This cruise is a DO NOT MISS if you are going to the Hawaiian Islands!!! The food is outstanding; the service and warmth of the crew are incredible; the balcony cabin midship was fabulous!!! I recommend this cruise very highly in all areas- cleanliness; free-style dining; tours offered; service... We celebrated our second honeymoon (40th wedding anniversary) on this cruise and were made to feel very special with a bottle of champagne! The decor in each of the dining areas and throughout this ship is stunning and classy. The drinks were well-made and the dining and bar services and selections were magnificent. This was a Beautiful and memorable experience all around. I took a painting class and created a work of art souvenir after having a fun time!! The embarkation and disembarkment processes were well organized and painless. A BIG Thank you to NCL and to the crew of the Pride of America!! Read Less

Went on his cruise with my mother,79, who has always wanted to visit Hawaii. We figured this would be the best way to see most of the islands. I was a little concerned after reading some of the reviews but have to tell you that I have nothing but good things to say about the cruise, the ship and the staff! We were made to feel welcome from the time we boarded the ship. We choose the free hotel night before the cruise. The Marriott was excellent and enjoyed our short stay there. We had time Saturday morning to take the Hop On Hop Off tour (green line) around Waikiki. Had a great driver, Bryan, who gave us so much history on the island and everything we saw. A really nice way to see part of the island if you don't have a lot of time to spend. We had a shuttle from the hotel to the ship that NCL provided. Boarding was a breeze and took no longer than 15-20 minutes. Our cabin wasn't ready but we enjoyed a great lunch on board and relaxed by the pool. I even took a guided tour of the ship from one of the asst cruise directors to get familiar with the ship. He was awesome & started our cruise off right! We sailed at 7:00 and had a beautiful view of the sun setting on Honolulu as we left. On Sunday morning we docked at Kahului on Maui. All the docks are in industrial areas, the only downside to the whole trip, but you still have beautiful views of the island. Every morning at a new port they have an information meeting at 8:00 about the town & island. It only lasts about 45 minutes & is so worth it. He will let you know about all the different sites to see & about transportion if you are not taking an excursion. In Kahului we got a $4 all day pass on their city bus and took a really nice ride out to the town of Lahaina, Spent most of the day in this beautiful little town full of shops & restaurants. We stayed overnight docked in Maui and had an excursion Monday morning with Roberts Hawaii, the Best of Maui tour. We went to the Iao Needle, Maui tropical plantation and the Aquarium. The Iao Needle area is breathtaking, so green and lush. Felt like you were far off in the jungle. Little bit of a hike so my mother was unable to go up to the needle but enjoyed seeing everything at the bottom. The plantaion was very interesting and seen lots of native trees & plants. The aquarium was nice and emjoyed all the beautifl views from there. A lot of people took the Road to Hana trip and said it was unbelievable. So much to see & do along the way. You might want to check that out. If I ever come back that will be on the top of my to do list. That night on the ship they had a lei making class where we were able to make some beautiful orchid leis, a lot of fun. We set sail that night and docked in Hilo on Tuesday. We did a Hop On Hop Off tour of the town and saw Rainbow Falls and some black sand beaches. It did rain that day but they said that is normal for Hilo. On Wednesday we anchored outside of Kona. Had to take a tender onto the island but that was well organized and didn't take long at all. Kona by far was the most beautiful stop. Beautiful town and the water was so clear and blue. We did a glass bottom boat tour that was a lot of fun. Thought we'd see more fish but still enjoyed the boat ride. There is a nice little beach where the tender drops you off. Nice clear water and we even saw sea turtles there! Great town for shopping, lots of little stores to choose from. Met some people who went snorkling at Kona and said they came upon dolphins! Great place for snorkling according to them. On Thursday we docked at Nawiliwili Bay on Kauai. There is a nice beach close to the ship at the Marriott to swim & spend some down time. There's a free shuttle to take you within walking distance of the beach. Beautiful botanical gardens here and the Weimea river cruise is one you dont want to miss! Went to The Smith Family Luau at the gardens and had a wonderful time. The food was absolutely delicious and the dancers were amazing. It is a family business with 5 generations working there. It is a smaller luau than others but I think that made it more enjoyable. Had a great time! On Friday we took another Roberts Hawaii tour to Weimea Canyon. You dont want to miss that! Mark Twain dubbed it the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. Absolutely breathtaking! Just when you think Hawaii can't get any more beautiful. Our bus driver, Larry, was a walking enclyclopedia. He talked the entire 2 hours there and back. Learned so much about Kauai from him. We made several stops along the way. The Spouting Horn was pretty cool and the coffee plantation was really interesting. Lots of free samples pus ice cream to end the tour. We set sail to head back to Hononlulu at 2:00. We sailed past the Napoli Coast on the way back and the ship gives you a narrated tour of the coast. Absolutely beautiful, you will thoroughly enjoy that. All the shows on board were great, enjoyed all of the them. They have an amazing magician and all the singers and dancers are very talented. The cruise did a great job of keeping us entertained while at sea, from hula lessons, to lei making, to trvia challenges, & game shows. Can't say enough about the staff on the the ship. All top notch! On Saturday we docked back in Honolulu and disembarking was so easy! They will store your luggage for $5 a bag if you want to sightsee before going to the airport. Thought that was a plus. All in all this was a great cruise and my mother really enjoyed herself, so did I! It is a trip of a lifetime and Norweigian really helped to make it great! Can't wait to go back again with my husband! Enjoy your cruise! Read Less

We wanted to celebrate our 20th anniversary in Hawaii and go on our first cruise (it will NOT be our last). We had a great time on a beautiful ship with excellent crew. Pearl Harbor was amazing (we stayed in Honolulu for 3 days before the ship sailed) and we enjoyed hiking in some out of the way places. Overall Oahu was not someplace we'd go back to. The cruise was fabulous!! Beyond our expectations. All the stops were perfect and we rented a Jeep to do our own exploration on the other islands as well. Do not miss the 8 AM port talk each morning. He had so many great recommendations for things to do beyond shopping (ugh) though if you like shopping they had that too. We enjoyed seeing places that were unique (green sand and black sand beaches in Hilo), swimming with sea turtles (right off the dock) in Kona, going up into Waimea Canyon and hiking in the rain forests on Kauai. In Maui we rappelled waterfalls (tour from ship) which was through Rappel Maui and it was so fun! On the 2nd morning in Kauai, we took a helicopter tour with Blue Hawaiian...money well spent! It is expensive so plan for that. The coastline cruise was so amazing. We sat on our balcony with a glass of wine and listened to the history from the ship speakers and watched the beautiful water and looked at the amazing landscape that we'd just seen by helicopter that morning. LOVED IT!! The food was great but to us the buffet is crazy. We only went for lunch a couple of times for the salad bar. You can get the same food served to you in peace and quiet in Skyline for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We enjoyed that. The few times we got back late for lunch we could still go to the Cadillac Diner which was a good option for any meal. The specialty restaurants (we got 4 free meals in our free bundle) were just fantastic--we ate at Moderno (Brazilian Steakhouse)--our personal favorite, La Cucina (Italian), Cagney's (Steak and fish) and Jefferson's Bistro (French). All were wonderful. The spa was a rip off. WE knew massages would be expensive but they do not disclose a huge service fee added to each massage. A shock to say the least! We loved the photos and all the backgrounds and the photographers were wonderful. We did buy quite a few. Excellent choice and would highly recommend as a great way to see the islands. Read Less

We book the POA as a way to see 4 Hawaiian Islands in one trip. The cruise offers the convenience of a floating hotel. However, the cruise is not on par with other NCL ships. If you don’t have reservations at a sit down restaurant don’t expect a plentiful buffet after 9pm. This was very disappointing since the ship stays in port overnight a few times and we would rather stay on shore as much a possible. Lunch doesn’t open until 12pm on the dot. Turnover is a complete shut down. Late night cookies were very cold no effort to even make the room temperature. The East meets West, Liberty and Skyline restaurants were great. Cadillac Diner was good for breakfast but had a limited menu for the rest of day. Showcased milkshakes for an upcharge. Entire ship is asleep by 8:30 also, so don’t expect a lively night out unless you go off the ship. If you need a floating hotel, this is your ship! Talked with ship staff and they mentioned the cruise was more older folks and geared that direction for activities and food offerings. Read Less

NCL Pride of America offers a wide range of cruising six beautiful islands in 7 days. We were welcomed from the beginning and escorted to dining while our stateroom was getting ready for us. They took us to Cagney's restaurant and we had a wonderful lunch. The ship is beautiful and quite large so it took a little time to get around, but they made it easy. They gave us a great map and everyone on the ship was friendly and helpful. The 7 days went too fast with all there was to do and see, but we enjoyed each day and made special memories. If you want a first class cruise exploring all the beautiful islands of Hawaii this is your cruise. Our stateroom was beautiful with a wonderful view throughout the cruise. Our butler, Jefferey was there each day with treats and goodies or a smiling face. Lynn the friendly lady that kept our room clean and organized was a so helpful. She made us the cutest animals out of towels each day. They were great! The ships entertainment in the evening was good. We especially loved "The Company Men." They definitely are a group you wouldn't want to miss. The restaurants and buffet were good but our favorite was "Jefferson Bistro." They made a special anniversary cake for us to celebrate our "special day." Thank you! The cake was delicious. The excursions were many. and so much to do and see to keep us busy day and night. I loved this cruise and would recommend it everyone wanting to see the beautiful islands of Hawaii while learning so much of the history behind each island. A wonderful 7 day cruise. Read Less

Wanted to see as many of the Hawaiian Islands as we could since this was a once in a lifetime experience for us. We are in our 70’s. Choose the 11 day Oahu experience which included 4 days in Waikiki with 3 tours of the island prior to boarding the ship. Couldn’t have been any better. Tour guide Kimo was perfect. No issues embarking. Our luggage was outside our stateroom upon arrival. We stayed in aft room 10684 with a large balcony. Room was excellent and comfortable. We ate most of our meals in the Skylight restaurant which had a varied excellent menu. We also ate at Cagneys a steakhouse and are still raving about our steaks. The onboard entertainment was excellent. We choose 5 shore excursions. Loved the “Land of the Frozen Fire”, Directors Tour, Maui Beach and Luau. No issues. All the tour guides went out of their way to ensure a fun day. Weather was perfect! We traveled the week after hurricane Lane and had perfect weather on every island. We highly recommend the Pride of America. Also note the age group on this ship varied from babies to seniors. Perfect for anyone. Read Less

My wife an I did this cruise a few years back with a couple of friends - it was a great experience so we thought we should do it again with some other friends. Now we were impacted by the Hurricane, but not as baldy as the cruise just before us. That cannot be helped and I have no complaints about that - though 6 weeks to get a refund is pretty slack - only takes minutes to accept your money! My main gripe is that there is very little value for money, especially if you want to have a few drinks - diet cola costs $5... A 6 pack of beer is $50! That is just extortion, on to which they add a 20% gratuity... This ship should be renamed the vault of America as they must see it as a floating bank into which guests tip in money. Decent coffee - pay, average gelato - pay, soft drink - pay, extra beach towels - pay The food in the buffet and Skyline were ok, but nothing special - I heard the specialty dining option was good - but guess what $$$. Our room steward was very efficient, but overall the service staff seemed like they just started - wrong orders, lonnnggg waits for food, you find more efficient staff at fast food joints. Entertainment was a big let down - compared to the Jersey Boys show we saw last time this was pretty lame. Biggest let down the was the White Hot Dance party - we had great memories of this from last time - we are in our 50s, and that would be about average I'd say for the night. After lining up for 20 minutes go get in the music started and the dance floor was full of....cruise staff!! They were having a great time dancing away - no problem there I guess but the music was right of a gangsta boom boom play list nothing people my age would dance too. I spoke to the dj he just laughed at my suggestions. We and plenty of other left after about 10 minutes. I am sure the staff had a good time though. The zodiac daytrip to Molokini crater should be avoided - while the snorkelling itself was ok, the trip back was in an open boat so EVERYONE got soaked with big waves splashing all over us... a few up the back were throwing up. 2 staff (Ginger and Mary-Ann) for 30 guests is not a good ratio for trips like this, and one of them (Ginger) was piloting the boat. Read Less

First time to Hawaii and took this cruise because I did not want to be at sea out of CA for 4 days. Not our first cruise, as we have been on 8 others with RC, Carnival, and Princess, but I doubt I'll ever be back with Norwegian. Service was poor, probably due to the mandatory 20% gratuity on all bills. The staff knows that nobody will tip above the mandatory 20%, so they never try to ask if you need anything. We sat by the pool on day 1 for hours and had to go to the bar to get our own drinks; the staff simply collected used cups like busboys. This continued all trip with the wait staff in the bar and food areas, along with the room steward. The room steward did the basics, but was never available after the room was made up. First time I've left a cruise and did not tip the room steward. Food in the Liberty dining room was overly salted. On subsequent days, our group started ordering multiple entrees hoping one would be good, but we had multiple meals overly salted (NOTICE how many times the complaint of over salted food comes up in these reviews; it can't be just me if it gets written a bunch). The wait staff tried hard to keep up, but with so many people dining "whenever", they were overwhelmed with multiple tables. Dinners for our table usually started at 6:30 and we were never finished by 9:00. On two days, we waited over 45 minutes between being served appetizers and being served entrees. We finally stopped going to the dining room. Food in the Aloha Cafe is average at best and is pretty much the same day to day with little variation. The one bright spot was the dinner we had in the Cadillac Diner. Food was nothing special, but the overwhelming good service for our group had us leaving a cash tip. And the leader of the wait staff here was very attentive and made sure our experience was great. She should be put in charge of the Liberty Dining Room and maybe things would get better. The excursions off the ship were good, and cost was in line with other areas of the world. We had good experiences with all of our planned excursions. Overall, we got to where we wanted to be OFF the ship as much as we could, since the experience was far better off ship. Our choice changed to spend money on a great dinner in a Hawaiiian port when possible, and leave satisfied with the food and the service instead of being on the ship. The sad thing is that I've written this review now, and my experience was the worst of any cruise I've ever taken, and yet, I spent the most money ever on any cruise. Needless to say, I'll go back to the other cruise lines and make sure I don't take NCL again. And while I write this I'm fully aware that the execs at NCL will never care or act on this, or on my survey I sent in. My only hope is that I've property warned you to know what to expect before you take this cruise and while you'll love seeing Hawaii, you'll be ready for a very poor onboard experience. If you have prior cruise experience, temper your expectations. If this is your first cruise, you likely will think it was a fine time, until you go on a different cruise line and realize the difference. Signed, So Very Disappointed. Read Less

I wanted to do different islands, and my fear of flying on small planes led me to the cruise. We flew in Wednesday night before the hurricane and I did not know what was going to happen. I finally got a notification from NCL on Thursday late that the ship is staying out at sea, and will come back on Sunday and will stay overnight in Honolulu til Monday and leave Monday evening. They cut the day/night at Maui (there went excursion for the sunrise at Halalaka crater) and cut out Kona. The ship wasn’t bad but remember this was not a CRUISE cruise, just a vehicle to get us from place to place. Check in was a breeze , but they also had 400+ cancellations. It took awhile to get the cabin so we went up to the Aloha café to eat. It was good, and easy to find a place to sit. The cabin was nice, balcony, and yes small. It took me 3 days to find the opening for the medicine cabinet. But it had a smell (like sewage), figured it would go away. We were able to get an excursion from the Concierge at our hotel (Waikiki Marriott) to Pearl Harbor and the Missouri - if you can do this, do it. SO worth it. We finally left on Monday night, We had dinner in the Italian Restuarant. The meal was delicious, hot and a lot of food. We split everything so we got to taste a lot of different things. The reservation was at 7:30 and that is too late for me, so I changed all the other restaurants to 6:30 or 7. So much better for me. We also ate at Churiscurra, Cagney's and the Liberty. All were good but the food in the Liberty was not hot. That was my only complaint. Next stop was Hilo - we had an excursion to two waterfalls through Kapohokine? Tiours. They were good. We went to Rainbow Falls and Akaka Falls. It was beautiful and especially after the hurricane rains, the falls were gushing. As we got back to the ship, it started pouring so we took the shuttle at the pier to Walmart. Next day at Maui we were on this hike “short waterfall hike” that I bought through AAA (which used Hike Maui). They were fantastic. They provided backpacks, water and snacks. It’s supposed to be an easy walk but with the excess rain that they had from the hurricane the stream we had to cross was like a fire hose beating at our feet crossing the rocks. And there was some climbing - The guide, Kevin had to help me - normally I’d be able to walk it but there was a narrow path over water and I was rocking from the ship and I was afraid I’d fall over. Oh, the description said, wear shoes that can get muddy. I bought a pair of cheap sneakers in Walmart and it was a good thing Because it was shoe sucking mud!!!1. Next day Thursday 8/30 was Kuai'i - what did we do? There was some grotto river ride which was nice and the next day Friday we did the Journey to Waimia Canyon (again, we bought this through AAA and they use Robert’s which is what the ship used). The ride to the top could be a little nauseating as it’s switchbacks and windy. BUT it was fine. And it was breathtaking. OH, we stopped at the blow hole - I can’t remember the name. And on the way back we stopped at a local coffee plantation. I don’t know if that was part of the excursion but it was nice. Disembarkation was also a breeze. Again there were 400+ less so maybe that had something to do with it. And the shuttle to the airport was good. Read Less

Great price and perks. The cabin was a very nice, but small. The entertainment was excellent. The only negative was the handling of the loss days of the cruise and the lost day on land in Honolulu. I was looking forward to the day in Honolulu. They could of extended it the day we got back. The food was very good. Ports were very beautiful. The shore excursions were also very interesting. We dined in the premium restaurants which were very good. The cruise director Jamie was very informative and active on the cruise. Getting on and off the ship in the various ports was very easy. The service overall was very good. it took a while for the customer service group to help us with our lost day in Honolulu. We finally came to a compromise, on the lost day. Not what I wanted but was OK. If I could get the full trip as I paid for I would go again at the same price. Read Less