My husband and I cruised on the Pride of Aloha over Memorial Day weekend. It was our first trip to Hawaii and we were also celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. We had read all the good and bad reviews and still felt this was the best way for use to see the islands. We booked the trip with the mindset that is was our motel room and possibly a place to eat our meals.

When we arrived at the port we were greeted at the luggage carousel and directed to the buses which transported us to the port. When we arrived at the port the lines were very short (we arrived around 430pm). We them went directly to our room which was clean,the only issue we had with the room was the bed was hard and the bathroom had a bad smell. We had previously taken the advise of other cruisers and did bring a powerstrip. Thanks to everyone who told us to bring one. We also had an iron in the room. We had a refrigerator that was locked until the last 2 nights (we didn't even know it was there until they left a note they were locking it on Sat to restock). After we unpacked and yes the closet space is small. Our 3 lg suitcases did fit in the closet and our carryons fit under the bed. After unpacking we headed out to explore the ship. The staff did seem confused with where certain areas were at times. I also noted during the week that the staff is very young and inexperienced. The average time of the staff that we spoke with that were working on the ship was 1-4 wks. The only person that I spoke with that had been there longer was at the credit desk on the day we left the boat. We were never sure who was cleaning our room but it was neat and made up everyday and night when we returned. We were the lucky ones because we never lost our air conditioning. Many people had no air all week.

Food: the food at the BBQ was typically BBQ food. Yes we did have to let the wait staff serve us. We were told it was because on the previous cruise they had an outbreak of a "GI bug". We were also told by the staff that they had to "wipe down "the entire ship 3 times in the past wk. Several workers stated they had worked more than 70 hrs in the past wk due to the outbreak. We tried out the buffet, dining room and room service for breakfast. The buffet was crowed but on the days that we were in port overnight the wait was much shorter. The 1 day we ordered room service the food was late and we had an early shore excursion so we had to call room service and we were told they were running behind. The service in the Crossing Dining room was slow and one morning we waited for 1 hr to get our breakfast. The Palace Dining room was closed the first 2 nights due to no air conditioning. After they reopened we ate there and the service was very good. We had a waiter (Richard)and junior waiter (Brant) that were very good. We asked for there tables every night and had no wait and we ate at a table for 2. Read more