Our family of 5 with three children aged 7, 14 and 16, sailed the one week roundtrip Honolulu itinerary with Pride of America on August 2nd. Having read many very negative reviews, we booked the trip with low expectations and really looked to use the ship as transport only. We had booked a penthouse suite, which was the lowest of the suite categories. I have to say that even if we had not had such low expectations, we would have enjoyed the cruise immensely.
I'll review the cruise in three sections: the room, the ship and staff, and the ports.
Embarkation: Being a "VIP", we were greeted by out butler Sean and whisked off to our rooms, which were ready when we arrived, around 2:00 pm. Sean was friendly and was invaluable throughout the week, helping us with dinner reservations, bringing us DVDs, making reservations for dinner, basically with whatever we needed while on the ship. Our room steward Abigail was very friendly and kept our cabin very clean. The towel animals on our beds every night was a nice touch and much welcomed by the kids. the cabin was spacious and the full bathtub a delight. There was plenty of storage space for everything, and the extra dressing table (along with the writing desk) allowed me to stay sane while sharing with my daughters for the week. If it is at all possible, book the suites, In my view it made a lot of difference to the whole experience(and penthouse suites on other cruises are usually prohibitively expensive for us, so it was a splurge for us this time)
Spacious cabin and balcony, great bathroom and tons of storage.