Occupation: Adminstrative Assistant - UAW DaimlerChrysler Department
Number of Cruises: 7
Cruise Line: Norwegian
Ship: Pride of Aloha
Sailing Date: August 8th, 2004
Itinerary: Hawaiian Islands

The flight to Hawaii was marvelous. I flew first class from Detroit via Minneapolis to Hawaii on Northwest Airlines. The accommodations were superb. The seats were amply cushioned and felt like my recliner or my king size-bed. The flight attendants were at my beckon call.

I had been on several cruises offered by Blue World Travel - Festival at Sea, who provides cruises with the African American Twist. I could hardly wait to board the Pride of Aloha.

The boarding was reasonably fast. I received my luggage within three (3) hours after boarding. Upon changing clothes, I went to check out the buffet to savor the food that I had grown accustomed to on other cruise line. Needless to say the choices were poor. However, that didn’t bother me because I determine that the selections would improve after we left port. Right. Wrong. This was my first trip to Hawaii and I could taste the pineapple, mangos and other Hawaiian fruits. Not on this cruise.

This was the worst food that I have ever tasted in my entire life. The food was often cold and bland. I could never figure out the supposed scrambled eggs, if they were powered. In any event, they were often uncooked. The bacon was crumbly and swimming in grease. The punch and sodas in the fountain consisted colored unsweetened water. They often ran out of china and we were served on paper plates. The workers informed us that the dishwasher was broken.

The food never improved for the entire seven (7) days. I tried the specialty restaurants, “The Crossing”, Palace and other restaurants, wherein we waited 30 minutes to an hour to be seated, which I could not understand because 50 percent of the tables were vacant. We were told that they did not have servers for those tables. Furthermore, we had to wait an additional hour for the cold meal to be served. I could hardly wait to arrive at the next port to get off the ship to find a restaurant with hot, hot and properly prepared food.

Originally I booked a suite on Pride of America, however, we were told that that ship had an accident and Pride of Aloha could not accommodate my request because the ship was smaller. Therefore, I was down-graded to a cabin with balcony. My cabin was small but comfortable. I was grateful that I had a cabin with a balcony, compared to the inside closets of some of the other guess.

After returning to my cabin from Hooters restaurant in Honolulu because I couldn’t find a decent meal on ship, the beds did not have bedspreads. I called the reception desk several times to no avail because the line stayed busy. I went looking for the cabin steward, whom I had grown accustomed to on previous cruise line, who was no where to be found. However, I ran into a cabin steward located in another area who gave me bedspreads.

Upon returning to my cabin I had to go to the bathroom. Guess what the toilet would not flush. So I filled an ice-bucket with water in order to flush the toilet We called maintenance who surveyed the problem and informed us that he needed a part that was made in Germany, and if the part had been made in America, it would be available for him to fix the toilet. He had to wait on the part to be shipped from Germany. We advise him that we could only flush the toilet by using the ice-bucket filled with water. He advised that we shouldn’t use the ice-bucket, that we should but the shower head to fill the toilet with water.

We thank him for his help. I determined the fact that this is a management problem that and not the fault of maintenance who could have fixed the toilet if he had the proper equipment. Three (3) days we filled the toilet with water using the shower-head. Needless to say we voice our concerns with upper-management indicating this was health issues. I stressed that I wanted the problem taking care of not with $100.00 compensation and a plunger. The toilet was fixed the morning of the third day. The toilet situation continued at each port, once we arrived the toilet stop working.

My lifetime trip to Hawaii was a total disaster. Hawaii is a beautiful State. However, I could not completely relax and enjoy and take in the God’s creation, because I knew I had to board the Pride of Aloha ship from hell. I will never cruise on Norwegian again and will encourage friends to cruise on lines that respect there paying customers, provide 5-star service and meals.

By the way on the last day of the cruise the cabin Stewart, whom I never seen provided bed-turn down service with chocolate.

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