Pride of America Review
Rating by category
Additional details
First time to Hawaii and took this cruise because I did not want to be at sea out of CA for 4 days. Not our first cruise, as we have been on 8 others with RC, Carnival, and Princess, but I doubt I'll ever be back with Norwegian. Service was poor, probably due to the mandatory 20% gratuity on all bills. The staff knows that nobody will tip above the mandatory 20%, so they never try to ask if you need anything. We sat by the pool on day 1 for hours and had to go to the bar to get our own drinks; the staff simply collected used cups like busboys. This continued all trip with the wait staff in the bar and food areas, along with the room steward. The room steward did the basics, but was never available after the room was made up. First time I've left a cruise and did not tip the room steward.
Food in the Liberty dining room was overly salted. On subsequent days, our group started ordering multiple entrees hoping one would be good, but we had multiple meals overly salted (NOTICE how many times the complaint of over salted food comes up in these reviews; it can't be just me if it gets written a bunch). The wait staff tried hard to keep up, but with so many people dining "whenever", they were overwhelmed with multiple tables. Dinners for our table usually started at 6:30 and we were never finished by 9:00. On two days, we waited over 45 minutes between being served appetizers and being served entrees. We finally stopped going to the dining room. Food in the Aloha Cafe is average at best and is pretty much the same day to day with little variation. The one bright spot was the dinner we had in the Cadillac Diner. Food was nothing special, but the overwhelming good service for our group had us leaving a cash tip. And the leader of the wait staff here was very attentive and made sure our experience was great. She should be put in charge of the Liberty Dining Room and maybe things would get better.
The excursions off the ship were good, and cost was in line with other areas of the world. We had good experiences with all of our planned excursions.
Cabin Review
Mid-Ship Balcony
As above, the room steward did the basics. I'm not really WOWED by seeing a towel animal on the bed when I come back to my room, but I am surprised when I call and ask for ice, and it takes several hours for it to show up. Room was smaller than other cruise lines, but expected on an older ship. The bed was absolutely uncomfortable, and I am one that sleeps pretty much anywhere.