My Mini-novel review of Cruise on Pride fo America; Sorry I can't reccommend it.

[DAGVBSB]

Well it is finally Complete.... my mini-novel that is my review of our cruise on the Pride of America.

 

I will post it in sections so that it is easier to read and you can find sections that you are interested in.

 

As I have previously stated.... for the first time I cannot reccommend an NCL cruise. It was not anything major...just alot of minor things.

 

In spite of my non-reccommendation, I do not consider the cruise a "disaster" or "ruined" or even a "horrible" cruise. It was just not a good cruise compared to my other NCL cruises and my RCCL cruise. Nearly everyone in my party agrees and my sister in law did make the comment "maybe it is time to try another cruise line for next summer."

 

But with that introduction...here we go:

[DAGVBSB]

Took my fifth NCL Cruise on the Pride of America from July 10 – 17. This is my third time cruising Hawaii but first ever on the Pride of America. We sailed the Pride of Aloha on her maiden voyage in 2004 after the Pride of America sank during construction earlier that year. The Pride of Aloha (POA) cruise is a well documented “disaster” cruise from even NCL. The crew was raw and the ship and product not quite ready but we got through it. (NCL refunded our daily service charges & gave us a great discount on a future NCL cruise as compensation for the bad cruise.).

 

For the first time I was disappointed with an NCL cruise. It was not a “disaster” and there was no major item that disappointed me. More of a combination of lots of little things. It simply is not a good cruise and I cannot recommend this cruise. I liked my cruise on the POA better than the POAm! (and I am a seasoned cruiser who knew what to expect with the NCL America product.)

 

The shame of it is that the POAm is many people’s first experience with NCL. I fear that it casts a negative image of NCL overall and turns many people off from cruising the other ships in NCL’s fleet. (which in my opinion are excellent.) I am one to try to talk to other cruisers about their experiences and feelings toward the cruise. I regret to say that most first time NCL cruisers on board had a negative opinion on NCL as a result of this cruise. Those who had sailed NCL before simply had a mostly negative opinion of the POAm and not NCL in general. NCL may want to seriously look at the negative public relations the POAm cruises is causing them.

 

The POAm experience may even affect our family groups choice of our next cruise. My sister in law made the statement that “it might be time to look at another cruise line instead of NCL” for next year. Another member of our group (now also Silver) echoed her opinions. Our choices for next summer are Alaska, carribean or Canada. Obviously if we choose Canada, NCL would not be an option since they don’t see a need to have a summer cruise up there for those of us in education.(as I have been told repeatedly by NCL Cruise consultants when I even bring it up.). But Alaska and the Carribean are the leading choices and I’m not sure I can convince the majority of the group to stay with NCL after the POAm cruise. (in spite of the fact of me explaining the differences.)

 

 

I think my biggest complaint about the cruise is the continual questioning of what we have asked for by the crew. On other NCL cruises, requests such as these were answered with “certainly,” “right away” or “no problem.”

Examples of the questions:

1.) We requested a copy of our bills around lunchtime on Friday. (we always do that to find mistakes early and get them corrected before the madness on disembarkation day.)

“Why do you want a copy of your bill early?” (that was asked to two of the four rooms that did this.)

2.) I cancelled a shore excursion after I got on board: “why do you want to cancel.” (Frankly, its none of your business, just do it.). Another family had to argue to get their excursion cancelled.

3.) We asked our room steward to remove the honor bars from our refigerators so that we could use them for our own pop, water, fruit & flower lei’s. At first he said that he couldn’t do that because it wasn’t allowed. (after asking us “why” we wanted it done.) But when I then asked who I had to talk to to get it done, he said that he had no place to put the items. I again asked who I needed to speak to and he relented and said he would remove it. (We all found the items from our refidgerators in pillow cases UNDER our beds! There are glass bottles of alcohol in there…if those had broken I would not have been happy.) Why it was such a hassle to remove the mini-bar, something we did not ask for was beyond me!

If you want the mini-bar removed from your cabin, simply ask and be firm with your room steward and YES, they have to remove it if you ask.

 

4.) On one of the last days, we ate in the Aloha Café for lunch and they had carved roast beef. The lady carving the beef had a sour look on her face like she didn’t really want to be there and was not friendly at all.

I waited my turn and when I got up there, she gave me a very small piece of beef. I simply asked: “may I have another piece.” She looked at me as if offended by my request and dug around in the meat already carved and found a nice piece of fat and placed it on my plate. I did not want to argue or make a scene as there was a line and I knew I could come back later.

When I returned later, she was carving off large pieces of beef and placing on people’s plates. When she saw it was me, she carved off the top and once again produced a small piece which had a lot of fat in it. At that point, I decided what to do…instead of making a scene (or calling over the maitre’d which I should have done), I went back to my table and asked if anyone else wanted more beef. A couple people said they did and so I made three more trips to the carving station just to goad the lady carving the beef. (I made it look like I was the one wanting the beef as I had a clean plate each time.) You could tell that she wanted to tell me no or make a comment, but she wisely kept her mouth shut as I was trying to goad her into telling me no….which would have brought me to discuss her rude and unprofessional behavior with the manager.

But basically, she was questioning my desire for more beef.

 

 

And the topper: (and this one still gnaws at me)

5.) My mother has severe food allergies and has for years. The first afternoon I asked the restaurant reservations desk who to call for her to make arrangements and they gave us a four didgit ship number to call. (I don’t know who it was to as my mother made the call.). The lady on the other end basically called my mother a liar. After explaining that she was allergic to garlic, ginger and most spices, the lady asked my mother: “are you really allergic to those items or is it that you just don’t like them and want a special menu?” (totally rude and arrogant manner according to my mother.) My mother, who is 81 and who I get my fighting nature from, replied: “its called colitis, why don’t you look that up and hope you never get it!” and hung up. She was very shaken by it because she had never been treated that way over her medical issues anyplace.

She didn’t tell me for a whole day and only after she suffered through the first dinner meal on the ship did I notice and ask what happened.

Luckily, we found a very nice Maitre’d who was working in Cadillac Diner and he helped give us the contact information for someone who could help and said that if she had any more problems to look him up and he would help. That night at dinner the Head Chef came out and spoke to my mother during dinner and brought her the menu for the next night (Lobster night) and took a special order for her for the next night!

 

The rest of the week went ok (still some explaining to the waiters each night) and she wanted to forget about the extremely rude, unprofessional and heartless lady that she spoke to on the phone. But I hope that lady, whoever she is, is fired because she is a huge EMBARASSMENT to NCL and the rest of the fine crew of the POAm.

(my guess is that she is the Assistant Food and Beverage Manager because of other comments made about her during the week, but I can’t confirm that and mom did not get her name.)

[DAGVBSB]

But…. On with the review of the cruise:

We cruised once again with our “extended” family and friends…18 of us in all ranging in age from 4 years to 81 years. All but the 4 year old have cruised NCL before and my parents are Silver Lattitude members (I will be now!!). My parents have also cruised most of the major lines and NCL is their favorite.

 

Lets start with the Crew. Much has been said about the crew and how lazy and inconsiderate they are. Simply not true. Almost every crew member I encountered (with a couple minor exceptions…see Aloha buffet carver..), greeted you with a smile and “aloha” or “hello.” They were always willing to help and sometime over eager at clearing plates (a good thing…). It was nice to be able to interact with so many people. I don’t mean this to sound bad, but sometimes the International crew members just don’t have the same sense of humor or understand our slang and society. I had a lot of great conversations with these American crew members. Unfortunately, the crew has to work with the POAm and some of the policies of NCL-A which hurts the overall product.

 

Ship and Layout: One of my biggest complaints about the Explorer of the Seas was that there were so many dead end decks. That was what I liked about the Star, Dawn and Pride of Aloha….you could go up or down either side of the ship. Unfortunately, the POAm is much like the Explorer with a lot of “dead end” decks and a very confusing deck plan.

On Deck 5, you can basically on go up and down one side of the ship. Deck 6 has no way to get from forward to aft without going outside on the promenade. And finding parts of Deck 13 was nearly more challenging than the maze at Dole Plantation. There were lots of locations that were “hidden” or difficult to find. It led to serious traffic problems in certain areas.

The mid ship elevators were another interesting problem….the call buttons on each floor only worked half the elevators. You had to push a call button on each side of the hall in order to call all of them. Only 2 of the four mid ship elevators went all the way down to Deck 3 (deck you exited from in the ports) and if you got on the wrong side, you had to walk down from 4. (a real problem if you had a wheelchair, cane or problems handling stairs.)

The mid ship elevators were always busy and many times you had to wait. If you are going to the restaurants, I suggest that you walk to the aft elevators and if you are going to the theater, Marti Gras’ lounge, shops, internet café, Library, etc., I suggest you use the forward elevators which never seemed as busy.

I was turned around on this ship more than on any other ship. On the Pride of Aloha, they had fish in the carpet. The fish were always swimming toward the front of the ship, so you always knew which direction was forward and which was aft.

The POAm is just a very confusing ship to navigate and the layout of the ship is simply not good.

 

Embarkation – We flew into Honolulu on the day of the cruise. (I know….but work schedules made it necessary.). Our TA had booked us own airfare but set up transfers through NCL. (The NCL transfer was $20 a person, found out later that Roberts Hawaii has transfers to the ship for $6 a person but NCL doesn’t allow you to cancel their transfer. NCL cost us $14 more than necessary on this part.). The NCL shuttle was there when we arrived and we were on it quickly. The driver never spoke a word to us the whole trip. We wanted to meet our friends from another state in the baggage area and travel together to the ship but their flight came in 45 minutes before ours and the NCL representative told them that they couldn’t wait for us. (strike two for NCL)

 

I remember our last embarkation in Honolulu in 2002 – what a zoo! This was much easier. We did have to take our own luggage from the shuttle bus to the terminal which was different than in the past with NCL transfers…once on the bus, they handled it. (and our driver parked quite a distance from the terminal door). Once inside you turned your checked luggage into the luggage room and headed for security scan. We got in the Lattitude line, but it didn’t move any faster than the other line as crew also used this line and there was only one scanner station for this line and two for the non latitudes line.

 

Then you take the obligatory embarkation photo with the ships photographers. Two photographers working two stations so very little wait. (Lattitudes membership does nothing to get you through this station sooner.). The Lattitudes line was practically non existent when we walked up while the main line was quite long. Not only were there three check-in desks for Lattitudes line, they also moved Lattitudes members to the regular line agents if one was open and there was anyone in Lattitudes line. Again… easy process… give credit card/method of payment, have ID photos taken, sign a couple papers and off you go. One form they now make you fill out is a form that states that you have not been sick (vomiting, sneezing, coughing, runny nose) for the past 48 hours. Not sure what happens if you put that you have been.

 

On the ship within 30 minutes of arrival at the pier. (would have been less if we hadn’t waited for the entire group to get checked in.) Once on board, it was a zoo in the main lobby on Deck 5 (and I understand that the Aloha Buffet and other public areas were just as crowded.) Only certain floors had rooms ready for occupancy and so most people were just hanging out. (it was about 2:30 p.m.). On my last NCL cruise, we were able to put our carry on luggage in our room even if it wasn’t ready, but not so on this ship. They actually had the decks roped off. Our floor was opened about 2:45 and all floors were open by 3:15 or so.

 

Stateroom: We had a line of balcony cabins on Deck 10. First of all, let me warn everyone to STAY AWAY from Deck 10 cabins! They are horrible. For the first time the noise from the deck above was a continual nuisance. I spoke to several people all over Deck 10 and got the same report. You could hear the noise from the pool deck, the ping pong tables (going on to after midnight), the bar, the aloha café, the aloha Lanai, etc. Only those under Little Italy did not have a complaint. I have been under the pool deck on both the Star and Dawn and we never heard a thing! Must be the design of this ship.

The other problem with Deck 10 is the balconies. The superstructure that supports the wider Deck 11 creates a bad view and balcony situation on Deck 10. On previous NCL cruises, we could look from our balconies for about 180 degrees. Not so on this deck…due to the superstructure, we were limited to less than 90 degrees of view and we could not see to the front of the ship at all as the metal extended out 10-12 feet. We also have always enjoyed being able to talk to the others in our group on their balconies. Again, not possible with these balconies due to the superstructure. Absolutely the worst balcony experience we have had. Viewing of the NaPali coast was limited as well.

We should have taken a balcony on Decks 8 or 9 for a better view and nicer balcony. (Decks 8 and 9 balconies are cheaper to.) If you take one piece of advice from this review, DON’T take a balcony on Deck 10, save your money and take a lower level balcony!

 

The stateroom was the smallest I have ever been in. Even the balcony cabin on the POA was larger than this on the POAm! The shower and bathroom was also one of the smallest I have ever been in with extremely limited counter and medicine cabinet space.

When the fold out couch was extended, you could not get into two drawers and if you needed in the safe you had to climb on the fold out bed! You also had to climb over the fold out bed to get to the balcony when it was extended. Shelf space is also limited. Since we do not drink coffee, wine or the expensive bottled water that they leave in the rooms, we moved all of that (including the wine glasses) to the top shelf so that it would be out of the way and give us more lower space. Very poorly designed and cramped rooms.

Our drain in the shower was extremely slow and you would usually end up standing in four to six inches of water by the time your shower was done. The lip on the shower was high enough that it didn’t run out, but the shower curtain dragged in the water. At first I was going to report it because I thought it was just our drain. But all but one of our five rooms reported the same problem. (as did another couple I spoke to later in the week.) May be simply another design flaw on the POAm.

 

Our room steward, with the exception of his reluctance to remove the mini-bar from the room refrigerator, was very good and extremely friendly. Always there early and always attentive to our needs and continually asking if we needed anything else. The only other issue was the last morning. We went to breakfast about 7:00 a.m. and came back at 8:00 to find that the linens on our beds had been changed and the beds reconfigured to two twins from the queen. Nothing else had been touched. To me I find this somewhat nasty. What if I had decided to get back in bed for a quick nap (or simply to be obnoxious). The next person in the cabin would be laying in a bed I had laid in!

 

As far as towels are concerned….in order to conserve water and resources, you make the decision when to have fresh towels. If you want to re-use them, you hang them up. If you want fresh ones, you leave them on the floor or in the shower. Quite simple actually. We had our towels changed about halfway through the cruise. Our room steward did change our face cloths (wash cloths) every day whether they were on the floor or not… which I found to be very nice.

 

Library, Internet Café, Game Room, Pool:

All of these areas are very nice. The Library is one of the largest and has one of the biggest collections of books that I have ever seen on a ship. The card/game room has a nice selection of games (scrabble, cards, backgammon, etc.) and was often full of people. The internet café is small, only about 8 computers but wifi is available in many locations throughout the ship including a specific table for laptop hookups in the Library. Rates were normal… 55 cents a minute for a 100 minute package and 40 cents a minute for 250 minute package. It is 75 cents a minute for pay as you go. On the last day, they will run a special where you can purchase 15 or 30 minute packages for about 40 cents a minute. If you only have a little computer work to do, wait until the last day.

The pool was nice. Not very big and was often crowded in the evening and the sea day. Appeared to be plenty of lounge chairs and could often find an empty one. The upper decks away from the pool had very few lounge chairs available. Which led me to wonder why have such large spaces for people to watch the landscape sail by with no chairs to sit in!

 

The Cruise Director was almost non existent. He made some announcements and there was plenty to do, but he was just not as vibrant or exciting as others. (of course, its hard to top Kieron Buffery).

As far as activities…there were a lot scheduled but the timing was bad. It seemed that all the activities that you wanted to do were crammed in the 4:00 – 7:00 p.m. slot. My family members had to pick and choose almost every day which ones to go to. And since we like to eat early, our ability to go to some was hindered by that as well.

I don’t know why the activities could not be spread out more during the day and into the evening. By 8:00 p.m., about the only things to do were to go to bars and nightclubs and the show. Quite boring for most people after 8:00 p.m.

Speaking of nightlife…the ship never seemed crowded at night. The bars/lounges seemed sparse and the numbers at the evening activities was never as large as on other NCL cruises I have been on. Must be that the port intensive itinerary wears people out!

 

Photo Department - Some improvement shown in this area over the clowns we had on the Dawn. Still not the best, but getting better. These guys have no personality however. Two chairs and an end table would be more friendly than these people. Everything was so serious with them and if you tried to lighten the mood around them, you got a dirty stare like you were upstaging them. (which wouldn’t be hard to do.)

They were available each night to take pictures in the main atrium with different backgrounds and styles each night. They actually spent time working with people to get good poses and were the most patient at working with children that I have seen. (except that they didn’t know how to make the kids relax with a little humor.).

When they came around the dining rooms for dinner pictures, they were not pushy like on other ships. If you said no, they would leave and not try to force you to have one taken. Same is true with the disembarkation in ports photos. On the Dawn in 2006, they literally blocked the gangway and would not let you get by without a picture. On this ship, if you said no, then they left it at that.

Some hints to save money:

1.) Don’t buy early in the week. They run their better deals/specials during the last few days. They will have a 20% off sale of formal poses one night. If you are purchasing several shots, then you can wait until the last couple days when they will run a “buy 4, get one free” promotion. (which figures out to 20% off.). The promotion will allow you to mix and match from different types (dining room, formal, disembarkation, etc.).

2.) The pictures stay up all week… no rush. Go during less crowded times like late evenings (after 8:30) or around 4:00 p.m.. They are also open some mornings.

3.) If you have a port side balcony mid ship or forward, you may be able to save yourself some money as we did. They won’t let you take port disembarkation photos with your own camera down on the dock. (in fact, they yell at you if you try as a member of our party found out.) For the rest of the week, we went at different times and one of our group had a high powered zoom camera. We simply stood on our balcony and when our group members stopped to have their pictures taken with the animal by the ship photographers, we simply shot it from the balcony. Not as direct a view as the ships cameraman, but we have some great disembarkation photos of the kids in our group (the only ones we wanted anyhow) that we took ourselves.

Pulled a fast one on the photographers there….lol.

[DAGVBSB]

Art Auctions/Art Gallery: Both my brother-in-law, my father and two of our friends on the cruise love the art auctions and have usually purchased art on cruises.

While the art selection was good, the deals and prices were not. They would offer all kinds of specials only to find that when you went to purchase, there were all kinds of catches to the deals which made them not good deals.

The last couple of days they had been advertizing the big final art auction of the cruise. Flyers were put on our doors, it was all over the Freestyle Daily and the PA, etc. It was to be during the trip to the Na’Pali coast. My brother-in-law and two friends went. They got there and waited and waited during the preview. The room was less than half full of potential bidders. Finally, the auctioneer announced that they were cancelling the art auction because he had no one there from the staff to “help him” with the auction. (there was a lady handling the paperwork and registering of bidders.). He then said that he would be willing to make some “great deals” if they wanted to purchase any of the art.

How do you cancel the “highlight” event of the week because you can’t find anyone to help you! Wouldn’t you have someone from the crew scheduled all week to help you for such a major event?? And if you are the Art person on board, shouldn’t you be able to handle it yourself??

The rumor going around was that there were not enough bidders present to make the auction a good profit for Park West and so they came up with a lame excuse to cancel it. If that is the case….then that is fine, BUT tell the TRUTH. Don’t make up a stupid lie that everyone in the place knew was a lie just to get out of the potentially profit losing auction. Typical NCL though….. don’t tell the truth to the patrons in order to try and not look cheap or profit hungry. This auctioneer must have learned from Colin himself!

 

Lattitudes reception: is Monday (second Maui day) at 5:00 p.m. in the Marti Gras' Lounge. Since the ship sails at 6:00 p.m., you really don't miss much time on shore.

 

Of course, missing the party is no big deal either. It was the worst Lattitudes party any of us can remember. (and my parents are silver).

 

The doors didn't open until just after 5:00 p.m. and you went through a line and shook hands with the Captain and several of the Senior Officers. You didn't have time to stop and chat with them. Then you sat down and waiters would bring you free drinks and hors' d'vores. The selection of non-alcoholic drinks was not that great and according to two others in our party who did drink the alcohol, it was watered down...but you could have as many as you wanted.

 

Then Linda, the Port and Cruise Consultant, (who was really fun and appeared to really enjoy her job) had the Senior Officers introduce themselves to the audience. The Captain then came up and spoke to the group for a few minutes. (he also got involved in advertizing encouraging people to go to the Shore Excursion desk to book excursions....)

 

After the Captain spoke, all the Senior Officers left and Linda gave a short speil about the Cruise Rewards program. It was a short presentation with just the facts... she didn't dwell on it or hype it or push it as so many other P&C's have done during Lattitude meetings.

 

On Royal Carribean, I went with my parents to their Crown and Anchor gathering and the Senior Officers milled around the room and spoke with those in attendance. On my last NCL cruise, the Senior Officers stayed until the official meeting ended and then were available to meet and mingle with the guests. I got the impression from this group that they wanted out of there as quick as possible and it was a nusiance to be there.

 

At the end came the "prize" giveaway. They collected your invitation letter as you arrived and used those for drawing names. I have been to many of these and the prizes were the cheapest and stupidest things I have ever seen! Two bottles of champainge/wine were basically the only thing the ship gave! Every other prize was donated by the port merchants! (the same ones given out at the port presentation on the first day!). A DelSol bag, a sunglasses case (no sunglasses), some t-shirts. Only about 6 or 7 prizes in all. NOTHING from the ship! At past Lattitude gatherings, they have given away ship items from the different departments: gift certificates to the gift shop or the on board clothing store, a free photo from the photo department, a discounted on a shore excursion, OBC credits, and several gift certificates for free dinners at the specialty restaurants. (on the Dawn, they gave away dinner for two at each of the specialty restaurants. There was a winner for each restaurant...my friends won one of those!).

 

But at this Lattitudes gathering, there was NOTHING that would cost the ship a cent except for two bottles of bubbly. It was the cheapest Lattitudes party I have ever been to and many of those that I talked to as we were leaving felt it was a waste of time. One even called it an "insult" to the Lattitudes members and I agree, the cheap prizes were an insult to NCL's loyal customers.

[DAGVBSB]

Food:

Food is always a subjective subject as far as taste and presentation. The places to judge food service is through selection and service. NCL’s main dining room once again passes but their buffet leaves a lot to be desired.

 

Let’s start with the bad: the Aloha Café. As I have said before, RCCL’s Windjammer Café was better than the buffets on my other NCL cruises and the buffet on the POAm does not help change that opinion. The food choices for meals other than breakfast were mediocre and usually the same thing over and over for lunch. The selection was limited each day to basically the same meats just prepared the same way. Some days I was stuck with a hamburger simply because the main selections were the same type of meat. (I don’t like seafood, no mater how many different ways you fix it!). Side dish selections were also limited. (whats wrong with Mac and cheese and mashed potatoes??). I preferred to eat in the main dining rooms simply because the selections were so bad in the buffet!

Breakfast was the standard items which all buffets have and was about the only meal worth eating in the Aloha Café.

The layout of the Café is now in action stations which allowed traffic to flow very well with the exception of the grill area (hamburgers, hot dogs, etc.) which was always a mess because people came at it from different ways. Of course the biggest danger in the buffet are the rude other passengers who either try to dish in front of you (I told one oriental lady off after she dished not once but twice in one of the lines I was waiting in…she took off like a cat with her tail between her legs..) or, and worse yet, they are such a hurry to get their food and start gobbling it down that they are basically running around the stations knocking into you. I saw more than one plate dropped as a result of these clowns. (and those people are no fault of NCL….)

The best story from the buffet came from Carved Prime Rib night. I didn’t go, but a few of our group went and said it looked like a cattle call. People were literally RUNNING to get to the prime rib station like they hadn’t eaten in days! They would knock into people, dish in line and then take 2 or 3 pieces at a time. (where was that stingy carver that I experienced when you need her!). They said it was the most disgusting display of rude manners and gluttony by those passengers that they had ever witnessed!

All in all, the POAm buffet is at the bottom of my list.

 

Main Dining Rooms: We ate in both Skyline and Liberty. Although Liberty has the dress code of no shorts, I preferred it slightly over Skyline. Service just seemed somewhat better up there although the menus are the same.

(Interesting note about Liberty…. They use the same kitchen as Skyline one floor below. I was able to look into the galley in Liberty and saw an ESCALATOR. One up, one down. The waiters use it to carry the trays of food up from the kitchen below!)

 

The food selection and variation was once again excellent. There were different dishes each night in each of the main meat catagories (beef, poultry, pork, seafood and vegetarian). NCL’s variation of dishes is much better than RCCL’s (which seemed to just recycle the same dishes over and over). The Apetizer menu was also very varied each night. Only the dessert menu seemed a little dull in its variety this time…but still one could find something. The taste was very good and the portions were adequate and of course you could always ask for more. (on Prime Rib night, the waiter even asked who was going to want more and brought out a plate with four more slices on it that we were able to share amongst our group.). The menu also includes always available items like steak, chicken breast, shrimp appetizer, ceasar salad and baked potatoe. The kids menu is the same as always which is one of the best I have ever seen!

 

We never had to wait for a table for more than a couple minutes while they put a couple together. We only dined as all 18 one time during the week and had made reservations. The other times, we just showed up in groups because our dining tastes were varied this trip. Even if there were 9 or 10 of us together, they never had a problem seating us no matter what time we showed up and we were only at separate tables one time during the week.

 

Service time was much improved all the way around, although we did have to ask several times during the week to have drinks other than water refilled. We had some very good waiters and one poor one (back waiter). “Miss Kitty,” Lindsay, Javier, Kim and Greg are the most memorable that we had during the week. The maitre’d’s were all over the place but always seemed to have a frown on their faces. Luckily the waiters made up for it with their friendliness and fun manners.

 

The one negative waiter came on one of the last nights. Two of our group had ordered shrimp for appetizers and earlier in the week had learned (from another waiter) that they could request large shrimp for appetizers instead of the small ones served as the appetizer on the main menu. They had done this several times without incident. This time however, when the back waiter delivered them, he basically dressed them down in front of the entire table and other tables within earshot. He told them that the chef had told him that he would make the order this time but they were not to order that item again as it was not part of the menu and they were wrong to order it. He did so in a very condensending manner almost as if scolding two children. (these men are in their 40’s!). After he left, the lead waiteress came and apologized profusely for the actions of her partner. She was as embarrassed as my friends. Once again, I was at the far end of the table and didn’t have the whole story until later but I urged them to report the guy to the Maitre’d or the Head of Food Service. At the urging of the lead waitress, the let the matter drop but the back waiter was told to not come near our table the rest of the night.

So if you want the larger shrimp instead of the small ones in the appetizer, don’t be afraid to order it!

 

Little Italy: The only specialty restaurant that we ate at was Little Italy. (mainly because most of us don’t like oriental food and the other specialty restaurants were too high.).

This was an excellent choice as we were able to watch the sailaway from Maui. Our tables were waiting for us when we arrived for our reservation. The maitre’d is very professional and very serious about his job. He watches everything and makes sure that you are well taken care of.

Our group had two waiters as we were at two tables and both were excellent. Nolan, our waiter was great. His sense of humor and eagerness to put a smile on your face made it an even better experience. (my friend wanted chocolate sauce on his cheesecake instead of the fruit sauce….. Nolan said…”oh so you want a cheesecake al a Wonka” and it was soon delivered!)

The portions were very good and the taste was very good. We had eaten in the Italian restaurants on the other ships and so we knew what to expect in the menu. The only thing missing is Lasagna. (hint, hint).

 

While we are on the subject of the Specialty Restaurants: It appears that you really don’t need to make reservations for most of them. I made it a point to check out the restaurant availability board each night and found that there always appeared to be tables available. (usually 2 persons tables were always open and most of the times 4 persons were as well. Only the larger tables 6+ sometimes had waits.). Jefferson’s Bistro appeared deserted many nights. On Thursday night (when most are at the Luau), it is easy to find a table.

The one exception to this appeared to be Tepperanaki (sp?), the Japanesse Steakhouse. It always showed full and so I would definitely make reservations if you plan to enjoy that restaurant. East Meets West was tight a few time on availablilty, but the others always appeared to have openings.

The only “discount” for the main restaurants appears to be on Embarkation day when the cost of Dinner at Lazy J Steakhouse is only $15 a person. I didn’t know about that one soon enough or we would have ate there, but $25 is too high in my opinion for a meal on a cruise ship.

 

Cadillac Diner: Similar to the Blue Lagoon on other ships. The Cadillac Diner is great for a quick “comfort food” meal. It has seating both inside and outside on the Deck 6 Promenade. The menu consists of hamburgers, chicken, hot dogs, French fries, mac and cheese, chicken fingers, potatoe skins, cheese sticks, etc.

I love the Macaroni and Cheese and Potatoe skins that they had! For desert, save room for the Brownie Ice Cream Sundae! They do serve milkshakes in this restaurant, but there is an extra charge for those (around $4 after service charge). Really not worth that price when ice cream is always available upstairs in the Aloha Café and they have the free Brownie Sundae.

Several in our group ate here during the week. (twice for me…) We all report that we got the best service on the ship from the waiters and Maitre’d of the Cadillac. Very attentive, very friendly and very fast.

My mother’s food allergies were well taken care of the first visit as our waiter, Adam, went back and talked to the chef about the entire menu and came back to inform my mother of what she could order and could not order. He was great all the way around!

Don’t miss the Cadillac Diner while on board!

 

Since we don’t drink, I really can’t report on the bars and lounges, but in walking around in the evening, I never really saw any of them very crowded.

[DAGVBSB]

Shore Excursions: We avoided most of the overpriced NCL shore excursions by using a cheaper company and renting cars. Between all the members of our group, we had booked shore excursions through NCL in almost every port until we found out about Roberts Hawaii. They offer almost identical shore excursions as NCL with a guarantee that you won’t miss the ship and 100% cancellation if the ship misses the port. In the end, between the 18 of us in our group, NCL only sold 10 shore excursion tickets total. (7 for Kona and 3 for Maui).

Like I said, we found Roberts Hawaii at http://www.gorabbitgo.com and were able to book everything a head of time for half the price of NCL’s excursions. The Roberts busses pick you up at the piers and they have a representative at each pier to help you and get you on the right tour. They ran as many busses as NCL for the Volcanoes National Park Tour so they are becoming popular. The drivers were great and knowledgeable and you can’t beat the price.

NCL has changed their shore excursion cancellation policy and it can become an issue. NCL now requires 48 Hours notification if you wish to cancel instead of the normal 24 hours that other lines and tour operators require. (Roberts is 24 hours unless the ship misses the port.). This appears to be just another way for NCL to trap people into tours they decide they don’t want and is probably in response to Roberts taking their business…the 48 hours will prevent you from cancelling once you discover Roberts at the first port.

Here is a port by port description of what we did:

Maui: First day we rented 3 mini vans through Roberts Hawaii and visited some of the highlights including the Maui Ocean Center, Maui Plantation, Iao Valley and Lahania. Renting 3 mini-vans for the 18 of us came to about $21 per person vs. the $75+ NCL wanted per person for their excursion to these places. In addition, you can purchase advance tickets to the Ocean Center on line which can save money there as well.

I was very disappointed with the Maui Tropical Plantation. It has gone downhill and the tour was not as good as before. Also, the gift shop was extremely sparse. Of course the Ocean Center and Lahania were very nice.

The second day in Maui, some of our group went snorkeling. 2 through NCL and 3 through Roberts. Almost the exact same tour for half the price. Another member of our group went golfing through NCL which he said was a great experience. The rest of us took the free shuttles to places and spent the afternoon relaxing on board before sailaway.

 

Hilo: we all did the Volcanoes National Park through Roberts Hawaii. The cost was $45 per person vs. $99 for NCL. (this was one that we all cancelled out of NCL to go to Roberts.)

This is a great tour. Not only do you stop at the Volcanoes National Park sites (which are now somewhat limited because the cauldera is putting out toxic gas and much of the park road near the crater is closed and Volcanoe House is undergoing renovation.), but you also stop at Big Island Candies (great place..good candy at reasonable prices), Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Factory and Rainbow Falls. In the park, you stop at the Jagger Museum overlooking the crater, Thurston Lava tube and a dried lava field that you can walk on. Lots to see and do and learn about in a one day tour… one of the best of the week. You don’t see lava on this tour, but you see a lot of places! Our driver was excellent. He said that he was going to do the tour in reverse so that we could avoid all the other busses doing the same tour (2 others for Roberts and 3 for NCL owned Polynesian Adventure Tours). He was right! We would usually be the only bus at each stop and then as we were pulling out, one or two busses would be pulling in. We didn’t have to fight crowds the whole day!

 

Kona: This is where some of our group got stuck on a tour they didn’t want. (and it was partially their fault.) Many had signed up for the Kona Land and Sea Tour through NCL. When they read their tickets the day before the trip, it said that the sea part would no longer be a glass bottom boat but a catamaran. They really wanted the glass bottom boat and went to complain and asked to switch to the glass bottom boat tour. But because it was within 48 hours, they were told no. (yes, I agree and told them that they should have checked their tickets earlier). But the real kicker came when they complained to the shore excursion staff that the description on line was not correct and misleading because it listed the glass bottom boat. In typical NCL fashion, the shore excursion people made up an excuse…”we no longer use that website company and that is why it is not updated and since it is the websites fault, we can’t do anything about it.” Well, I went right to the internet café where NCL’s site is free access… guess what, the website HAD been updated. It was the shore excursion booklet that we got that was wrong. I know its trivial…..but why does everyone at NCL feel the need to lie and make up stories when customers have a complaint or issue? Oh well, the POAm shore excursion department is just like NCL corporate… lie to cover your tracks instead of being honest.

 

As far as the “new” Land and Sea tour in Kona… all 7 of those who went on it say it was the worst shore excursion they have ever been on. The land portion was good, but the NCL bus was in terrible shape and needed jump started at one stop. The sea portion on Body Glove was terrible. They said all they did was cruise along the shore and listen to music. There was very little narration of what they were seeing and it was quite boring. The lunch was not very good either. Save your money and avoid this tour… take the 3 hour historic Kona tour through either NCL or Roberts for a better time. (and to give yourself time to wander the village.)

 

The rest of us just tendered to shore and wandered around the town. Lots of great shops near the pier. The tendering process was very easy although we did have a short wait. When I walked through the tender ticket distribution area about 8:00 a.m., you could get on the next tender with no problem. By 9:00 a.m. when we were ready to go ashore, there was a 20-30 minute wait for the tender. The process ran very smoothly however and the tender loading was quick and efficient. They had a lot of crew both on the POAm and on the pier to help load and unload. Lots of help and support for the elderly and handicapped.

 

Kauai: This has always been my least favorite of the Hawaiian islands and this trip did not change my opinion. I have found that the people on Kauai are the least friendly of Hawaiians that I have come across. They almost come off with an arrogance about them somehow. It could more of a matter-of-fact attitude but they just rub me the wrong way.

The “guards” (and I use that term loosely) at the pier are the absolute worst of any port I have visited. Some of them are way to serious about their jobs while others think they are more important than they really are. The old guy with gray hair who was usually at the entrance gate should have retired decades ago…he is gruff, arrogant, rude and full of himself. Calling him a “Barney Fife” would be an insult to Barney!

 

On the first day, we once again rented a mini van from Roberts Tours. I found the cars/vans to be more expensive in this port and Roberts price was half of what I could get from any other company. (Roberts uses Hertz and their price was even lower than Hertz on line.) I will say that the ladies at the Hertz office at the airport were very friendly, the lone exceptions to my Kauai rant above.

We used the car to drive around the island and hit places like Hilo Hatties (which we hadn’t been to yet…) and other scenic locations on the east and south sides of the island. One of the best places to shop in the Anchor Cove Shopping Center just a block from the pier (and has a free shuttle). There is a little shop next to the ABC store that has the best prices on t-shirts and other souveniers. (and of course DelSol, Maui Divers and Red Dirt Shirt Co. are in the center too.) In the afternoon, some of our party went “Tubing the Ditch” which we had contracted through a private company (not Roberts). We used the rented mini-van to take them and pick them up, saving over $50 per person from NCL’s rates.

On the second day in Kauai, we did the Roberts Tours “Hanalei Tour.” This 5 hour tour traveled up the east and north sides of the island and allowed us to view such sites as Oppakaa Falls, Hanalei, Princeville, Hanalei Valley, the beach and many other sites. Although overall the tour was somewhat boring, we only paid $35 a person for it and were on a mini-bus. Our guide was a longtime local native (and former school teacher) who also knew where the movies had been shot and she was great at pointing them out and explaining what we saw.

Of course the highlight of Friday is sailing past the Na’Pali Coast. The Hawaiian Ambassador gave narration during the sailby which added to the experience. Two comments about the narration: on my previous Hawaii cruise, the narration was also put on the tv on the channel which shows ship/weather information. (the same was true of Glacier Bay on the Star.). That made it nice to be able to sit on your balcony and turn up your tv and hear the narration. This time, to hear the narration you had to leave your balcony and go up on one of the outside decks. The second comment about the narration is that it should be done without the “commercials” for the ship. I want to hear about the Na’Pali Coast or the Lava Flow…. Not about the art auction, shore excursions, drink specials, gift shop specials or anything else like that. IS the POAm that hard up that they have to ruin the narration and cheapen the Ambassador by having her do commercials??

[DAGVBSB]

Disembarkation: With one little glitch that we will talk about shortly, disembarkation was a very smooth procedure. One of the easiest that I have ever experienced. We put our luggage out the night before and it was waiting for us in the terminal the next morning. The luggage distribution location was large and there was plenty of room in each color grouping to get through and find your luggage. There was a shortage of porters to haul your luggage to the busses, but it is not far to the busses.

We used Roberts Hawaii for our shuttle to our Waikiki hotel. $6 per person to any hotel in Waikiki. I had called ahead for reservations and had originally set up a 10:00 a.m. pick-up but due to the problems with luggage tags (see below), I called the day before from Kauai and was able to get our entire group moved to a 9:00 a.m. pick-up.

We walked out of the luggage pick-up room and saw the Roberts busses and gave them our reservation number and the very nice lady directed us to a bus. We had left the ship at 8:30 a.m. and was on the bus before 9:00 a.m.! Those waiting for NCL transfers appeared to be in a long line! Roberts had at least 3 or 4 busses there loading for hotel or airport transfers. Very smooth process. (and you pay the lady as you get on the bus…so if you need to cancel that is easy too.)

 

Now for the one glitch… NCL has gone to basically a “choose your own time to get off” system and it is a disaster. They put the luggage tags out in the main lobby with times next to each of them and you can pick the tags for the time you want!

By the time I got there after dinner the night they went out, only the 3 earliest times were left. (8:00, 8:10 and 8:20 a.m.). At that point I had our transfer scheduled for 10:00 a.m. since we were told that last call was 9:30 – 9:45 a.m..

I asked a young african American gentleman at the desk about getting later tags and he said that I had to take the 8:20 tags as that was the latest I could stay on the ship. I said to him: “so we have to sit in the terminal from 8:20 until 9:45?” His reply was: “I guess so.”

I asked him what happened to the old system where you were assigned a disembarkation time based on your transfer/tour/flight time. His reply: “we don’t use that system any more.” My reply: “so now it’s a free for all with first come, first serve?” His reply: “its easier this way.” My reply: “yeah, easier for the desk people to have to do less work.”

I then informed him that I had been on several NCL cruises and knew how the system worked and we could just stay on as long as we wanted because our luggage would still be there. His rude reply to me was: “You have to get OFF the ship when you luggage tag is called, otherwise it is not fair to the crew.” My reply: “sitting in the terminal for 90 minutes with elderly people and young children is not fair to THEM.” His reply: “that’s the way it has to work.” And he turned away from me. I replied loudly as I walked away: “I will take these tags but will get off when we need to or when last call occurs…whichever is later because that is what is best for my family who you don’t seem to care about.”

Of course, it was all for nothing when I was able to get our transportation changed to 9:00 a.m.. If I hadn’t got it changed, I would have waited until last call or 9:30….lol.

Another of our party went down later to inquire about the situation and was able to speak to a very nice older lady. She told them that the luggage tags were just the earliest we could off but that we could stay on board as long as we wanted until last call which would be around 9:15-9:30.

So even if you are stuck with early color tags, don’t fell that you have to hurry off. Its just for luggage distribution. Any passenger can stay on until last call.

[DAGVBSB]

Well there you have it. My book on our Cruise on the Pride of America, feel free to print it off and put it in the bird cage if needed, lol. As I said in the beginning, this is the first time that I cannot recommend a cruise on NCL. But my no recommendation is only for the POAm…. The rest of the fleet is great and one should not shy away from an NCL cruise just because of the POAm.

 

 

 

I have already been asked to speak to the local Senior Citizens Club in a couple weeks about the POAm. They have a group cruise scheduled on the ship late this year and want my opinions and suggestions on how to save money on board and in the ports.

 

Here are some of the points I will make with them and my suggestions for those going on the POAm:

1.) My total on board bill for the week for 3 of us was right around $1000. $252 of that were the daily service charges which can’t be changed and another $230 was the snorkeling excursion that we could not cancel out of because it was too late. (another $200 was for the Kona Land & Sea tour which I will recommend against.) So, if you eliminate those shore excursions and service charge, we only spend about $300 on board.

We probably spent too much on pictures, (over $120) but we only dined one night in a specialty restaurant, we don’t drink alcohol, and we limited our gift shop purchases.

So realistically someone who doesn’t drink could get off the ship for less than $300 per room.

2.) Wait and buy pictures later in the week. They run more and better sales then and

The pictures are availalable all week.

3.) Wait and don’t purchase from the shops on board until the Na’Pali coast afternoon or evening. They run a big sale that day (happens every week) with a lot of clothing discounted. (and besides, if what you want is not on sale, you can still buy it then.

4.) If you want to use the internet for boarding passes or other work, wait until the last day when they have a sale.

5.) If you want the Steakhouse for a meal, go on Saturday night (embarkation day). It is only $15 a person. The $25 restaurants are not worth it.

6.) With the exception of the oriental restaurants or a big party, don’t worry about reservations in the specialty restaurants. They always seemed to have vacancy’s (and you get charged if you no show a reservation or cancel it late.)

7.) And the best way to save money: Purchase your shore excursions through private companies. You will find that they are half the price of NCL. Just do a websearch for what you are looking for. I highly recommend Roberts Hawaii (gorabbitgo) tours in each port. They guarantee that you won’t miss the ship and are less than half what NCL charges. (I will be taking lots of information on them to the Senior Citizens meeting…)

8.) Have your room steward remove the mini-bar from your refridgerator when you board. It makes you unable to use the fridge for your items and it is just a temptation to have one of the overpriced items in there.

9.) Unless you drink A LOT of soda (5 or more a day), don’t buy the soda card.

10.) If someone tells you no for something, ask to speak to their supervisor. That generally illicits a yes answer…lol. (also don’t jump the chain of command…going directly to the hotel director is not the route to go.)

11.) Only buy art at the auctions. The “great deals” the art guy offers are not that great. (that one comes from my brother-in-law who buys a lot of art.)

12.) Skip the Lattitudes party but go to the Port Talk on the first day. Lots of great information there.

 

 

OK, fire away.... I will start ducking the bullets now.

[annecolorgreen]

Thanks!

 

Do you remember what order you did your VNP tour? We are renting a car and doing it ourselves and would love to avoid crowds!

 

Do you remember which nights were the "special" nights--like lobster and prime rib?

 

I would bet the reason the narration isn't on the televisions in the rooms is so that you have to go on deck so you can buy the specialty drinks :rolleyes:.

[Ms belp]

Well, thanks. I couldn't go for my 55th birthday next month so I've been looking forward to next year's cruise that departs on my birthday. My enthusiasm has been deleted considerably, especially after an especially difficult Monday.

[ozzy_emg]

Absolutely a fantastic review!! It was so good to read. Im sorry but I had to laugh about the lady in the Aloha cafe with the beef. I thought you handled that very well lol

Thanks again for a great review!

[riofriotex]

I would bet the reason the narration isn't on the televisions in the rooms is so that you have to go on deck so you can buy the specialty drinks :rolleyes:.

 

Actually, you can get specialty drinks delivered to your room for both the Na Pali Coast and lava sailbys.

[flipflops62]

For what its worth, I was on the same cruise and had completely different experiences. Sure, not everything was perfect but i did not expect that. When we did our first NCL cruise in 1996, I remember many people complaining that it "wasn't near as nice as Royal Caribbean". So when I finally did a RCCL cruise I had expectations. Well guess what? NCL as better!

I agree the constant questioning by the staff was frustrating; we never had any requests so never had an issue. All our questions were answered politely. Only had 1 bad waiter, and that can happen anywhere. I had to laugh at the server in the Aloha- sounds like the two of you were in a power struggle. I would love to have seen it.

The latitudes party was my first. We enjoyed it simply because it was an unexpected treat. But I do agree the prizes were cheesy.

Unlike you, we had trouble finding seating at the pool. I kept saying people must have put their towels and books down at 8am, and left them there all day while they did excursions just to have a place when they got back.

I'm so glad we chose deck 8 for our balcony cabin. It was terrific. I really felt bad for the deck 11 by the pool passengers-the music is way too loud.

Sorry you didn't enjoy it. We had a great time and are recommending it to others. Of course, I will them to cruie critic so they can be informed of all the opinions. Don't want to be blamed if they have a bad time!:cool:

[Scarlett3]

Did you save any Dailies by any chance?

[Magiemae41]

Wow.. I love the reviews. Good and Bad. Thank you! I wonder though, while I am trying to plan my excursions (using mostly Roberts, based on many cruise critic opinions), I am having a problem trying to figure out what to do when.

 

Roberts lists all their days and times, but there are one or two NCL excursions we want to do. Does anyone know how I check what day and time NCL's excursions are?

 

We book through a tour company that includes our pre-cruise and can't get an NCL reservation number until 60 days prior so the only excursions I see on the NCL site is the general list of all excursions, not listing a time and date. We are going on the 10/23/10 cruise.

 

Mae

[tompeter]

"Interesting" review. I am wondering why it was necessary to point out the fact that the gentleman at the front desk "helping" you was African American?

[Hikini]

I agree that it's very hard to beat Kieron Buffery - best CD we've ever had!

[iheartbda]

"Interesting" review. I am wondering why it was necessary to point out the fact that the gentleman at the front desk "helping" you was African American?

Or that one lady was oriental, besides....... orientals are rugs, Asians are humans.;)

[sjbdtz]

The lady on the other end basically called my mother a liar. After explaining that she was allergic to garlic, ginger and most spices, the lady asked my mother: “are you really allergic to those items or is it that you just don’t like them and want a special menu?” (totally rude and arrogant manner according to my mother.) My mother, who is 81 and who I get my fighting nature from, replied: “its called colitis, why don’t you look that up and hope you never get it!” and hung up. She was very shaken by it because she had never been treated that way over her medical issues anyplace.

 

 

I can totally understand why they would ask that question. If your mother simply didn't like the items, they could avoid putting the items in your mother's food.

 

However if she was truly allergic, they would cook new food, from a scrubbed & sanitized grill, using newly cleaned utensils.

 

Whenever I inform Teppanyaki of my food allergies, they advise that they will not cook my food on the Teppan, but rather in the galley because they can control the allergens there.

 

I think the question was asked for clarfication....in other words...how serious is the allergy, not calling her a liar.....that's just a conclusion you've leapt to.

[sjbdtz]

This auctioneer must have learned from Colin himself!

 

Colin who?

[Planer's Edge]

 

 

OK, fire away.... I will start ducking the bullets now.

 

Why do you think you need to duck the bullets? This seems like a fair and balanced review from your perspective.

 

PE

[Ask4Jay]

"My Mini-novel review of Cruise on Pride fo America; Sorry I can't reccommend it."

Sorry, can't resist: Since you don't recommend it, I decided not to read it.

[ohioNCLcruiser]

I'm bummed you never came over to say hi as I was looking out for you! I do want to make one comment about the debark luggage tags. Yes it sounds like this could have been handled better then what the agent said but his thought of mind was correct and did what he was trained to do (maybe a better use of words next time). Everyone must be out of their room at 9am and off the ship by 930. Debark starts at about 730 so that gives 2 hours to offload 2,500 passengers. Passengers have the option to pick what time they want but that doesn't mean we can have 2500 people get off at 8:50am. They wouldn't have the luggage out, the terminal won't be ready for that and the gangway certainly couldn't handle that. The system is designed to be very smooth if its followed. 250 luggage tags at each time means a smooth process at all times. If everyone told the ship they were leaving at 830 am (every bag is counted and put into a debark report the night before) but didn't leave till 930 then the gangway would be overwhelmed creating lines, delays and waits. So I agree it sounds like the receptionist wasn't that nice when he explained it but he was enforcing the debark policies. If the program is followed its very smooth.

[GypRasc]

Gotta say I'm gonna keep my eyes open for the Barney Fife wannabe. :-)

[Ms belp]

Glad to hear the review. I'm happy James is still there. We are going to look forward and hope they correct the problems you shared OP. (I can't spell your thing D.)