Pride of America Review

Disappointing food - and research needed for shore trips

Review for Hawaii Cruise on Pride of America
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Booklady1066
First Time Cruiser • Age 70s

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Sail Date: Apr 2011
Cabin: Balcony

I realise that Pride of America features 'freestyle' cruising and is going to be informal in style, but I didn't expect that to mean the quality of the food would be so low or that one would be nickle-and-dimed at every turn. If you wanted a milk shake in the 'free' Cadillac diner you had to pay $3.50 (although ice cream and milk are free - go figure!) and they charge for fruit juice once breakfast service closes. Friends who declared they were bringing on a bottle of wine and paid the corkage fee as advertized, ended up with an argument on their hands and it took 3 days and a lot of nagging for them to get their bottle of wine.The Aloha buffet was probably the best bet on the ship - there was sufficient choice that you could find something reasonable to eat. The service at the free Skyline Restaurant was poor - they kept trying to clear away dishes while people were still eating from them and they didn't really listen to people, so they made mistakes. What really annoyed me was the variability of quality in the 'premium' restaurants where you've paid up to $25 extra for a supposedly finer dining experience. When we ate in the French-style Bistro I knew things weren't going to be right when I ordered 'Coquilles Saint Jacque' and received a plate with 3 scallops on a plate with a drizzle of dressing. I expressed my surprise (Coquilles Saint Jacque is a gratin of scallops served on a scallop shell - the symbol of Saint James - it's a classic French dish) but was told it was definitely Coquilles St Jacque. Sorry - the only similarity was the fact that it contained scallops. It was a perfectly reasonable, if somewhat bland dish, but I felt it was symptomatic of the food - call it fancy names and assume your customers are too ignorant about food to know what they should be getting or discern the quality and call them out.Desserts were uniformly awful. Nasty pudding-type things set with lots of gelatine, dried-out brownies, and a 'mocha buttercream torte' which appeared to have been made with some form of lard - I'm certain no butter had gone into the 'buttercream'. Three people at my table ordered the thing and no-one ate more than one bite. Even in the premium restaurant I received a grainy, curdled creme brulee. So, if you want an all-you-can-eat experience it's fine, but if you want quality, you're going to be disappointed. We ate ashore a lot.I'm glad we booked a rental care for each port - it saved us a lot of money over the ship excursions and gave us far more freedom. The ports mainly aren't in attractive areas, so unless you're happy to just take the odd shuttle to Hilo Hattie's and Walmart and enjoy the view of the container docks you're going to need to spend a fair bit of money on excursions or car rental.And if you don't happen to be American, be prepared for the somewhat jingoistic tone and decor of the ship - it was a tad uncomfortable.On the good side, our balcony stateroom was clean and comfortable and our steward, Dennis, was great - friendly and efficient. Boarding and disembarking were handled efficiently. By eating ashore and researching excursions in advance we managed to have an enjoyable vacation - but it could have been better.

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Balcony

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