Pride of Aloha vs. America vs. Hawaii

[SeasideMermaid]

What is the difference? I want a 7 day cruise to Hawaii with no time at sea. I did a comparison of all 3 cruises at orbitz and they all go to the same islands for the same amount of days. I plan to do shore excursions every day. How do I pick from the 3 ships?

 

Here's a screenshot:

http://xs306.xs.to/xs306/06375/hawaii.png

[Fufuhase]

The difference is not the itinerary, it is the day of departure. One departs on Saturday, one on Sunday and one on Monday, so it really depends which day you want to depart and return.

 

And of course it depends on if you want to sail on the newest ship or if you don't care. Pride of Hawai`i is the newest one and Aloha has been in service the longest out of the 3 ships.

 

Hope this helps.

[jerseyjk]

It is indeed only the day of the week that's different from one to another, except for the age/layout of the ships. I ended up on (got stuck with?) POAloha because the only way to cram a Hawaii trip into spring break flying in a day early was to depart on a Sunday. Kids had the following Monday off to account for the overnight flight back to the east coast.

 

I don't really mind being on the oldest of the three ships since I just figure I'm on the floating Holiday Inn, but I would have liked the additional restaurants etc that the newer ships offered. Trade off was a slightly lower fare I guess.

[hncg57c]

Like everyone else has said, there is really no difference except for the day it departs. We chose the Pride of Hawaii because the price of it was less than the other two ships at the time we booked.

[TonyFred]

Pride of Hawaii is the newest ship, then the Pride of America followed by the Pride of Aloha. Just got off the PofAm....no complaints here!

[uomograsso]

As many have said Pride of Aloha is the oldest & smaller of the 3 ships. I originally booked balcony cabin on PoAl based on price. I also thought it would be nice to have 400 fewer people to contend with in the ports. It has less to offer than the newer ships, but from everything that has been said the main benefit of a cruise on NCLA is the 100 hours or so you spend in Port. I kept checking prices and the price for a mini-suite on the PoH dropped to where it was $100 more than our balcony cabin on PoAl. We were able to switch ships to take advantage of this. Long story short is that it is up to you to decide whether ship board amenities are most important or if price is. In our case it was a no-brainer.

[theabteam]

Another thing to consider here is that because the crew of Pride of Hawaii is as new as the ship (from what i've heard here), there seems to still be a lot of service bugs/kinks being worked out. I think it appears that the bugs/kinks on PoAloha and PoAmerica have been worked out a lot more now. I was thinking like you guys, that the newer ship would be better, which is why i leave on PoH in a week, but in retrospect, I think I would have chosen one of the other two if I had read all the info on these boards before choosing. Just my .02.

 

In any case, you'll be in Hawaii, paradise on earth, so how bad could it be? :-)

 

I know i'm going to have fun, regardless of any service issues! I'll be in paradise with the love of my life. Does it get any better than that?

[tomluvsaida]

Another thing to consider here is that because the crew of Pride of Hawaii is as new as the ship (from what i've heard here), there seems to still be a lot of service bugs/kinks being worked out. I think it appears that the bugs/kinks on PoAloha and PoAmerica have been worked out a lot more now. I was thinking like you guys, that the newer ship would be better, which is why i leave on PoH in a week, but in retrospect, I think I would have chosen one of the other two if I had read all the info on these boards before choosing. Just my .02.

 

In any case, you'll be in Hawaii, paradise on earth, so how bad could it be? :-)

 

I know i'm going to have fun, regardless of any service issues! I'll be in paradise with the love of my life. Does it get any better than that?

I'll be with the love of my life too! :) We'll be on our honeymoon at the end of October on POH! I chose POH not only because its the newest but also the largest! My fiancé wants it BIG! :p (I'm talking about the ship.):D

[jerseyjk]

In any case, you'll be in Hawaii, paradise on earth, so how bad could it be? :-)

 

I know i'm going to have fun, regardless of any service issues! I'll be in paradise with the love of my life. Does it get any better than that?

 

Well said. I'd add that there are some people who aren't happy unless they're unhappy. They seem to hunt for things to ruin their vacation. It appears that the people posting the good(ish) reviews of the NCLA ships have about the same attitude as I do ... I'll let a lot slide and go with the flow. I'm on vacation to stop being uptight. A lot of the bad things I read just make me think ... "now why would that bother someone?"

[Giantfan13]

We also chose the POH, not because she was the newest ship, just because of the day it departed. All things being equal, for us, that was the most important.

[bleuseas]

Some other things to consider:

 

Pride of America and Pride of Hawaii both depart from Honolulu, Pride of Aloha can depart from Maui. The may matter to you if you want to tack on a few days before or after your trip in one place or another.

 

The amount of passengers also difffers on these ships as does the size of the ships.

 

We are doing Pride of America purely because of the departure day (Saturday) and want a day to recover at home before heading back to work/school on Monday.

[CruisinMK]

The maui departures for Pride of Aloha are ending February 2007