Pride of America Cruise Report 9/1 - 9/8/2018

I'm posting this report because when I was planning our cruise, I got a lot out of other people's' reports and so I'm hoping to pay it forward. I hope this will help some of you with your planning. Please excuse my grammar etc, I've never done one of these before lol.

We decided on Pride of America for our 25th anniversary trip. Our friends celebrated their 35th anniversary this year, and we all went on the cruise together.

Pre Cruise Day

We flew out of central Illinois on Friday Aug 31st at 6am, landing in Dallas at 8:00 approximately. Our flight to Honolulu left an hour later, and we got into Oahu at 12:20pm. We were served lunch at the first of 3 beverage offers. We had a choice of beef or veggie wrap, with chips and a dessert. It was cramped quarters and I was pretty envious of the little cubicles in first class (especially when the lady in front of me reclined the moment the seatbelt sign went off and didn't put it back until touchdown), but I watched 3 movies and it went rather quickly for a 7.5/8 hour flight. I even got to watch an old favorite of mine, The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai (as well as the new Overboard and LaLa Land).

Lunch on American Airlines flight

We didn't see Diamond Head when we landed, but the view was beautiful!

We were at the Ohana Waikiki Malia by Outrigger. It was a few blocks off the beach and could use some updating, but it was free and clean so nothing to complain about! Amy had told us to choose the prepaid service charges on the ship for our free option through NCL since we already had a free hotel room, and with that option we would get more bang for our buck Also, our room key acted as a free ride on the Pink Line trolley, which went to the big outdoor mall and along Waikiki beach. We jumped on it not paying attention to the route and we're on it for a good 40 minutes before we got to the beach, so if you use the trolleys, pay attention to the route lol.

Our hotel room and the view later that night

We took the trolley to Duke's and took some pics on the beach. We were early for dinner so we had a drink in the bar (Mai Tai's were the best!) and waited for the dining room to open at 4:45pm. We were seated close to the beach and they had live music, as well as some impromptu hula dancing. It was a nice way to start the trip. My husband had the ribs and I had a seafood dish with fish, scallops and shrimp in it. The ribs were very tasty but my dish could have had a little more seasoning. Still good though! Of course we had the Hula Pie too - we split it between the 4 of us. We ubered back to the hotel as our friended hurt his leg before we left and just couldn't walk anymore. It was $10 back to the hotel from Duke's. We were in bed by 9pm, which was pretty impressive since it was 2am at home. Of course I was up at 2am, but didn't stay up long!

Waikiki Beach and Duke's

Yay excited to read your report! Planning this cruise for 2019.

I can’t see your pictures though. :(

Looking forward to reading more. We are going in November.

well dang! My laptop isn't working so I'm on my iPad. I've tried copying and pasting from my pics and from Shutterfly. Maybe I need to get on my hubby's computer....

Nope. Still can’t see.[emoji20]

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ok I think I have it working now!

Lunch pic from the flight

flying into Honolulu

hotel room and view at night

Waikiki beach and Duke's

Excited to read your report. We celebrated our 25th anniversary in June and loved this cruise.

Excited to read your report. We celebrated our 25th anniversary in June and loved this cruise.

Your report was very helpful for me! We loved this cruise too! Wish I was still there instead of heading to work tomorrow lol.

Yay! I can see your pics! Following. Thanks.

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Great review so far! Looking forward to reading the rest.

Can you provide the approximate time the ship does the Napali Coast sail by?

We were on this cruise too, anxious to hear your review

Can you provide the approximate time the ship does the Napali Coast sail by?

5:15pm is when we hit the highlights of it and the narration started but we could see it for a good half hour before that. For some reason, our cruise didn't turn around and sail by it on the starboard side too - we went all the way around Kauai instead.

Thanks everyone for your interest! I'll post more tomorrow night when I have access to my husband's laptop again lol.

Gilby - that's awesome! Please let me know if I get anything wrong or feel free to add to my info as needed!

5:15pm is when we hit the highlights of it and the narration started but we could see it for a good half hour before that. For some reason, our cruise didn't turn around and sail by it on the starboard side too - we went all the way around Kauai instead.

thanks

Following. Hawaii is a dream vacation for me!

Embarkation day - Breakfast

We woke up early and had checked out of the hotel, arranged to leave our bags at the hotel and called an Uber by 6:30am. Uber was $10 from the hotel to Lulu's, where we went for breakfast. We got there at 6:45 and Lulu's didn't open until 7am, so we went across the street to the beach/pier and got some great pictures

Diamond Head

There are 2 entrances to Lulu's, and we were at the back entrance. At 7 we went upstairs and there was a sign to check in with the hostess at the other entrance, so we walked across the restaurant as people started coming in the other door. The hostess said to just grab a seat, so we headed to the counter along the windows overlooking Waikiki beach. What a great atmosphere! Great views and great food. I had the banana stuffed french toast - very good but way too much for one person! We all enjoyed breakfast a lot. After breakfast we called an Uber to go to Pearl Harbor.

View from Lulu's

Stuffed French Toast

Biscuits and Gravy and Omelettes

Embarkation Day - Pearl Harbor

The Uber from Lulu's to Pearl Harbor was $50 - yikes! We had heard that you can't take any bags into Pearl Harbor, and we assumed that meant purses too. I had a heck of a time getting everything I needed into my pockets and my husbands' lol, plus I felt weird leaving my purse in my luggage, but I did. When we walked into Pearl Harbor, they had a sign with an actual 'clutch' showing that that was the biggest size bag you could bring in 'head slap' I could have taken my small cross body purse in after all! I totally did not see that in anyone's posts on here, or I just missed it! I meant to take a pic of the example, to post on here, but I forgot all about it by the time we left. My purse is about 6x4" and would have been fine, just FYI.

I had gotten us tickets for the Memorial online for 11am, but had heard you can get them earlier sometimes, so we went up to the desk and they gave us tickets for 9am. It was 8:45, so it worked out perfectly! We watched the movie and then went out on the boat. The Arizona Memorial is still not open, but we sailed by it and the Missouri, and had a narration from a gentleman who was 10 when Pearl Harbor was attacked and he gave an interesting account from the viewpoint of a boy at that time. We went through the museum, and then were trying to decide if we should do the Missouri or the Bowfin, and decided we were ready to get to the ship, so we called another Uber. I don't know how much this one was, but I think it was less going back to the hotel to get our luggage, but then we had him change the destination before we got to the hotel, so we could keep him after we ran into the hotel and got our luggage. We were at the ship by 12:30-1 I think.

Pearl Harbor Pics

USS Missouri

Embarkation Day - Our Cabin

Getting on the ship was pretty easy - we had to walk to one end of the building drop off our luggage, then into a huge area to check in. We had to wait in line for a bit, but it wasn't too bad. They had music and were taking pictures after you got your keycard. Our rooms weren't ready yet, so we went up to the pool area and grabbed some loungers in the shade, thinking maybe the guys could grab a nap if needed. We went into the Aloha Cafe and had lunch. I don't remember what we had, but the desserts were yummy. There was a lot of food to choose from. My friend and I did the Ship tour at 2pm, which ended in the Mardi Gras. The tour was interesting, and we saw places we didn't see the rest of the week (the gym and spa, lol). While we were on the tour, our rooms became available. They announced each level of the ship as it became ready. In the Mardi Gras, another presentation was starting at 2:15 called Guide to the Pride. GO TO THIS! I saw another report talking about this and they won several things. I went and grabbed the guys at the pool and had them come down to the presentation. I'm glad I did, because my hubby was the only one to win anything - we won free social media wifi for the entire cruise! After the presentation, we headed to our rooms and unpacked. Our friends had an oceanview on level 4. We had splurged and got the large balcony on level 9, room 9014 to be specific. Our room was wonderful! I was worried that our large balcony would be like a metal cave, based on other pics I had seen but that was not the case at all! Also, many people have complained about the size of the rooms - we had plenty of space - we didn't even use all of the shelves in the closet. The medicine cabinet in the bathroom kept most of our stuff off of the counter too - I could have lived in there for a month! We slid the empty suitcases under the bed and just put our dirty clothes in there every day. A tip from my friend- the wall are all metal - she brought clip magnets to put on the wall and kept the Daily papers etc just clipped to the wall! I wish she had told me before we went lol! Here are some pics of our wonderful room!

Embarkation Day - Waikiki Bar etc

My hubby smokes a few cigarettes a day, and the only place to smoke is the Waikiki Bar - even if he hadn't smoked, I would have enjoyed this bar anyway. The pool back there was a nice little place to chill out and there was a hot tub back there too. For dinner the first night, there was a BBQ at the main pool, and we just ate there. I didn't take any pics of it, but it was good. We then went to like 3 shows that night! We didn't make it to any shows the rest of the week - we were just too busy! The Beatles show was awesome! So was the piano player - he did an Elton John and Billy Joel tribute. Those were both in Mardi Gras. In Hollywood, we saw a 'preview' of the entertainment that would be on the ship that week. We didn't get to bed until 10:30 - I was falling asleep during the last show lol. Here are some pics of Waikiki Bar, the aft pool and my favorite seats at Waikiki - they were super comfy!

one more of our balcony <3

Enjoying this report and looking forward to the rest. I’m taking notes! :)

Reading along. Seems like a nice trip! I've always wanted to go to Hawaii and feel like this cruise would be the perfect way to see the Islands. One day.

Enjoying your report! We are going in November and your report is getting me all fired up to go! Keep it up!