Norwegian Cruise Lines America
Pride of Aloha Cruise Review
Hawaii to San Francisco

Nancy Watson
Age: 78
Occupation: Retired
Number of Cruises: 2
Sailing Date: April 23rd, 2006

On the first day I boarded the ship at 1:00 p.m. Went to the lanai for lunch, the main buffet was closed. Salad bowls were almost empty, two pathetic hamburgers on the tray,  and they were out of french-fries. The cold cuts were uncovered and not kept cold enough. When main buffet was open there were long lines and again, many trays were empty or almost empty. The Hot food was not kept hot enough and cold foods were not kept cold enough. The quality of the food was mediocre. Flatware was dirty and several water glasses were dirty. There were not enough tables to seat all passengers.

Second day of the cruise I went to one of the main dining rooms. The service was extremely slow, and it was hard to get coffee refills. In my opinion the wait-staff had bad attitudes. In the main dining room, items listed on menu were very often not available. There was a long wait for a table (usually between 30 and 40 minutes) resulting in missing part or all of  the shows. The shows were very good.

There was water leaking into the hallway on several floors causing shoes and feet to get wet when walking through. Also this caused a smell by the next day. The last night of the cruise there was water leaking badly from the ceiling in the main dining room. A large section had to be closed off.

The restroom near the ice cream station was dirty. The toilet seats were stained and grungy. The paper towel dispenser was broken and filled with dust. There were no tissues. Overall the ship was not very clean. Pillows and chair seat in stateroom were stained. Bed pillows were not very comfortable. No sheet between bottom sheet and the comforter. Stateroom was small with very little storage space. I found it to be not very clean.

For the first few days I had to change the key to my stateroom because it wouldn't work. Finally they had to change the battery in the door. I wasted a lot of time trying to get this corrected.

On the second day out of Hawaii when we were crossing the Pacific to San Francisco, the captain advised us that there was a problem and one of the propellers was not working. We had to slow down resulting in a 30 hour delay in reaching San Francisco. Needless to say I missed my airline flight due to the delay and had to reschedule. It took 2 1/2 hours to get a telephone line to Delta (there were only six lines and most everyone had to reschedule and call family). A good part of my vacation time was taken up by all the problems I encountered. Needless to say I will not cruise with NCL again.

The bottom line is that the entire cruise was very frustrating and unpleasant.

Ask a Question About NCL, Norwegian Cruise Lines

Ever thought about becoming a home based travel agent? Check out my web site for home based travel and cruise agents located at;

Home Based Travel Agent