Pride of America Cruise Reviews - Reviews

My cruise was awesome. One of the highlights would be the Cadillac diner. A low point would be disembarkation. Very chaotic. NCL could take some pointers from CCL on how to streamline that process. The food was excellent. We had a specialty dining package and got to try 4 specialty restaurants. We tried the Brazilian steakhouse, the Italian restaurant, Cagney's steakhouse, and Teppanyaki. We enjoyed the Brazilian steakhouse, and Teppanyaki was a great experience, but as a group (there were 13 of us) we all seemed to agree that Cagney's was out favorite. Excellent. The Italian restaurant wasn't a great experience. Service was slow. Our cabin steward did a really great job, and our rooms were about what you'd expect.

In general, it was a great cruise for the experience. Yes, I would recommend it as the destinations are awesome. This is probably a once in a life time for many because I did not mentioned before but it is mega expensive, but worthy for sure.

Highly recommend the pride of America Hawaiian Cruise. A great place to take the family for a r e Union. The food was great. The boat was clean. And every Excursion was wonderful except for a few minor things mentioned above.

This is a ship that is a bit dated. However, it is clean. For the most most part the staff are friendly. I can’t say I loved the attire as most looked a bit sloppy. The ship had mostly an older clientele during the time that we traveled. It was fun. The boat wasn’t the trip. Being in Hawaii was. We had no need to do many things on the boat. I would definitely recommend going!!!!

Overall good. NCL new about big Island eruptions for 2-3 weeks prior to my cruise but did nothing to compensate their cruise customers.

This is an excellent way to see the Hawaiian Islands. We had a wonderful time!

Disappointed in itinerary changes. Would have preferred alternative ports of call rather than spending extra day in Honolulu and extra day at sea because of the volcano.

Don't believe all the negative reviews about Pride of America!!! Is it an older ship? Yes.....but it's still an amazing time!!! In the Aloha Café was the food sometimes not always hot, yes, but what do you expect???? We thoroughly enjoyed Skyline and East Meets West!!!! We will definitely go back since the Big Island portion was canceled due to the volcano.... :-(

We chose this cruise for the itinerary. This is the only cruise line that stays two days on each island. Be prepared for two things when you visit Hawaii. First of all, it is VERY expensive. We found tours and other excursions to be very expensive compared to when we did our Alaskan cruise. Meals and souvenirs are also more than on other vacations we have taken. Secondly, Hawaii has become very commercialized. We loved the quaintness of all the little towns on our Alaskan cruise. Hawaii has lost a lot of that. Big freeways and crowded.

The Pride of America is a beautiful vessel. The crew takes pride in keeping all of the public areas, eating facilities, Theater, state rooms and ancillary locations clean and free of germs. The staff is simply amazing. This was our first sailing on NCL and my wife and I did not know what to expect. We are avid cruisers with multiple numbers of cruises taken, but we wanted to see how a NCL cruise would stack-up against the other competition like Princess, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, etc. The answer is that NCL, particularly The Pride of America, stacks up very well and also exceeds in a few areas for affordable cruising. We can’t wait to take another NCL cruise.

We loved it! We stayed in a very wonderful suite (11500). Our suite had a large balcony with a hot tub. On our cruise, we did have to skip the big island all together in an abundance of caution. My sister has a friend how lives in Kona and he said the danger was "fake news", but I can understand that they have to do everything in their power to avoid possible danger to the customers...it will give me an excuse to go back. Ok, here is the thing that I think...if you are out to save every penny, you will be a part of the "herd" and you will feel herded with the many people going from one place to another. If you want a real cruise experience, don't try to save a buck on everything...if you can't do this cruise right, then wait until you save up to do it right...having a butler and concierge to whisk you around the crowds makes it a pleasure. Best restaurant Cagney's Worst restaurant Buffet Best excursion Blue Hawaiian Helicopter Worst Excursion River boat and fern grotto Entertainment....wish we had done more, but we were always so tired at night (east coast people)... we did see the comedian- Jeff Harm....so funny...we loved it that he is clever, not a potty mouth....I laughed my sides off! Pool - most days plenty of room and not a mad house...on the surprise sea day, then folks tried to save chairs, which was very unfair to those standing around looking for a place to sit and the saved chairs were vacant for more than an hour...finally they started picking up the stuff that had been sitting on the chairs for so long and folks got to sit. Staff - loved 'em.....Thomas - Concierge, Jeffery the super Butler, Conrado the cabin Steward, Ellen the server in Cagney's....I could go on...they were all delightful except the manager in the spa, but she was not a Norwegian employee.... The Luau was great! Great food (ok, I tried the poi, but it was not for me...) the service was great, the show was breathtaking...they certain not did it right! I'll add more detail when I have time

We only took this cruise because it went around all the islands.

Never cruising ncl again...was not happy with the ship... will definitely be going back to Hawaii.

Had a wonderful time. The weather wasn’t the greatest but we made the best of it. Found everyone on the ship to be very friendly.

We missed docking in Hilo but kind of like that we have a sea-day to rest from those daily excursion. The cruise from Maui to Hilo was rough enough to make us sea-sick. Our Haleakala at sunset tour came back late so we could not see the Aloha Polynesia show. Lucky we have seen other shows in Oahu prior to the cruise. For the first time we have a lazy room steward who tried to find reasons so he can clean our cabin only once a day at turn down. We did not give him extra tip. After disembarkation, we took a private tour with Marina (www dot yourconnectionhawaii dot com). Very satisfactory. Recommended if you have extra hours before your flight and want to do tours with your luggages. The Vegas show is lots of fun and attractive. But the best is the Crew Ohana show. The Welcome Aboard show, on the other hand, was too much talking. Embarkation, disembarkation, and tenders are fast and smooth. Good job NCL. Sent from my SM-J730G using Tapatalk

We had a fantastic cruise! We missed the Port at Hilo due to large swells, but ended up being very glad we did. We had planned on missing Kona and found out that the tender process was efficient and that the Port of Kona was fabulous! NCL had arranged a live local band to play at the Port and the welcome was incredible. We stayed at The Marriott Resort and Spa on Waikiki Beach for 3 nights prior. One night was provided by NCL. After entering a few other resorts on Waikiki while staying I can say that I was very impressed with this resort. The views were great, the resort was clean, and NCL picked up our bags from the room at check out and they showed up to the ship hours later. Kuhio beach was very calm and wall protected. My 4 year old daughter on the autism spectrum swam and played safely there and she still says it is her favorite thing on the entire trip! We rented a car and used the Shaka guide app to complete the North shore tour. Wow. The Kualoa mountains, the Byudo-in Temple, fumi's, Haleiwa Beach Park...it was a fantastic drive. We also went to Diamond Head Luau which I recommend if you are wanting a more private and smaller venue. We enjoyed it a lot. Sail away from Honolulu was on time and we had beautiful views of the city and sunset. We were on the Port side forward in a suite. We ate at Moderno's after sail away. What a fantastic and unique dining experience! The salad bar had specialty cheeses and tastes of Brazil that were unique, and they brought skewers of meat to the table. The room itself was upscale, we were tended to appropriately, they were very clean and the food was fantastic. The manager actually pushed two chairs together when my daughter fell asleep and covered her! Fabulous management at the Moderno. Maui was absolutely wonderful. We rented a car and drove through Wailuku and stopped first at Iao Valley. Very pretty and Worth the stop. Then we went to the Maui Tropical Plantation which we spent quite some time at. The views were breathtaking, the grounds were lush, and the food at the Millhouse was absolutely fantastic. All farm to table with professional presentation. We then drove to Makena beach and found secret cove for some beautiful photos. On ship that evening, we ate at Teppanyaki, which I consider my favorite meal on the entire cruise. They interacted with my daughter, gave her an origami crane, and the show and food was absolutely the best. Maui day 2, I used the NCL tour for the daytime Haleakala crater tour. It was a great ride up and the day was beautiful. The tour guide was prompt and kind, and I hiked up to the last bit of the summit and had time for photos again before coming back down to the bus. My daughter and mother and grandmother enjoyed the day on the ship and made beaded fish and kukui nut leis that they brought home with them. Sunset was beautiful that evening from port side. Very calm and peaceful. We missed the Hilo port. At first we were very disappointed. We had left to disembark and while standing in line found out we were sailing away again. Then, my daughter became seasick. We thought we were in for bad times and were feeling discouraged. Our Butler Spencer (hello Spencer!) Was FABULOUS, and brought her ginger ale and our concierge sent up green apples. A few hours later she was back to herself and we had a pleasant evening. Kona...We ended up being so happy we missed port in Hilo! We had originally planned on Kona being ship day, since my 4 year old has developmental delays and my 84 yo grandmother was with us. We ended up rescheduling our private tour with Kamaaina custom tours and our tour guide Robert drove all the way from Hilo to the Kona port. He took us to Punalu'u Black Sand beach, we saw sea turtles! We went to the Punalu'u bakery, Volcano's National Park and stood at the crater view just hours before they closed indefinitely, and saw rainbow Falls. I highly recommend hiring Robert for a private tour! The Port at Kona? Beautiful!!! What a pretty port. Can't believe we almost missed it. NCL had a local band playing live as we tendered in. Speaking of tendering...they did such a great job, and with priority tender we never waited longer than a few minutes. Both my daughter and grandmother were able to get on and off quickly and easily. We saw dolphins while in Port, and the water here was as smooth as glass and the most beautiful blue. Do not miss this port! NCL credited us within hours of missing Hilo, so we used the credit to get some cute souvenirs and drinks ;) Kuaii...wow. The vegetation was just incredible, and we used Robert's to take a tour of Waimea Canyon, went to the Kauii coffee planation, and the blow hole. Auntie Mikey was fabulous, and we had such a great day. In Port we could hear roosters in the morning...it was funny. As always, getting on and off the ship was easy and painless. Day two in Kuaii we found time to use the pool and hot tub, then had our Butler Spencer deliver dinner from La Cucina on our balcony after the Napali Coast sail by. It was breathtaking. Spencer made us mimosas and we had the best dinner looking out at the sun setting and the ocean. Our Butler also helped us with our suitcases when leaving the ship. We tipped him, but were so impressed with his service that we will be sending him another tip along with a letter to NCL letting them know how fantastic he is. Our room steward was Vincent, and he was also wonderful. He made my daughter a special monkey towel animal when she was seasick and it brightened her day. He always kept our suite clean and tidy. Room: we had suite 10508. It was great, and we had ample space for 4. However, my cruise consultant Bianca had told me we had a walk-in shower, and we most certainly did not. I had paid for an upgrade specifically for this purpose and was very disappointed. The customer service on the ship was excellent, and they gave my grandmother a spa pass for the showers there. However, she had gone days without showering and could not make the walk to the spa as often as she needed to. This was really the only huge con of the entire cruise. Con number 2...our suitcases were heavily damaged when they got to our rooms, prompting us to pull them off with us at disembarkation. The amount of damage was surprising, and I feel they could truly use an upgrade to how luggage is handled. But it did not spoil our trip. Food: Hit and miss. Aloha buffet was always great, especially taste of Hawaii night. Many selections. But the kids menu was truly bad. The peanut butter tasted terrible, and it was one thing I was relying on for my texture sensitive little one. All bread is served extra thick and in way too large portions for children. Chicken fingers very hard and not kid friendly for younger age groups. The kids menu needs an overhaul. My roast beef at Cagney's on sail away was not edible...so chewy and cold. But breakfast was fantastic there, so I didn't complain and hope it was just a one time miss for them. Besides, the manager there friended my daughter and made her stay wonderful! Cadillac Diner was great! Great atmosphere and great food. All in all we enjoyed this cruise and would do it again in a heart beat. We saw so much more than just being on one island. No, every single little thing was not perfect on the ship. But guess what? I could tell that NCL was really working hard to accommodate a whole lot of people and they did great. This is not a ship to spend each day on all day, but splitting up ship time with beautiful islands is just right. A suite is worth the cost for priority disembark ation alone....but room service for breakfast whenever we wanted it was great for days when we were getting ready in a hurry for a tour in Port. It was a great cruise....worth every penny. Enjoy!

We enjoyed our cruise. We will be back in 5 years to do it again. We used Roberts Tours for most of our tours. The busses were waiting for us when we stepped off the ship. There guides are very knowledgeable.

I’ve been to Hawaii before (30 years ago). This was most definitely the best way to experience the islands. Loved having overnite in Maui and Kauai, which I feel are the best islands.

POA awesome cruise. Great way to visit 5 Hawaii islands. Dining options very good, service and food were excellent. MDR happy to report dress shorts polo 😎😎. Entertainment magician, comedian, musical shows were excellent. Service and Staff was very attentive and great! This cruise is all about beautiful islands. Our best cruise to date, highly recommend. 😎😎

Very enjoyable cruise. The islands were all so different and interesting. Shore excursions were great!! The bed was very comfortable as was the room, didn’t hear any noise from rooms next door.