Have you ever spent a lot of money on a cruise and felt like you were on a transport ship?   This is how I felt after our July 4 - July 11, 2009 cruise on the Pride of America.    For those of you who have read Feinstein's book a good walk spoiled, that is how I felt.   A great trip, spoiled.   But first the bright spots.    The Pride of America is very pretty and well maintained.   All decked out in a USA theme, and very clean.   When I first boarded, I was impressed.    People at check in were nice if not enthusiastic.    The rooms are nice.  Big enough for two comfortably.    The ports are great,  the tours are great.   Food was spotty....some very good and some very bad.  Now on to the sad parts about this trip:1:  We boarded at a little after 2 pm.  When we got to the 10th floor to go to our rooms, we we scolded and told to leave, that the rooms were NOT ready.     No problem,  we dragged our carry-on bags up to the top deck and waited.  I find it strange that a ship would board passengers before clean. 2:  When we got to our rooms, all the bags for the entire floor were stacked along the walls.   No one met us at the cabin,  so we, like a lot of other passengers simply dug through the bags to find ours.   I am sure they would have eventually delivered them,  but we were tired and wanted to clean up for dinner!3:  When we were waiting earlier on the top deck we noticed that the music was awfully loud, so we went to watch the fireworks on the side walkways, well away from the pools.   Shortly after the first few fireworks,  the PA/Alarm system, not the speakers, started blaring yankee doodle dandy.  It was so loud that everyone I could see had to cover their ears.   I went to ask if they could lower the volume so people could enjoy the fireworks and the DJ simple smiled and ignored me.  (He probably could not hear.)      The next morning we stopped the cruise director and mentioned it to him,  he simply nodded and walked off.  4:  The entire cruise no one from our group of 7 (even the teenagers that were with us) could deal with the volume of the music.   I tried my noise canceling headphones and an ipod,  but could not hear anything but the blaring speakers.   So we decided to go to the Napa Wine bar.   Same story.   Repeat at virtually all public locations of the ship.   One night we thought we had found a cozy quiet corner to play a family board game when a guy with a boom box attached to two large speakers arrived and here we go again!  We couldn't hear each other!  Very sad.  He seemed to be a talented man - his instructions were just all wrong.5:  What really amazed me about all of this was the lack of response if you asked about anything.   For instance,  I went the second night to the Pink Champagne and Cigar Bar for a cocktail and a cigar.   I was told they had no cigars, and you could not smoke.   When I asked about the brochure he said,  "Yeah, I know it says that we are a cigar bar, but we haven't had one for years.  I don't know why they don't fix that."6:  I guess the final straw was when we had decided to stay out a little late one night.   At 9:15 we were told that with the exception of one small diner,  EVERY restaurant was closed for the night!   I have never heard of this on a ship so I went to the front desk to talk to someone.   I was told  "We have 900 people at the Luau tonight."  I asked what about the 1000 people still on the boat?  She said something to the effect of "Order room service and fill out our survey when you get home!"In summary,  what had the potential of being a great trip was spoiled for me by a noise level that prevented visits to the public areas, and a service level that overall screamed,  "Hey, I am here to get you from point A to Point B,  nothing more."  I think that for someone who simply wants to see a little of four islands in seven days,  this is probably the only realistic choice you have.  But it is not a typical cruise experience in my opinion.