Before my wife and I went on this cruise we read all of the reviews on this site and boy was I nervous about what to expect. We have cruised a lot and mainly with Azamara, Oceania, Uniworld and AMA. These cruise lines are smaller and service is first class so we were wondering if we made a mistake signing on with NCL after reading all of the negative comments. Well now that we are home all I can say to the negative reviewers is "What are you talking about?"! If you go on a cruise ship that is really just a 3-star and expect to be treated like you are on a 5-star ship then what do you expect? You pay for what you get. And honestly the Pride of America is not that bad. People complained about the food. Is it equal to Azamara or Oceania? Of course not! But it's OK. We went to 2 of the specialty restaurants and my recommendation would be don't waste your money. The 2 dining rooms and the buffet are just fine. In fact we never found the buffet to be all that crowded except for the last morning. People complained about the staff being lazy and rude. I don't think we have been on a cruise were someone wasn't nice. They are human after all. And if you say hi with a smile then we found that most of the time it was returned. We were in cabin 9088 and the lady who took care of the room was great! Waiting staff in the restaurants were friendly and helpful. And in the buffet they were very efficient. We have been on Celebrity before where the buffet staff stood around talking while dishes piled up on the tables. This never occurred on POA. People complained about the ship being old and tired. I didn't see that. In fact the carpets looked new to me. And as I said before, they do a great job of keeping the ship clean. And anyway who goes to one of the most beautiful places on Earth to sit on a ship??? The ship is just a moving hotel so you don't have to pack and unpack many times and you get to see many of the islands.

OK off my soapbox.

Before the cruise: Read more