Pride of America Review

4.5 / 5.0
2,365 reviews

Pride of America - Hawaii

Review for Hawaii Cruise on Pride of America
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Redh0tw
First Time Cruiser • Age 40s

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Sail Date: Jan 2007
Cabin: Mid-Ship Balcony

I just returned back from the NCL  Pride of America Cruise 01/13/2007 - 01/20/2007.

Embarking on the ship was easy, a lot easier than most international water cruises. They take your picture, hand you a freestyle newsletter, and give you your sign and sail pass and you're done. Away you go to find your room.

Once on the ship you arrive on deck 5 near the reception desk. We were informed that our room was unavailable at that time however we should go discover the ship which my friends and myself did do. Of course we ended up on deck 11 Lido Deck at the Ocean Drive bar and ordered a concoction and just took in the beautiful weather and scenery. We arrived on the ship at approximately 1:30pm and around 2:30pm we were informed that our stateroom was ready. So off we went to find room 9624, Port side. Once there I was taken back by the size of the room. I had been on other cruises with other cruise lines prior to this one, and for a balcony it was on the tight squeeze end. The scenery from my balcony was pretty lame, the constant view of industrial ports But I didn't come on the cruise to stay in my stateroom, so I put my carry-on luggage down and proceeded out the door since my other luggage hadn't arrived yet. I met up with my friends and we proceeded to check out the ship on numerous levels. Shore Excursions (we had already booked through NCL before the cruise), Gift Shops, and Golf Shop are on level 5. However with that being the same deck you arrive on, it was pretty hectic down there, so we proceeded to try level 6. Level 6 we found the Cadillac Diner and the Napa Wine bar.. If you go through the Napa Wine bar you will find Lazy J's Steakhouse and if you would like to eat at the Liberty Main Restaurant I suggest going to level 5 and walk all the way to the end of the ship and taking the stairs up that way or the elevator.. However I found the Skyline to have excellent service. We decided to arrange our reservations for dinner since there weren't too many people on the ship yet. We decided to do Sushi that night at 5:30pm and Lazy J's on Tuesday. With the rest of the nights at Skyline main Restaurant. After that I decided to go check on my luggage since it was almost 3:30pm, Luggage had arrived so I proceeded to put clothes away and even though I said the rooms are quite small there are lots of storage space in the closet. They even put extra hangers in the lower basket in the closet for you just in case. Muster drill is at 5 so before I went to that I got ready for dinner and after the drill I proceeded to find a bar for a cocktail before dinner. I went to deck 5 since East meets West is there and walked up to the John Adams Coffee Bar and met Mikah very nice guy by the way. I asked Micah for a AmberBoch and he didn't have any.. so I asked for a Sam Adams Cherry Wheat and he nixed me on that notion too. So I decided to have a diet coke and wait for the rest of my party to arrive off the elevators for dinner. Once my party arrived we went over to East Meets West to have sushi (which by the way only seats 9 and that is the ONLY place you can have sushi) once there the sushi chefs were very funny and recommended some amazing rolls that I would have never thought of. The Host spoke to all of us and recommended that we try the Teppanyaki Room on Friday evening at 5:15pm since it sits next to the windows and on Friday evening they cruise by the very beautiful and majestic Na Pali Coast Line. Very beautiful for dinner.. So we took him up on his suggestion and made dinner reservations for Friday evening. After dinner my party and myself split up into different groups to explore the ship and plus we were all with the Chrysler group and after wondering around for a bit, I soon realized that I was one of the youngest people on the ship and I'm 30 except for the crew members. Mikah earlier suggested I try the Gold Rush Saloon for my beers so I wondered up to the 11th deck and that is where I met Corey (Amazingly talented and knowledgeable bartender) He informed me that they did not have those beers on the ship however he recommended Dos Equis Amber and that's all she wrote Very comparable. There is a party on Deck 11 and they will hand out Leis to all the women and I know some of our male friends had asked for one and they got one too. Pretty fun to sit and enjoy. After we left the port the sailing was VERY ROUGH I do not usually get seasick but OMG was it rough. I ended up at the gift shop to purchase Dramamine $4.00 by the way and if you don't use the first night than you will use it by the 2nd. The beds are uncomfortable if you like soft beds and the pillows are pretty stiff too. I recommend if you can bring your own pillow and ask the room steward for the egg crate foam for the bed. (Lisa our room steward was fantastic; unfortunately we didn't know about the egg crate foam until Thursday)

Cabin Review

Mid-Ship Balcony

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