Pride of America and Oahu Pre-Cruise Review July 14-26

Greetings everyone! I just returned from the Pride of America today. I have to say that the complaints on here do not hold water to the experience they actually provide. This trip was the best trip I have ever been on and would even say it was life changing.

I will be reviewing each day play-by-play with both a written narrative and (technology willing) photo/video slideshows. There will be approximately 11-12 written portions and slideshows so subscribe and stay tuned over the next several days. The first entry will be coming soon. :D

Greetings everyone! I just returned from the Pride of America today. I have to say that the complaints on here do not hold water to the experience they actually provide. This trip was the best trip I have ever been on and would even say it was life changing.

 

I will be reviewing each day play-by-play with both a written narrative and (technology willing) photo/video slideshows. There will be approximately 11-12 written portions and slideshows so subscribe and stay tuned over the next several days. The first entry will be coming soon. :D

Looking forward to your report. Hawaii, more than any other place I have ever been on a cruise, really gets into your blood. We were just on the POA last August and I just booked the 11 day POA SFO to Hawaii for next March.:p.

Can't wait to see those sights again, and will be eating up all the reports in the meantime.

I am so glad to see another review - our cruise is coming up soon, and we are traveling with nine people ages 12-70+. The more feedback, the better!

We will be taking this cruise next June, so I'm looking forward to whatever nuggets of wisdom you can share! Thanks for taking the time.

I am looking forward to your review! Did you do the pre-cruise land tour through Norwegian, or did you do it on your own?

Can't wait to read your review. If you stayed at the Marriott beforehand, can you tell me what time the shuttle was over to the ship for boarding?

I am looking forward to your review! Did you do the pre-cruise land tour through Norwegian, or did you do it on your own?

Everything we did we arranged ourselves. It is easy to do and you see a lot more this way than waiting on large organized tours on buses.

Looking forward to your review.

Please let me know whether or not you are able to view the slideshow.

Repairing typo in video

Prologue

In-video text script:

Part 1: Prologue

"Today...

An adventure years in the making unfolds.

My name is Brandon and my first Hawaiian experiences was a hula dance in a second grade talent show and a luau in Disney World also around that time.

The idea of visiting Hawaii came to life after visiting Royal Pacific at Universal Studios in 2012.

Since then, six have jumped onboard the idea of this trip and the planning resulted in a stay at Disney's Aulani Resort and a cruise on Norwegian Cruise Line's Pride of America.

Without further ado, I introduce our adventure...

Pacific Dreamland:

The Hawaiian Islands"

"July 14th: Aulani's Aloha" (Oahu)

It's 3:30AM and the alarm sounds. The adventure had begun. By 4:15AM we were on the road and arrived at Cleveland Hopkins around 5am. Check in was a breeze at that time and we were at the gate well before our flight. There was a slight bump in the road when the flight was delayed from 6:55 until 7:25 since there was only 1 hour and 32 minutes to catch our next flight in San Francisco. We took off at 7:25 and the second flight was boarding when we got to the gate of the San Francisco airport. Second flight was also a breeze and arrived into Honolulu a few minutes after 1pm.

We had the Aulani shuttle waiting for us and we were off right away after claiming our luggage. At 2:15, we arrived at Aulani. The beauty of this resort is incredible. It is one of those places on the island where you really could just go there and stay there on the resort grounds. We had a two bedroom suite to share among our group of six.... My mom, Kristin (sister), Matt (brother-in-law), Jeanine, and Nancy (the last two people are friends of my mom. The suite balconies overlook the lawn where their Starlit Hui show is held. Our room was ready at 4pm after the stop mentioned below.

The first thing after checking in was to get groceries at Island Country Markets. Not exactly the most fun task, but it was made memorable by finding Maui Splash and other pineapple wines to enjoy this trip. We had dinner in our room this evening.

We began to explore the resort and walk the grounds. Matt checked out the fitness center but as for me this would be one place that you would never find me while on vacation. The grounds are incredible and contain a lazy river, main pool, snorkel pool, adult pool, infinity pool, several hot tubs including a two-level hot tub with a waterfall, and a cove that has complimentary chairs and umbrellas. This really is a top notch resort on the island of Oahu.

At 7:30, the Starlit Hui began. We had to stand in line for probably 40 minutes for this. Clearly it is a popular attraction for the resort. It began with a few craft stations and everyone sits on mats on their lawn for the show. The show consisted of several Hawaiian tunes, Hula, and torch rituals. If you have seen this show, then you will probably remember the song of the birds and the "Heart and Soul" ukulele group as they were by far the highlights. Following the show, the disney characters come out for a dance party. This part and several audience involvement parts of the show were geared towards kids which is to be expected of anything under the Disney name.

I cannot stress enough though that the grounds here are beautiful especially during sunset and when they are lit up at night. On just about any given night here you will find a Hawaiian band playing on the grounds. If your room faces the pool, then you can probably hear them right from your balcony. With that, we had been up about 24 consecutive hours with the 6 hour time zone difference so you can probably guess what comes next.

Stay tuned for "Aulani's Aloha" Slideshow and the next segment "Paradise Found".

Previously Posted:

Pacific Dreamland: The Hawaiian Islands Prologue

Notion of the ocean, looking forward to your review!! we go in 16 days[emoji1]

Notion of the Ocean..cannot see slideshow

No side shows. Goes directly to my drop box app for some reason.

No slideshow here, either. Unless you just put all your pictures in your dropbox?

Par for the course. It usually takes a few tries to find a decent method to share the slideshows.

Let's try this again

Pacific Dreamland: The Hawaiian Islands Prologue

Password is Hawaii2015.

Dropbox take two as well

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6dcay6v9jj84i6u/Prologue.mp4?dl=0

Please let me know whether or not any of the above are successful.

Really looking forward to your review!

Neither of the above options work for me. :(

ETA: The 2nd option worked after I created a dropbox acct. Nice start! :)

Did you try the new dropbox link? I just tried it on a different computer and it worked fine?

Edit: Upon reading the result of the above poster. I am leaning towards using dropbox for my slideshows. This may require a dropbox account in order to view but I think it may be a good way to go about this.

Did you try the new dropbox link? I just tried it on a different computer and it worked fine?

Yes, I had to create an account. No biggie; fast and easy! Thanks for sharing!

Working well here! Great start! Really interesting for me and we plan the exact same for January 2017. Been onto Oahu this year and loved it so much that We want to see more ;)

When I went to the 2nd dropbox link all I did was hit the x when it asked me login to an account and the video worked fine.

Working now and worth the wait.

1st day slideshow is in progress. Should be ready in the next day or so.

Here is the first day's slide show:

Aulani's Aloha

Previously posted:

Pacific Dreamland: The Hawaiian Islands Prologue

Enjoy! :D

subscribing! We are on the POA in November and really looking forward to it. If you happen to have kept your Dailies I'd love if you could post them!