Pride of America Cruise Review by ILoveAmazingRace

For our 25th Anniversary,DH and I left the teens at home to visit Hawaii for the first time. This was our first time on NCL, although we have been on RC, Carnival and Celebrity before. Stayed Weds-Sat at Hilton Hawaiian Village Resort and LOVED it! Booked ourselves through Travelocity. Okay to stay in the TAPA tower if you are on an upper floor. We were on 18 and had a great view of the city, Diamond Head and the water. We wished we had more time to spend at the resort but we were on the run the whole time. (See port reviews below.) We picked up our car at Thrifty when we arrived on Weds. On Saturday we went to the airport to turn in our car and they had a ship shuttle for free. So we never did need a taxi.

About the ship: The reviews here had our expectations low, but we have cruised other lines so it's hard not to compare. Regarding the staff, I felt that the dining staff was appropriately attentive, however it is not the over-attention you get on other lines. I'm sure the freestyle dining makes a difference when they don't have time to get to know what you like to drink, etc. We both loved the freestyle dining, though we thought we wouldn't. We ate twice in the liberty and twice in the skyline. They have identical menus, so eat at both so you can enjoy the different decor. The food was fine. You won't be wowed, but you'll enjoy the experience. We waited once for five minutes, the other three times we were seated immediately. (Men, don't pack a suit. No one wore them.) With two people you will often get the window seats, which are wonderful. We both loved the Cadillac diner because we just love that kind of food. It was like a TGI Fridays menu. I especially loved the potato skins and the warm brownie sundae...YUM! We never ate at the Key West because it was only open when we were off the ship, and we never ate at any specialty restaurants. We only ate at the Aloha for breakfast, which was delicious! Everything you can imagine, including biscuits and gravy.

Here was our biggest complaint about the food/drink: there was nothing to drink but iced tea! All other ships I've been on you can get free tea, lemonade and fruit punch. On POA you got iced tea and water. All other drinks were for sale. BTW, this is a Pepsi ship, no Coke products, which did not go over well with DH. He did manage to make it onto the ship with a 12 pack of Diet Coke in his luggage, which he kept in our room fridge. He also bought DCoke at drive-thrus while we were onshore. Regarding the bar, the drinks are outrageously expensive at $5-10 per, but bars have happy hour mai tais at $4 from 6-7 and 9-10. You can also get a bottle of wine which has five glasses in it, but they didn't offer it to me until Thursday.

Dining Hint: the Aloha is not that comfortable as the seats are that shiny vinyl where you stick if you sit in shorts. Keep going to the back and out the door and there is a wonderful deck out there. The Aloha was crowded at breakfast, but never out on the deck. They have tables with umbrellas and also some food stations.

We didn't have much time for entertainment, though we caught the Polynesian Show on Monday and the Second City on Tuesday, and we really enjoyed both. I did not like the layout of the ship as far as entertainment. Other ships have an entertainment floor where you can start at one end and walk all the way across, peeking into rooms to see what you want to do. This ship had the floor broken up where you had to go down midship and across. We had trouble finding some of the bars and clubs this way. Also, the piano lounge, which is usually in an intimate clubroom, was out in a lobby area. It was sort of uncomfortable with people walking through the whole time. Lastly, I was a little bored without a casino. That did bother me (but not DH, he couldn't care less.)

A tip about leis: You can get free beaded ones at Hilo Hatties-they put one on you as soon as you walk in the door. Also you can make a flower lei and a kukui nut lei in classes for free. Lastly you will get one at the luau if you go to that. So you don't need to buy the $7.50 one in the terminal unless you are in the mood. Even with putting it in my fridge it only lasted two days.

Regarding the rooms, we had a balcony on 10 on Starboard side. Definitely get a starboard room, as we were on the proper side to see the lava flow at Hilo and the Napoli coast on Kaiua. We also had a nice ocean side view in Hilo's port instead of the industrial port view. All of the rooms near us had wonderful, private balconies. If you want privacy, do not book rooms on 8, 9 or 10 in the back of the boat. I could stand on deck in the Aloha and look right down into all those balconies. Also, another reviewer had posted about a balcony on 7 that looked down into a lifeboat. I could see how that would be true. Only the balconies that are in the wider parts of the boat (Aft and Forward, not midship) look down into the sea instead of a lifeboat. My cabin was in a perfect place...almost. We were right across from the linen room and the steward was out there at 7am every morning working in the hallway. I would've gone back at least two more rooms towards the back.

Also, the bed is two twins pushed together. The side by the window was sagging badly, and DH got a backache so I let him move to the other side. The towels are pretty thin too. A good intention gone bad: the ship installed these dials by your door and you turn it to welcome, makeup room, turndown room and do not disturb. Some kids in our hall thought it was funny to change to DND while we were gone for the day, so twice we came back to the ship without a made up room.

Also, we didn't get any ice until Weds, which I thought was strange. There was one towel animal all week, which we didn't care about, but that was also different. Carpets, furniture, seemed new to me, and I thought the public areas were very nice.

The only thing unkempt in the room was that the paint was peeling off our balcony ceiling. Also there are no plugs in the bathroom and there are only about three plugs elsewhere. By the way ladies, you can leave your dryer at home. The one in my stateroom would've been adequate and I wouldn't have packed mine. Otherwise the room was cleaned nicely and we always got new towels if needed.

The rocking is very noticeable, but we just laughed it off. It didn't bother us at night, but during the day you will run into walls if you go down a long hallway. Especially on the upper floors. Neither of us got sick at all. We rented cars with Thrifty in most ports and had a great experience with them. If you don't read the port reviews, keep in mind that Thrifty/Dollar sends a shuttle to every port, but they only run for the first and last three hours you are in port. We missed our Kona shuttle at 11am so we didn't have our car for the day. Cars are cheap and definitely worth it. Book them on the internet when you come and you can shop for the best deals. It's so much cheaper to book things on your own and you have time to see more things. Overall we had a great time, we saw a lot, we learned a lot, and cruising is the way to go for your first trip to Hawaii.