Who has gotten back from "The Pride Of America"

[livermorenancy]

Hi-Reg. rooms on the POAloha and the POAmerica are both small (except suites but there are only 14 on the POAloha/ex-Sky and those are much smaller than the Pride of America's suites.). Inside on Aloha have a small sleeper sofa between the beds and the bathroom so that when it opened you had to crawl over the opened-bed to get to the bathroom. Storage is small but for a 7-day island hopping you'd only have shorts, tops, swimsuit and a dress, skirt, or pants for evenings. POAmerica inside cabins are set up better.

[bankofdad]

Nancy, thanks again for all of the info!

 

Please forgive me if this question has already been answered, but is POAmerica set up for wireless internet access?

[2cents]

We were on the POA Panama cruise and the service was not the greatest but it seemed to improve everyday. For a new boat and mostly new crew I thought they did great. But some people did nothing but complain the entire cruise. The only exception was the cabin steward. He started out poor and finished poor. We enjoyed all of the food, but you had to be patient, but what was the rush anyways? It was also weird running out of food near the end of the cruise. They would give you the menu and then tell you 4 or 5 items were not available. I'm sure I heard the main chef claim they loaded 10,000 dozen eggs!

 

The tennis court is a mini and they said they lost the net after the Regis show. It never showed up. Plus I wanted volleyball, but that isn't going to happen. The odors up on the sports decks are unbearable at times. Watch out for the fees for the sports activities. I was really disappointed with the organized free sports activities, essentially none. The teen group leaders were nice, but they have a lot of room for improvement in organization and activities.

 

Watch out for the pool deck tiles. They get more than hot, they are scalding. The remaining deck surface is also slippery when wet.

 

I had 4 people booked in a balcony cabin on deck 9 and since they only allow 3 on the balconies, NCL gave us a 2nd cabin free. That was great for the long cruise. Very small cabins, but you will get a lot of exercise opening the doors.

 

Some recommendations on the cabins, avoid cabins with a door to the adjacent cabin unless you have both of them. They are paper thin and sometimes I thought the neighbors were in the cabin with me.

 

If you like to retire early, avoid the cabins on deck 7 forward. They are right above the Mardi Gras Lounge and people said the noise was terrible.

 

I also discovered that the deadbolt is useless with your cabin key. I asked a friendlier stewardess if she could open the doors with the bolt closed but she didn't know. She asked another person who assurred me they could not. I still wish I would have made them try it. Basically, if you are in your cabin and have the deadbolt closed, the kids can still stick their card in and come right in. In some respects maybe that is a good idea, but I would still like to be able to insure my privacy at times.

 

The sushi bar is a great deal, if you sit at the bar, it was all you can eat sushi for $5.00. We tried the East meets West and Jefferson Bistro. Both were very good but I was disappointed in the "firestarter something or other" in the Bistro. I heard good things about the Lazy J and many complaints about the slow(est) service in the Italian rest. If there were drink specials (I really wanted some buckets of beer) I missed them.

 

I regret not taking a GPS unit and a map. There was 0 nav info but the captain said he had a great chart on the bridge! I wonder if they have a bridge viewing window just outside the diamond head meeting room. This meeting room would have been great for the craft activities and up close magic but they did not use it.

 

They installed control boxes for the TV's in each cabin, this will allow them to get the nav channel up and running. It is supposed to also allow in room booking of excursions, viewing your tab, ordering movies, etc. Sounds neat but we did not get to see it. Also I have never seen so many security cameras on a boat.

 

This was my 3rd NCL cruise. I wish NCL would add lemonade to their free drink options. I miss salsa for my breakfast too, but the Bistro gave me some at night so I could have it in the morning! The ice cream machine was intermittent and I usually had to get my choc chip cookies friom the kids buffet!

 

I needed a sweatshirt or long sleeve shirt. A lot of places on the ship were meat locker cold. I had to use the hair dryer on my camera and binoculars before I went outside to avoid condensation!

 

Some people complained about the motion, but it was one of the smoothest cruises (7 total) that I have been on.

 

The debarkation was chaos. We made it to LAX 40 minutes before out flight left, but we did catch the flight.

 

I also learned what a Code Oscar is. That means man overboard. At the pier, a returning tour bus dropped them off about 3 feet from the edge of the pier. A man stumbled on the steps of the bus and went right off the pier between a docked freighter and the pier. He had about a 6 foot space to fall 6-8' into the water. They fished him out and he seemed fine and walked away from it. I'm pretty sure he can laugh about it now. It was kind of scary when you found out that some crew members did not know what the page was about.

[love2relax]

Nancy, I knew you'd be out there somewhere with the cabin comparison info! Thanks and hello to you.

 

Bankofdad, I did not personally use wireless internet, but I saw several people surfing on the pool deck sans wires...so my guess would be yes.

[bankofdad]

Bankofdad, I did not personally use wireless internet, but I saw several people surfing on the pool deck sans wires...so my guess would be yes.

 

Thanks Mary!

[Captain's Quarters]

I got a question that I asked on the tennis court thread, oops......... We were on the Regis and Kelly cruise, and the ship was only half full of passengers to get this crew started on the right foot so to speak. I would give the food service a C+, room Stewardess D- to an F, the ship an A+ . Our service went downhill as each day went by. Oh well we were freebies anyway, but my question is..........

 

 

When we went into and out of each port we were flanked on each corner of the ship with coast guard and harbor police keeping other boats away, did this continue when it left from Miami??

[ragbagger]

Ruth,

Let me know if you want to know anything else. I counted hangers in closets, shelves, plugs, drawers...etc. Have fun!

 

Dear Mary,

We're sailing on PoAm on 30 July. If you have already posted the number of hangers, plugs, drawers and shelves, please point the way for me to find it! ;)

 

If not, will you please let me know? I have some light weight plastic hangers to take, but won't if I don't need them. We're taking a surge protector with extra outlets just in case, but still curious.

 

Thanks so much! Your posts and those of the other CC members from the canal cruise have really boosted our hopes for a great trip and convinced us to keep our spirits high and our minds open. We'll add to the info when we return.

 

Best,

reenie

[love2relax]

Captain's Quarters, regarding the Coast Guard and Harbor Police escorts, I heard that after 911 this is a common occurence. On the last ship I sailed, we were escorted into all US ports. On the Pride of America, we sailed into three foreign ports; so there was no Coast Guard. I saw the pilot boat drop off the pilot, and usually some sort of local harbor enforcement. When we were in Cabo San Lucas, a vessel hung around and circled the ship most of the day, but it was unmarked. When we got to LA, there was no coast guard...but the Harbor Police and a firefighting tug that put on quite a water display! It wasn't red, white, and blue like it was in New York, but it was still pretty cool. I took about a bazillion pictures of it! An LAPD helicopter circled over us a few times as we entered port, but he may have just been taking a look. The only Coast Guard that we saw was the morning that we entered Puerto Limon. When we were still FAR from port, a helicopter circled over us several times and waved. I think they were thrilled to see our ship (and we were thrilled to see them).

Ragbagger, This applies to our BA category cabin:

hangars: 16 regular with a bar for slacks or shirts and 4 with clips for skirts

 

drawers: two just past the closet in the entry way, and two by the balcony sliding door

 

shelves:

Bathroom: There were three miniature shelves in the medicine cabinet, and a shelf below the sink.

Closet: There were two basket shelves on the left, and three shelves on the right. One of them had extra pilows, and one had extra towels, but I took them out and used the space. There was also a funky pull-down shelf at the back of the closet, but I didn't use it since I had so many clothes on hangars. There is a top shelf, but it is filled with stinky :rolleyes: new life jackets.

Main Cabin: There were 3 shelves above the coffee maker and ice bucket shelf in the cabin, but one of them had bottled water (which you could ask to have removed), and two shelves below the coffee maker. Our cabin steward put the bed spreads on the bottom shelf when he turned down our beds for the night...but probably only because it was available. There was a tiny ledge in front of the mirror on the vanity in the room where I left my mini binoculars and note pad for phone messages. Then there was one above the safe where I put a LOT of stuff. There was also a little space in the cabinet next to the safe.

As for outlets, there was one in the bathroom. Ours was in the ceiling, but other people told me theirs was IN their medicine cabinet! There were also two 110 outlets on the vanity next to the hair dryer. It was nice to leave all of my stuff on the desk to charge. It was a tight squeeze for one of my chargers to plug in because it was right against the desk at the base. I would recommend a power strip just in case you have trouble fitting yours, especially if you have big transformers. Hope this helps.

 

As for everyone who keeps saying their cabin stewards were less than perfect, I have to say the opposite. Ours was awesome: probably the best we've ever had except that he only did a towel animal once. Big deal....he was so quick to take care of whatever needed to be done. There is a spinning dial outside your room to inform the steward what you want done (turn down cabin, make up cabin, do not disturb...) After it is done, he/she turns it back to "welcome". Our steward had 14 cabins, and another on the floor only had 6 since she was assigned to inside cabins that were unoccupied for our cruise. She helped him out so we were very lucky to basically have two stewards. We cooperated by changing the sign for a turn down when we left for dinner, since we knew we probably wouldn't be back until bedtime. We asked that the cabin be made up when we left for breakfast. He observed that I would come in and take out one of my pillows midday to stretch out and read on the bed. After the first day, I found it that way every afternoon. He replaced our glasses and towels even when we didn't ask, and vaccuumed every day, prompting me to ask if we were really that messy. I didn't think he needed to do that, but he did anyways. Every night, the beds were turned down, the drapes closed (until we told him not to since we always opened them back up again), the info channel was on the TV, and the bedside lights were on that we could turn them off in bed. There was no need to turn on the overhead lights when those lights were on. Hopefully there will weed out the problems with some of the other stewards who were not up to par before any of you go on board. I like the ship so much that I am trying to get together a group cruise for next July!

[stargazers]

We did have escorts out of Miami and into L.A. We also had a navy boat with us at Cabo, but I am not sure when they showed up. They did escort us out of the bay. I don't remember any other escorts besides the pilot boats in the other ports, maybe someone else noticed.

 

Kristy :)

[joanskid]

Mary,

 

Do you think that having a balcony on the aft of a deck higher up than 7 would make it more comfortable? If so, which deck do you think would be best? 8,9 or 10?

 

We have loved aft cabins on Carnival cruise ships, and are booking one on this cruise also. Is there less breeze because of the back being kind of square shape?

 

Maureen

[love2relax]

I don't think the deck would make much difference. I only know what people staying in that cabin (and someone who visited them) told me. I think it has to do with the heat and humidity... and the lack of wind back there. Hawaii weather will be similar to what we experienced. If you like the larger balcony, why not book one towards the front of the ship where they are larger? Just stay away from Deck 7 if you go to bed early since the Mardi Gras Lounge is right below on Deck 6. I could look right down onto the people on their aft balcony on the deck below the bar where we were when we left port in Miami. It's up to you though. Everyone has their own level of comfort.