It has been several months since my son (14 at the time) and I sailed on the Pride of America in July 2007; but, since I have garnered a great deal of information from the reviews I've read during the research for this Hawaiian cruise and now my upcoming Baltic cruise, that I thought I'd return the favor in case this might help someone else in their travel planning. I was very worried about choosing this cruise since I had read so many negative reviews prior to our travel, but I was VERY pleasantly surprised with what a wonderful time we had. My son and I flew from Fort Lauderdale through Atlanta on Delta and experienced an annoying delay, as the flight to Hawaii from FL is already a long enough trip. During the delay, my son did make friends with a nice young Marine who was traveling home to Kauai who gave us a couple of good tips for his local area. We arrived in Honolulu a couple of hours later than planned, but were met at the airport by my aunt and cousins with whom we stayed for a week prior to the cruise. We followed them home in our rental car so we wouldn't have to find our way in the dark. The following morning, we visited Pearl Harbor which is a must-see while on Oahu, and drove by Aloha Stadium. Later in the day, we drove to the North Shore with my family, stopping at the Dole Plantation along the way. It is touristy, but not a bad place to spend a little time and have a pineapple whip while the kids run the maze. We drove on to Haleiwa where we stopped at Matsumoto Shave Ice. YUM! I made myself sick eating so much shave ice while in HI, but this was probably the best. We stopped at Waimea Bay so my son could jump off of the rock cliff like the locals (scary for me to watch, but apparently fun for him). I don't remember the order of our sightseeing over the course of the week in Oahu since we saw so much, but we went to Hanauma Bay so my son could snorkel, stopped by to see Blow Hole, climbed Diamond Head (make sure to wear comfortable shoes and bring bottled water - although you could by shave ice from a vendor in the parking lot), visited Kapiolani Park, Punchbowl, Bishop Museum and Iolani Palace, drove the Pali Highway, saw the Mormon Temple, and stopped by Ala Moana mall, International Marketplace and Aloha Tower. We visited Ewa Beach, and my son also surfed Waikiki Beach twice with a Star Beach Boys instructor. We went horseback riding and took an open air bus movie tour at Kualoa Ranch, where Lost and many other TV shows and movies (Jurassic Park, Pearl Harbor, etc.)are/were filmed. We took a ride on my cousin's cat canoe at Muanalua Bay. We were able to spend time with family who live on Oahu; and my mom, her husband, my brother, and my SIL met us in Honolulu before embarking on the cruise. We dropped the rental car off at the airport and took the NCL transfer to the ship. Embarkation was quick and easy. We grabbed a bite to eat at the buffet while we waited for our cabin to be made ready. We had a starboard balcony cabin, which was small, but more than adequate for our needs since we spent very little time in our cabin, other than to sleep. There was plenty of storage space for all of our belongings. The food on the ship was pretty good. There were so many choices that I can't imagine how people couldn't find something decent to eat. It may not have been gourmet, but there certainly were some very good selections in the many restaurant offerings. We ate breakfast every day at the buffet so we could get off the ship and into port as quickly as possible. There was plenty of seating in the aft of the ship if you couldn't find seating indoors. Since the cruise is so port intensive, we didn't take too much advantage of the shows or onboard activities. The shows seemed fine (if not exciting) from what we did see, and my son would have loved to have had more time to visit the teen club as he made several friends in the short time he had to spend there. We rented cars from Alamo in each port which was a great decision. I was so happy that we did not do any of the ship's excursions as we saw and did so much more. Hilo: We drove to Volcanoes National Park which was beautiful and walked through the lava tube. We drove to Lava Tree National Park, which was really not worth the out of the way drive. We stopped at the Mauna Loa nut factory, Boiling Pots and Rainbow Falls. Maui: We drove to Haleakala which was amazing. It looked like a moonscape and saw the silver swords. We stopped at the Holy Ghost church and the Iao Valley, which was beautiful. We drove to Lahaina where we attended the Old Lahaina Luau. Yes, it was touristy, but hey, in Hawaii, you have to do a luau! We eventually found overnight parking not too far from the ship at the end of Day One. The next morning we set off for the Hana Highway. We didn't make it all the way to Hana, but we did stop at Waianapanapa State Park, where there was a beautiful black lava rock beach with a lava tube. The stop was also interesting on account of all of the mongoose we saw running out of the foliage. We made one last stop at Maui Tropical Plantation and took the train ride of the grounds prior to reboarding the ship since my mom loves flowers. Kona: We drove to Waimea (I think there is a Waimea on every island) to visit my mom's cousin. We went with her to Parker Ranch and saw their informational movie and toured their little museum. We didn't do too much in Kona since we spent time with family, but it was a pretty drive through the island to get there. I got a big kick out of the "graffiti" made of white rocks on the black dirt which lined the roadway. The tender process from and back to the ship was smooth and easy. Kauai: This was probably my favorite port of call although I enjoyed all of them. We drove to Waimea Canyon (yes, another Waimea), which was absolutely gorgeous. We saw some waterfalls and finally got to see some nene while there. We got a laugh out of seeing all of the wild chicken running around there, too. We stopped at a small town called Hanapepe and also found Kipu Falls, which was recommended to us by the Marine we met during our delay in Atlanta. That was a beautiful place where my son could climb the rocks and jump into the river pool below or swing from a rope and drop in. This was well worth the visit. We drove to the other side of the island to see the Kilauea Lighthouse and stop by St. Sylvester's church and Wailua Falls. We didn't keep the car overnight in Kauai, as we only had until 1 pm the next day. We walked to Blue Hawaiian helicopters not too far from the port to catch an early morning ride. That was one of the (many) highlights of the trip. We flew over Waimea Canyon, many waterfalls, and Hanalei, and saw the Napali Coast up close and personal. We then spent the rest of our time at Anchor Cove at the beach so my son could try surfing sans instructor. He did okay, but there weren't too many decent waves as we were in a fairly protected cove, hence the name. Despite the many negative reviews I read, I think one must be out to look for things to complain about to have an unpleasant time on this cruise. The food was fine - I don't cruise for fine dining, I travel to share experiences with my son and family. The ship was nice and quite new. The crew members, despite what I had read in online reviews, were all extremely helpful and friendly. My guess is that the cruisers who were treated rudely by the crew were most likely rude enough to warrant that treatment in response. We enjoyed freestyle cruising so much, especially since this trip was so port intensive, that we chose NCL again for our upcoming Baltic cruise this summer..... Hope you enjoy this cruise as much as we did!