Just got back from a 7 night Hawaii cruise on Pride of Aloha. Before writing this, I read the very recent review of NCL's Pride of Hawaii by a couple who traveled first class in their choice of cabin, and in a new NCL ship. Here are thoughts about an older NCL ship, in a cabin with a porthole, from the West Coast.
This was a great travel bargain. We do not cruise a lot, having been on 3 major cruises (Celebrity, Princess, and the now defunct World Explorer), plus a Russian river cruise. We always go for the destinations, not the cruise. We do travel extensively around the world, and we have been to Hawaii 5 times before, to all the ports included. That said, we had a sensational time.
We booked the trip 5 weeks ahead of the departure date, which was December 10. Apparently this week is slow for the cruise lines, and the cruise was priced at less than $1000, including all port charges and taxes for the two of us. In addition, American Airlines had a fare sale, and for $306 apiece we were able to fly roundtrip from L.A. Coach, of course.