Pride Of America Cruise Ship

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.

I booked this cruise online at their website. The vacation included airfare, all transfers, 2 days on Waikiki Beach at the Marriott, and 7 days cruising around to the Hawaiian islands, and a few other perks (20 free photos, welcome gifts, etc). The deal cost about $ 3k per person. This wasn’t too bad since Hawaii airfare from my area can cost $ 900‑1400 easily round trip. I booked a balcony state room. This was my first cruise on NCL.
The Good: The customer service of the crew was exceptional (with the exception of our stateroom attendant Ronald). We received quite a few perks since I was celebrating my birthday. The excursions offered were pricey but we enjoyed all of them. On one of the excursions (Zip Lining), 2 of the crew members toured as well. This was my husband and my first time zip lining. My husband isn’t fond of heights but we thoroughly enjoyed the excursion. To our surprise when we got back to our room, we had received a bottle of wine and chocolate covered pineapples wishing me a happy birthday and congratulating my husband on zip lining from the staff that went on the excursion with us. We received similar treatment throughout our time on the ship. The food was fantastic (most of the time). We mainly ate at the buffet but 5 of the 6 nights we ate at the specialty restaurants. The restaurants that were good were the Teppanyaki, the French restaurant Le Bistro, and the best was Cagney’s Steakhouse.
The Bad: Their business practices are shady at best. Upon embarkation, a credit card is required to establish an onboard account. This was not a surprise to me. I’ve been on several cruises before with other carriers and this is a normal business practice. My card was authorize for $ 300. I then booked our shore excursions for the week which totaled around $ 2800. The guy at the excursion desk incorrectly quoted me a price of $ 2600. My husband got a drink at dinner, costing around $ 15. The next morning I had a letter outside our stateroom door stating that my onboard account was suspended. Apparently, each time we made a transaction, my credit card was processed for an authorization. I had never heard of this. Past cruises I had taken with Carnival and RC, once the authorization was done for a specific amount, there were no additional authorizations. The bill was settled the night before disembarkation. Not to mention, I was in Hawaii but the charges were coming from Miami, FL. Needless to say my credit card company put a block on my credit card for the multiple charges. This happened again the next day. I provided them with a different card so that my husband and I could continue to enjoy our vacation. The next day, I received that same letter. Really annoyed with the process, I decided not to use the ship card anymore. I called both credit card companies to have them take the blocks off of my cards. The account was settled without incident at the end of the cruise. The Brazilian Steakhouse Moderno was gross. The chain Fogo De Chao has much better food. The Italian restaurant La Cuicina wasn’t great either. I’ve had better at the chain Olive Garden. TIP: DO NOT book the Maui beach day excursion. The beach is a public beach so it is free. You can take an Über and pay about $ 12.
The Ugly: I mean this literally. With the deal, NCL reserved the right to choose our cabin. I figured this would be OK. NOT. Our balcony was next to the tender boats. This was basically my view the entire trip. So we never were able to enjoy the view from the balcony. The stateroom itself needed upgrades bad. The bathroom was the worst, rusted doors, missing tissue box, clogged sink, and a shower curtain. I had never seen a plastic shower curtain hung in a stateroom bathroom. All other cruises on other lines had an actual fiberglass door. The ship itself is dated and needs an EXTREME make-​over. Our stateroom attendant (Ronald) left a lot to be desired. His hours were from 8a-​12p and then 6p-​9p. This was weird to me since previous cruises on other cruise lines, the stateroom attendant was on for 12hr shifts. This could be because we were still in the US, not sure. He barely made up the beds and change the towels out. One night, he even turned our dial outside of the door to «Do Not Disturb» to keep from making up our stateroom after dinner. Then left a note stating why he didn’t make it up.
Overall, I enjoyed the cruise but thats because we spent most of our time off the ship.

I would suggest any other cruise. Although it was nice to visit four islands and whatnot, I have seen better service, better food, better drinks, and an overall better experience at other resorts or cruises. If you are dead set on seeing all the islands at once, then this will do, but I would not suggest it. It is a major senior gathering, which is fine, but the prices/​service/​events were really lackluster if you ask me! On top of that, we received a hold on our card double our tab on check out without warning! When I called NCL they told me that I should have been informed of this, but since our guest services accounting specialist couldn’t handle splitting a tab onto 2 cards, I am not surprised he forgot this.