I am TOTALLY FRUSTRATED with NCL at the moment and I would love the opportunity to speak with their CEO or someone from upper management.

Pride of America is a relatively small ship compared to the rest of Norwegian’s fleet. The ship is clean and the crew is, for the most part, very friendly. The cost of the cruise, however, was the most expensive I’ve experienced with NCL coming in just shy of $5100 for my wife and I for a balcony cabin located on the 10th level. I kept telling myself this is Hawaii and you get what you pay for. I can only imagine that NCL spends hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars to acquire your business and maintain your loyalty, but they missed the mark in our particular case. We have been loyal customers of NCL since switching over from another line several years back.

Here are a few things to mull over. We were on the ship for only several hours when a women tripped and fell while exiting a bathroom near the pool area. She landed on my wife’s legs as my wife was entering the bathroom. NCL has a metal ramp going into the bathroom, but there is no similar accommodation as you exit. Next, I don’t believe an Unlimited Beverage Plan is available on POA due to Hawaiian law. However, a waiter at Teppanyaki thought otherwise and questioned where I had heard this. (Just a little embarrassed in front of my friends) Drinks, in my opinion, are very expensive. A Jack Daniels and Coke was $12.35, a Michelob Ultra was $8.63, a can of Pepsi was $4.28, and our friends ordered two Stoly doubles that cost them nearly $50. Next, the food at Cagney’s and Teppanyaki was very good, but both my wife and I were really looking forward to a nice lobster. Sorry, I couldn’t find lobster anywhere, not even in the specialty restaurants. Shrimp and scallops were found, but only on select menus and somewhat limited. Overall the food was pretty good, but the repetition of the same foods made for boring meals. Next, Kevin Brando on piano and a group called These Guys Worldwide were both exceptional entertainers and I wish we had seen more of them. However, the other entertainers on board were in my opinion average at best. Oh, I almost forgot, one group from a local island boarded the ship to entertain us and they were pretty good too! Here I go again telling myself it’s Hawaii. Well, if so, what happened to the visions I had of ample Hawaiian music and dancers? Maybe I was on shore and missed them. Read more