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Norwegian Cruise Lines
Pride of America
7 Day Hawaiian Islands

Cindy Knottenbelt
Age: 50
Occupation: Realtor
Number of Cruises: 10
Sailing Date: October 8th, 2005

My husband and I decided to do the Pride of America cruise for my 50th birthday. I can promise you one thing…the only people who will come close to enjoying this cruise will be first time cruisers. If you have nothing else to compare this cruise to, you will not know how much you are missing. The all American crew is pitiful! No service, no smiles, nothing special.

It took forever to get our luggage, there was no big hoopla when we set sail and the whole cruise was rather anti climatic! When we were have a $12.00 martini, we asked the bartender what to do on the ship because it was so boring and his comment was that, “this ship is for newlyweds or almost deads!” So if you are somewhere in between, plan to spend a lot of money on excursions or you too will be bored to tears!

What is the number one reason people cruise? I say the food! This food was the worst! Comparable to an Applebees or Old Country Buffet. Their big thing is the Freestyle Cruising which simply means that you end up paying a surcharge to get into a better restaurant. I always thought the food was to be included in cruises…but not NCL!

I am use to being able to tip the way I want and we are very generous but here, the tip is included to the tune of $20.00 per day for service that was horrible!

Our room did have a balcony but the floor was dirty, the windows were filthy and there was a hand towel that had what looked like blood on it in the corner of our balcony. Calling for service took so long, we ended up doing it ourselves.

The excursions were so expensive, you had to really pick and choose carefully or you could spend hundreds of dollars. We did try the Maui Sunrise trip where you left at 2:30 in the morning and just as I was getting on the bus, a young girl by the name of Karen who worked in Excursions told me I would be cold in what I had worn so she give me her jacket to wear. When we booked this no one told us that it would be 30 degrees in Maui at 3 in the morning with gusting winds. We almost froze! Thank goodness for Karen who gave me her jacket. She was also very helpful with other information as to where we could go and shop. If I could say their was one shining star in this whole cruise, it was Karen! We did tip her separately for helping us so much…but she was truly the only one that I was impressed with on the whole cruise ship.

The weakest part was the Cruise Director that had juvenile games around the pool and was just plain annoying. NCL needs to see how the other cruise lines do it or else they will never have return customers. Everyone and I mean everyone I spoke to on the cruise either was upset with the service or complaining about the food.

Unfortunately, NCL has a monopoly on the Hawaiian Islands which is a shame! If what you are looking for is just an opportunity to see all the islands, then this is the only cruise available right now. But do not take this cruise if you have cruised Norwegian, Carnival, Princess or even the Dolphin, you will be sadly disappointed!

No excitement when you leave port, no towel animals, no service, no great food, no activities for those between 30-60 and not worth the money we spent! I would give this cruise an F-.