JeffSinPDX

Yes. We all had beverage packages. So I think that was why.

Tough to give a answer that isn't opinionated. Our luau plans in Maui were cancelled due to a torrential downpour. So it may have been a great experience, but wouldn't know. I know we saved a lot of money on that by purchasing the luau tickets prior to the trip, then getting an Uber from the pier to the airport, then renting a car at the airport, and coming back to pick up the other 6 of us at the pier (so they didn't have to deal with all of those logistics I did). Then we saved a lot of money and had a car to drive around all day. We did a plantation and rainbow tour in Hilo that was incredible and nobody will ever forget. We planned to do a coffee/chocolate tour in Kona, but Kona is the one port that tenders, so you're at the mercy of the swells if you're going to get actually go on anything you book there. Kauai was another one I saved probably 25% in cost by booking the Kauai ATV tour directly from their website, and booking a car from Turo next to the dock. And we had the luxury of the car to tour around Kauai for a bit and see some sea turtles on some beach, etc. And everyone will forever remember their driving the ATVs through the jungle. So it was fun, but really expensive to do through the cruise excursion options. Didn't have time to do anything in Honolulu since we flew in, got on the ship, then came back and got off to ship and onto a plane. So if I were to do it again, I'd take them up on their offer to get the plane that comes in the day before on Friday, then spend Friday evening and Saturday morning at least seeing things like Pearl Harbor or something since we missed out on all of that. Otherwise, it's hard to say given we had people who were a little heavy and can't walk far, we had teens who didn't' bike (nor want to hike), and a mother-in-law who is not very mobile. So I think it could be very specific to the group you have and worth typing in the excursions you see displayed on the Pride of America's info page and then Google those tours and you'll see people who do video reviews of them and get a sense of what looks fun for your group. That's what I did.

I'm not sure if timing is different for suite. What I know is we got ushered into a VIP section of the terminal with drinks and appetizers, a few couches for waiting, personal and immediate service upon walking in, etc. So we obviously got through the line much quicker and more comfortably being in a suite. Also as a suite member we were allowed into Cagney's for a high end plated lunch while others are just hanging at the buffet or killing time. So once out of our VIP section, we were directly straight into Cagneys to get some steak frites and grilled salmon. But our plane didn't land until noon, so essentially we got shuttled straight to the VIP section, they took our bags, they directed us to lunch, and after lunch our room was ready to go up and move into. So it all was instant for us, but probably due to the flight coming in at noon already.

Yeah. I read a lot of reviews, then got really nervous, then once I got out there, it all melted away and we had a great time. Clearly rain was a bummer, but not an NCL problem, just a fact of life, and gives me a reason to revisit Maui and do more exploration next time. I think the NCL systems must be a little wonky. I pre-paid for a excursion in Hilo, and then got an invoice that it was paid for and confirmed. Then I noticed on my NCL app that I didn't have any excursions for that Tuesday on my cruise (which all of my other pre-paid stuff had a red "1" showing up on my app showing that I had paid for something on that day). So I was very suspicious of some issue happening since I didn't see the Hilo excursion on my NCL app, even though I paid for it, and then sure enough, I didn't have the "golden tickets" sitting in my stateroom when I first arrived, so I was quick to dig into it and then told by NCL staff that they just know I don't have an excursion and to pay a 2nd time for it and then get a refund from Miami NCL. So it all worked out, but tells me their systems clearly don't talk much. I also have to say that we had a pre-paid excursion at Kona that was refunded because we weren't able to do Kona due to the swells. They refunded the individual excursion amounts to each of my adult children's accounts, even though I pre-paid all of them ahead of time as one lump sum payment from my visa. So that tells me their financial systems aren't very strong if they can't tie who paid for an excursion back to the original payee, and instead are refunding credits back to a bunch of kids who had $0 balances or their own little $10 taxes and fees balances on their individual NCL accounts. I actually needed to get one of my daughter's boyfriends to sign a form to move his excursion credit over to my account. So they are struggling for sure, but we still had a great time and I was savvy enough in how systems work to keep it from impacting our trip.

I would post a review under their review page, but I feel like that is a space for people who need to create an account and vent about issues they have. I used these boards and asked many questions with this community prior to going on my PoA cruise, so thought I'd give a summary here and allow anyone who had any follow-up questions to post those and I would respond as best I could since I did a lot of research and took a lot of notes. General Info - Our cruise was 12/17 to 12/24, we had nine of us with six of us (wife and I and 4 of our kids) in a suite in 13522 and my mother-in-law and two other kids in a regular cabin on the 9th floor. First I should note that because one of my rooms was a suite, I (unexpectedly) was treated to a handful of suite features that I wasn't expecting and likely wouldn't be available to all. To that point, embarkation was really quick and easy as we were shuttled into a VIP roped off area and given drinks and snacks while we got all of our room details and room cards prepared. That's where we also met our Concierge Chris, who told us all of our suite advantages we'd receive. The main one that was legit compared to my other room was having access to go to Cagney's for breakfast and lunch, and only suite folks were allowed in there, so there was no wait and the food was like an all-star list of best of the best foods you'd want to eat for breakfast or lunch. And you only need one suite key card to get your whole group seated, even though we had non-suite guests with us. So it was nice they didn't micromanage which family members were actually in the suite or not. But we ate at Cagney's immediately upon getting on the boat and by the time we were done, our rooms were ready for us to go into. I'll also mention up front that because we had a suite, we had our own butler, Peter, and he was amazing. Peter found the teens in my room and asked them what drinks they like, and next thing you know our fridge was filled with coke, ginger ale, root beer, sierra mist, orange crush, etc. that my kids all wanted. So he was great for info and for keeping us stocked up on treats. The rooms were very clean and staff did a great job in swooping in when all six of us happened to be out of our suite and would suddenly make it up and keep it from turning into a pigsty. Was a very comfortable bed, extremely quiet bathroom as we were expecting one bathroom for six people in our room to be an issue, but it was really quiet and never had smells come into the cabin. So that was an unexpected bonus. We were only able to pre-reserve our 2 free premium dinner reservations at Jefferson's Bistro or Cagney's prior to the flight. But once on the ship, we were able to get additional reservations for La Cucina (Italian) and we heard the Brazilian restaurant was open on day on Friday, but it was booked solid by the time we realized they had opened it for one evening. And note we never had a chance to pre-book either the Italian or Brazilian places online or on our app, but were only allowed on the ship down on the 5th floor. Food was fantastic in general. Admittedly I only ate at the regular sit down dining 3-4 times as Cagney's was open to me for Breakfast and Lunch, and I took them up on that offer most days given how good that option is. But I did Cagney's for dinner as one meal and it was incredible, and then did La Cucina for our second free meal and it was incredible as well. Kids said their highlight of the cruise was being able to go to the buffet and get endless options at any moment they were hungry. So the buffet was a hit for my party, I only ate there a few times and it was good when I went. The one side-note I'll mention is that the 2 free dining meals were only available to 4 of our 9 family members between the two rooms. Just know that you need to have a room card with that 2D on it when you appear to get your free meal. So if #2 in your room with a free 2D on their card doesn't want fine dining, but the 3rd person in your room does, just have them swap cards as that works perfect and was what the staff recommended since they don't name-check people using those cards, only making sure each card only gets 2 free meals. The features with all of my family were the excursions. Maui had a torrential downpour that made the national news, so our Luau got cancelled, but were able to rent a car and see some sites around town. But wasn't quite as exciting given the downpour of rains for both days. Hilo was beautiful and we did a farm and waterfall tour that was fantastic, and the weather was nice all day. Kona was cancelled due to the fact it doesn't dock in Kona, but instead tenders to shore, and they said the swells from the previous storm were so large that they couldn't tender passengers safely to Kona. So we didn't get to go on our Kona Mocha tour, but got the dollars refunded to our online accounts. Instead, we spent our Kona day as a day at sea, and the captain took us to see Molokai, and then took us into a bay where there were a bunch of whales that people could watch come breach from the water near the ship. Disappointing, but not their fault. Would have rather seen Kona than some whales spouting water in the air. Next we went to Kauai and that was incredible. It was beautiful again, and we went on an ATV tour and saved $500 by just booking it direct and using Turo to get a car that could seat 8 of us delivered to the pier terminal directly without walking, and then just drove the Turo car out there to the ATV place and had a great time. Also went to Poipu Beach near our ATV spot and was able to spend some time at a world class beach that had a bunch of sea turtles hanging out on the shore with us for photo ops, etc. Last day was a day at sea with a tour of Napali Coast and the huge cliffs and views from the port side of the deck. So that was nice to see and a fun day to hang out on the sun deck and get our free drinks that. Still not sure why they give you an envelope and a receipt to sign off on when you've already paid for the service fees and the 20% gratuities for getting a drink. But I'm guessing they just use that opportunity to try and pressure folks into more tips above what they've already paid for. Entertaining was traditional cruise ship entertainment. Comedian was so-so during family night, but actually pretty funny during the adult show on Friday. Ukulele Group was what I'd expect to get for free and not pay money to see, but then 3 of the folks in my party thought they were the best entertainment on the cruise, so to each their own. Other thing I noted was that the boat had more movement than I recall most of my previous cruise ships having. It is a bit of a small and simple cruise ship, so I'm guessing it has something to do with the size and how close it was to the Hawaiian shoreline most of the time when moving, but luckily it spent half of the time docked in a port, so it really only rocked when moving from port to port during the evenings. Only one of my nine people in my group really was impacted by the movement, and he took some Dramamine and was fine for the rest of the evening trips. So it wasn't like it's a guarantee to make you seasick since eight of us didn't' take anything and didn't run into any issues there. Overall, I feel there were a lot of poor reviews, so I was pleasantly surprised at how friendly everyone was, how good the food was, how easy the lines were to manage and never really had to wait for anything, the only things closed where the Shave Ice/Gelato place by the pool, and some hot dog/hamburger stand next to the pool was only open on our days at sea. The Liberty regular dining area was closed and instead just had the Skyline dining for the regular sit-down dining area, so maybe that was a 10-15 minute wait with a little buzzer disk they give you to tell you when your table is ready, so even though they were only using half of their main dining area, the waits were short and you could go take your disk to some comfortable wine bar or something and just wait while getting free drinks. So it was all good. I think that covers the main points. If you have any specific questions. Post a reply and I'll check back in and answer as best I can.

Great. Really helpful. I think the key (as a few noted) might be the authorized amounts are $300 and likely won't have capacity on a pre-paid card. So I'll just set up each with their own smaller amounts if they can be customized. So that's good to know they won't require a $300 deposit, but allow for a $100 allowance for small items (and we already have unlimited drink packages and nobody uses the spa or store). So I think we'll be good. Thanks again!

Getting ready to go on the Pride of America in Hawaii. Don't plan to spend much (if any at all) on the ship itself. I made sure all costs were covered by paying for the pre-paid service charges up front, and also got everyone drink packages with the 20% gratuities pre-paid so nobody needs to worry about tip money. Thus all service fees, gratuities and taxes/fees are pre-paid for everything before we even board. We have eight of us that are in our suite and I checked us in as "cash" since I wasn't going to put a credit card on file for all of my kids and family. But I saw somewhere that they wanted like $100 per day per person, so with eight of us we'd be looking at them wanting me to put thousands down, which obviously I won't have in my wallet with me. I'm thinking of giving each of the family members (6 other passengers in the suite) $100 visa cards to handle any incidentals (in case someone wants a Starbucks or something). But wondering if anyone knows if NCL has any issues with accepting if I give them six $100 pre-paid visa cards from the store as the incidentals for each of my six other members. I just don't want to show up and have them try and secure eight people with my one visa or get stuck with some hidden taxes or fees that somehow weren't mentioned after I've prepaid everything to date. Thanks

Thanks. That's helpful. Looks like if I just put "cash" as my own payment option, then select that all 7 of my other passengers use my "cash payment type", then I'm essentially allowing all of us to register but not securing anyone to my visa card. Then they'll all have to settle up when we board the ship and get their own stuff registered at pier. Thanks. Now if I can only figure out what this damn "UNHANDLED_EXCE"PTION" error us for every picture I try to load for my family members. Ugh. I guess I'll go look for that in the search engine next. Thanks!

I've got two rooms on an upcoming NCL Pride of America Hawaiian cruise. I'm now within the 21 day window to do online check-in, but find myself having a couple of quick questions, so I thought I'd ask the experts and see if they have any advice. I booked two rooms for my wife and I and our six family members that I'm paying for as a gift (my two adult kids and their significant others, along with our minor child and my brother-in-law). None of them are cruise people and none have an NCL account. So I've coordinated and booked everything (since most of the key stuff is our treat, it works out well for me coordinating the initial costs and couple of packages I've agreed to pay for the group. Here's where my questions line up. When doing online check-in, for my adult children, I can get all of their info into the NCL check-in screen, but it seems to want some type of credit card secured. And with my adult children or their significant others, I'm not going to cover their incidental costs they charge, but am fine covering a small amount of incidental costs if they end up getting charged for a Starbucks or some random small dollar item during their cruise. So my thought was just to attach a $100 pre-paid visa card that I get form the store on all of their accounts, which will at least attach a small amount of funds to their account. But then they may want to attach their own credit card for larger purchases they make (like if they decide to go on their own port excursion). But they don't have NCL accounts and won't be logging into NCL to do online check-in. But the NCL system seems to want them to log in and create an account to attach either a visa for them, or for me to add a $100 pre-paid visa card for them on their online check-in. Any ideas how I do check-ins for my 6 other folks in my party without them creating an NCL account or allowing me to add pre-paid visa cards to their accounts so I can get us all checked in via my one NCL account? Thanks!