We are a couple of senior citizens who wanted to see a bit more sun before the Canadian winter sets in. Our Hawaiian cruise on the Pride of Aloha was a package deal offered by a travel agency in Ontario, Canada. This comprehensive package included air transportation to and from Honolulu, hotels and ground transportation from and to the Honolulu airport, hotels and transportation to and from the Pride of Aloha. All of the travel logistics were supervised directly by the travel coordinator who participated in the cruise and many of the shore expeditions.
The Pride of Aloha cruise agenda included the four main islands and was structured so as to spend nights on board while travelling between ports, leaving days open for shore excursions. Though we encountered short but frequent periods of rain, the weather was calm and warm, resulting in soothing ship motion that made for enjoyable nights. Our balcony stateroom was clean, bright and well kept by the ship's crew. We were surprised to find clean wash cloths twice a day.
Out time on board ship was very relaxing. The food was wonderful and the service excellent. While the buffets offered standard fare, the restaurants were excellent. We took most of our meals in either the Crossings or Palace restaurant and greatly enjoyed the dining experience. There were times when the restaurant staff was hard pressed to provide service to all of the patrons in a timely fashion (we heard from the cruise director that there were 2000 passengers plus 900 crew on ship and the chefs created 9,500 meals per day), yet our serving personnel were always professional and courteous. The one specialty Italian restaurant we tried presented us with a dining experience equivalent to higher-end restaurants in any major center. While we did hear complaints from some other passengers as to both the quality of the food and the service in the ships restaurants in general, we found no fault with our cruising experience.