NCL - Norwegian Cruise Line
Pride of Aloha Cruise Review
Hawaii

Vincent Perla
Age: 49
Occupation: system analyst
Number of Cruises: 10
Sailing Date: April 16th, 2006

I Started Cruising many years ago and have since invited family and friends to come aboard and be treated like a King. When the occasion arose that I could cruise Hawaii with my wife on our anniversary, I jumped at the chance. I am a Latitudes member so I felt I knew what to expect. This was not my first cruise with NCL but it will be the last.

First, The Pride of Aloha is a refurbished Norwegian Sky I believe with a new paint job.
While that was not a drawback the ship looked tired. Second, They advertise an all American Crew which I felt took away from the cruise experience. Meeting Crew member from all over the world that are happy to talk about their home is part of the experience.

The 2 thing that most people talk about with cruises is service and food. The buffet that they served was in my opinion, not up to the quality you would find at an all you can eat 8.99 buffet. Lines were extremely long, and the food looked and tasted horrible. This too was something we can live with because you could always go to the main dining room. I use to love to go the main dining room and try the different menus. And on the first night we were not disappointed. However on the second night, third, fourth and fifth the menu got repetitious, as they items were very similar. There was no Prime Rib or Lobster Tails and when questioned to the waiters about this they said to try the specialty restaurants. We did try them ( for an extra charge) and I will say that service and food was good.

(Perhaps I am spoiled as I use to tell people that the Main dining room on ships is Like a 4 or 5 star restaurant and the specialty restaurant where 5 or 6 starts.)

As I mentioned earlier, the other thing about cruises is the service. On many cruises, we would wake up go to breakfast, come back to a spotless room, Go On our Day trips and return to find the room clean-ed again ( and again and again. On one cruise I swore our cabin boy slept under our bed he was so good). Imagine coming back from an all day tour of Kauai and find our bed was not even made, Towels were picked up but not replaced. We called the front desk more then Once about this. Usually I would respond by not tipping ( I am a former waiter and know the important of tips and have handed cabin boys and waiter C-Notes for incredible service before). I wanted to Hold back my gratuity to the cabin boy but was told it was a mandatory service charge not a tip. I will say though that most of staff was pleasant and helpful when asked.


The last thing I will mention, Though it is not the fault of NCL but just the nature of the Area, If you have a tendency toward Seasickness STAY AWAY. My wife tried both pills, patches and bracelets but to know avail. It was jut too Rough. One of the items I wanted to see in Hawaii and had always dreamed of seeing was the Big Hawaiian waves. Since we went in April and Big waves season is December, the only Big Waves which I got to experience was in the Ships swimming pool. The main swimming pool which normally has a depth of 6 foot emptied to about half way and we Had 3 to 4 foot Waves breaking on the deck. ( I was in the pool at the time so this is from first hand perspective)

Good Luck and Happy Traveling ALL
Vincent

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