Pride of America Review
Rating by category
Additional details
It was great to find out first hand that most of the negative stuff I had read about the NCL Pride of America was, in my personal opinion, not true. First of all let me say that this review is based on my 14-yr. old son's, my husband's and my experiences aboard the NCL Pride Of America cruise to Hawaii we took from 10/3-10/10. Secondly, we are not loyal to any one cruise line and we are experienced travelers. So, having said that, here is my very LONG and thorough review.
We were met at the airport in Honolulu by a representative from NCL to help us transfer to the bus that would take us to the POA. The NCL representative was very friendly and helpful. We had landed in Honolulu (arriving from Los Angeles) at about 11:00a. This was the first time we had made travel arrangements through NCL. The airline times NCL arranged for us were excellent. This was one of the first nice surprises as on Cruise Critics' NCL Boards we had read all kinds of negative stuff about arranging your airline tickets through your cruise line. Our airline arrangements through NCL couldn't have been better for our personal time-constraint needs.
Embarkation: Fast and friendly. We are Latitudes members (Bronze Level) and have cruised on NCL 4 times now. Our membership allowed us to get into the line that is for Latitudes members only. This was a really nice perk as the line for non-members was pretty long. We had arrived in Honolulu by air at 11a and by 12:25p we were sitting in the Gold Rush Saloon eating lunch! That's how fast we got through transferring from the airport to the cruise port,embarkation, ship security, and having our pictures taken with two lovely Hawaiians. The embarkation person we signed in with was very nice and helpful. No complaints at all about embarkation for us!
Cabin Review
Mid-Ship Inside
Cabin:
We stayed in cabin 4071, an inside cabin that slept all three of us. It was located on the 4th level of the ship and was in a great location. It was near elevators and on port days it was only one floor down to exit the ship. The two main levels of the ship were the two floors above us. We were very happy with our cabin's location on the ship. Our son slept in an upper bunk and my husband and I slept in two single beds that were separated by two small night stands that were placed between them. There was plenty of drawer and closet space for the three of us. There was a small TV that we watched CNN on (we like to keep up with the world news)that also had various other channels which we didn't watch much. The bathroom was small, but there was plenty of room for all three of our various personal toiletries. There is a nice large shelf under the sink for storing stuff. There was both a full-length mirror and a huge mirror over the small desk. The seating in the room consisted of a chair for the desk and a small leather stool. There were lots of shelves for storing stuff both in the room and closet. Also in the room was a safe for storing valuables and a small fridge (it was locked, but we didn't ask for the key because we didn't need to use it). Yes, the inside cabin is small, however, even with three of us in it we never felt crowded. I would describe it as cozy. One thing we really liked is that there is a thermostat so that you can control the temperature in the room. We were only in the room to sleep, rest, or shower so the size of the room was not a problem for us at all. With the exception of last year when my sister-in-law cruised with us, we have only ever cruised in inside cabins. Last year, for her first cruise, my sister-in-law requested that she and I book a balcony room because she wasn't sure she would like cruising and wanted a place to escape to if she felt bothered by the crowds. She loved her first cruise and I loved being in a balcony room for the first time. I won't lie about that, the balcony room was a treat. However, inside cabins have always met our family's needs and in order to be able to afford to cruise more we will continue to book them.