Pride of America Cruise Review by desertgirl1960

That being said we had a great time. I would definitely arrive at least one day before embarkation especially if you are flying from the east coast. We arrived on Friday and stayed at the Westin Moana Surfrider for one night. The hotel was gorgeous - on the beach and centrally located for shopping and restaurants. Everything was within walking distance. We used Roberts Hawaii for our transfers from the airport to the hotel and then from the hotel to the pier the next day. Just buy a round trip ticket ($15 round trip-$9 one-way) when you get on the bus at the airport. I did call them about a week before we left to reserve a time to be taken from the hotel to the pier. You don't need a reservation for the ride from the airport to the hotel. Efficient enough way to get around and much cheaper than a cab but you will have to be patient because they take everyone on a big bus and you have to sit through them dropping everyone else off if your hotel is last on the list.

Embarkation - We got there around 1:30 and there was quite a line. You give them your luggage to be delivered to your stateroom. Fortunately for us, we are Latitudes members and were able to get in that line and our wait was only 5 minutes. We went directly to lunch and then sat by the pool to wait for them to call our floor when the cabin was ready. We took bathing suits out of our suitcases beforehand so we could swim and sit by the pool until our cabin was ready. Not sure what time our cabin ended up being ready as they never called deck #9. We wanted to stay by the pool all day anyway and when we left around 5:30 to go find our cabin, it was ready and 2 of our suitcases were there with a note to go to deck #3 because they were holding our 3rd suitcase. When we got to deck #3, they just said they saw that we had a travel iron in the suitcase and wanted to warn us to be very careful as someone on another cruise line left their iron on and it fell and started a fire that consumed 50 staterooms. I assured them I would be careful and we were on our way w/our suitcase. I will say that although the ship says you can borrow an iron for 1 hour, I heard many people complaining that irons were few and far between and they could never get one.

Ship - The ship was very nice with a patriotic scheme. We had a balcony cabin on deck #9 and although it was small, it was certainly adequate for the amount of time you spend in the cabin. Keep in mind that this type of vacation is a way to see the Hawaiian Islands, not really a cruise. The ship is basically a floating hotel. We met people on our tours that were staying at hotels and flying from island to island and they indicated that it really wasn't the way to go if you want to go to all the islands. They all said they wasted an entire day each time they went from one island to another. By going on the POA, you unpack once and that's it. We were literally gone from sun-up to sun-down everyday. We used the cabin to shower and sleep. Why spend time on the ship when you can explore the Hawaiian Islands???

Food - We ate at Lazy J Steakhouse, Italian Restaurant, Skyline, Liberty, Cadillac Diner and Aloha Buffet. All were very good - not 5 star but good. If possible, avoid the Aloha Buffet. We only had lunch there a couple of times, but it was extremely chaotic and seemed worse for dinner. We ate all of our breakfasts and dinners in the sit down menu-driven restaurants and that worked out well. We were rarely on the ship for lunch.

Tours - We only booked one tour through NCL and that was on the final day before we went to the airport to catch our flight home. This is what we did:

Maui - 1st day - Road to Hana - used Valley Isle Tours. Great tour - they pick you up right at the pier. They go out on a small van in groups of 12. The vans are air-conditioned and have very large windows. It was excellent.

Maui - 2nd day - Rented a car from Thrifty - I would highly suggest reserving any cars you need before the cruise. Many people who did not were out of luck as there were no cars to be had. We drove around the west side of the island to Lahaina and further to a blowhole. Beautiful scenery and a great day.

Hilo - Volcanos National Park/Rainbow Falls tour. We did this tour through Roberts Hawaii (they pick you up right at the pier). We had originally booked this tour through the ship and then found out that Roberts had the same exact tour for $50 less - each!. Good tour and great service from Roberts.

Kona - Historic Kona tour - We did this tour through Roberts Hawaii (they pick you up right at the pier). Again, we originally booked this tour through the ship and then found out that Roberts did the same exact tour for $20 less. Good tour - not the greatest but that was because we had a driver w/no personality.

Kauai - 1st day - We went ziplining. We went through Princeville Ranch Adventures. Princeville is on the north side of the island so you have to rent a car to get there - about 45 min to 1 hr drive. We had reserved a car prior to the trip so that was not a problem. It's a beautiful drive. Ziplining was FANTASTIC! After ziplining, we drove further along the coast and hung out at Hanalei Bay Beach Park for a few hours. It's absolutely gorgeous and only about 10 minutes past Princeville. We also stopped at Kiluea Lighthouse and Wailea Falls on the way back.

Kauai - 2nd day - We took a helicopter tour. We went thru Blue Hawaiian. The are located right in town so no need to rent a car. The trolley will take you there for free from the pier - only about a 5 minute drive. I would highly recommend Blue Hawaiian - this tour was the highlight of our trip!

Disembarkation - NCL makes this very, very simple. Our flight back to the east coast was not until 10:30 p.m. so we chose to do the Circle Island Tour of Oahu. It leaves @ 9:15 a.m. and drops you @ the airport around 5:30 p.m. Great way to spend the day and see all of Oahu. One word of warning though, when they dropped us off @ 5:30, we did not realize that US Air ticket check-in did not open until 7:30. We had our boarding passes (printed them on the ship-very easy) but we had to check luggage and they also require you to go through FDA scanning machine. So we had to sit outside the airport for 2 hours. I would check with your airline to see if this would apply to you. One way around this would be to take the Grand Circle Island tour which includes Pearl Harbor. That tour doesn't drop you back the airport until about 7:30 p.m. If we had known that, we would've done that tour even though we already saw Pearl Harbor. Waiting for the ticket counter to open seemed endless!

One other thing. I noticed in several reviews that people complained about the staff on the ship being rude. I have to say we did not run into one staff member that was rude. Everyone we dealt with was courteous, helpful, accommodating and had a smile on their face whenever they spoke to us.

All in all, great trip and great way to see the islands. You definitely need more time on each island to really see everything there is to see but that's a great reason to go back!