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NCL, Norwegian Cruise Lines
Pride of America Cruise Review
Hawaiian Islands

K. Stoltzfus
Age: 45
Occupation: teacher
Number of Cruises: 3
Sailing Date: January 21st, 2006

My husband and I were looking forward to a return visit to Hawaii - a cruise this time, rather than staying at a resort. While we enjoyed the islands immensely, our ship experience on Pride of America was not something I'd recommend to others. Embarkment went much smoother than our previous experiences & staff was friendly. We had one extra piece of luggage delivered to our room, but a call to have it delivered to the proper room wasn't carried out. We finally contacted the people ourselves so they could get their luggage. Our room was clean, but my general impression of the ship was - it looks well worn for just one year of usage. Judging by other's comments on the lack of cleanliness, explains why this is so - the dirt is being ground into the carpet! We had 3 people in our room, but the housekeeper wasn't informed about the extra person & had to make up that bed later on. We had a similar problem with lack of enough fresh towels each day as some other reviews will mention. We took to slipping into the supply room while it was open to get what we needed ourselves because service is poor when you give a request for something. One evening, we returned to our room and when I went to the bathroom, I slipped on blue powder that was all over the floor. I had no idea what it was until I lifted the toilet lid and found it was the cleaning powder for the toilet - which had been prepared but never cleaned.

About the food - put simply, it's boring. We ate most of our evening meals in Skyline or Liberty (the main dining rooms) simply because reservations for the other restaurants must be made early and we were off touring the islands as long as possible.With only 3 new selections each evening - one meat, one pasta & one vegetarian - besides 3 tasteless standard selections, you settled for whatever seemed the most appealing - but not what you really are looking forward to eating. The meat was often under prepared or over prepared, service was slow (1 1/2 to 2 hrs.) and only one waiter really made an effort to converse with us. Kudos to Paul! We ate most of our breakfasts in the Aloha Cafe. After seven days of the exact same food - scrambled eggs that taste like they are made from a powdered mix & chefs unable to make omlets, at least not very quickly, the little boxes of cereal were very tasty! Unfortunately, we had at least four cartons of spoiled milk. The exp. date hadn't expired, so I can only assume the milk wasn't stored properly. When I mentioned it to one of the kitchen staff, she merely grunted and rearranged the cartons. Lets just say, we ate lots of fresh fruits, smoothies & shaved ice from little stands along the road. That was our exquisite cuisine for this trip!

I can't tell you the number of times we observed staff arguing with each other- resulting in pouty or impolite treatment of the guests because they were upset.

We went on one excursion arranged through NCL - Captain Zodiaks Snorkeling trip - and it was well worth the expense. I don't know if it would have been cheaper to make arrangements directly with them or not. We didn't check into that. Other than that, we rented our own car through Avis (some shuttling problems there) and went to most of the places that the excursions went - with much less expense!!! We did appreciate that the ship went by the volcano at night so that we could view the lava flow ( which happened to be exceptional that night) and sailed by the northern cliffs of Kauai on the return trip to Honolulu.

As far as ship activities - we went to the show the first night and walked out after the singers and dancers performed 3 numbers. It just wasn't worth the time to sit through it and endure 2nd rate singing & dancing. My husband and son did enjoy the magician & comedian, and we observed one 70's show in the Mardi Gras lounge which was somewhat amusing. Other than that, we turned in early so we could get an early start in the morning w/ more time on the islands.

It was not uncommon to have conversations with other guests on the ship & the topic of conversation would include things that had happened to them that caused much dissatisfaction. To end a cruise with the cruise director begging the guests to give them excellent reviews even though acknowledging the service was poor is totally unacceptable in my book. NCL needs to do some serious review of their program & make lots of amendments if they want to make a go with this ship. Folks, the islands are great, but find another way to see them.