Pride of America Review

Pride of America Hawaiian Islands cruise

Review for Hawaii Cruise on Pride of America
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JAMOZ
6-10 Cruises • Age 60s

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Additional details

Sail Date: Nov 2015
Cabin: Balcony

The ship was lovely, not too big, very well-maintained but it was a very American style cruise with all American staff. The ship does not travel into international waters so no duty free shopping, casino or anything like that on it because you stay in American waters. Entertainment was good as was the overall quality of this cruise.

We did not eat at any of the restaurants as we saw no need to pay more for eating on the same ship. Have done this on other cruises and found it was not worth the money.

The ports of call were good, the cruise itself was nice, good food quality with a nice selection.

Cabin Review

Balcony

Cabin BX

This is a disabled persons cabin so had more room for a wheelchair to manoeuvre. This also meant less storage space and no cabinets in bathroom, but a bigger bathroom and shower.

Balcony was very nice. Clean and had a lovely cabin steward.

Port Reviews

Hilo

Docked in container port. Wi Fi difficult to find. Free shuttle from pier to Walmart, Target and Safeway. These shops are not walkable.

We did a Blue Hawaiian Helicopters Circle of Fire and Waterfalls tour. Wonderful flight over the volcano. We booked this ourselves from home not through NCL. Blue Hawaii did not include transport here so we paid a taxi US$15+tip from ship to helicopter. Taxi from airport to farmer’s market was US$13.80 +tip.

The only bad thing was we wanted to buy the usb of our ride but there was no commentary. I should have still taken the usb for the views of the Volcano. Silly me.

We then went into town to the farmer’s market. Beautiful fresh ripe fruit.

Hilo itself is not very appealing, looks tired and run down. Not a decent coffee shop to be found. Ended up getting a lift from a lovely local lady to Walmart, which is outside town. Free shuttle runs from cruise ship to Walmart.

Kona (Kailua Bay)

Tendered in from ship.

Kona was lovely. Here we found a café with Wi-Fi so we could catch up with family and emails. We then went for a ride on the trolley bus from the jetty, US$2 (correct change only), that does a 5 km loop out of town along the coast to a beach (not great) and then to a shopping centre. We stayed on for the whole round trip and got off a couple of stops before the jetty to explore the shops, market and there is also the Hulihe Palace museum (small charge). Had a very large beer in the fishops restaurant on the seafront.

Lovely place and would go back there in the future.

Kauai

Dock in container port.

There are two free shuttles from the pier. One goes to Kmart, Macy’s and out of town shops, the other one goes to downtown shops and the beach.

All car hire firms pick up from guard station. Short walk off ship.

We did a Blue Hawaiian Helicopter Eco Adventure tour over Waimea Canyon and the Na Pali coastline, Absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, once again the commentary was missing but this time I took the usb. Blue Hawaii picked us up from the guard station at the pier.

After helicopter we just walked up the road to Dollar car hire to collect our car and drove up to Waimea Canyon, what a beautiful place, as gorgeous from the ground as it was in the air. Right at the top is the wettest place in the world.

We parked the car overnight at the small shopping centre where DUKES restaurant is. US$20 to leave it in their car park. Used the free shuttle to get back to ship and back to car again next day. Last shuttle 10pm first is 8am. Check times with drivers.

Next day we just drove up the coast, returned the car late morning and went back to ship on Dollar shuttle.

In the afternoon after departing Kauai the ship cruised up the Na Pali coastline. We sat on our balcony having a beer and loved every minute of it.

Honolulu

Waikiki is very busy, very expensive and a tourist trap.

Lots of hotels but very few actually on beach. Waikiki beach is not at all what we expected, very poor, disappointing and full of the homeless. They are everywhere, in parks and on beach sleeping, congregating at McDonalds.

Luckily we stayed outside Waikiki at The Modern Hotel.

Plenty of things to do in Oahu. Some beautiful and historical sites to visit.

Transport.

Trolley buses in Honolulu run 4 lines.

Book online at WAIKIKTROLLEY.COM or at your hotel concierge.

Pink line US$2 per long or short trip.

1 day pass available for all four lines US$38.00 adult US$28.00 child

1 day pass $20 one line

4 day pass $59.

Also Roberts coaches do nearly any one way trip for US$9 pp.

Huge Walmart behind Ala Moana mall. Ala Moana mall is all high end shops.

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