Pride of America Review 5/10-5/17 2008

[vickwick]

We were on the 5/10 sailing and had a wonderful time. This was my 10th cruise. I have cruised 4 times on the Queen Elizabeth II (QE2), other Cunard ships, Carnival and Princess.

Here is a run down of our vacation. We are 4 British women, 3 of us are now living in America and we all met up in LA, before traveling to Hawaii. We arrived in Hawaii 2 days before our cruise and stayed at the Hale Koa Hotel. On our first night we attended the Luau at the hotel and it was terrific. The next morning we went on the Royal Circle Island Tour which was very enjoyable. The following morning we did the Pearl Harbor Excursion before heading to the ship. We arrived at the docks around 3:00pm and were on board the ship within 10 minutes. We entered into the main lobby of the ship and the crew was handing out glasses of champagne. Our cabins on deck 7 were ready so we dropped of our hand luggage and had a stroll around the ship. We found the POAm to be a very pretty ship and easy to find your way around. All over the ship were hand sanitizers, more so than I had ever seen on any other ship.

Crew: We found the crew to be very friendly and helpful. Being Brits we do like our afternoon cup of tea and we would go to the Aloha Café and even though it was in between set up times for meals, some crew member would always find us a few cookies to have with our tea.

Food: We always enjoyed our breakfast in the Aloha Café, plenty of choices, but we did not like to have dinner there. One night we had dinner in the Starlight Restaurant and service was slow.. Most nights we had dinner in the Liberty Restaurant and the service was good and a bit faster. A couple of nights we were told there would be a ½ hour wait before we could get a table, but they would give you a beeper that can be used all over the ship and we would go to the wine bar and have a glass of wine while we waited to be beeped. We had dinner one night in the Little Italy Restaurant and the food was Fantastic and so was the service. The Tiramisu was the best I had ever tasted. It was our favorite meal of the whole vacation.

There was an entertainer who put on a fantastic Elton John show in the Hollywood theatre. The rest of the week he played the piano and sang in the Pink Champagne Bar. We would really enjoy going there after dinner for a drink. We also enjoyed the Napa Wine Bar for a glass of wine before dinner. We had so many laughs on the ship.

Hawaii:

Maui day 1: We booked the Hana Picnic tour thru NCL. We were in a limo van that took 8 people and it was a very enjoyable tour. We made several stops along the way and spent an hour having a great lunch on a beautiful black sandy beach.

Maui day 2: We rented a car and drove to Lahaina and spent a couple of hours shopping. We then drove to Whalers Village and had a lovely lunch at the Hula Grill on the beautiful Kaanalpai beach. Maui was our favorite island.

Hilo: We spent a relaxing morning on the ship, lounging around the pool. We had so many early mornings, so it was nice to relax for a few hours. That afternoon we did a tour of the Tropical Botanical Gardens. The gardens were beautiful. You do walk down a steep hill into the gardens and it goes down to the ocean. You then have to walk back up the steep hill. If you can’t walk it, they have golf carts to take you down and back up.

That evening we sailed past the volcano and saw the lava coming down into the ocean. It was a spectacular sight.

Kona: The only port that you have to tender to. We spent an enjoyable day shopping, having lunch and we saw a family of green sea turtles swimming in the water.

Kauai: Rented a car and drove the North Shore. We stopped for an hour at the Kileau Lighthouse Bird Sanctuary. This was a gorgeous spot, beautiful views and so peaceful. We made other stops along the way and finally stopped at the Princeville Resort and had lunch at the Hanalei Café overlooking Bali Hai.

Kauai 2nd day: We were sailing at 2:00pm, so spent the morning at the Kauai Marriott Resort. We had spent 5 days at this resort 8 years ago and it is in walking distance from the ship. So we spent a relaxing morning on the beach there. I was really looking forward to the sail past the Nali Pali coast as I had done that several years ago and thought it was spectacular. Unfortunately, due to the fog or vog we really couldn’t see it on our cruise, just an outline of the cliffs.

Honolulu:

This was the most organized disembarkation I have ever known on a cruise ship. We could decide what time we wanted to leave the ship and it was so easy to find our luggage and be on our way. We then headed back to the Hale Koa hotel and spent our last day and evening doing some shopping and relaxing around the pool.

This was a wonderful vacation although hectic as there is so much too see and do. We had a lot of laughs, loved the beautiful islands and really enjoyed the Pride of America.

[mattmommy]

Great review. I was reading it and in my mind doing a (poor) British accent.

[robinsra]

Thats so funny you said that I was reading it in my bad British accent also.

[JaniceW]

Thanks for posting your review