Pride of America Photo Blog – March 2016 Post Drydock Cruise

Just wanted to let you all know that I am in the process of doing a day-by-day report of our Pride of America cruise from San Francisco to Honolulu from March 16 to March 26. This cruise was the first following an extensive drydock and was delayed one day due to work not being complete.

Rather than do a review here on Cruise Critic (as I have in the past) I am posting on my blog instead. I took hundreds of photos so even if you don’t like to read my overly long narration, ;) you might at least enjoy looking at the pretty pictures! Here is the link to the blog:

My Souvenir Memories Blog

I will be checking this thread so if you have any questions, feel free to ask. I have posted the Freestyle Dailies from our four sea days and may continue to post the others if there is interest.

Here is a quick rundown of what we did…and what I will be covering in the blog.

• San Francisco (4 days…including our extra “bonus” night due to the delay) – Dylan’s Famous Tour, Alcatraz Night Tour, Chinatown, Fisherman’s Wharf, etc. We also spent a lot of time just seeing the city by cable cars & street cars.
  
• Sea Days (4 days) – Lots of activities, crafts, entertainment, etc. on the Pride of America.
  
• Maui – Toured on our own with rental car and Gypsy Guide App. Lahaina, Iao Valley State Park, western Maui, blow hole, etc.
  
• Hilo – Volcano National Park, Rainbow Falls, Macadamia Nut Factory, Richardson’s Beach Park with rental car.
  
• Kona – Captain Zodiac Snorkeling Tour
  
• Kauai – Waimea Canyon by rental car, sail by NaPali Coast
  
• Oahu (4 days) – Stayed in Waikiki Beach and toured the island using rental car and Gypsy Guide App. North Shore, Pearl Harbor, Punchbowl Cementary, Eastern Oahu, Pali Overlook, etc.
  

Just wanted to let you all know that I am in the process of doing a day-by-day report of our Pride of America cruise from San Francisco to Honolulu from March 16 to March 26. This cruise was the first following an extensive drydock and was delayed one day due to work not being complete.

 

Rather than do a review here on Cruise Critic (as I have in the past) I am posting on my blog instead. I took hundreds of photos so even if you don’t like to read my overly long narration, ;) you might at least enjoy looking at the pretty pictures! Here is the link to the blog:

 

My Souvenir Memories Blog

 

I will be checking this thread so if you have any questions, feel free to ask. I have posted the Freestyle Dailies from our four sea days and may continue to post the others if there is interest.

 

Here is a quick rundown of what we did…and what I will be covering in the blog.

 

• San Francisco (4 days…including our extra “bonus” night due to the delay) – Dylan’s Famous Tour, Alcatraz Night Tour, Chinatown, Fisherman’s Wharf, etc. We also spent a lot of time just seeing the city by cable cars & street cars.
  
• Sea Days (4 days) – Lots of activities, crafts, entertainment, etc. on the Pride of America.
  
• Maui – Toured on our own with rental car and Gypsy Guide App. Lahaina, Iao Valley State Park, western Maui, blow hole, etc.
  
• Hilo – Volcano National Park, Rainbow Falls, Macadamia Nut Factory, Richardson’s Beach Park with rental car.
  
• Kona – Captain Zodiac Snorkeling Tour
  
• Kauai – Waimea Canyon by rental car, sail by NaPali Coast
  
• Oahu (4 days) – Stayed in Waikiki Beach and toured the island using rental car and Gypsy Guide App. North Shore, Pearl Harbor, Punchbowl Cementary, Eastern Oahu, Pali Overlook, etc.
  

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Thank you so much for the blog review--I am enjoying it immensely. I would love to see your freestyle dailies for the rest of the trip.

I've been following along since the trip to Alcatraz and enjoying your blog. Your Alcatraz photos reminded me of my own trip to the prison last summer.

Thank you so much for the blog review--I am enjoying it immensely. I would love to see your freestyle dailies for the rest of the trip.

I just published the post covering our day in Maui on my blog and included quite a few photos and also the Freestyle Daily. Hope it is helpful to you!

I've been following along since the trip to Alcatraz and enjoying your blog. Your Alcatraz photos reminded me of my own trip to the prison last summer.

Thanks for reading! My husband and I just DVR'd the movie "Escape from Alcatraz" and are looking forward to watching! :) Did you do the night tour?

Very nice blog, thanks for the link.:)

Enjoying your blog. Photos are great. I especially like the ones of San Francisco - brings back wonderful memories. :)

Thanks for reading! My husband and I just DVR'd the movie "Escape from Alcatraz" and are looking forward to watching! :) Did you do the night tour?

 

We went during the day and listened to a chat about inmate Jim Quillen. I would love to take the night tour, though. Maybe in the future...

Loved the daily activity papers & your photos. I'm getting excited to set sail in October.

Your pictures are amazing! Thank you for sharing them.

Thanks to those who have commented! I did want to let you all know that I just put up a very long post with a ton of photos (and the Freestyle Daily) from our day in Hilo. Seeing Volcanoes National Park was a bucket list item for my husband and he ended up with a day that was better than he could have ever imagined!!

Thanks for reading. I will continue to keep plugging away at the blog...

Really enjoying your blog, getting excited for our POA cruise in June :)

I just finished covering our day in Kona (my favorite day of the cruise) on my blog. I struggled to find adequate words to describe what a fantastic day we had so hopefully the photos and videos can tell the story! :)

The highlights of the day included seeing a huge pod of short fin pilot whales, beautiful tropical fish and also...a whale shark! And if that wasn't enough, dozens of dolphins played alongside the ship as we sailed away from Kona.

I am continuing to scan and post the Daily Freestyle for each day although I'm not sure how it compares to the activities on a regular 7 day Pride of America cruise.

Lovin' your blog and photo's!

I'm curious what you used for a camera on the Captain Zodiac trip? Especially underwater!

P.S. Thanks for sharing the dailies. Very helpful.

Lovin' your blog and photo's!

I'm curious what you used for a camera on the Captain Zodiac trip? Especially underwater!

 

P.S. Thanks for sharing the dailies. Very helpful.

Glad you are enjoying the blog...and congratulations on your first post to Cruise Critic!!

I was using a Canon D10 camera for all of the photos on the Captain Zodiac tour. It is shockproof and waterproof down to 10 meters but I still hold my breath everytime I put it underwater because I always worry that it will leak. So far it has worked great. I have had the camera for 5 or 6 years and I know they have come out with newer models since then.

It usually takes great pictures outside of the water too, but I forgot to switch the underwater setting back to "auto" when we finished snorkeling. It seemed to make the color in all of the land photos a bit off. I do like having a durable camera that I don't have to worry about using in the rain, etc.

I just got off the POA April 23 2016. We had a great time, the ship looks great and everyone onboard was very nice to us. All the ports were great. Here are some of our photos, enjoy.

https://goo.gl/photos/Z7KjbZ4Ua687XScV7

I just got off the POA April 23 2016. We had a great time, the ship looks great and everyone onboard was very nice to us. All the ports were great. Here are some of our photos, enjoy.

https://goo.gl/photos/Z7KjbZ4Ua687XScV7

Thanks for sharing your photos...they were great! (Although I was a little jealous that you got to see & photograph some rainbows...we didn't see any. :()

Love your blog and pictures. Please post the rest of your cruise experiences soon.

Thanks :)

Great blog and photos arymay. Thanks for sharing....hey 7556 was my friend's cabin! And I see her hubby in one of your pics (putt putt). My friend won the Celebrity dance off with "Cowboy". That was so much fun to watch. The entertainment team on the POA are the best IMHO! :D

Great blog and photos arymay. Thanks for sharing....hey 7556 was my friend's cabin! And I see her hubby in one of your pics (putt putt). My friend won the Celebrity dance off with "Cowboy". That was so much fun to watch. The entertainment team on the POA are the best IMHO! :D

I hope your friend (Cathy?) doesn't mind that I posted a photo of her cabin. I felt a little bit like a stalker when we were doing the cabin crawl, but I thought seeing a photo of one of the obstructed view cabins would interest some people.

Yes...your friend "beat" my husband AND the other couple we were traveling with in the dance contest!! ;) All three of them participated. (I declined to be in the contest...someone HAS to be the photographer in the bunch, right??) I have some very interesting (and incriminating?) video from that night!

We ran in to your friend and husband and had a chance to visit when we were walking around in Kona. (Also...do you remember meeting me at the Meet & Greet? You were one of the few people who introducted themselves.)

Love your blog and pictures. Please post the rest of your cruise experiences soon.

Thanks :)

Thanks for the compliment...and sorry it is taking me so long to finish! I have been out of town helping my 2 yr. old grandson celebrate his birthday but I spent a long time today and just posted about our day in Kauai visiting Waimea Canyon.

It takes me several hours to do one daily post so I usually don't start unless I have a big chunk of time. (I'm sure most people could do it much faster, but I'm just slow! :rolleyes:)

I included many, many photos of the canyon...such a beautiful place...and also the Freestyle Daily.

I only have one more day of the cruise to write about...but then I also want to cover the four days we spent in Honolulu afterwards.

I hope your friend (Cathy?) doesn't mind that I posted a photo of her cabin. I felt a little bit like a stalker when we were doing the cabin crawl, but I thought seeing a photo of one of the obstructed view cabins would interest some people.

 

Yes...your friend "beat" my husband AND the other couple we were traveling with in the dance contest!! ;) All three of them participated. (I declined to be in the contest...someone HAS to be the photographer in the bunch, right??) I have some very interesting (and incriminating?) video from that night!

 

We ran in to your friend and husband and had a chance to visit when we were walking around in Kona. (Also...do you remember meeting me at the Meet & Greet? You were one of the few people who introducted themselves.)

Yes it does feel a bit strange walking through people's cabins but it's interesting to see the different ones. I'm glad you gave up those obstructed oceanviews, they were great cabins, we were upgraded to those from inside and they are in a perfect location close to the stairs and only one flight up from the action, our evenings often seemed to end at the Mardi Gras :p .

Yes I remember you at the meet and greet. It's always nice to meet the people from the roll call.:)

Thanks for the wonderful review and beautiful pictures. You have helped me decide what to do on day 1 in Kauai. We are also booked on Wings Over Kauai for day 2. I hope it doesnt get cancelled, but that seems to happen quite a bit here. We were booked to do it on day 1 in case it got cancelled before the time change. That messed up our plans a little too. We leave in a little less than a month. Wooohooo!

Thanks for the wonderful review and beautiful pictures. You have helped me decide what to do on day 1 in Kauai. We are also booked on Wings Over Kauai for day 2. I hope it doesnt get cancelled, but that seems to happen quite a bit here. We were booked to do it on day 1 in case it got cancelled before the time change. That messed up our plans a little too. We leave in a little less than a month. Wooohooo!

Mahalo! Glad the blog was helpful to you!

I really hope you are able to do the flight in Kauai. It is too bad they changed the port times and ruined your "back up plan!" We had chartered the plane just for the four of us and I was so sad when it was cancelled. At the same time I was also a bit relieved since I knew we wouldn't have been able to see much at all and I didn't want to pay to see clouds.

Have a great cruise...Hawaii is truly paradise!!

I have a couple more updates posted to my blog...

Our last day of the cruise turned out to be a disappointment due to the weather. We had chartered a plane to see Kauai by air but it was cancelled.

By afternoon, the weather had cleared (mostly) and our sail by the Na Pali coast did NOT disappoint!!

The next day our cruise ended, but our vacation continued! After disembarking, we checked into our hotel, explored Waikiki Beach and ended the day with a hula show and a gorgeous sunset.

Lots and lots of photos are included. In case you have the signatures turned off, here is the link:

My Souvenir Memories Blog

Great photos!