Pride of America Review 2/18 - 2/25

[MButte]

Our family (Mom, Dad and 2 Sons; ages 10 & 14) completely enjoyed our February 18 – 25 Pride of America cruise. We give our overall experience a rousing ‘thumbs-up’, but do understand how some ‘experienced cruisers’ could be disappointed with the Pride of America. It is a much different cruise product than most…not at all bad, just different. Being a 25- year veteran of the hospitality industry, I can truly appreciate what NCLA must be going through to try and get good American staff for these ships and I can also now appreciate how hard the crew members actually worked.

 

We found the ship to be beautiful, well maintained, very nicely decorated and very easy to get around. All of the staff we encountered were friendly (and yes, just like in the US population as a whole, some were more genuinely friendlier than others) and most seemed pleased to be doing what they were doing. A few talked of leaving before the summer family crowds arrive and there was talk of who was being offered an opportunity to transfer to the new Pride of Hawaii in May and how this would effect staffing (i.e. guest service) on the Aloha and America over the summer. All of this was no different than what I encounter every day with the similarly aged staff members in the hospitality business I manage.

 

We had a AG Category Family Suite on Deck 7, which worked out very well. It consisted of a very large main bedroom, with a sitting area with a sofa and chairs and a separate room with two single beds. There were two full bathrooms and two TV’s. This is an obstructed view room, but with three huge sets of windows, there was NO problem with enough light or seeing the views. My wife discovered that there is a small catwalk for crew members to use in servicing the adjacent lifeboats just outside the windows (when she came out of the shower one time, the curtains were wide-open and work was underway!), so we learned to keep the curtains closed as necessary.

 

The cabin could in theory sleep a total of 8 (four twin beds, the sleeper couch for 2 and 2 upper berths in the second bedroom, but that would be tight. Interestingly, the NCLA description of this category is “Living Room with convertible sofa bed and two separate bedrooms with two twin beds each…” This description is wrong! For us, it was no problem, but for some passengers it could be an unfortunate discovery upon boarding. Yes, the bathrooms are compact, but certainly not a problem unless you are perhaps over 400 pounds and 6’ 8”? As a frequent Amtrak overnight train user, I can say that the showers are very similar in size to those found on most US sleeping cars, though I must say showering at 80 miles per hour on a train is a little bit more challenging. I’m accustomed to the vacuum toilet system used by the ship (same as on Amtrak), but if you are not it can be a little ‘intimidating’ at first.

 

Our cabin steward was quite good, though his English language skills were rather limited (yes, he was a US Citizen). The rooms were always clean; there was always ice in the buckets and any requests we had were accommodated. FYI…During the cruise, the stewards work in the morning from 9:00am until they are done cleaning all their assigned rooms and then again from 6:00pm until around 9:00pm for turndown. Thus, they are not on duty from early afternoon through 6:00pm.

 

Our only cabin problem was upon boarding we found the drain for one of the bathroom sinks was completely disconnected, such that all of the water just flowed unto the floor. Given that the last guests had just left four hours earlier, this seemed hard to believe. It did take several calls over the course of four hours to get a plumber to come fix the problem, but once he did, it was fine.

 

We found the food and related service to be generally quite good. Being in the industry, I always try to go into such an experience with an open mind and rarely am I disappointed. It is the QE2? Not at all! Is it consistently good? Yes, with some outstanding items/people! Did it exceed our expectations? Absolutely! Particularly based on some of the poor reviews the PoAm has received…

 

Taking the advice of previous reviewers, I boarded and immediately made dinner reservations for each night with no problems. By Sunday, most of the specialty rooms were booked solid for the whole week, except for some less desirable late times. It was clear that some passengers had done their homework in advance and others had NO idea what to expect with NCL Free Style Cruising. Based on what we experienced the one night we ate in the main dining room and then observed on other nights, if you only ate in the main dining rooms, you might well be disappointed. I would say this is one area were NCLA does need to concentrate on improving. I would also recommend that at least on the PoAm, NCLA should be more open about the need to make reservations or expect to wait for a table.

 

We ate in the Liberty the first night (Saturday). The Prime Rib was good but service would best be described as hectic…Not bad, just lots of servers running around and seemingly not getting much accomplished.

 

Our second night (Sunday) was in Little Italy, which was great. Jennifer was our server and the whole experience was wonderful.

 

Monday night we were reserved in the Skyline, but choose instead to go to the nearly empty Cadillac Dinner. Food and service were fine. We ordered milk shakes, which even the server said looked very poor, which indeed they were

(Milk with chunks of ice cream floating around in it). Without asking, she brought us new (much better) ones at no charge.

 

Tuesday night (formal night) my wife and I ate in the Jefferson Bistro (the boys fended for themselves at the buffet). This was an interesting experience. Our front server, Stephen, was trying way too hard to be ‘perfect’ and not succeeding well. When he brought our menus, he noted that “in the Bistro we normally serve a complete four course meal, including dessert, which we prefer you to order all at once.” This seemed rather odd to us! I had noticed a beautiful cheese cart near the front door as we had entered and assumed this was for a dessert cheese course. So, when Stephen came for our orders and recited the available desserts for us to order then (before the meal) I asked if cheese was indeed a dessert option. He informed us that no, the cheese was a starter and not a dessert item and he would bring some around to us. We ordered everything, but choose not to order our dessert at that time, which seemed to annoy Stephen quite a bit, causing him to say “it is really easier on us if you would order dessert now”, but we held our ground. Interestingly, we (and the table next to us who had listened to the cheese discussion) were the only ones served any cheese as a starter in the entire dining room. The food was quite good and I must complement our back waiter, Renaldo, who did an outstanding job serving us as soon as Stephen let him alone. We did enjoy two excellent flambéed desserts, ordered with and prepared by Renaldo. Just for fun, after dessert when Stephen came back around to see if we wanted anything else, I asked him for some of the excellent blue cheese from the cart. Well, let’s just say, while Stephen did go get it, he wasn’t the happiest camper I have ever seen. We left by tipping Renaldo cash for his excellent service and Stephen was left empty handed!

 

Wednesday night we were reserved in the Liberty, but based on our first night experience and that night’s menu, we decided to eat at the Buffet, which was Mexican night and quite good.

 

Thursday night was at the Lazy J, with excellent service and food. Desserts here could be ordered at the end of the meal without difficulty and were great.

 

Friday night was back at Little Italy. While the food was very good again, service suffered as the room was very busy.

 

We ate every breakfast at the Buffet, using the rear buffet station and the outdoor seating. I particularly enjoyed the unlimited smoked salmon with appropriate condiments and the excellent corn beef hash each morning.

 

Most afternoons, after getting back on board, we snacked at the Key West Grille.

 

Beverage service was fine. While the drink/beer prices weren’t low, we found the bottled wine prices to be quite affordable. We discovered the first night that you can buy a bottle of wine anywhere on board and if you don’t finish it, they will store it for you and retrieve it whenever you want a glass. At one point we had three different bottles in process. It seems that this is a little know service, as when we would ask for one of our stored bottles, there was often a look of slight confusion, but they did always manage to find the right bottle.

 

We all enjoyed the various evening entertainment. Rich Clesen, our Cruise Director, was very good and extremely personable. We all agreed that the juggler and comedian were great, as was the crew talent show. The finale to the crew show can’t be described in mere words; you have to see it to truly appreciate the artistic value!?.

 

We never had any problem finding space around the pools or on the other decks. Our older son spent a lot of time with new friends in the Teen Club and routinely came back to the cabin long after we were asleep. Our younger son found the youth program ‘too young’ for him, but he quickly made friends and had a ball too.

 

It was never really rough at sea, though there were times we definitely knew we were not in port. It was never enough to bother any of us.

 

We purchased NO ship excursions, instead renting cars at each port (except Kona). This worked very well for us and was MUCH cheaper. We used Hertz and had no problems at all. Advance reservations are certainly advisable.

 

A quick rundown of what we saw/did:

Hilo – Volcano National Park – Absolutely amazing! Wish we could have spent several days hiking and exploring. Cruise by the lava at night was the highlight of the whole cruise. With binoculars, we could see the actual flowing lava hit the ocean water and explode in massive fireworks. No words can describe the site!

Maui – we drove ¾’s of the Road to Hana the first day. This was quite an experience, as I managed to hit one large rock that rolled into the road ahead of us (fortunately no damage) and we just missed a very large tree falling across the entire road. The second day we drove the entire way around west Maui. The road marked as single lane is truly single line for several miles with just small turn out points every so often, though it is paved the whole way. It made the road to Hana seem like an expressway!

Kona – Used the very nice beach at the pier. Snorkeled right there also; beautiful fish and rocks. We made it back in time for the Chocolate Buffet. I have never seen such gluttony in all my years in the food service business!

Kauai – It poured at the pier both days, but we were advised to drive west to the Waimea Canyon, where indeed the sun was out. Canyon was beautiful! We later drove to a very isolated beach at the very end of the road on the west side. This was true paradise, with only a few other people in sight anywhere. Second day we explored up the east coast for a ways, before the rains started again. Cruise along the Napali Coast was amazing.

 

We had spent three days in Honolulu before the cruise at the Hilton, which was great. We did the beach and Diamond Head one day and Pearl Harbor and the north shore another day. I would sincerely recommend going early, so you can adjust to the time difference (5 hours for us coming from Buffalo, NY) before the cruise.

 

As I started off noting, we truly enjoyed the whole Pride of America experience and would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone, though I would caution regular cruisers to expect a different cruise than they are likely used to. There is no doubt it is a great way to see the islands. I wish NCLA luck in trying to run and staff three American flagged ships on the same run.

[johnql]

Thanks very much for the detailed, balanced review. Glad you had a good time.

[Ali70]

Thanks for the great review. Can you remember what times the various restaurants open and close at?

[DAARR5]

Wow MButte

Thanks so much for the GREAT review! Yes sometimes knowledge is too much, but you have to go with the attitude that you are on vacation...Being in the service industry also (casino), I too am a stickler for details and I always want my guests experience to be perfect and I sometimes expect the same level of service! :) :)

We are going in the beginning of May with a 15,14 and 12 years old, were there many teens on your cruise?

Dee

[MButte]

Ali70:

 

There was generally some sort of food available 23 hours a day (the Cadillaic Diner serves overnight upto 5:00am, then closes for an hour, before re-opening at 6:00am).

 

Asuuming your question is about dinner times, the main dining rooms opened at 5:30pm and you could be seated there up to 10:00pm. The specialty rooms opened at 6:00pm and in theory, the last reservations they accepted were at 9:30pm. It was clear that the specialty rooms are capacity controlled, as we never saw all of the tables being used at anytime. I couldn't really tell if this was based on available staffing, kitchen capability or some broader NCLA policy to limit use.

 

Breakfast was available from 6:00am to 11:30am at various locations, followed by lunch from 11:30am to 3:00pm and then snack bar service upto to dinner time. There was no way a person could go hungry!

 

DAARR5:

 

Our cruise was over Washington's Brithday week (school vacation time for many including us), so there were lots of children of all ages. My sense is that there were more than the average number of youth on the trip. Our 14-year- old son had no problem finding/making friends, as best as we could tell (being his parents, information was provided on a strict "need to know" basis only). Our younger son did report he showed up at our cabin with a girl at point during a scavernger hunt, but we could never get him to confirm this (oh the joys of having teenagers!).

 

I'll be happy to answer any other questions people may have....

[biszmom]

That was a great review. My son (15) and I are going on the POAm over his spring break (04/15/06). I am reading everything I can. He has never been on a cruise before and I have only been on one (it was a long time ago too!). I hope there are other teenagers on board during this time as well. :cool:

[9cruisessofar]

We were on the exact same cruise at the same time. For us the weather was disappointing. I wish we had rented a car like you did. Especially that Thursday in Kaui when it was raining so hard at the pier. Had we know there was sun on the other side of the island....well, too late now. This is why it's good to have these message boards and people post their reviews so others can learn. Good job.

[lanord]

Thanks so much for posting your review! Our family, along with various members of my DH's family (party of 10) will be on the PoAM in June. I was pleased to see positive comments about this ship. So many other reviews have emphasized the "terrible" food and the "terrible" service. What a refreshing change! :) Glad you enjoyed your cruise.

 

Leigh Ann

[segerd]

We too were on the same cruise with you. Great review! We had such a fantastic time and loved this ship. I had been on the Pride of Aloha in July of 2004, no comparison! I would take this cruise again.

[monobrow1]

Thanks for the review; a little relieved knowing we are honeymooning on POD in May. I think I am ready ; sounds like if I reserve the specialty restaurants for the week and stay on the islands as long as possible.

everything shouold be fine.. I am thinking about staying at the Hyatt regency in Maui the first night( Sunday) since we have 2 days there.

Any feedback to that idea?

[HopkinsCruiser]

Thanks for the tip about binoculars to view the lava flow into the ocean. We are going on the Pride of Hawaii next year and I've started a "list of things to remember".

 

Tina :)

PS: Thanks for the great review, too!

[Eli&Joe]

Thanks for the great review! You mentioned Tuesday was a formal night. What was the other formal night? Do you know what the main dining room served on formal nights? Is it worth it to eat in the main dining room on formal night or should we also book a specialty restaurant for those days?

[MButte]

Tuesday was the only Formal night on this trip and as I noted, maybe only a 1/4-1/3 of the passengers dressed-up (in anyway) for it.

 

As we were reserved in the Jefferson Bistro that night, I never looked at the Main Dining Room menus, so I can't say if the menu was any more 'upscale' that usual.

[dinobja]

Thank you very much for the great review. I do have a couple of questions

 

1. Do you remember the secluded beach you went to in Kauia?

2. DId you hike to live lava in VNP, and if so how long to get to it?

3. What part of Hana drive did you do and what did you stop and see/how long did it take you? Thank you for your time.

[segerd]

Hike in VNP took quite a while. The lava viewing was fantastic but it was three miles each way hiking.

[rotc]

Thank You, Thank YOU!!! We are sailing on July 8th and you have taken a bunch of concerns away!!! We are celebrating our 25th wedding anni. and renewing our vows in Maui on Tuesday, so if in deed it is formal night, I won't look out of place all dressed up. Thanks again for your wonderful and informative comments.:)

[Ms.Bee]

Thanks so much for the great review MButte. We will be sailing the Pride Of America on 5/20 and we have a thread going on the POAM Roll Call Forum, if anyone else out there is cruising that week......check out our thread!!

 

Your review was very helpful and refreshing. This will be our second cruise in Hawaii, our first was on the Star in 2003. I'm sure the ship is beautiful and we will have a lovely cruise!! Aloha, Ms. Bee;)

[lhall85917]

Thanks for the review, lots of helpful information! We are also planning on renting cars at each island and its great to read about what others do and how things work out. I've also been watching to make sure the chocolate buffet is on the day we are at Kona - certainly don't want to miss it! Our first trip to Hawaii the choc. buffet was right after leaving Fanning Island, when we went to Alaska it was at 10:00 at night - not good timing for us!!:eek:

[pao302]

ROTC

How did you make plans to renew your wedding vows??? Who did you contact? My husband and I are celebrating our 30th and we're taking the whole family on the Pride of Hawaii cruise in August. I'd like to look into renewing our vows too. Let me know and thanks in advance

[redheddad]

if you are gonna be in honolulu before you sail (on a saturday) check this out http://www.moana-surfrider.com/wn_CDrelease.htm

[rotc]

I found a Wonderful site at www.maui-angels.com The minister Rev. Kolleen Wheeler is wonderful. I have talked with her several times and we are having our ceremony at Charlie Young Park. Not very expensive at all considering. This site will give you lots of info. If you need more just let me know. I'll be happy to help!!:)