Pride of America Review
flowersnquilts
First Time Cruiser • Age 60s
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Sail Date: Dec 2018
Cabin: Inside
First time cruiser, so much of the information below was gleaned from that perspective.
I'm a planner, and want to have information before a trip begins...
We chose this cruise because my mother (Deaf, senior citizen, mobility impaired) wanted to see "all" of the islands, for the last state on her list of visiting all of the United States. Of course, seeing ALL of the islands isn't possible, and inter-island transfers are prohibitively expensive, so we chose to do the NCL cruise. My parents have been on an NCL Alaskan cruise, and were happy to go again. My husband and I have never wanted to do a cruise, and this experience cemented that opinion. Yes, it was handy to unpack once, have food available when wanted, and to be moved from island to island. However, there were well over 2,000 guests onboard, and there are ALWAYS people EVERYWHERE. Getting on and off the ship was quite time consuming, and the tendering in Kona caused my mobility impaired mother to have to stay on the ship (and this tendering was NOT advertised in the materials, nor was it included in the 'before you sail' documents). We had a few other suggestions for improvements, but the cruise did the job of getting us to 4 separate islands.
Cabin Review
Inside
Cabin IB
I saw a post before we went about the 'tiny' cabins, and the need for over the door hanging storage for the bathroom, and extension cords. Well, the bathroom in our inside stateroom was fine; there is a corner medicine cabinet with ample storage, and a decent countertop. Yes, it's small, but bigger than an RV. If a passenger is 300 pounds, they'll have trouble (get a handicapped room...they're huge!).
Extension cords are critical if you have a CPAP machine that you need to use at the bed. There are 2 outlets with 2 plug-ins each, one on each side at the shelf area between the foot of the bed and the door. No USB ports. The heavy hair dryer is outside of the bathroom. Nice little nightstands between the bed and the walls, with a shelf underneath.
My dad felt too claustrophobic in our room, probably because there are no windows. 10527 has one bunk; I pulled it down to see how that would impact the room. The person under it on the bed could sleep on his/her side, but not sit up. Some rooms have two bunks...I can't imagine how that would work, unless the underneath bed were twins. Perhaps the twins are lower, so there's more room between the upper and lower beds? THAT would be claustrophobic.
We felt that the cost savings was worth it, but ALSO very much enjoyed the balcony that my parents had. The view from the pool areas just wasn't the same, and they were crowded.
Our steward "G," was AMAZING, and helped to redeem the onboard experience. I'd hire him in a heartbeat for ANY job.
4 Helpful Votes
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