Background information -- My husband and I are avid cruisers. We have been on 7 cruises in 5 years so I consider my review as fair from someone who has traveled on several cruise lines. We selected the Pride of America mainly because of the itinerary. Overall, we were not impressed with the ship, ship activities, and especially the service onboard.
Travel To Port of Embarkation -- We arrived in Honolulu and took a taxi cab to the pier. The cab fare was $20 from our hotel (Hilton) in Waikiki. Kind of pricey, but very convenient. The port was quite nice. There were plenty of restaurants and shops to keep us busy until we could board the ship.
Stateroom -- Our stateroom was decent. We expected it to be smaller than other cruise lines after reading reviews, and it was. But it was still well-appointed. We had a balcony room and it was nice to leave the doors open to let in some fresh air. The stateroom was not as clean as other cruise ship rooms. There were smudges all over the mirrors behind the bed that were never cleaned. The carpets were not vacuumed, and unlike other ships, the stateroom attendants did not vacuum daily or clean daily for that matter unless you indicated that you wanted your cabin made outside your door. On other lines, it seemed as though our rooms were made every few hours if it needed to be. Dining -- This is by far where the Pride of America ranks quite poorly. Selections at the buffet were limited. A lot of the food served was not very good. Dinners in the main dining room lacked quality presentation and tasted old and dry. I ordered salmon on one night, lobster on another and chicken. My husband ordered steak, lobster, and prime rib. Each time, the dinner did not look appetizing and tasted how it looked. It was apparent that there is definitely a lack of experience in the kitchen. The ship also offers "freestyle dining" which in theory could have been a good idea. But the execution was so unorganized that the wait for dinner would often be around 45 minutes - 1.5 hours. Even with a reservation we (and many other unhappy guests) waited for at least 30 minutes. The sad thing was that there were plenty of tables available, but the staff was not well trained which would cause for a chaotic mess.