My wife and I toke her parents on the Pride of America. While I was a tad leery of Norwegian and their freestyle cruising (we have been on Celebrity in the past and liked it very much), we felt it was the only way to truly see all the Islands. We booked a veranda cabin on the very back of the ship for both couples primarily to see the Volcano as we passed the big island. About two months prior to embarkation, we received a call and upgraded our cabin to the Owner's Suite and my in-laws to the Penthouse next door.

I will leave out the arrival in Honolulu and the airline stuff - there are plenty of web pages to cover that.

My expectation of NCL was that the freestyle cruising would be less stuffy in the formality, but the professionalism and quality would remain high. I was wrong about NCL. It was certainly less stuffy than other cruise lines, but the quality and professionalism were certainly not there. Read more