Pride of America 6/16 to 6/23 report w/pictures

My husband and I decided to take this trip to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. I had wanted to go to Hawaii for some time but didn’t know which island to go to or what to do once we got there. When I found information about this cruise, I knew it would be the best way to see the islands. We cruised Norwegian for our honeymoon going to the Bahamas. We did a Royal Carribean cruise for our 10 year anniversary and took our three kids on a Disney cruise for our 15 year. We discovered all inclusive resorts after that so for our twenty year anniversary, we went to a Sandals resort in Jamaica. I was excited to cruise again and very excited about our destination this time. We went through a travel agent and booked our trip June 1, 2017. She went through NCL and we got the cruise with air package with a night at a hotel the day before we set sail. I didn’t do much research until February. I got logged into NCL and joined cruise critic to start learning what I could. I booked three excursions through NCL: Hilo - Kilauea Volcano Biking, Nawiliwili - Discover Kauai & Luau, Honolulu - Pearl Harbor with early bird airport drop off. Kilauea erupted so I had to cancel the volcano biking tour. Once we found out we were going to the big island, I booked the Secrets of Puna. When we got on the ship, we learned it would be the Secrets of Hamakua. We also got word before we left that our Pearl Harbor tour was being canceled. I wanted to make sure we got there, so I booked a private tour through Viator for 6:00 am on the 16th before we boarded the ship. We now needed something to do when we got off the ship since our flight didn’t leave until after 5:00 pm so through NCL, I booked their North Shore tour with airport drop off. I also booked dinners in the main dining rooms before we left. Although excursions were not booked at each port, I had a general idea of what we were going to be doing each day. Once everything was finalized, I felt pretty prepared and very excited.

Day 1: Pre-cruise in Honolulu

We got up at 3:00 am on June 15 and our son took us leaving at 4:00 am to the Kansas City airport for our flight. We were flying to Dallas with a short layover before we flew on to Honolulu. We checked our two big suitcases and were happy to check our two carry on pieces of luggage when it was offered for free before we boarded. We got beverage service on our way to Dallas and a small snack. On our flight to Honolulu, we got beverage service three times and also a wrap during the first beverage service. I opted for the free wine and also had another glass at their third go around. Free movies were offered on the plane. Each seat had a screen on the back of it. I watched Love, Simon, Mamma Mia, and Coco. I got up and walked to the bathroom after each movie was over to stretch my legs. I cannot sleep on a plane and this was no exception. We arrived in Honolulu right on time around 12:20 pm and were welcomed by a NCL representative holding a sign. She advised we needed to go to the baggage claim to get our luggage and someone would be there to meet us. We got our luggage and waited with a bunch of others from our cruise while they marked our luggage with what hotel we were to be dropped off at. We followed each other out of the airport to where the buses were and boarded fairly quickly. DH and I were first off the bus at the Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort and Spa. They were ready for us at the group arrival check in and DH and I had the key to our room in a matter of minutes. It was the fastest check in ever! We checked out our room and took some pictures of our view. I called my parents to wish them a happy 55th wedding anniversary and then we went out exploring. It was a very busy area. We were hungry and stopped in a Chipotle like eatery up some stairs across from the beach. After we ate, we headed back to our room to relax. Our goal was to stay up until 7:00 pm which would be midnight Kansas time. I was ready for bed at 5:30 and called it a day. We were getting up for our Pearl Harbor tour for a 6:00 am pickup and needed to be ready for that, right?

Pictures of our view from the hotel.

More please... :-)

Day 1: Pre-cruise in Honolulu

We got up at 3:00 am on June 15 and our son took us leaving at 4:00 am to the Kansas City airport for our flight. We were flying to Dallas with a short layover before we flew on to Honolulu. We checked our two big suitcases and were happy to check our two carry on pieces of luggage when it was offered for free before we boarded. We got beverage service on our way to Dallas and a small snack. On our flight to Honolulu, we got beverage service three times and also a wrap during the first beverage service. I opted for the free wine and also had another glass at their third go around. Free movies were offered on the plane. Each seat had a screen on the back of it. I watched Love, Simon, Mamma Mia, and Coco. I got up and walked to the bathroom after each movie was over to stretch my legs. I cannot sleep on a plane and this was no exception. We arrived in Honolulu right on time around 12:20 pm and were welcomed by a NCL representative holding a sign. She advised we needed to go to the baggage claim to get our luggage and someone would be there to meet us. We got our luggage and waited with a bunch of others from our cruise while they marked our luggage with what hotel we were to be dropped off at. We followed each other out of the airport to where the buses were and boarded fairly quickly. DH and I were first off the bus at the Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort and Spa. They were ready for us at the group arrival check in and DH and I had the key to our room in a matter of minutes. It was the fastest check in ever! We checked out our room and took some pictures of our view. I called my parents to wish them a happy 55th wedding anniversary and then we went out exploring. It was a very busy area. We were hungry and stopped in a Chipotle like eatery up some stairs across from the beach. After we ate, we headed back to our room to relax. Our goal was to stay up until 7:00 pm which would be midnight Kansas time. I was ready for bed at 5:30 and called it a day. We were getting up for our Pearl Harbor tour for a 6:00 am pickup and needed to be ready for that, right?

Pictures of our view from the hotel.

 

 

Following!

Following, can’t wait for more!

Great start to your review - can't wait for more! We have a lot in common! We are sailing on POA Sep 1 this year to celebrate our 25th anniversary too! We also honeymooned on an NCL cruise, but our itinerary was Western Caribbean. We also have a short flight (from central Illinois) to Dallas and should arrive in Honolulu at 12:20!! And we are planning to see Pearl Harbor in the morning of the day we board the ship. Too funny!

Day 2: Honolulu

I was up at 4:00 am to start getting ready. Our instructions were to pack our bags and have them ready by the inside of our door by 10:00am. We were not expected back from our tour until 10:30 so we got those ready to go. We drank coffee in our room and I had brought Belvita bars for breakfast. We were downstairs and picked up shortly after 6:00 am to go to Pearl Harbor. We knew not to bring bags or purses, so being able to leave all of that in our hotel room helped immensely. We had an informative tour guide on our way there and got lined up at 6:30 to get in at 7:00. Our tickets for the movie and boat ride were for 8:30 so that gave us plenty of time to wander around and look at things. The movie was very informative and while we were not able to stop at the USS Arizona Memorial, I was fine with the boat driving by. We left Pearl Harbor at 10:00 am and were taken back to our hotel. Our bags were still in the room and had not been picked up when we went downstairs for our 11:15 transfer to the ship. We were first in line for the bus and it didn’t take too long to load and be on our way to the port. We had a nice driver that took a longer route to the ship to show us some buildings downtown she thought were important. I was just ready to get to the port and was wishing for her to hurry along but we eventually got there.

Pictures from Pearl Harbor

Great start to your review - can't wait for more! We have a lot in common! We are sailing on POA Sep 1 this year to celebrate our 25th anniversary too! We also honeymooned on an NCL cruise, but our itinerary was Western Caribbean. We also have a short flight (from central Illinois) to Dallas and should arrive in Honolulu at 12:20!! And we are planning to see Pearl Harbor in the morning of the day we board the ship. Too funny!

Happy Anniversary! I hope you love this cruise as much as we did!

Embarkation was a breeze! We were greeted with leis (flowers for me and beads for DH) and stood in a short line to check in and get our key cards. Another short line to get our picture taken and we were ready to get on the ship. We passed the washy washy girl to get our hands clean and our next steps were to get on the Pride of America. I think the whole process from being picked up to being on the ship took just under an hour. We knew our room was not going to be ready and I had already made the decision to avoid the busy buffet and eat at Skyline. We walked around just a bit to try to get our bearings. We had been given a Freestyle Daily upon boarding so once we made it to Skyline and ordered, I looked at it to see what would be happening that afternoon. For lunch, DH had a salad and the fried chicken. I had the chicken nachos and philly cheesesteak and fries. We both had the peanut butter cup cheesecake. DH loved it and our servers could tell. He ordered a second piece and they brought out another one for him to take to our room for later. We learned the only other day they served this dessert was at lunch on Friday. Yes, we went to Skyline again on Friday to make sure we could have the peanut butter cup cheesecake again!

Lunch from Skyline

We decided to go to Your Guide to the Pride Presentation at 2:00 pm that was held in the Mardi Gras to learn more about our cruise and also the Port Shopping Talk at 2:30. They were handing out raffle tickets. The information shared was helpful and best of all I won a bucket of beer and DH won onion and garlic flavored macadamia nuts and tic tacs.

Our winnings!

When the presentation was over our room was ready. We stayed in room 4510 which had an ocean view window. The room was fine for us. We hung up our clothes or put them in drawers and stored our suitcases inside of one another and kept them in the closet.

Room 4510

We went to our “cruise critic” meet and greet at 4:00 pm in the Shuffles card room. I joined our roll call in February I think, and we also had a Facebook page. We were all having good conversations until about 4:15 when cruise staff started to say a few words and our meet and greet was hijacked by Kaj, the hotel director, who talked about himself until 4:45 when it was time for the muster drill. That was a bit disappointing as I really wanted to hear what others planned to do on the cruise and see if ideas and thoughts could be shared. The muster drill was pretty painless. The station was on our keycard and we found it easily enough. We got in our single file lines and it was soon over. We took the stairs down to our room and were both ready for a nap so we could be up for our 7:30 dinner reservation at Skyline. We did not go to the poolside BBQ and were not on deck when we started sailing away. I could feel it though. Having dinner reservations made it easy to get seated at Skyline. I had the asian noodle salad and prime rib. DH had a garden salad and New York strip steak. He asked for a baked potato instead of fries. I had the chocolate lava cake for dessert and he had a butterscotch chocolate brownie and ice cream. I won on the dessert! Dinner took over an hour. We went to the Hollywood Theater and caught the end of the Welcome Aboard Variety show. We went to the Gold Rush saloon for karaoke after the show. It was pretty painful to listen to so didn’t stay long. We were tired so we decided to call it a night and went to bed.

Dinner from Skyline

Following along and enjoying. Looking forward to reading more.

Love the review and pictures so far. Thank you for taking the time to share them! :)

Great review so far. Loving the photos.

Following along. Loving it so far.

We will be on the POA in December.

Thanks for doing it.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Day 3: Maui

I got up early again. We were actually woken up at three in the morning by a “code bravo” announced over the loudspeaker in our stateroom. It was hard to go back to sleep after that, especially not knowing what it was. I went up to the deck to watch us coming into port in Maui. It was beautiful and exciting.

We had breakfast in the Cadillac Diner. I got a ham and cheese omelet and hash browns. DH got the Blue Lagoon “Full House” breakfast that includes eggs, bacon, sausage, hashbrowns, and beans. They provide a plate of pastries as well while you wait for your order. DH got orange juice and said it was the sweetest he ever had and ordered it at every breakfast we had.

We asked an officer in the diner what code bravo meant, but he would not say. He said it did not involve him, so he went back to sleep. I am not sure if it was meant for us to hear either. Our breakfast was good and I really liked the hash browns. Our plan for the day was to rent a car and drive the road to Hana. I had not rented a car in advance and from doing my research knew shuttles could pick us up at the port and take you to car rental companies. We got off the ship and went to stand in line waiting for a shuttle. We decided to go with the first shuttle that came by and ended up at Budget. I had hoped to get a Jeep for the drive but when quoted a price of $193 for a jeep and around $94 for a car, I went with the car. We ended up with a hybrid ford fusion. While in line, we learned a code bravo meant a fire or smoke on board from another passenger who had googled it. I’m pretty sure that message was not for all of us to hear now... We had downloaded the Shaka app on DH’s phone and chose to buy the classic road to Hana tour. We were able to bluetooth his phone to the radio and we were set and on our way. We had gone to the buffet before we left to make a couple of sandwiches and grab some fruit for lunch to put in a hot/cold bag I had brought.

The Shaka guide was very easy to use. Unfortunately, many people had gotten on the road before us and it was very difficult to find parking places for some of the sights along the way. However, going to the black sand beach made it all worthwhile. It was beautiful! We drove past the town of Hana and went on to Haleakala National Park. There was no mention on the guided tour that it cost $25 to go in the park and we were already at the booth to pay so just did it. We saw the pools at Ohe’o. The trip there took five hours and we drove straight (not really with all the winding roads) back in two hours.

We made it back in time for our 6:30 dinner reservation at Liberty. We each had sushi as our appetizer and also salads. DH ordered the New York strip steak again and I had salmon. For dessert he had the chocolate lava cake (he learned he missed out the night before) and I had a chocolate cheesecake. Everything was delicious. We went to Pink’s Champagne Bar and listed to the Fleetwood Mac Tribute with Carrie Stone. We left that to go to the Aloha Polynesia show in the Hollywood theater which was good and informative. I had learned previously from other posts about the FABBA party. I love ABBA and had watched Mamma Mia on the plane just to get ready for it. We used my raffle prize and got our free bucket of beer. Three Michelob Ultra’s for me and DH tried an IPA. That was around a $42 prize. DH got chosen to be part of the Village People to perform YMCA on stage. He was the cowboy. I had not taken my phone and his was in his pocket so I didn’t get any pictures :(. The ship dancers were very good and it was a fun night.

Dinner at Liberty:

I apologize for the bite taken out. I forgot to take a picture before I started eating. :')

Beautiful pictures! I'm really enjoying!

Code Bravo generally means a fire somewhere on the ship.

-- Kevin

Day 4: Maui

Our plan for the day was to take the Hop On Hop Off bus to Lahaina. We had stopped at the information desk the night before to get a copy of the bus schedule. The bus left the Queen’s mall every hour on the half hour. We got to breakfast at 7:45 and hoped to make the 8:30 bus. I decided that might be pushing it but when our server overheard me talking, he said he would make it happen. DH got the express breakfast with eggs, country potatoes, ham, and toast. I got biscuits and gravy. True to the servers word, we were out of there in no time and caught a taxi to the mall to catch the bus.

Round trip tickets were $4 for each of us. What a deal! It was a scenic drive to Lahaina. The person who sold us the ticket for the bus recommended we go to Whaler’s Village so once we got to Lahaina, we caught another bus there. The shopping looked a little fancy for our taste so we didn’t stay long. It was a beautiful area with resorts and golf courses. We went back to Lahaina and saw the banyan tree and walked around the shopping area. DH found a t-shirt and I got a magnet. We had Dole Whip and then caught the 11:30 bus back to the mall. We did have a difficult time finding a taxi to go back to the port but luckily one came along.

We ate lunch at Cadillac Diner and I forgot to take pictures of our appetizer and meal. We had the spinach and artichoke dip. DH had the buffalo chicken wings and I had fish and chips. For dessert I had the brownie cheesecake and DH had the vanilla pound cake.

Our cruise critic group started making plans to meet again since our first meet and greet was interrupted. We met a couple from the group to visit with while laying out by the pool and listening to The Drivers band play. Once we had our fill of the sun, he went to our stateroom for a nap. We got together again with some of the cruise critic group and shared information about what we had done and would be doing. We didn’t have dinner reservations that night and planned to eat at East Meets West. I did not know you could book a reservation there as I had not been able to do that online. We were told it would be a 30 minute wait which would have been a seating at 8:00 pm. I wanted to see the Lights, Camera, Music! show at 8:30 so we opted for the buffet that night. It was an oriental menu so it was like going to a chinese buffet. Not the best but it served our purpose. We enjoyed the show. I love theater and often to go high school plays and broadway performances that come to our area. It was time for bed after that show. I hated to miss the 80’s party but we had an excursion the next day and wanted to try to get a good night’s sleep.

Banyan Tree in Lahaina

Day 5: Hilo

We were to meet at 8:45 in the terminal for our Secrets of Hamakua tour. DH and I went to the Skyline for breakfast but were turned away because he was wearing a tank top. No problem! We went to Cadillac Diner and DH had an omelet and hash browns and I had the scrambled egg croissant.

We met our tour guide for our excursion and 13 of us set off to explore the big island. While we didn’t get anywhere near the volcano, I could not complain as the Hamakua Coast is breathtaking beautiful. We stopped at a Tex Drive-In and some got their famous made-to-order malasadas. We went to Akaka Falls State Park to see the waterfalls. It was a nice area and the paths were easy to walk. We had a Hawaii-style BBQ lunch with beer and champagne and had a chance to swim in the cool mountain stream beneath a waterfall. Too cold for me, but DH got in. We also went to Rainbow Falls. It was a great tour and we enjoyed seeing the sites.

Akaka Falls

This is the stream we could get in underneath the waterfall.

Rainbow Falls

We had a 6:30 reservation at Skyline. I had the ceasar salad and lasagna, DH had the calamari salad. I cannot remember what his appetizer was. For dessert he had the coconut souffle and I had the cherries jubilee. We had to bolt out of the restaurant as soon as we were done to go on deck to see the volcano. That was a really neat experience. After the viewing, I relaxed in one of the hot tubs. We did not see a show that night.

Enjoying reading your review, thank you for taking the time. Just a quick question: what time are the nightly shows on board?

Enjoying reading your review, thank you for taking the time. Just a quick question: what time are the nightly shows on board?

Thanks for reading! The shows in the Hollywood theater are typically at 6:30 with a repeat performance at 8:30. On Hilo day, the late show is at 9 due to the volcano viewing. The first day of Kauai they are at 7:30 and 9:30 due to the laua.