This was my second cruise in 6 months. My first was on Carnival " Victory" in October with a girlfriend. On Pride Of Aloha I went with 10 other family members. We booked the cruise and air from a newspaper ad that gave a great discount for booking within 24 hours. We had 3 couples celebrating wedding anniversaries and 2 birthdays. I had read many reviews and was concerned but I always look on the bright side and felt that this vacation would be what we made of it.

Unfortunately we had some problems with Travel Agency getting names spelled wrong and air schedules together but we still kept saying this is no big deal -we are going to Hawaii!! Checking in was no big deal although employees did seem to be overwhelmed. We had a wheelchair waiting for my Mom and were taken to our inside room to freshen up before going for dinner. I like to unpack so I feel like I have some permanency for a week. There was very little room to put clothes away. Fortunately I brought extra hangars with me. The beds are rock hard which I had been told; but thought would have been improved from other readings of renovations. My comparison is from the Carnival cruise where we had awesome hotel quality beds that I wanted to take home with me. Now I know we spend little time in our rooms but my Mother had to rest quite a bit and had difficulty sleeping. As she does not complain I did not call for the foam mattresses to make the beds more comfortable. The highlight of our room was that we were near an elevator and used room service almost every morning for coffee and snacks. Excellent service on our room steward and cleaning crew. We always had plenty of clean towels, ice, etc. Not sure why we had a refrigerator in the room-did not save leftover food and beverages were available all day. Space would have been better used for drawers.

We tried the buffet the first night and were very disappointed at choices and quality. We decided we would make reservations for the freestyle restaurant 'The Crossings' for the next few nights. Even with reservations we had horrible service. Our reservations were always when the restaurant opened at 5:30 pm. We felt this would give us plenty of time to see the shows at 7PM. 2-1/2 hours was the quickest we could get dinner completed. I do not blame the waiters. The kitchens did not seem to have their act together. They were out of main courses offered when we sat down to order. I do not care for the freestyle dining that everyone raves about. Why are there more specialty restaurants than freestyle? Did everyone know that the 2 freestyle restaurants share the same kitchen and menu? Lots of choices right? I am not a food fanatic but why should we pay extra to get good quality food and service? The food in the Crossings and Palace was good but not exceptional. Not once was a real steak offered- top sirloin is glorified hamburger. Lobster? Rubbery with no taste. What I really found surprising was the fresh fruit offered was either over ripe or not ripe yet. Doesn't Hawaii have fresh pineapples year round? Yes- I know it is not their biggest industry anymore but come on! Read more