get from island to island on your own. I have been on many crusies and will never go ncl agian.

we enjoyed the food and the way it was our choice to eat at any time or place we wanted to. THe staff as friendly and also the talent was fun and exciting and we saw all we could . I love the layout of the ship and the beautiful colors and the welcoming effect it has . It just made our trip to Hawaii the best!!!!! We saw whales from our stateroon everyday and that waws a dream come true.

The Pride of America is a lovely, clean ship with alot to do and a very nice crew. We have cruised over thirty times on almost all of the cruise lines and this exceeded our expectations. We liked the Freestyle concept since we were onboard to relax and not for regimentation. We were able to do what we wanted, when we wanted and we did not have to get formal (which would have been kind of ridiculous on a casual, beach activity vacation). The food was varied and very good. The service was excellent and specialty restaurant reservations were easier to get than on most ships. There were many "extra" onboard charges but all were voluntary and the cruise was really not very pricey. Our balcony stateroom was roomy enough, comfortable and attractive. The onboard announcements were few and, therefore, not annoying. Embarkation and disembarkation were well organized. The shows were good enough. No casino but the onboard shops were convenient and open while in port. Not for everyone but I think most independent, well-traveled, experienced cruisers will enjoy Freestyle more than the regimentation of traditional cruising.

Destination: Hawaii Islands Sailing date: 2007-01-27 We recently sailed on the Pride of America from Honolulu on a 7 day 4 island cruse of Hawaii. We booked an outside state room with and ocean view and were somewhat disappointed when there was lifeboat hanging right in our window. We were told this was and upgrade and Im still trying to figure out how this is an upgrade. Other than this the state room was very nicely appointed and had adequate storage space for all our things. This is a very nice ship with two large main dining rooms and five specialty restaurants. There is a large buffet available between 6:00 AM and 11:00 PM with a very good selection of food ranging from Pizza to Roast Pig. There is also a 24 hour diner serving diner type fare. We made good use of Night Club style bar and the large Theater. The entertainment provided was pretty top notch and kept us entertained every evening of our cruse. We saw two very good comedians and a very good review put on by the ship crew. There are several causal bars through out the ship. Several of these are located in and around the pool area. If you are cruising with family the ship offered some very good alternatives for child care. There are clubs aimed at teens, preteens, and the younger set. Since we were traveling with out children we had no fist hand experience with these services but spoke with several couples who did and they were very happy. We were unable to make our port of call once and were late calling at port one time. Both time it was due to weather conditions at the time. The cruise line did a great job providing extra entertainment and opening up dining room to keep every one reasonably happy. This was our first experience cruising and overall we were very happy. The only thing I found lacking was enough help in the buffet to keep tables bussed and clean and enough servers in the bars it took what I consider way to long to get a drink ordered and delivered to our table. We do plan on future cruises and would consider using this cruise line again based conversations with others during our cruise who had cruised with NCL in the past. All in all we had a really great time.

It was our first cruise and we had wonderful time, except , my husband got sick on 3rd day and had to see a ship doctor,I think they really over- charged us for few antibiotics.

The ship was beautiful. Well staffed and clean. It was a wonder cruise.

A very good ship, but overall food quality and lack of casino are strong negatives for us.

This was our first cruise (my almost 22 year old daughter) and myself. The ship was lovely and easy to get around. Our outside stateroom was very nice with plenty of room for all of our belongings and we loved the balcony/deck! Seeing the lava flow at night was awesome!

Our "dream" ship was very big and very beautiful. The decor was fabulous and such a pleasure to just walk around and look at everything. Everyone, guest and crew, were very friendly and we met some really nice people from all over the U.S. Our stateroom was kept immaculate and the service was exceptional. It was great to have the daily activities posted the night before so we could plan our days.

cruise was very good but did not compare with princess cruise to Alaska or Medetranian, which were better in comparison.

Serving staff had little knowledge of food or wine -- even in the wine bar and specialty restaurants.