Norwegian Sky Review

Pride of Aloha - Hawaii

Review for Hawaii Cruise on Norwegian Sky

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Sail Date: Mar 2005
Cabin: Balcony

I read many reviews before sailing, and hoped they were wrong; they were not. We loved Hawaii and all the islands, but we definitely did not love the ship. I never received the tags to put on luggage before going; so I called directly to NCL and asked about them; was told don't worry they will have them for you at the airport when you arrive. Long story short; the man in charge had no clue what I was talking about and said he didn't have any tags. Other cruisers tried to give me theirs, but my luggage would have ended up in their cabin. I pressured him for an answer to my problem and he finally found some blank tags to use. We were told there would be a porter to take our bags to the bus; there was not. When we took out luggage to the truck that was taking it to the ship, the guy loading wanted to know where my luggage tags were; not a good sign. Move forward to embarkation and watching everyone get their luggage; after two calls to the reception desk, and physically asking someone in the hall to help, we got out bags around 9:00. Not a great first day. Not enough storage space, nor hangers; just as I had read. Food on the ship was mediocre at best. In the restaurants, the menu on the soup, salad side never changed for 7 days; so if you didn't like most of the stuff, too bad. The entrees were the same except for the top two, which changed daily. The buffet food was not much better. On two different occasions, we had to put coffee cups back because they were dirty. The orange juice was watered down, and the milk and cream dispenser stopped working. The ship was really dirty; everywhere. This was a scenic cruise, and you literally could not see out the windows anywhere on the ship. They were never cleaned while we were on board. We had a balcony stateroom, and upon arrival we found an ashtray full, I mean full, of butts which we left and the day we disembarked the ship, they were still there. One of our excursions was cut short by a half hour, and part of our tour was not done. When I questioned the tour person, she said there was a wreck on the road and they needed to come back so the people on our tour would not miss the luau. Funny, we never passed a wreck; but we saw people lined up for the buses to the luau; one of which was the one we just got off of. They needed our bus, and cut us short.

Disembarkation is called "at your leisure" which translates to you go when they tell you. We made the mistake of letting the cruise line book our flight, and being from Arizona we wanted to see the memorial in Honolulu. We were scheduled back on a 2:00 p.m. flight; which allowed us no time for that excursion. Our travel agent said we could switch flight time for $50 each. Don't think so; I've already spent more than I care to mention. So we left the ship at 9:20 a.m. to the most disorganized system in Honolulu I have ever seen. No one there from the cruise line to help you find the shuttle bus to the airport; we all were walking in circles. Most people we spoke to were very unhappy with the end of the trip. After a long wait at the airport, we boarded United from Honolulu to Los Angeles. Then a small plane from Los Angeles to Phoenix. We got home, but our luggage didn't. Didn't get it until 7:30 the next night. That's a whole other issue with United. Overall, terribly disappointed in the cruise. We would go again, on another cruise line, but we will never cruise anywhere on NCL. Nor would I recommend this cruise to anyone. If you are going to cruise the islands, do it with any one other than Pride of Aloha. They simply don't care about their customers.

Cabin Review

Balcony

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