Pride of Aloha Cruising – Beware

[WareCruisin]

I recently took a seven-day cruise around the Hawaiian Islands aboard Norwegian’s Pride of Aloha. Although I loved Hawaii, the more time spent off the ship, the better. Pride of Aloha is just not up to the standards I am used to on Royal Caribbean. In fact, some of it was really bad.

 

 

The food, for the most part, was okay. The spinach salad, fish and crab cakes and the lobster and pumpkin bisque in the main restaurants were very good. Entrées and dessert were fine as well with the exception of the first night. Instead of joining in the barbeque by the pool, we opted to dress and go to the dining room. My turkey parmesan and fettuccini alfredo looked and tasted like it had been under a heat lamp for an hour.

 

 

A big disappointment was the Royal Palm French Bistro. The $15 cover charge is insult enough, but the spinach salad was terrible, the pears flambé was so sour that it was inedible, and I had to send back my filet mignon twice to get it cooked the way I ordered it. On the flip side, the escargot was excellent.

 

 

The entertainment was adequate, but not like a Royal Caribbean show. Some of the singers and dancers were quite talented, but none of them were multi-talented, meaning that singers performing a dance routine and dancers trying to sing was almost too painful to watch. The guest entertainer, a magician, was excellent. I was also surprised that they didn’t have a show every night.

 

 

I liked the freestyle dining. It’s nice to have the option of dressing for dinner and going when it best suits me rather than on the ship’s designated schedule. Most of the servers were friendly, courteous and prompt. We managed to get there either early or late, so our wait was kept to a minimum.

 

 

The biggest disappointment was our room. We spent $1,659 per person for a window at 4009. It wasn’t smaller than a Royal Caribbean room, but very poorly designed from a storage standpoint. We had hanging space in the closet and 3 drawers and one shelf that were about 18” x 18” x 4” plus two nightstands about 15” x 15” x 12” to split between the two of us. That’s it, to unpack 7 days worth of casual and dressy wear for two people. The shower had a single shelf about 6 inches wide and 2 inches deep for two people’s toiletries. We had to remove our shampoo, etc, from the shower each day to make room for the next person. To boot, one morning, there was no hot water.

 

 

Worse still, at 6AM the first morning, a very loud rumble of a machine directly below vibrated our floor and annoyed us until we left for our shore excursion. This started up again for a few hours at 4PM, 9AM the following morning and 4PM the next day. Yes, we were annoyed and reported the problem, however, since we were already up getting ready to go ashore, we ignored it as best we could. On the third day, when we didn’t have to be up at the crack of dawn, and the noise started, we decided enough was enough. We complained, and the folks at the reception desk admitted that we were directly above the ship’s pump, but claimed that nobody had ever complained before. After several phone calls and a trip to the reception desk, we were moved to a balcony room, 0010. The move cost us about 2 hours of vacation time thorough the dinner hour.

 

 

My travel companion and I, who slept in separate beds, had about 1 foot of clearance between the beds themselves and foot of our beds and the wall in the balcony room. One person barely fit. Worse still, there was only one nightstand, which was even smaller than the other room’s. We couldn’t fully unpack in room 0010. And there were two narrow, straight backed chairs and a small table on the balcony. It wasn't confortable enough to spend any time out there.

 

 

Imagine how happy we were to realize at 6AM the next day that we were directly under the free weight section of the health club. Clunk, crash, bang! No wonder the room was unoccupied.

 

We saw our cabin steward only once, when we changed rooms. He/she was not at all attentive like on Royal Caribbean. And I missed the towel animals every night.

 

 

Hawaii was amazing, the shore excursions were excellent, and the trip holds many fond memories, however, I don’t expect that I will ever again travel on Norwegian Cruise Lines. They are in the process of putting two more ships in the water in Hawaii, and I truly hope they are better designed than Pride of Aloha. The food and entertainment weren’t so bad, but the accommodations are sadly inadequate.

[mcpix]

I'm on the POA the week of 3/20.

 

What's the best times to try for dinner in the main restaurants? Is it difficult to get resevations in the premium restaurants?

 

What excursions would you recommend?

 

Thanks.

[Host CMLA]

This is just my assessment of what you wrote...First, I think food is a subjective thing. One person could love it. Another cold hate it. It's too bad that you didn't find the food to your liking. That can affect the whole cruise. I'd be interested in how others on your sailing felt.

 

Second, the room size thing shouldn't have been a surprise. Did you know the dimensions before you left? There are several web sites that give you that information. It's a great tool to have when booking a room. Location is yet another thing...it seems like you had a Murphy's Law room experience at every turn.

 

Third, I have to differ with you on the quality of NCL entertainment compared to RCI. I didn't enjoy RCI shows at all! Everything on RCI was so generic to me. The parades down the indoor promenade were boring to us. Then again, I'm originally from New Orleans and I know what good parades are. The ice shows were silly to us. The rink is so small that the fun for us was seeing how many near misses we could catch. But again, entertainment is subjective too.

 

Sorry the POA wasn't what you were expecting.

[tommy2811]

Sounds to me like nothing could have made you happy on this cruise...

[WareCruisin]

Ceceila, I think that you missed my comment that the room wasn't smaller than RCI, but storage efficiency was at issue.

 

Murphy's Law with rooms placement- you got that right!

[sns]

My husband and I will be on the Aloha this October. We normally cruise on Princess but have been on Carnival and Royal. Every cruise line is different. We chose to do the Aloha because of the 7 days in Hawaii. We can't spend 3 sea days getting there and back. We have read all the negative reviews and still decided to go with Aloha. We are going with a totally open mind and using the ship as our floating hotel. I don't think we have had a "perfect" cruise yet. I think (my opinion only) that people need to go with the flow.

[WareCruisin]

I'm on the POA the week of 3/20.

 

What's the best times to try for dinner in the main restaurants? Is it difficult to get resevations in the premium restaurants?

 

What excursions would you recommend?

 

Thanks.

 

 

mcpix:

 

If you get to the Palace or Crossings close to when they open or about 8:30 you'll be okay. People we talked to had pretty long waits in between. We didn't have trouble making a reservation in the Payal Palm, and it was only about half capacity on Saturday night. I got the feeling that the premium restaurants aren't too popular. They never looked that busy when we went by them.

 

100% NCL excursions -

Wiamea Canyon was terrific, Fern Grotto was okay, Nani Mau Botanical Garden was great, Volcanos National Park was fantastic, Mauno Loa macadamia factory was good for shopping, Rainbow Falls was pretty, but we got there too late in the day to see the rainbows, loved the glass bottom boat in Kona, and great shopping in Kona, good shopping in Lanai, the Maui luao was okay, (subjective - I have a Polynesian show locally at home, which is pretty much the same. Also, if you do the luao, it's not on the beach, so make sure that you walk down there and take pictures of the sunset.) IAO State Park was very pretty, Maui Plantation was great, and the Maui Ocean Center was terrific. Pearl Harbor was very touching, and unfortunately our bus broke down at Punchbowl Cemetary, so we didn't get to finish our Honolulu City Highlights tour.

 

Beaches within walking distance of the ship are available in Kauai and Kona. Not so in other ports, but I heard good things about the beach break excursion in Maui.

[mcpix]

Thanks for the detailed reply.

 

Any preference between the Palace or Crossings?

 

My mother is also going with us on this cruise. She's used to dressing up every night for dinner, but I keep telling her I think this cruise is more casual. Am I right?

[LUCY55]

Cecilia, I saw the ice show on the Voyager. I thought it was amazing. Third row seats to see such talent. I ice skate myself and the fact that they can land those jumps even when the boat is moving is amazing. Got the chance to talk to some of the skaters that worked at the ice rink when it was open to ship passengers. They are from around the world and some are championship skaters.

[greenie]

Cecilia, I saw the ice show on the Voyager. I thought it was amazing. Third row seats to see such talent. I ice skate myself and the fact that they can land those jumps even when the boat is moving is amazing. Got the chance to talk to some of the skaters that worked at the ice rink when it was open to ship passengers. They are from around the world and some are championship skaters.

 

 

Lucy55, I agree! BF and I liked the entertainment on Adventure of the Seas OK, but we LOVED the ice-show! I kept thinking the same thing: "this ship is moving and these peeps are so good!".

[dalwhitt]

Bottomline: If you keep your expectations low you can enjoy yourself on Pride of Aloha. If you go expecting a first-rate cruise experience - ignoring the fact that you are in Hawaii - then you will be disappointed. Put this ship as it is anywhere else in the world and it wouldn't last long. I've seen absolutely nothing that causes me to believe that things have changed.

[Host CMLA]

Cecilia, I saw the ice show on the Voyager. I thought it was amazing. Third row seats to see such talent. I ice skate myself and the fact that they can land those jumps even when the boat is moving is amazing. Got the chance to talk to some of the skaters that worked at the ice rink when it was open to ship passengers. They are from around the world and some are championship skaters.

I know that some people love the ice shows. We were on the Mariner of The Seas last January and we didn't like it at all. It was Disney on Ice to us. But to each his own. We enjoy other things more. But I still say that every show we saw on RCI was amateurish to us.

[Island Gem]

Sorry that your cruise was less than ideal. I was on the early September sailing, and had friends that were under the weight training room and had the same experience that you had. We were on the other side and had no problems. Even though signs are posted in the area that passenger cabins are below, and to be careful with the weights, not many people pay attention to this. Aloha, one must remember, was to do the short 3 & 4 days itinerary in Hawaii. This ship is ideally suited for this; unfortunately because of what happened to POAmerica it was pressed into service for something that it was not built to handle. Service in the dining room was lacking, although I found the food to be comparable to RCI; the buffet area always had long lines and lots of frustated people. We were given the opportunity to cancel and get our money back, but we decided to go; and we were happy that we did. Thanks to all the comments that past passengers posted on this board we braced ourselves and tempered our expectations. The shows were mostly excellent, in my opinion, better than I had experienced on Carnival or RCI. People complained that there was not much shipboard activities and that is true, but for most people this was not a concern because most people were off the ship, until it set sail. I believe that when the America comes out many of these problems will be solved, and service should be more in line with the rest of the fleet. One big reason why we did not cancel was the price we paid and the fact that we went more for the itinerary than the cruise experience; for what I see that you paid for your cruise, we paid less than $100 more and got a 10th flr. balcony room and three nights at the Marriott. I knew that waiting for the America would cost more, even though NCL had promised to honor the same price we paid if we had chosen to wait on the new ship. And then we each got 20% off the price, which we are applying towards a Bermuda cruise late summer.

[TxRose]

Island Gem...GMTA! That is exactly what we did with our 20% credit from our Pride of Aloha experience! We are going early summer though..hoping to to beat the 'school's out' crowd!

[Island Gem]

Hi TXRose, actually we didn't think we'd use the credit for anything, but late January I received an internet special e-mail and decided to check it out. Didn't act on it right away, but when I did they happened to also be offering a sale to residents in my state, so with the 20% discount and the other discounts we came out almost 50% off the stated rate. Six other family/friends who were on the Hawaii trip decided to take up the offer, so now we're looking forward to September in Bermuda. I think it will be less crowded at that time.

[albertiger]

todays online version of Frommers has taken a second look at POA and most of what they saw, they liked! using an A-F grading system i'd say it came away with a B average, not bad after the abysmal start! :D

[LynnH]

Bottomline: If you keep your expectations low you can enjoy yourself on Pride of Aloha. If you go expecting a first-rate cruise experience - ignoring the fact that you are in Hawaii - then you will be disappointed. Put this ship as it is anywhere else in the world and it wouldn't last long. I've seen absolutely nothing that causes me to believe that things have changed.

 

I have to agree with dalwhitt here...you can't go on POA expecting a perfect cruise. I am happy to see that they have improved tremendously since July 2004, but for the money, you should be able to expect and RECEIVE much more. We were in room 6301...near the anchor...and we knew each time we made it into port. :) No problems with lack of hot water, but we had no A/C for about 24 hours and no one seemed to even care...(we called maintenance and they wrote up a repair ticket). It finally started working on its own. Repairmen called us to finally work on the problem, but it was almost 48 hours later.

 

The ports are what make the ship even somewhat tolerable...still, we paid an extra $600 to stay overnight in a resort in Maui. It was a nice break from our cramped, noisy room.

 

I'm giving NCL another shot to win me as a repeat customer...we're leaving this weekend on the Sea. I figure this cruise can't be worse our POA cruise.

[dalwhitt]

LynnH, best of luck on your second shot on NCL. Let us know what you think when you return.

[garykool81]

The biggest disappointment was our room...at 6AM the first morning, a very loud rumble of a machine directly below vibrated our floor and annoyed us until we left for our shore excursion. This started up again for a few hours at 4PM, 9AM the following morning and 4PM the next day. Yes, we were annoyed and reported the problem, however, since we were already up getting ready to go ashore, we ignored it as best we could. On the third day, when we didn’t have to be up at the crack of dawn, and the noise started, we decided enough was enough. We complained, and the folks at the reception desk admitted that we were directly above the ship’s pump, but claimed that nobody had ever complained before. After several phone calls and a trip to the reception desk, we were moved to a balcony room, 0010. The move cost us about 2 hours of vacation time thorough the dinner hour.

 

Pardon my frankness (and trust me, NCL is not personally my favorite line, so I am not defending them), but picking a room that is not close to loud machinery REALLY is not the fault of the cruise line. It is the fault of whoever CHOSE your room without doing proper research or informing you beforehand that you were likely close to the point where tenders, etc., might be lifted up and down.

 

I booked a room on Mercury (with Celebrity) in October that was right next to a lifeboat, so I absolutely know first hand how loud, obnoxious and annoying this can be. I'd never do it again.

 

Still, I wouldn't dare blame this on the ship or the cruise line -- I blame myself. It is impossible to expect to be on a MOVING ship that makes absolutely no noise from time to time, especially when residing in a room close to machinery.

 

Frankly, this is almost as silly as me complaining that my deck one stateroom in the far aft is "just vibrating far too much!!!"

 

Now, I know better :-)

 

Everything else you said I can appreciate, though. I am sorry you had a poor vacation onboard the vessel.

[Zeno]

[The biggest disappointment was our room. We spent $1,659 per person for a window at 4009. It wasn’t smaller than a Royal Caribbean room, but very poorly designed from a storage standpoint. We had hanging space in the closet and 3 drawers and one shelf that were about 18” x 18” x 4” plus two nightstands about 15” x 15” x 12” to split between the two of us. That’s it, to unpack 7 days worth of casual and dressy wear for two people. The shower had a single shelf about 6 inches wide and 2 inches deep for two people’s toiletries. We had to remove our shampoo, etc, from the shower each day to make room for the next person. To boot, one morning, there was no hot water.

 

 

Worse still, at 6AM the first morning, a very loud rumble of a machine directly below vibrated our floor and annoyed us until we left for our shore excursion. This started up again for a few hours at 4PM, 9AM the following morning and 4PM the next day. Yes, we were annoyed and reported the problem, however, since we were already up getting ready to go ashore, we ignored it as best we could. On the third day, when we didn’t have to be up at the crack of dawn, and the noise started, we decided enough was enough. We complained, and the folks at the reception desk admitted that we were directly above the ship’s pump, but claimed that nobody had ever complained before. After several phone calls and a trip to the reception desk, we were moved to a balcony room, 0010. The move cost us about 2 hours of vacation time thorough the dinner hour.

 

 

My travel companion and I, who slept in separate beds, had about 1 foot of clearance between the beds themselves and foot of our beds and the wall in the balcony room. One person barely fit. Worse still, there was only one nightstand, which was even smaller than the other room’s. We couldn’t fully unpack in room 0010. And there were two narrow, straight backed chairs and a small table on the balcony. It wasn't confortable enough to spend any time out there.

 

Imagine how happy we were to realize at 6AM the next day that we were directly under the free weight section of the health club. Clunk, crash, bang! No wonder the room was unoccupied.

 

I can't really complain about your review - it was quite balanced but I guess having been on the POA when it was the Sky, I can disagree with you opinions about a couple of things. One of you major complaints was about the 'inadequacy' of the room - size wise and storage wise. Believe me this depends solely on the requirements of the occupants. we managed to quite comfortablely fit THREE people and their belongings in a balcony room. Our only complaint storage wise was that it would have been nice to have a few more drawers (There was enough drawer space for the two light packers but the heavy packer had to leave a few things in her suitcase under the bed - to be fair we divided the storage space equally ). As for the bathroom, we were actually quite pleased with the amount of shelves available beside the mirror (even the heavy packer had plenty of room on her 2 shelves). None of us considered moving shampoo in and out of the shower to be a hardship. As for the size of the room, the THREE of us moved around it quite easily - however when the couch was opened up at night for bed, getting to the balcony was pretty much impossible- although the person on the couch (me) had NO difficulty navigating the room to get to the bathroom.

Now when we recently cruised on the Sun, we did find our room slightly better designed than it was on the Sky (POA) - more drawers.

You have also complained about room location with regards to noise - sorry but as others pointed out - you or your TA should have chosen better. Personally I pore over ship's deck plans to make sure my cabin is not in an obviously noisy area. On my last cruise, I had booked a GTY but when I found out the cabin # I realized that it was in a less than ideal location so- I ponied up the cash for an upgrade. (No more GTYs for me - I do think location can be important.)

It's too bad you found certain things inadequate and personally I think you might have been better pleased with a newer ship. I am glad you did not let your disappointments ruin your cruise. Good Luck with the next one.

 

One other comment - generically directed at POA cruisers - many seem to have complaints that the price is out of line with the age and condition of the ship. I can understand how this might seem so - when I was on the SKY,we paid CONSIDERABLY less than people are paying on the POA. HOWEVER what many POA cruisers don't seem to realize is that NCLA's expenses are FAR GREATER in Hawaii than on the NCL Caribbean routes - why - American crew must by law be paid MUCH more than international crew, supples are much more expensive in Hawaii than for example the Caribbean and the NCLA Hawaiian ships cannot by law have a casino (which causes a huge loss in revenue.) Therefore it costs NCLA a lot more money to run the POA in Hawaii than for example to run the Sun in the Caribbean. Essentially you pay more money for this cruise for the privilage of cruising in Hawaii (without having to go to a foreign port) not for the ship. (Although I do think the Pride of America will cause some of the complaints about the ship to disappear). Anyone who demands a new ship in mint condition should wait for the Pride of America - bearing in mind that you will still pay more for the Pride of America than for a similar ship cruising the Caribbean.

[Ti2m]

Sounds to me like nothing could have made you happy on this cruise...

 

Shoot the messenger? We are considering a cruise on the new Pride Of America. I figured that the Pride Of Aloha cruise was so similar I would check out what people were saying about it. I just finished reading about 30 POA reviews. I think I will pass ... at least for now. The original comments in this post were VERY much in line with what I have been reading all morning.

 

It appears to me that NCL has a problem not the cruise passengers. NCL even waved tipping on many of the sailings because the service was so bad. Now defend THAT Host Cecilia! Isn't service subjective too?

[Host CMLA]

NCL even waved tipping on many of the sailings because the service was so bad. Now defend THAT Host Cecilia! Isn't service subjective too?

What did I do to you!?! :confused: I didn't mention service AT ALL. Everyone knows that service was lousy in the beginning. NO ONE questions that. Most people have said it's gotten better. The original poster didn't even get into service issues too much. Pay attention to who you point the finger at because I didn't say anything that would make you single me out for my opinion.

[hotspur]

We just had lunch with a good friend who was just back from the Pride of Aloha. She absolutely loved it. Rated the cruise much higher than her previous cruise on (the much over-rated) Celebrity.

[mbisson]

NCL even waved tipping on many of the sailings because the service was so bad.

 

That was true on the very early sailings but I don't think it's happened for a while now. In fact, most of the recent reviews have been pretty good.

 

As for you "now defend that line"-this really boarders on a personal attack. Lighten up.

 

-Monte

[Ti2m]

This is just my assessment of what you wrote...First, I think food is a subjective thing.

 

Second, the room size thing shouldn't have been a surprise.

 

Third, I have to differ with you on the quality of NCL entertainment ... But again, entertainment is subjective too.

 

 

Sorry maybe I read your post wrong. I was not trying to attack you so please forgive me. I just thought that you along with some others were discounting the legitimate complaints of the original poster by claiming this and that is subjective.

 

Food I agree is subjective but when you hear the same complaint about food being bad over and over there may be some truth to it.

 

I feel the complaint was about how poorly the room was designed for storage. This is not something you can deduct from square foot dimensions in a brochure precruise.

 

Again .. sorry if I offended you.