Pride of America Review

A Little Piece of Heaven

Review for Hawaii Cruise on Pride of America
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mrs_minnie_winnie
First Time Cruiser • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Dec 2008
Cabin: Balcony

I never really dreamed we would go to Hawaii, like some people do. However, we've really been blessed & this was my husband's & my 3rd trip to Hawaii. We went in 2004 and 2006 on NCL's Pride of Aloha. Loved both cruises! This year, we went November 29th through December 6th, 2008 and brought our family. There were 8 of us. My son and his fiance, my brother and his wife, my sister in law and her husband, and my husband and I. We all work hard, and this was THE only vacation for us all year, so we were really excited & looking forward to it all year. We were not disappointed at all in NCL's Pride of America! It was new to us. We too had read many reviews before we went. Don't let them scare you! We had an AWESOME time! The ship was clean, the stewards were wonderful & friendly! The food was great. We have many wonderful photos & videos & have many fun memories and great tours & family dinners together. We did our boarding passes online 24 hrs prior to our flight with no problems, for all of us. We woke at 2:30am on a Saturday morning & all met at 4am to leave for Kansas City airport. It was a long flight & tiring, but we brought movies to watch & books to read & were so excited to see land! YAY! We picked up our own luggage & were loaded into a mini van to the port. Embarking was fairly quick & easy. We never had any missing luggage. We ate at the buffet upstairs our first evening, because it was quick. The ship left at 8:30pm Hawaii time for Maui & arrived in the morning. We went on the "Lahaina on your own" tour & went on the SUGAR CANE TRAIN ride first. It took us around the coast line & was very scenic. Then we ate at BUBBA GUMPS! That was fun! That was our tour the first day. We ate at SKYLINE the first evening & it was very nice. Most of us had lobster tail. I had steak. We didn't have to get too dressy. It was comfortable & yet classy. Our 2nd day in Maui, we went to the Maui Ocean Center which was very nice. We saw anything from seahorses to sea turtles, hammerhead sharks, jelly fish, star fish, bright yellow dinner plate size fish, to the humuhumunukunukuapua'a. :) We also saw the Iao Needle. It was a beautiful spot. Beautiful blue skies. Breath taking views. Pictures don't do justice & nor describing it here to someone who has not seen it before. From here the ship went to Hilo on the big island Hawaii the next morning. We went to the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Gardens. GORGEOUS! We saw banana trees, pineapple plants, bamboo, orchids of every color & design. God is a great artist & what an imagination. You can see it in the various fish he made too. Anyway, there is a beach area at the gardens that is just breath taking. Our only complaint was that they cut the time for the tour & we did not feel we had enough time to really stroll & relax. We had to hurry through, in order to get the pictures we wanted. In the evenings, we went to Karaoke and saw Chris Alpine, who was a great comedian. That evening, we saw lava flowing from the mountain. Unreal! Again, you can't explain it to someone who has not seen it before. The next morning, we arrived in Kona. Kona's water is beautiful! Crystal clear & blue green! You can see the under belly of the boats. AWESOME. We went on a glass bottom boat & dolphin search. It was a 70' catamaran. We came to an area & they told us we were going to go slow & see if we could find some dolphins & let them feel comfortable with us around them. It is their area! Soon, we saw the tips of their fins. And then we creeped up slowly & we saw dozens of them, crystal clear, frisking & jumping & seemingly friendly. That was the highlight of the week for me! :) Believe me, we got lots of pictures & video. I'm thrilled how they turned out. From Kona, the ship traveled to Kauai. Each afternoon, after we got back from a tour, we got in the habit of eating at the Cadillac Diner. It was a step up from the Aloha buffet (for us) although I cannot complain about the buffet either. We generally went to the buffet each morning for breakfast, because it was quick & easy. We had good meals & got to sit outside in the fresh air right with the mountains & the ocean! Words can't describe! That too, was a favorite thing for me! Sitting out by the mountains & ocean. Each afternoon, we ate at the Cadillac & they soon got to know our group of 8. They were very friendly to us all. We liked going here because the food was GREAT. Comfort foods. They had a pretty good variety too. Everyone loved the brownie & ice cream with a cherry on top. They also had cheesecake & good milk shakes. In Kauai, we went to the Fern Grotto our first day. My husband & I had been here before on a previous trip. And honestly, this was a disappointing tour for us, because it was not like before. Foliage was brown & the cave was closed & pathways were overgrown & not used anymore. They didn't give out a complimentary maitai anymore. No tram ride. No scenic walk or any of the same tropical plants we had seen before. Only a boat ride down the Wailua River. That made me sad. That evening, we went to the luai in Kauai. It was indoors. Very nice property & grounds. Mountains & pineapple fields & coffee trees in the backgrounds. First, we went on a train ride through the property which was fun. Then we were assigned to a table in a huge room. Loud Hawaiian music. Was kinda hard to hear or talk. They had a central stage for their dances. The meal looked appealing & everybody seemed to be filling their plates. This evening too was special to our family because my son proposed to his fiance Hayley that night, from the stage. The people were all cheering him on to get on bended knee, which he did. They ended it with a dance to the Hawaiian wedding song. Very nice touch. :) Our 2nd day in Kauai, we went to the Waimea Canyon! That was also AWESOME. Very pretty & colorful, though it was a bit hazy. There was a huge waterfall there. I believe the tour bus took us to other waterfalls / scenic spots to take more pictures on the way also. The tour busses also stop at souvenir shops at times & other scenic spots. We stopped by a blow hole which was really cool & had beautiful beach spots for pictures. That afternoon, after eating at Cadillac, of course, we went back to pack up! Awwww. The week went so fast! :) But it was a full week. We chose to take our own luggage off the ship the next morning & had pre-reserved two rental cars for our group. (There was no way all of our luggage would fit in one car + 8 people). :) We had another problem this day. The evening before, we went to the internet cafe on the ship to do our boarding passes for our return flight home 24 hrs prior to our flight. The flight was 11:15pm Saturday night. Well, when we went online to do this, it only did 4 correctly out of 8. My husband called the airport & they would not do anything over the phone. They said you must come to the airport. So we did early Saturday. Again, we had no help! They were not even nice to us at UNITED. They said they could not guarantee us seats, much less have our seats by our spouses! This was very upsetting & stressful & kinda dampened the mood of our last day (in Honolulu). They told us they couldn't help us & to come back when they were boarding that evening. It was very frustrating to say the least! Meanwhile, we stopped by the sights at Pearl Harbor...a must do. And then went to the Dole Pineapple Plantation. Last time we went, my husband & I went on a train ride through the property & saw beautiful mountains & rusty red dirt & pineapple fields & coffee trees & sugar cane. This time we did not have time, because of the boarding pass situation. Most of us got a pineapple ice cream cone & souvenirs here. From here we drove down to Waikiki along the beaches & condos. We ate at our favorite Red Lobster. Had a great meal. Great photos. We ended the day by walking on the beach here. Watched the sunset. :) Then returned our car at the rental & shuttled to the airport. We were a few hours early, but hoping to get some seats. No one came to the counter until preboarding began. My husband & I got in line & waited. (I had prayed all day about this!) We told the lady our dilemma & she did a few clicks & our seats came up, next to each other, just fine! :) Two others in our group were in line behind us & their seats did not come up yet! He was very frustrated. Literally, minutes before we boarded, two girls gave up their seats for 1st class seats, which opened up two seats for our group, side by side. Thank heavens. It was a long day, but everything worked out in the end. We had a good flight going home, though we were delayed taking off by an hour, because of a mix up in loading luggage! It was night time when we boarded, so they dimmed the lights and we slept most of the long flight. We transferred in Denver, having to run for our connecting flight. We had a few minutes to spare. Thankfully, we made it & were all safe. It was a great trip...great memories. Great ship. I would definitely recommend anyone going NCL! I would definitely go NCL again. :)

Cabin Review

Balcony

Cabin BC

Cabin was adequate. Small but surprisingly had enough room for everything we had. Bathroom was fine. We had a balcony room. A must do, especially in Hawaii.

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