Pride of America Review

4.5 / 5.0
2,363 reviews

Only ok, depending on what you're looking for.

Review for Hawaii Cruise on Pride of America
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blue22girl
2-5 Cruises • Age 40s

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Sail Date: Mar 2015
Cabin: Mid-Ship Oceanview Picture Window

my In-laws had been on this cruise before (twice) and had wanted to go somewhere with us, so we all settled on the NCL POA.

1st off, this was my first trip to Hawaii, and I'm the type that wants to see everything and be immersed in "local".. sights, smells, activities, cuisines, etc. If you're that type, I strongly suggest you reconsider using your vacation on this. their schedule, while making it possible to see 4 islands (and 5 stops) in 7, means that you have very strict start and stop times. and on most days, you have about 8-9 hours in port. don't get me wrong, it was nice waking up and having been "magically" relocated while we were resting, but there were a number of sights and activities we didn't get to do because of the hours (night scuba diving with manta rays off kona, fitting in more than one or two sights a day, etc).

When you are in port, realize that you are landing with a huge cruise ship of tourists into mostly industrial ports (except kona), where you'll have to walk at least half a mile or more until anything (or take their shuttles to touristy shopping plazas where its just store after store of souvenier shops). We booked excursions through the Ship for most days (2 days in Maui, 1 day in Kona and 1 day in Kauai (we got off the boat and stayed 3 more nights in Kauai after that, preplanned). Trying non-touristy local cuisine was nearly impossible without renting a car, and at least the main dining hall didn't showcase any "hawaiian" foods (though they did have at least an option for fish every night, there was no laulau, kalua pork, poke, lapperts ice cream, hawaiian shaved ice, etc).

Cabin Review

Mid-Ship Oceanview Picture Window

Cabin OA

the cabin was ok, small and efficient like most other cruise ships. It was in good condition, and we really didn't have too many complaints on it. We got the ocean view room, except the large window was very dirty (and oddly spotty like someone tried to put a film on it and had air bubbles in certain locations) so that was kind of irritating (I understand windows on the outside get dirty from salt, but the whole weird film which further obstructed any clear view was irritating). Plus, though we weren't on passenger walking deck, we saw people (I assume Crew) walk by on several occasions, so we left the curtains closed most of the time. Would probably save the money and get a lower level room next time. The room wasn't bad, it just wasn't worth it.

It was kept mostly clean, but we must have interrupted the lady who was making up the rooms on more than one occasion (though her supplies showed she'd moved on to other rooms). on 2 of the 6 nights we were on board (we preplanned to leave a night early), we came back after dinner to a room that had no bath-sized towels in the bathroom?!?!? one of those 2 times, we took apart the towel animal on the bed which contained one larger towel and shared). on the other time, we rinsed off and used hand towels to dry instead. SERIOUSLY? Also, every day we'd hang our 2 towels up to dry following use (following the mounted sign that said if we do that, they would not be replaced (ie more ecofriendly). following making up the cabin, they were always mysteriously gone and there'd be 2 folded ones up on top again. whether she just replaced them every day, or she refolded the used ones (so that we couldn't figure out whose was whose, I don't know).

Port Reviews

Honolulu

we landed 2 days earlier than embarkation, rented a car and explored the island. There's a lot of great poke to have, Waikiki is spirited, and Diamond head provides so great views. The spouting horn on the south side is a fun little scramble down, and the north shore is amazing. The actually area around the port... pretty dead (they had closed aloha towers - possibly under renovation), and the area around the University of hawaii was kind of shady (we walked through since we needed sunscreen from Walmart and we were still a little early, and saw 2 incidents where police were called and showed up (none violent, but still!!!).

Hilo

we rented a car (super easy and didn't take long at all - we were close to the first off the boat, and driving away from the car rental place with our car by 8:20- gotta make the most of your day).

We drove down to the southern point area and hiked to the green sand beach (there's little pockets of greener green sand on the way to the actually green sand beach). on the way back, we toured around Volcanoes national park. Loved having the freedom of doing this all.

Kauai

we preplanned to get off the boat on friday (right before sailing back) and spent 3 more nights here. LOVE this island, though not so much the port area. Best decision was to get off the boat and REALLY see and taste Kauai

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