Pride of Aloha--Don't waste your money!

[shoreguy]

Who's to say the OP didn't read here before the cruise? I read these boards for a long time before posting for the first time.

 

No issue with post count - but if he spent any time here or on NCLs website understanding tipping on NCLA would not have been a surprise:p

[KeystoneCruiser]

As most of you know, I normally defend people who complain about NCL from the "ultra loyal NCL Passengers" but something about this OP's stories and complaints just don't ring true.

 

1.) The fact that he/she/it specifically mentions RCCL and Carnival in their final statement just strikes me as odd. Why not just say "another cruise line?"

 

2.) If this is his first cruise on NCL but not his first cruise overall, how would he know about NCL's tipping policies in general? The daily charge on other NCL ships is something different than other lines. On other lines you tip each person who provides you with service. Sooooo, if you have two butlers on RCCL, you tip both of them. On most NCL ships (except the POA and POAm), all tips are part of your daily $10 fee that this poster knew about......

 

3.) Is it just me, or does his arguments look like a compulation of complaints that we have heard about the POA over the last year? a.) I remember ONE review where the person said they kept smelling "raw sewage" b.) another poster once mentioned having to stand "outside in the heat for an hour" to check in. (am I missing something, but if you pre register at the Marriott, don't you get right on the ship?? Where is Brittany....) c.) a poster just a few weeks ago complained about being served "canned fruit" on their POA cruise. d.) In my review of two years ago I did comment that I had to continue to ask for "refills of my ICED TEA and for desert menus" e.) on most NCL ships, if you choose to eat between 6:30 and 8:00, you will stand in line waiting to be seated and on the POA, it has always been worse. f.) it was just last summer that Dream passengers were "complaining to whoever would listen." g.) I remember reading a post a few months ago (can't remember if it was the POA or Wind) where the poster said that they were glad to get off the ship and go home. h.) and the letter to NCL and the coupon, heard that before in threads too.

 

I'm sorry, just too many complaints similar to others that have been filtering in over the nearly two years that the Aloha has been sailing. The direct references to RCCL and Carnival still bug me the most. It just doesn't ring true. I don't think this poster will be back......

[tinkerbelldee]

 

I could not agree more. I am really getting sick of reading "false" reviews and then having others defend the phantom posters.

 

I enjoy reading reviews. And would rather read a review that has both negative and positives, and has a poster that sticks around to answer questions.

[WaldosPepper]

Keystone and Tink - thank heavens it isn't just me! When I first read through this post this morning I kept getting the feeling that "something's missing". Where are the specific examples? Where are the details? I was so glad to read your two posts and know that I'm not alone! ;)

[sammymd]

I was going to write a review of this ship

for my 4/2/06 cruise. Have wrote a review for every

cruise I have been on, this will be my 5th on NCL.

To tell you the truth I don't know if I will now.

I usually post positive and negative things I like.

I will say the original poster had a lot of negative,but

I believe this was their cruise, and their expierence.

I don't understand why some posters think

this was a false post. I enjoy reading all reviews,

this was this person's cruise.

If people keep getting blasted, in the future people like me,

might not post a review.

sammymd

NCL SKY 2002

NCL SEA 2003

NCL SEA 2004

CARNIVAL SENSATION 2004

NCL SPIRIT 2005

PRIDE OF ALOHA 4/2/06

[2cruiseagain]

First shot with NCL in July 06. Is it really that bad? I'm going on the brand new Pride of Hawaii. I hope it will be worth the $$.

 

:confused:

[electricron]

After we got home, I wrote a letter to NCL to complain. I don't like to do that but we had saved for over 5 years to take that cruise and I felt like I had thrown my money down the drain. I received a form-letter type reply from NCL telling me my complaints were unfounded, mine was the ONLY complaint received and then insulted me even further by offering me a $200 "coupon" for another cruise! Yeah, I see that happening in this lifetime!

 

Waiting until you got home is too late! You should have complained while you were aboard, to set up a written record while you were on the ship, and give the managment aboard the ship an opportunity to rectify the situtation. A $200 "coupon" after the fact is generous offer. Sorry you don't want to use it. Could you send that coupon my way?

 

You booked the suite, and butlers are amongst those that are tipped seperately from the rest of the crew, not with the $10 per day service charge.

 

Hawaii isn't rich as you think in fresh fruits and vegetables. Choices are limited to what's grown on the islands. It's 2,000 miles away from the mainland. Now you know why canned Spam is a very popular dish in Hawaii. Still, I find it hard to believe you couldn't find fresh bananas, apples, oranges, and melons on the buffet line......

 

Passengers who place things into the toilets that shouldn't be are usually the cause of sewer odors aboard ships. All cruise lines on all ships fight this common problem. It's not unique to your cruise.

[Jtd724]

Come on over to another cruise another line, We'll treat you right, and noone will be constantly looking over thier shoulder thinking CONSPIRACY!! Or that your the infamous boogeyman. Trust me. Anyone who defends canned fruit on a cruise, well, you really need to switch lines they have no idea what a cruise should be.

[electricron]

Who's defending? You missed reading this sentnece, "Still, I find it hard to believe you couldn't find fresh bananas, apples, oranges, and melons on the buffet line."

 

But I can understand a fresh fruit shipment being missed in Hawaii.

[shoreguy]

Come on over to another cruise another line, We'll treat you right, and noone will be constantly looking over thier shoulder thinking CONSPIRACY!! Or that your the infamous boogeyman. Trust me. Anyone who defends canned fruit on a cruise, well, you really need to switch lines they have no idea what a cruise should be.

 

I have an will again. Every line has it's pluses and minuses. Perhaps I will drop over to the RCCL board as a bogus one post wonder. Drop a bomb and run. I would expect and have seen exactly the same reaction there.

 

A lot of irrational posters took a pretty good beating when the Voyager went to Canada last year. :rolleyes:

[karfest]

 

How 'bout a nice fresh fruit platter? We had plenty of these on the Pride of America. Maybe they should share with their sister ship:rolleyes:

[Retired not Expired]

Come on over to another cruise another line, We'll treat you right, and noone will be constantly looking over thier shoulder thinking CONSPIRACY!! Or that your the infamous boogeyman. Trust me. Anyone who defends canned fruit on a cruise, well, you really need to switch lines they have no idea what a cruise should be.

 

Come on now. I defended you earlier on this post, but we both know the NCL board is tame compared to the bickering that goes on over at the RCI board. Same things sets them off, just bigger volume over there. Shorts, jeans, or any thing on dress, plus the famous negative posts, chair hogs, food, children.

 

Over here, very few threads get removed, just some posts sometimes. Not true at RCI.

[smeyer418]

It is interesting on when this cruise was. NCL admitted when the first put the Pride of Aloha in service it was rushed because the America had sunk at the pier.

The Butlers on every ship are tipped seperately. I have never seen any ship where they weren't tip extra. If there were two they were splitting the duty and the tip should reflect this. Its also possible one of the Butlers was in training with senior butler.

Hawaii has serious restrictions about bring fresh fruit between Islands. If you have ever flown between Islands, they are serious about this.

Yes there are always things that can be done better-

An hour wait to get on? Not the worst I have ever seen by far.

Someone who could have used some help and the conceirge could have explained how to use them.

 

PS you always could have used the butlers to serve you in your room.

 

Sounds like a whiner to me.

[Planer's Edge]

Thank you Karen for defending the obvious. And thank you to all of the others who have stated the obvious.

 

I got a little stuck on the post count thing, for that I apologize. But I have seen way too many of these things over the years. Someone comes in with a very negative review with little of no detail and then the "first timers" start asking the question "Have I made a mistake?" or "Is this going to be worth the money?"

 

I am definitely NOT against negative comments. But, when I see a review that is nothing but negative, a little red flag goes up in my mind. I think "What is the agenda here?". Is someone setting the table to get a free cruise (or heavily discounted), is someone just trying to stir up a controversy and sit back and watch, or is someone a little embarassed that they did not prepare well and just want to vent about it. I don't know, but when I see one of these pop up and start to see people question whether they made the right choice, I ask a few questions. This time people started defending the OP by questioning my motives...canned fruit...how many posts give you credibilty...etc.

 

By the way where is the OP to answer some of the questions he/she generated. We can't answer the questions for this person because we were not there. Some people have asked whether they have made the right choice and are concerned because things that were stated in this review. The OP should at least come back and answer some of these questions with post #2.

 

PE<---knows what tastes like chicken... :rolleyes:

 

P.S. This is why my "post count" is as low as it is for as long as I have been here. I get involved with too many threads that get removed. A lot of those happened to have been on the RCI boards!!!!!!!

[KeystoneCruiser]

I was going to write a review of this ship

for my 4/2/06 cruise. Have wrote a review for every

cruise I have been on, this will be my 5th on NCL.

To tell you the truth I don't know if I will now.

I usually post positive and negative things I like.

I will say the original poster had a lot of negative,but

I believe this was their cruise, and their expierence.

I don't understand why some posters think

this was a false post. I enjoy reading all reviews,

this was this person's cruise.

If people keep getting blasted, in the future people like me,

might not post a review.

sammymd

 

 

Sammy, you should certainly know by now that I defend negative posters all the time and have been blasted by other posters for such defenses. This OP is one of only two in two years that I have not given the benefit of the doubt to. There are just too many similarities to exact complaints that we have seen before with no personal experiences to back them up. It is like they tried to roll all of the negative experiences of the last two years into one review. The Iced Tea and menu comment really gets me, because I personally said just that myself in 2004!!!

 

As Planer's Edge said: the OP has not been back to answer the questions or to defend some of what he has said. There have been many first time posters who post negative comments and it goes a long way in their defense and their credibility to come back and comment on what is being said. Post count does not mean squat to me, it is about credibility and the comments in this review do not lead me to believe the poster is credible.

 

The OP has accomplished what I believe he set out to do....he has people who are scheduled for POA trips wondering if it is really that bad and if they made a mistake. (see the post by 2cruiseagain)

 

To those of you doubting, take it from a long time poster who was on the POA.... yes the service is lower than on other ships, yes the POA is an older ship (1999), BUT the Hawaiian itineraries are very port intensive so you spend far less time on the ship than on any other cruise. Think of the ship as a floating hotel with nightlife activities. The ship is still wonderful and most importantly, NCL-A cruises are about the location.....HAWAII!!

[Jtd724]

"Hawaii isn't rich as you think in fresh fruits and vegetables. Choices are limited to what's grown on the islands. It's 2,000 miles away from the mainland. Now you know why canned Spam is a very popular dish in Hawaii."

 

I took that as a defensive statement towards canned fruit being on NCL.

 

I apologize for getting woundup, but I have never seen so much paranoia before. ever. Realize one post, even 2, that are not positive, they will not harm NCL. And just because I never sailed NCL does not mean I have an agenda also to "bring it down". If you look up some of my posts, I actually tried selling NCL to a cruiser. I also applaud NCL for being the first line to have a bowling alley at sea!!(still under construction) Not fair, I want one!!!! (and that penthouse too)

[jame_g]

I know that there are some freestyle dining issues, and some service issues. But I found that overall the Pride of America cruise was very enjoyable and well worth the money. I would guess the Pride of Aloha would be similar.

 

I can't believe that there was only, or even mainly, canned fruit served. Fresh fruit was plentiful on our cruise. Now I'm not saying there might not have been a canned fruit cocktail somewhere on the buffet for example, but fresh pineapple, melon, grapes, kiwi, strawberries, etc were plentiful. Bananas were gone by the last couple days of the cruise however.

 

We were in an AE suite. We only had one butler assigned and he was never around. Another butler did take care of a problem for us when our own butler didn't do his job. The butler we were assigned was one of our disappointments on our cruise, however overall the cabin service was good.

 

Mixed reviews in some cases, yes. Bad overall, no. But everyone has a different experience. And Aloha was a different ship from what we sailed on, but still can't believe that it was horrible for a large number of people.

[electricron]

But you missed my point entirely. Normally, there's plenty of fresh fruits available on NCL ships....

 

If your cruise did not, then the reason has to be Hawaii's remoteness.

 

That's not being defensive, just my opinion as to why.

 

Have you ever sat down at a restaurant/cafe and ordered someting from the menu, with the waiter coming back saying they were out of it? I have many many times.......

 

All that means is they didn't order enough of that item the last time, or the delivery was missed or delayed....

[7SeasLover]

I think perhaps some of the first-time posters may be trolls, trying to stir the pot. Just look back at all the negative posts... they generate all sorts of responses.

 

Hopefully, folks are smart enough to pick up on that, and will not take one person's post to be the determining factor as to what cruiseline to book.

 

I feel sorry for those folks who feel they have to come onto this list to bash NCL. I just choose to ignore these posts. (So why am I posting? Arrrrgh!)

[margaretmerrill]

Have been on one NCL ship (the POAM) We also smelled sewer smells, but it wasn`t all the time. Also, didn`t think the food in the dining room was very good. However, we are going to give NCL another chance, and are going to try the Jewel. Then maybe we will be back to Princess, but I won`t know until we try the Jewel.

[bailey554]

:mad: :mad: I had the worst cruise experience of my life sailing the Pride of Aloha in Hawaii. NCL needs to either dock this ship permanently or dry dock it and spend the money necessary to fix their problems.

 

We had booked a pre & post hotel package and had gone through the check in process at our hotel only to be made to stand in line outside in the heat for over an hour to check in again.

 

We had a penthouse suite and found the room very old, but clean. A word to the wise, if you book a penthouse, you are assigned 2 butlers, which means double the tips. On our sailing, we were unaware and were not told beforehand, NCL had changed their tipping policy and only found out about halfway through our cruise that we should have been tipping as we went. BAD!

 

The food was terrible. We were served canned fruit on all the buffets. Here we are sailing in paradise where tropical fruits like papaya, mango and pineapple fall to the ground and literally rot and NCL chooses to insult their guests by serving them canned fruit. Even in Alaska, you are served wonderful fresh fruits every day!

 

 

 

When hubby & I went to our first All Inclusive Resort in the Caribbean ($899 special for 7 nights), we were overjoyed with the fact that a maid cleaned our room and made our bed each day; that the buffet breakfast was prepared for us; that our dinners were prepped each night without us having to cook or clean up. By the third day, we were still overjoyed but found that the buffet got boring, as did the 7 item menu for dinner.

 

I imagine this cruise, which we are sooooo excited, about despite the negative reviews that I've read for the past 8 months, will be somewhat the same.

 

We are thrilled to be in Hawaii on a cruiseship where our rooms will be made up each day, our buffet breakfast will have been prepped & served by someone else, and our dinners chosen from a limited menu.

 

We do not have visions of grandeur; of butlers, gourmet food and impeccable service. This is an all American crew with pre-tipping. We pretty much know what to expect.

 

Believe me, if we wanted excellent service and top of the line food served piping hot we would find a top of the line expensive cruise to go on (won't happen, way out of our price range!).

 

Price has to do with location, location, location of your room; we all have the same wait staff and everyone, no matter what room you are in, receives the same food.

 

Basically, what I am trying to get across is, a cruise is basically just like an all inclusive resort. If you want high class butlers and wish to be waited on hand and foot (who wouldn't!!) then you need to take an upper classe cruise on an upper class cruise line. This cruise is for the sights you see, not the service or food you'll eat. You'd get much better personal service and food if you take a small cruise ship (40 persons).

 

In the meantime I can't wait to take my Pride of Aloha cruise on April 2nd and I'm going to eat the best I can find with all the buffets, cafes, specialty restaurants available to me. And I don't care if the best available is just hotdogs & hamburgers!! My main purpose of this particular cruise is for the sights!!!!!!!!!

 

Whew! I feel much better now. Thanks for all the great info.....I think we are pretty much ready to go!!!

[mousey]

I'm new to this stuff!. I will say this. Last year we went on a Costa cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale at Easter Break with our then 10 yr old. If we had listened to everyone who told us how bad that cruise line was we would have missed the really really great time we had. As I read the reviews and coments on whatever board I was on I came to realize that I had to make my own decision. Thank goodness I did. The iternary was great and the price was right. As we started a month ago to plan for this year's Spring Break cruise I signed up (for the first time anywhere) to post on this board. I have read a lot of good and bad reviews about the NCL Dream which is the ship we are going sailing on 4/8. I don't care what negative reviews are posted. I make my own decisions. I come on the board for info about other things. I find this board to be very informative. Reviews be darned!

[DrVal]

PE<---wonders how they knew it was "canned" fruit' date=' were there cans stacked up in view...:rolleyes: [/quote']

 

We just got off Aloha on 3/11. There was canned fruit every day. But, there was also fresh fruit every day. Some days there were oranges, some bananas, sometimes apples. There was usually fresh AND canned pineapple, fresh watermelon, honeydew and cantaloupe at the buffet. Once I chose the canned pineapple because I thought it might be sweeter -- it wasn't. You can clearly tell the canned from the fresh because the canned are perfect little rings while the fresh are uniquely shaped with the skin attached.

 

It's possible that the OP went to the buffet LATE in the morning. If that's the case, it's possible that all that was left was canned fruit. I saw people requesting specific fresh fruit and I'm not sure all requests were granted.

 

Just our $.02 :rolleyes:

[Planer's Edge]

But...the OP seems to intimate that canned fruit was the only fruit available. Many others have made the case for shortages that MAY require the use of canned fruits. And, yes, I can tell the difference between canned and fresh fruits

 

There are many things that MAY have caused the OP to say what they said about fruit, odors and other things (actual cruise vs. heresay information). I just want the OP to come back and answer this and many other question they have generated, with their second post.

 

PE<---just my $.02...

 

P.S. DrVal...Glad to hear you had a great cruise.

[sammymd]

The OP might be like I was on our first cruise. I read

all the negative stuff on the boards and worried about it, thinking

I hope that doesn't happen to me.

We didn't care for the buffet that much on the Spirit last August,

but tried other pubs, diffrent places around the ship

till we found something we liked. The OP might have

had one of those vacations where everything that

could go wrong did. While I thought the overall food

in the dining rooms on the Spirit was below NCL standards

on our Alaska cruise, several people who were on the

same cruise said they enjoyed it. I did notice that a lot of them

ate in specialty rest's. The OP might have been so

disgusted that they didn't try other rest's, sure

that they wouldn't like them. I still believe the OP has

a right to post their negative review.

I do wish they would come back and answer questions,

for the nervous first-time-cruisers.

 

I will be on the 4/2/06 cruise, the only thing

I'm worried about is rain. The weather channel

showed rain on every island.

Taking my rainsuit, hopefully I won't need it.

sammy