Took my fifth NCL Cruise on the Pride of America from July 10 - 17. This is my third time cruising Hawaii but first ever on the Pride of America. We sailed the Pride of Aloha on her maiden voyage in 2004 after the Pride of America sank during construction earlier that year. The Pride of Aloha (POA) cruise is a well documented "disaster" cruise from even NCL. The crew was raw and the ship and product not quite ready but we got through it. (NCL refunded our daily service charges & gave us a great discount on a future NCL cruise as compensation for the bad cruise.).

For the first time I was disappointed with an NCL cruise. It was not a "disaster" and there was no major item that disappointed me. More of a combination of lots of little things. It simply is not a good cruise and I cannot recommend this cruise. I liked my cruise on the POA better than the POAm! (and I am a seasoned cruiser who knew what to expect with the NCL America product.)

The shame of it is that the POAm is many people's first experience with NCL. I fear that it casts a negative image of NCL overall and turns many people off from cruising the other ships in NCL's fleet. (which in my opinion are excellent.) I am one to try to talk to other cruisers about their experiences and feelings toward the cruise. I regret to say that most first time NCL cruisers on board had a negative opinion on NCL as a result of this cruise. Those who had sailed NCL before simply had a mostly negative opinion of the POAm and not NCL in general. NCL may want to seriously look at the negative public relations the POAm cruises is causing them. Read more