Aloha-Wondering about Hawaiin Cruise and Pride of America

[RIvacationgirl]

DH and I beginning to think about the Pride of America for 2014. It looks like this ship is going to be renovated soon, am I correct? We have only stayed in a mid-ship mini-suite and this ship does not have this class of room. Does the large balcony room really make a difference from the other balcony rooms?

 

It looks like some of these large balcony rooms are between suites, do you think the "Suite Neighbors" might be noisy compared to having just a regular room on the side of us? I know any neighbor has a chance of being noisy, but I just thought maybe having more people in a room might cause an issue.

 

How was your experience with this ship?

 

We have never been to Hawaii, so any info on anything related to this ship or trip would be appreciated. Thanks! :)

[RIvacationgirl]

Sorry, spelled Hawaiian wrong!:o

[NauticalMom]

Hi Vacation Girl,

 

We were in Suite 10002 last year. It was quite spacious, and we loved it.

This was our first time on NCL, and although we understood it was an older ship, we found it to be quite nice.

 

We are an older couple with older teenage boys. We spent a lot of time in our room and Suite 10000 was right next to us. There were several small children in the Suite and we never heard them.

 

If I were you I would go with a large balcony.

 

Nautical Mom

[puddles99]

We're looking forward to sailing the POA in less than two months! She's headed into dry dock in about a week and there are some significant changes underway including the addition of Moderno, conversion of Lazy J's to Cagney's, addition of new suites & studios, and other maintenance like new carpets, TVs, and Wifi upgrades.

 

I can't imagine a better way to see the islands and the days are just dragging by as we wait .......

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[RIvacationgirl]

We're looking forward to sailing the POA in less than two months! She's headed into dry dock in about a week and there are some significant changes underway including the addition of Moderno, conversion of Lazy J's to Cagney's, addition of new suites & studios, and other maintenance like new carpets, TVs, and Wifi upgrades.

 

I can't imagine a better way to see the islands and the days are just dragging by as we wait .......

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Happy sailing! Come back with many helpful tips!

[Ilovesailing]

You should also keep in mind just how much time your going to be spending on board, in your room and on your balcony. If this is your first trip to Hawaiian then chances are your gonna want to see everything. This cruise is very port intensive.

[RIvacationgirl]

You should also keep in mind just how much time your going to be spending on board, in your room and on your balcony. If this is your first trip to Hawaiian then chances are your gonna want to see everything. This cruise is very port intensive.

 

We tend to use the balcony quite a bit, and enjoy opening the doors and listening to the seas at night.

I am told we should try to get to Hawaii a few days early to adapt to the time change- esp. from RI, and enjoy the mainland a bit before we board the ship.

[CGBCruiser]

We are sailing on POA 5-11-13. I got a balcony too, but didn't want to spend money on anything more than this. The itinerary is SO port intensive that I figure we won't be spending much time at all in the cabin! They are smaller than what we are used to on previous cruises.

[MissMet]

I sailed the POA in 2008 & will be again in May(55 days!). I would definitely get a balcony (port side) but don't focus too much on your room for this cruise. You're really only in it to sleep. This cruise is more like a floating hotel, as there are no sea days, except if you count the last day which leaves Kauai at 2pm.

 

I thought it was a great ship & the best option to see all of Hawaii "in a hurry". Can't wait to see the renovations. We do a week on Oahu before the cruise to get use to the time zone, New Yorkers here. Even after a week on Oahu you'll still find yourself ready for bed at 9pm & up pretty early. I would recommend at least 2 days early, but in my opinion, with two 11 hour flights, two weeks is a must to space out the flights as much as possible.

 

:)

[cruising7]

POA needed an upgrade very badly!! We sailed 3 years ago and were very disappointed with the ship. But the itineraray made up for it!! This is really a cruise for the ports and there is very little ship time. One thing on the ship that made us really mad was they closed off the pool and hot tubs every night at 10! It was ridiculous. I also felt like we were the only family on the ship...it was mostly seniors..this was in June too when school was out. It was an amazing trip though and hopefully the updates to POA will be worth it!

[RIvacationgirl]

I have been reading the ship will be getting an upgrade, but I do not see any time the ship will be not sailing. How do they get these repairs done?:confused:

[kcfoxy]

I have been reading the ship will be getting an upgrade, but I do not see any time the ship will be not sailing. How do they get these repairs done?:confused:

 

Drydock is slated for March 23-April 5th in Honolulu. They will be changing out the entire ship's compliment of clunky old CRTs (including crew quarters, which I think is neat), with flat screen TVs, adding Wi Fi throughout, replacing all the carpeting, changing their Lazy J steakhouse into the fleetwide Cagney's mode,

adding a Churrascuria (Brazilian grill...carnivore's delight), and I think the Cadillac Grill will also morph into a Blue Lagoon.

 

Some cosmetic upgrades to ship's signage and the buffet, some new luxe suites, 4 studios (!) and a few new insides.

 

The public and shipwide improvements are likely to be just about done that first week in April but the work on the new/repurposed cabins will continue to/into September by the reports I've seen...thinking decks 12/13 ?

[RIvacationgirl]

Thank you for the info, it is greatly appreciated.:)

[herdingdogmom]

We were in a regular balcony cabin in Dec. 2011 on the POA. The cabin is smaller than a mini suite and the balcony was pretty small too. We did use the balcony in the mornings before getting off the ship. I have heard that the aft balconies are the best choice. Hopefully the bathrooms in all cabins are getting an update - ours was in pretty rough shape.

 

As others have said, we didn't spend much time on the ship other than the Na Pali coast sail by - which was the highlight of the trip!

[unicorn1075]

My husband and I along with our daughter (who will be 7 when we cruise) and my husband's parents are looking at this ship/cruise for 2014. Due to school for our daughter we are looking at June - August. I hope there will be other families on board as my daughter has always enjoyed the kids program on Carnival. We are also planning on doing a week on Oahu and I hadn't even thought about the time difference (we live in Florida) and think it is a GREAT idea to do the land portion before the cruise.

 

Happy planning!

 

RayAnna

[RIvacationgirl]

My husband and I along with our daughter (who will be 7 when we cruise) and my husband's parents are looking at this ship/cruise for 2014. Due to school for our daughter we are looking at June - August. I hope there will be other families on board as my daughter has always enjoyed the kids program on Carnival. We are also planning on doing a week on Oahu and I hadn't even thought about the time difference (we live in Florida) and think it is a GREAT idea to do the land portion before the cruise.

 

Happy planning!

 

RayAnna

 

Now that I know the ship will be remodeled, this trip is even more enticing.

I hope your daughter will make many new friends!

[TxStacey]

My husband and I are booked for our 25th anniversary at the end of August. We have been on 10 cruises, but this will be our first on NCL. We plan to arrive on Thursday and the ship leaves on Saturday. We have a balcony on deck 9. I didnt even know that it was going into dry dock. That makes it even more exciting! Now I just have to figure out where to stay the 2 nights pre-cruise!!

[mcmomny]

We had an extra large balcony and really enjoyed it! 11026, perfect location for us! Close to pool and buffett and we didn't bring kids!

 

Yes this is a very port intense cruise but we still enjoyed drinking coffee on our balcony every morning and sipping wine everynight!

 

The cabin is small so it was helpfull to have some room to spread out if needed!

 

We did hear noise from the large suite next to us but that is because we had adjoining doors, plus they smoked but we survived!

 

I read about people bringing duct tape to seal off adjoining doors to block noise and smoke but we didn't and it was fine

[RIvacationgirl]

My husband and I are booked for our 25th anniversary at the end of August. We have been on 10 cruises, but this will be our first on NCL. We plan to arrive on Thursday and the ship leaves on Saturday. We have a balcony on deck 9. I didnt even know that it was going into dry dock. That makes it even more exciting! Now I just have to figure out where to stay the 2 nights pre-cruise!!

 

Congratulations on 25 years. We will be celebrating 30 years next year, that is why we would like it to be a very special trip. Make sure you tell us all about the trip when you come back. :)

[RIvacationgirl]

We had an extra large balcony and really enjoyed it! 11026, perfect location for us! Close to pool and buffett and we didn't bring kids!

 

Yes this is a very port intense cruise but we still enjoyed drinking coffee on our balcony every morning and sipping wine everynight!

 

The cabin is small so it was helpfull to have some room to spread out if needed!

 

We did hear noise from the large suite next to us but that is because we had adjoining doors, plus they smoked but we survived!

 

I read about people bringing duct tape to seal off adjoining doors to block noise and smoke but we didn't and it was fine

 

Thank for the info. Which port did you enjoy the most?

[Cubechick]

We had and aft balcony which was huge! The PoA balcony cabins are very small, but having that gigantic balcony made all of the difference.

 

Coming from the East Coast, we arrived in Hawaii three days early (took a full week to adjust to the time difference) and spent five days in California on the way back. Excellent trip start to finish!