Ncl Pride Of America

This was our first trip to Hawaii so we decided to take the 7 day cruise on the Pride of America over Christmas so we could get to see all the 5 main islands.
I’ve cruised on several cruise lines, but this was our first on NCL. I’ve found the experience on a particular cruise or line is often just the luck of the drawer. One persons experience may vary wildly from another’s on the same cruise. What I will say was our experience was great.
Cruising is not for everyone, it’s really not the most relaxing way to travel because you have to stick to times for excursions, entertainment, and for the more fancy dining options. But this floating hotel is certainly a good way to see the islands and gave us a good feel of Hawaii and we know where we’re going back to specifically next trip there (Kauai). The ship is nicely decorated, has plenty of amenities and is easy to get around. It’s a little dated in places (in fact it’s going to LA for a refurbishment in February), but still a nice ship overall. The hot tubs on the deck were really fun to sit in on an evening in the light rain showers. There’s plenty to do on the ship to keep you entertained when you are on-​board.
There are plenty of dining options all over the ship, everything from burger bars to several themed restaurants. I enjoyed the freestyle cruising experience, it made you feel a little more in control than I have on other cruises when it comes to dining. The Aloha Café is a buffet style restaurant and was our standard place for breakfast, it was good, but the limited variety in the food got a bit old by the end. We ate here for dinner a few evenings too and it was good every time. The main dining rooms (there are 2) were good and the East Meets West Asian Fusion restaurant in particular was really good and well worth making a reservation for (and we got lucky, it was pretty much booked out even early on).
There were plenty of entertainment options, and we made good use of them. All of the shows, live music events and parties we went to were great, we went to one pretty much every night. Drink service was really good and friendly. Honestly all the service we received on board was good, I can’t think of any time I wasn’t happy with it. Service in the Gold Rush Saloon was awesome and we got to get to know several crew members and fellow passengers.
Even the higher end staterooms (we got one of the large balcony rooms with unobstructed view) are small on this ship, not that this is unusual on cruise ships, but it did get a bit frustrating in the mornings when trying to get ready and down to breakfast so you could be out in time for your excursions. The balcony was huge, honestly, pointlessly huge since there’s just a couple of chairs and a small table. But the view was 100% unobstructed in all directions and totally worth it, especially for sailing past the Nā Pali Coast. My only real complaint on the balcony was that you heard a lot of noise from neighboring ones, it was a bit of an echo chamber. It didn’t spoil the experience, but it didn’t really afford you much privacy either. Our stateroom attendant was awesome and kept our room clean, and the towel animals were all very cool.
Pretty much all of our excursions were great, but for us the best ones were the Blue Hawaiian helicopter tour over Kauai (incredible and a must do) and the Rainforest Zipline tour on Hilo.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
What a great way to explore all the major Hawaiian Islands on a fancy mobile hotel, AND transitioning into 2016 on board stylishly with a happy crowd! Our Islands-​hopping through Maui, the Big Island, and Kauai happened from December 26^th 2015 to January 2^nd 2016.
I’m a serial cruiser and have been cruising with ma famille on an annual basis with various cruise liners. We’ve been on Celebrity, Carnival, Holland America, Princess, Royal Carribbean and Norwegian (for Mexican Riveria), but have not been on Disney. With that in mind I feel I have a good basis for comparison.
Overall we’ve had a great holiday and a good experience with Pride of America, and reading through other reviews I do have similar quibbles and enjoyments.
The Pros:
— Cruise through the major islands and get up-​close to breath-​taking Napoli Coast (a good camera is highly recommended)
— Fun cultural classes such as Fresh Flower Lei Making and Ribbon Lei Making, where the latter makes an awesome gift to friends and family
— Professional, courteous staff
— 24 hour Cadillac Diner where we go to get our Buffalo Wing fix mmmmMmmMm
— Spacious and comprehensive gym that leaves no spare muscle in your body untouched
— Professional photos done splendidly… we even had photos where our entire family sat on a giant turtle and we all float in the sea
The Cons:
— OMG please kills me with throw-​back music and shows that are WAY before my time.
— Food quality offered at Skyline and the one restaurant on top of it was meh. Presentation and quality could both go up a notch or few notches.
— The information sheet for each port of call contained little information/​suggestions on what to do at each port, and the morning talk/​introduction for each port is too early and could be scheduled a day before.
— Industrial area docking… which means inconvenient access to other places, which also means if you haven’t done your research and arranged your own excursions you are %&^*!!!
— I don’t mean to be a wine snob, but please! Could somebody jazz up the wine list to not include mostly branded wines from big companies?
— There were only 7 bottles of Laurent Pierre Rose Champagne on the entire fleet and they ran out before I could put our NYE Bubble request in (on board the first day). Ahhh!
The Funny or not so funny:
— Our stewardess was nowhere to be seen after the first day greeting, and we ended up seeing often and befriending another stewardess that served other staterooms.
— I received a clandestine invite to join an officer in his room after the After-​NYE party… I thought to myself, «am I on Norwegian or Celebrity right now?»
The in-​between:
— Keep in mind that for a typical cruise ship, demographic skews heavily towards the elderly crowd, and therefore it is understandable that a lot of the activities are planned with that target audience in mind. Having said that, I’d like to applaud the activity staff that bursts with energy every day which makes me wonder if their secret to such glee is a Red Bull diet.
— There are lots of excursions (good), but Norwegian have almost exclusive excursion control on most of the places (meaning almost no price competition, bad)
— International cuisine offered via complimentary dining and special dining, and I don’t like to pay extra for food that essentially comes out of the same kitchen.
The Verdict:
— the ship offers a lot of different things and tries to cater to as many customer segments as possible, and it is really up to you to approach it in a perspective that makes you happy. And if you didn’t have fun at the end of the day, it’s probably not the ship’s fault.
All on board? Set Sail!
Cheerio!

We have cruised with Norwegian several times on several different itineraries, and this one had the best service we have ever received! We took our teenage daughters in our same room and got a connecting cabin to my parents. Our cabin steward was so accommodating, he offered to get my dad a wheelchair when his knee gave out. Faizal even figured out a way to freeze a couple of water bottles for me to use each evening for my plantar fasciitis! We were able to enjoy 4 nights in the specialty restaurants and five meals in the regular dining facilities. All of the servers (minus one new guy), were absolutely amazing! We have one very picky eater who wanted the Mac & Cheese from the Diner for nearly every meal. I was amazed that we had servers actually go to that restaurant and bring her her beloved mac & cheese! I was trying to be as gluten free as possible, and those requests were answered with smiles and diligence! Roland in the Diner for breakfast and in La Cocina in the evenings was especially fantastic! Thank you, NCL for employing such amazing people! I hope you take as good of care of them as they did for us!

My boyfriend and I took the cruise from September 12 – 19, 2015. It was my second time on a cruise. We LOVED cruising with Norwegian around Hawaii. It was indeed the BEST way to get a taste of the main islands in a short amount of time. In just one week, we saw Oahu, Maui, Kauai, and the big island of Hawaii. You sleep and wake up at the next location! We loved that it was a worry free week.
We had a partial ocean view room. Our ship was sold out, but it never felt overly crowded except during disembarkation. Our room was always clean and our guy, Norman was awesome! He was always on top of it. Whenever we came back, the room was clean, bed made, and we had fresh ice. All the workers were great, very friendly and happy. It was like Disneyland. With our partial ocean view, we had a lifeboat in our view, but the top half of the window was unobstructed and worth it. It feels less claustrophobic. Even though the room is small, it did not fell small. It was probably the way things were laid out. We had a king bed, loveseat with a table, a TV, closet, and writing table. I liked the fact that we were given beach towels to use as well!
The free style dining was great because we were given the freedom to choose what time and what type of food we wanted to eat or go to all of them if we wanted to! Included was a Chinese place, an American place, diner, buffet, and grill. I liked the fried rice, calamari, and the BBQ pork soup from East Meets West (Chinese). Not included was the sushi, some special seafood items, and teppanyaki. As for the American place, there was 2 restaurants (same menu); the upstairs required dressing up and the downstairs floor was just dressy causal. I really loved the duck breast, salmon, and steak. The teriyaki chicken here was just okay. The only thing about the food here is no lobster is included. When I went on Carnival Cruise, lobster was included for the sit down formal dinner. The Cadillac diner food was okay. They had stuff like breakfast, hot dogs, hamburgers, chili, mozzarella sticks, and chicken wings. The diner was open ²⁴⁄₇ and to-​go was available. Milkshakes here cost extra. The buffet selection was great and more than one counter will have the same options available which cuts down on wait time. Pizza is available but a whole one is $ 5. Drinks included are water, coffee, tea, and juice in the mornings. You are free to fill up your bottles. Most days there is a snack period from 3−5pm and again from 9−11pm. A handful of food items will be available that you can either eat there or take elsewhere.
What I also loved about the ship was their dedication to keeping things clean and germ-​free! Everywhere and before each eating place were hand sanitizers. They always cleaned the tables in a timely manner. In the bathrooms, the button to flush was strategically placed in a manner that you had to close the toilet lid to flush the toilet. That was a great idea! Do you realized how much bacteria fly out when you flush the toilet?
I also liked the activities that were available. For the little ones, there is an arcade and children’s area. There’s a place to play basketball and a fitness center. The shows were great and they had free classes you could take also! I really loved the lei making classes. I learned how to make a flower lei, ribbon lei, and a nut lei! There was also a class to learn how to make towel animals and sarong tying. Each night, you are given the itinerary for the next day and it will tell you if the class/​activity is free or not. We went to magic shows and even a magic class. We saw production shows each night. Apparently Norwegian is known for their Hot White Night party where people dress in white and it’s a club atmosphere. In the room, there are different channels to watch. There was a movie channel were we were able to see many brand new movies before they came out on DVD!
I would recommend this cruise to anyone who wants to see different islands in Hawaii in one trip! I enjoyed it so much that I am not at all opposed to going on this cruise again! The age group on this cruise seemed to be more middle-​age and couples, so it was nice not to have crazy party people around. Although, on our first night, there was a group of older people, like 50 – 60’s plastered and it was hilarious watching them. Go and you won’t be disappointed!

Best way to see the major islands of Hawaii in 1 week. I would definitely recommend this to first timers in Hawaii like I was at the time of the trip. You can really enjoy what each island has to offer on this cruise and for future visits you can decide which island to visit and spend some more time. This cruise should be seen more as a floating hotel as that is what it’s meant to be, transport you from one island to the next and return you where you got pick up at. During the daytime you hardly spend any time on board because you should be out and about seeing Hawaii. At night time have dinner enjoy some entertainment and bedtime as Hawaii awaits the next day.
Ship is very clean and you can tell they care about keeping it that way, especially with guest on board. We had a room with a balcony which was small but did the job. At every turn there is a place to get your hands sanitize especially coming back on board. We arrived to embark around 11AM and it was very easy to board hardly anyone in line. The disembarkation process could use a little improvement on the efficiency side. We had the dinning plan so didn’t get to eat at the dinner hall but I thought it was worth it to spend the extra money and enjoy a different meal each night. We enjoyed the morning port talks hosted by the ambassadors, they had some useful info on each island that we were visiting that day. Would I go back? Probably not. Am I glad I took this cruise? Definitely!

I absolutely loved our Cruise. The room was very clean and comfortable this time around. Great food at so many restaurants.
Great shows and great staff.
This cruise was very nice, I an looking forward to sailing on this ship again next June.
1. Check in process takes a little too long in a hot humid hall. But that’s to be expected with 2000 people getting into the ship.
2. Book your excursions right away to get the best ones, as they all have limited availability.
3. You can just eat for free at many restaurants that are included in the cruise price.
4. Relax in the spa, there is a sauna and steam room. Great massages and very friendly staff.
5. Relax by the pool. Great clean and warm pool. There are hot tubs with different temperatures as well. You don’t have to feel like you are being cooked for dinner time in a very hot tub.
6. Go see shows and concerts on the ship.
7. Make sure to do the wine tasting at a wine bar on the ship.
8. Enjoy this amazing cruise

Food and service were above par. What was expected. Did not think staff friendliness was forced. This is their job. Made friends with the waitress in the Skyline where the food was amazing. Room with balcony on port side was perfect. If you care about the size of your stateroom don’t go on a cruise, go camping. Night life was a bit boring if you weren’t 25 and a drinker. Shows were worth seeing. Unfortunately info from NCL was misleading. We asked what time were we allowed on board and were told 5PM. However, you can apparently board at 11 or 12 or 1… we missed a lot by boarding at 5. Check the prices of tours before you book through NCL. A friend told us the helicopter tour on Maui was two hundred less at the port. Why should NCL rip off guests? Do be prepared to disembark in industrial areas at most ports. Hawaii does not want cruise ships docking in town and disrupting the way of life and the environment. Shuttles, cabs, and walking got annoying. Overall it was a great way to see the 50^th state but would not take the same cruise again.

If your looking for old, outdated, lacking amenities and activities, then this is the ship for you! What a piece of crap! The beds are so worn and sunken in that you can’t roll from one side to the other without climbing gear. There’s no casino. There’s no smoking (except outside, in the back of the ship after you weave your way thru the fitness room, go up outside stairs and balance your way over the rubber mats which catch women’s heels in it). There’s no apparent control over upkeep or cleanliness. The spots they did touch up are a different white paint AND a totally different finish, so it looks ridiculous. Our suite had a/​c that wouldn’t get the room cooler than 80 degrees… and couldn’t be fixed. I could go on and on, but you get the idea. Just stay away!

This was our second Hawaiian cruise on this ship and 20^th cruise overall
Excellent cruise and best way to see multiple ports. Staying overnight in Maui allows you to rent a car and see sights far more cost effective than going on ship sponsored excursions. Good tip to know shuttle will pick you up in port and take you to airport rentals
Only reason why I didn’t give 5 stars is US crew. For some reason foreign servers seem more customer centric and ships public area seems cleaner. We also felt the same on our prior cruise
You can’t go wrong on any excursion as Hawaii is a beautiful destination

3.5 STARS !!
This is the first cruise my family have been on! There are two adults, and two kids in the family, ages 12 and 15 at the time we went.
Pride of america is a norwegian cruise line, and it’s the only cruise line that sails along the islands of hawaii at the time.
Starting at honolulu, POA (pride of america) goes to maui for 2 days, kauai for 2 days, and big island for 2 days (1 day in hilo, 1 day in kona)
We arrived in Honolulu earlier then check in time, so check in was a breeze as there wasn’t as many people. They would greet us and take pictures for us, making us feel welcomed. Most of the employees would smile when we walked by, and greet us, asking how was our day.
I had a regular inside room, and it is small. I’ve had other family members go on this and many other cruises before, and they agree rooms are a bit small then usual, but it works.
Food is decent, the buffet is the best for breakfast and for snack times, and the skyline is great for dinner. We often ate lunch outside for the ship on the islands. We did not eat any specialty restaurants because they were expensive and not needed.
There’s a few activities, but there are cool shows at night, every night there was 2 shows I believe, one at 6−7pm and one at 9−10pm, both are the same show, just different times depending on how early or late you eat dinner.
This is a great way to view some of the hawaiian islands in a week, but next time, my family would rather stay on one island and relax more.
It’s a nice ship, but a little pricey. The only dislike I had was the expenses and how we felt rushed sometimes because you have to get back to the ship on time. And food can get a little boring after 3 – 4 days.
But overall, if you’re looking to see the main islands of Hawaii, it’s good way to see them. But if you’re into relaxing, I would definitely stay on Maui or Kauai because it’s less busy then Oahu. My family stayed 2 days after on Oahu and did a luau, which is a must do.
Recommended, but is pricey!

The ship is pretty boring, the activities were dull, the food was just ok, and my family and I never recieved a «how is everyone, are you all enjoying yourselves, etc… from the staff, we did not feel welcomed by anyone on that ship except our state attendant, who was extremely delightful. We will not be returning to Norwegian again.
I will admit Hawii is beautiful and we enjoyed every minute of the islands. I will return but on another cruise line.
Wishing we had a better time for all the money we spent.

Just got back from seven days cruising the islands and being with my family. We loved every moment, especially being pampered eating breakfast every morning in Cagney’s. Enjoy cruising where your hotel goes with you and they give food constantly. Would definitely do it again.

My 4^th cruise and definitely the best yet! Beau and I got the penthouse suite with a large balcony and we were treated like royalty from check-​in to check-​out. We had a butler that provided excellent service and waited on us. We were vip– invited to all these different events on board. Loved every minute. I recommend purchasing the ultimate dining package for the specialty restaurants as the skyline dining hall and liberty restaurant were not impressive. If you have it– spend the extra on a suite! You won’t regret it. The shows were fun– but they could have been better. The spa is expensive– but you won’t find it anyway– it was a ‘find waldo’ experience :-P. The aloha Caffè for lunch buffet and snacks was incredible! It was just such an amazing experience. We won’t go with another company. NCL all the way!

long story short, we have been on other cruise lines. we were not fully impressed. 1. shows on the ship were boring and uninteresting. the employees/​show gals/​others are WONDERFUL and so great. the food is ok, nothing exciting. same every day for breakfast, and same for lunch and dinner changed every night a bit. the tendering option we had at Kona on big island sucked sooooo BAD bc they were training a new guy who ran straight in to the pier a couple times very hard. not like a hit, but a bang! our cabin house cleaner was none existent. the formal night was not fun. we enjoyed the different beer tasting, winetasting, mojito tasting. im still disappointed by the shows at night.

When I went on this cruise, I had low expectations since the last time I went was in 2006 and it wasn’t that memorable and also I read Unilocal reviews and thought… okay, I won’t expect much.
I went on the Jan 3^rd cruise. The food is really tasty. I love free style dining where you can eat when, where, and with who you want! I normally hate buffets and think everything at buffets taste mediocre but certainly not the well thought out buffets on the ship. For breakfast, there are a variety of fresh/​tasty tropical fruits as well as made to order omelets, bacon, sausage, breads/​rolls, smoked salmon, cereals, and pastries. For lunch/​dinner, there are different menus nightly and you will be served healthy food if you choose. Of course you can opt for burgers (which are delicious) and fries… but if you want, they serve tons of healthy entrees/​sides. As for the room, I had a picture window room and it was clean and tidy. The public restrooms smelled of a very strong chemical like those found in Motel 8s, fortunately, the cabins did not smell like that. Most of the staff were friendly and helpful. The itinerary is good. On Maui, we rented a car to Lahaina the first day and just took it easy the next day, taking advantage of the pool and all the activities offered on the ship. In Hilo, we rented a car and went to the hot springs called «Warm Ponds» by the locals. It was invigorating! In Kona, there is no need to rent a car since the beach with beautiful fish is walking distance from the port. Lots of little shops also. The water is crystal clear. We saw dolphins swimming as we rode the «Tender Boat» back to the ship. There are also tons of shuttles waiting to take people to «Turtle Beach» for about $ 10/​person. In Kauai, we rented a car to visit Waimea Canyon, about an hour and half drive. We didn’t go all the way up to the Canyon since the view was awesome enough from the drive up. The next day, we just walked to the beach and the nearby shops. There are optional tours that you can book on your own via the net. I did not book any shore excursions from NCL since I thought they were too pricey.
At the end of the trip, your credit card is charged $ 12/​person/​day for tips to all those that served you on the ship. The ship is beautiful and well maintained. The passengers range in age… and there is plenty to do for everyone in every age group!
Suggestions:
–Bring your own shampoo. conditioner, soap, and toothpaste. Shampoo and soap is provided but… I’d prefer my own.
–Bring a nightlight if you do not want a pitch dark room or a strong light.
–Bring a bottle of water so you don’t have to run up to Aloha café to get water.
–Get your coffee at Cadillac diner in the mornings in a to go cup. The regular cups are small. I understand most cabins have coffee makers but not on the 4^th floor.
–The ship is wheelchair friendly, but the stop in Kona requires walking down/​up to and from a boat in order to get to shore.
–Do not overeat, I did and now I have an extra 5 pounds to lose.

One can’t help their age but geesh, this was the ultimate Octogenarian cruise! I am going to be there one day but I won’t be hobbling around on a cruise ship being rude, slow and demanding. I’ll never cruise again! If that wasn’t bad enough NCL’s Pride of America (really?) could use some updating before it claims to have any pride, it’s circa 1980’s décor is old and tired as well. The entertainment (if that’s what you want to call it) is geared toward the elderly crowd. We couldn’t even get in the pool, it was over run by depends clad great grannies, no thanks, the exposed wrinkles were a sight for sore eyes, NOT.
Use this as a sleeping vessel only, as soon as you can make your way off at each port, do so. The state rooms are super small, a case of water cost $ 45.00, YES, Aquafina 24 pack, ridiculous. The nickel and diming is more than I could stand. There’s also a charge of 84 $ before you disembark, gratuity for services «that you don’t see», whatever! Prior to boarding you’re given another lai, stateroom card & of course you must give up a credit card/​debit for incidentals. There are photographers waiting to photograph you with guys/​girls dressed in island wear. Once on board, there’s a cluster of people with different information to offer. Avoid their excursions, they’re pricey and unnecessary for the most part. You can get around the island without NCL charging life and limbs, one was a $ 69 «beach» excursion, huh? The beach is free! Had two people from my group to cancel, we rented a car and went where we wanted beach included as well as a very nice Luau (did not pay for NCL’s luau excursion). After seeing what they didn’t have to offer we went off to eat (Aloha Café) buffet style, it was decent this day. Onto the stateroom, which was small, it was dusty and the carpet didn’t appear to be vacuumed at all. We had some chocolate covered strawberries & wine in the room, neither were of good quality. We settled in to sail, there were some activities scheduled for the night which we attended briefly along with having a watered down Mai Tai that was on «special» it should have been free. The entertainment dried up quickly and we headed in, it wasn’t even 10 pm & dead, we walked around looking for something to do but there was nothing else, unless you count listening to arteries hardening. They even drain the pool by 10 pm.
The food was hit and mostly miss. The Aloha Café (buffet style) was our «go to» you would think you can’t go wrong there but after awhile it became monotonous with the same things, I’ve never seen food/​desserts that look/​smell so good yet have ZERO flavor. Fortunately, the ship docked enough to get some other food/​snacks away from it, although we did try the other free offerings the food came from the same source, so it didn’t taste much different. The Cadillac grille was okay for late night snack/​meal/​breakfast, Liberty was not good at all, one night there was a huge disappointment, Skyline was equally disappointing (where does the food come from?)
La Cucina was not good either, it’s the Italian specialty spot which has a $ 15 cover, not worth it. The Tarimasu was the worst I’ve ever had.
The workers (some) were a bit sketchy looking/​acting at times, one disturbing guy at the Liberty (Noah from Maui) was really a strange duck, appeared to have an interest outside of dining, others complained about their work schedules and seemed unhappy, the excursion desk (NIGEL) was the worse offender of all, he offered no assistance regarding anything he was asked, instead he attempted to put the fear of whomever in you if you even spoke about activities that didn’t include bleeding your wallet for NCL’s excursions, he was rude and condescending. There were some classes (hula, lai making) that were okay, karaōke (awful but funny) dancing with the stars, entertainment past 9 was up on deck 13 but smoking is allowed & it smelled badly up there, no thanks back to the stateroom until you can get off. Final cruise day the ship took a route up the Napali coast, great scenery but if you want to get a full view it’s best to go up to the higher decks (11, 12, 13). Tv forget about it, mostly ship oriented channels stuck on repeat with a couple of news stations and one or two others for repetitive moves/​programs. Wifi was priced through the roof, mobile phone signals were weak in some areas of the ship, but great once you are in open areas, outside, ours did not receive signal within the room. I would recommend a more age appropriate cruise to anyone under 50 although this seem to be a good way to visit multiple islands, i’d rather stay on land and island hop.

I kind of feel like a jerk for writing a poor review for a cruise (first world problem, for sure), but NCL charges an obscene amount of money and doesn’t deliver on customer service. We had issues on multiple occasions and Norwegian really did not care about making things right.
Before we left for our vacation, I notified NCL of my food allergies and was assured there would be no issue. When I arrived on the ship, there was a special envelope in my room asking me to visit the front desk to discuss my allergies so they could make accommodations for me. I thought things were off to a great start and I was impressed, but upon arriving at customer service (with the letter in hand), they looked at me as though I had 3 heads and they told me there was nothing they could do for me and they didn’t know why I was alerting them about my allergies. I was confused since they told me to reach out to them, but chalked it up to a miscommunication. I grabbed my own snacks/​items off the ship to eat for meals and was interrogated countless times at the buffets as to why I had my own food. When I politely explained my allergies, I was made to feel like a total freak. I was really shocked that I was the first person that they’ve ever encountered with food allergies before, but again, I brushed it off. By Sunday, the air conditioner had stopped working in our room. We asked for it to be fixed, but when we came back to the ship on Monday, we still had no AC in our room. On Tuesday, our cabin steward noticeably came down with a cold, but they apparently are not allowed to take any time off — even for sick days — so we felt bad making them work while they were ill and we were also pretty concerned that our linens and such were getting contaminated with germs. On Wednesday, we found out that we were somehow charged for 3 bottles of champagne and had to fight with customer service to have it removed from our bill.
Even with all these issues, I still thought it was an okay experience. The end of the cruise really made me lose my patience with NCL, though. By Thursday, there was word that a hurricane was coming into Honolulu, so the ship announced that we would be leaving Kauai almost a full day early to get into port on Friday morning so that we would all be safe. We were fine with this plan («Whatever they have to do to keep us safe,» we thought) and many passengers made arrangements to change their flights because the airport was bracing to be closed until Monday. When the storm slowed down, though, NCL backpedaled and decided to return to almost their original schedule. This caused many passengers to miss their changed flights (we somehow made it with only 30 minutes to spare), yet NCL was completely unapologetic. The kicker was when I wanted to try to contact my travel agent, but had no internet. Norwegian wanted all of us to buy internet at 75 cents a minute! Talk about adding insult to injury. Many of us were panicking because of missed flights and an impending storm, yet NCL was focused on trying to squeeze more money out of their customers.
I know that forces of nature can change plans, but come on, Norwegian — safety first! When Norwegian made the decision to end the cruise early so that we could all be on land and make necessary arrangements, they should have stuck with that. I reached out to them via Facebook and they asked me to email them, but I have yet to hear a peep out of their customer relations department and it’s been over a month since our cruise ended. My family has gone on Celebrity and Princess cruises, so we were kind of the guinea pigs for Norwegian for them. Needless to say, we did not rave about our experience and our family will not be using them in the future.
ALSO: I almost forgot to talk about the fees for their excursions! The price gouging is ridiculous! We considered doing a helicopter tour in Kauai, but the price per person was $ 450 for a four hour tour! We actually found a similar tour that was $ 267 PER COUPLE! What an insane markup! When we were in Kona, we rented our own car for a reasonable fee and went to a coffee plantation. We ran into an NCL tour group while we were there. The tour was actually free, so we didn’t pay a dime, but the NCL passengers had paid around $ 89 per person for the exact same tour. I was shocked at the difference and can’t believe NCL actually gets away with this.

Fast checkin! Rooms were ready & bags dropped off before departure! Everyone is so helpful & nice!

An okay cruise. We have definitely been on better cruises, the real advantage is the fact that it stops at the major islands. Overall it was okay but I do have serveral complains as described below.
The guests tend older, like 50s-​70s, so its definitely not a party cruise like the carribean. Also there are a ton of families. Me and my wife are a younger couple and we found the cruise boring in terms of bars and shows which are largely geared towards the older crowd and families.
There needs to be an adults only area. There are many families on the cruise and parents basically let thier kids run around which is fine but there needs to be an area for adults to go and relax. We went to the nightclub and found it full if teenagers, many of the Jacuzzis and pools are full of unsupervised kids as well, even the ones at the Waikiki bar.
The crew is definitely overworked and they show it. Many of them complain about thier hours to the guests. They do indeed work long hours. I passed by one bar and saw a bartender working in the morning and saw the same lady later in the afternoon and at night. While I certainly feels empathy for the crew it does feel like a bit of a downer to constantly hear about it from them.
We went on the cruise and caught hurricane Iselle on the tail end of the cruise. The second day on kauai was cancelled to avoid the storm, which is understandable. However, the ship did not offer any drink discounts or add any shows to compensate for the added time on board. I felt like even a dollar off drinks or something would have been a nice gesture.
The food at the Aloha buffet was the best on the ship. We went to the Liberty Dinning room several times but the service was very slow and the food was slightly below average.
They didn’t put out allot of information on the port visits. I had to do internet searches to figure out where we were mooring to schedule car rentals.
Recommended for families but younger couples might want to think twice before booking this cruise.

Just finished the one-​week cruise that visits Maui, Hilo, Kona and Kauai from the Honolulu base. We had a great time. The boat was super clean and the service was almost uniformly excellent. Disclaimer — I’ve never been on a cruise, so I must defer to others that say the servers on non-​American cruises is usually better.
There were a handful of employees here that didn’t seen to belong, but in all, they were a talented bunch. I noticed the restaurants weren’t managed very hands-​on. Only once all week did a restaurant manager ask if everything was okay. On one occasion, our server forgot just about everything he could have forgotten. This is a bit of a problem when you have to make a special request for salt and pepper or bread due to some sort of illness alert they were under.
Also, a couple of meals were pretty Denny-​like quality, even though the setting was much nicer. These were the exceptions, though. Every other meal was fantastic. We liked the freestyle dining that provided a lot of flexiblity. We also only needed to go through the buffet twice. On this cruise the buffet was dones cafeteria style and it was pretty loud and just crazy, really. Nothing elegant about it.
The shows we saw were high quality. Not my cup of tea — a little mainstream and oriented toward oldsters. Dancing to show-​tunes? No thanks.
We had a balcony room at the suggestion of our travel agent specifically because of the Na Pali coast visit on the last day. We didn’t end up watching from our balcony, though, because we wanted to hear the narration. Unfortunatly from our spot on the Sun Deck (13^th floor) we couldn’t really hear it anyway (stick to 11 or 12, port-​side). A warning, too, if you’re on the starboard side, you won’t get much of a view of the Na Pali coast, as the boat is basically heading away. Next time, I don’t know if I’d pay extra for the balcony. They room was very nice, though — a big bed and plenty of drawer space. I didn’t have a chance to see any other type of rooms. We paid $ 5171 for the two of us on the 9^th floor.
3 ½ stars