Onboard the Pride of America 13-Day Panama Canal Cruise

[donna@donnaanderson.com]

Is this your best cruise yet; all sounds so good!

I am so glad you are having tons of fun!

 

Donna

[BillandLaura]

Sounds like you are having a great time there with the Eagles. Hi to the Eagles from the Flamingos!! Any other staff we would recognize?

[livermorenancy]

Laura and Bill,

Several crew members look familiar. Shonna was one of Patti's asstistants last year and she is the Asst. Cruise Director-gave her my photo scrapbook and DVD to watch and she had a blast remembering the Flamingoes! Al is our concierge again and has been very good to the Eagles.

Talk you later.

[BillandLaura]

I remember Shonna - she was good! In fact, all of Patti's staff was good! Tell her "Hi" from all of us! I hope she enjoyed the scrapbook and dvd!! :)

[norcalgal]

How's it going Nancy?

[livermorenancy]

Just pulled into port of LA. No time to make lots of comments yet -but overall we had a fantastic time!!!! The Cruisin' Eagles will have more info on the ship once everyone gets home and settled in. San Fran to Hawaii folks- don't worry, just go with the flow, give staff encouragement and you will have a super time onboard!!!! Staff officers and Hotel Manager, etc. met with the Cruisin' Eagles several times during our trip, took our comments and suggestions and worked on them immediately. They are all really trying their best to make this work. You will come across one or two staff members who might disappoint you but that is on any cruiseline-remember all the other great staff you meet! Enjoy your trip!!!!! Nancy

[westonsteve]

Sounds like a fantastic cruise on Pride of America. I feel a lot better about making a booking now that the ship seems to be doing well.

 

Thanks for the great report.

[lhall85917]

We have a CC group cruise going next June if you want to check us out westonsteve (and everyone else! :D ). I'm hoping that this is what people have been waiting for - I think some have been reluctant to book until the first reviews come out. If we get lots of positive reviews we know that NCL has come through for us! :D Of course, we have to keep in mind nothing is perfect, especially at first, but this review is getting me very excited about our cruise! Thanks for sharing.

[bobnsandi]

Just pulled into port of LA. No time to make lots of comments yet -but overall we had a fantastic time!!!! The Cruisin' Eagles will have more info on the ship once everyone gets home and settled in. San Fran to Hawaii folks- don't worry, just go with the flow, give staff encouragement and you will have a super time onboard!!!! Staff officers and Hotel Manager, etc. met with the Cruisin' Eagles several times during our trip, took our comments and suggestions and worked on them immediately. They are all really trying their best to make this work. You will come across one or two staff members who might disappoint you but that is on any cruiseline-remember all the other great staff you meet! Enjoy your trip!!!!! Nancy

 

Thanks Nancy, for everything! We all are now proud owners of Ty Eagles, the photos will appear once we get home.

 

For everyone planning to travel on the PoAm, we put a "guestbook" in the library, just for CC'ers. Ask for it, so you can put your names into it for this wonderful new ship. We placed the guestbook with the blessings of the hotel director, so if you cannot find it, ask the HD to apply some pressure. The library was pretty chaotic the last day of our cruise.

 

Panama Canal was awesome, as usual!

 

 

Bob (and Sandi) Swanson

[love2relax]

We jsut returned from the Pride of America's Panama Canal cruise today! I hope that everyone finds this thread. I just read some posts on another thread that were not very positive. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. First of all, John and Nancy are the most wonderful people to sail with! The Flamingos and Cruisin' Eagles already know that. Nancy has already told you that we had the chance to talk with the departments heads on three separate occasions (once for our CC group, and twice because of John/Nancy/ or Al their concierge). Suggestions for improvements were implemented immediately when/if possible. NCL America has invested a lot of time and money to make this work, and it is paying off. On the whole, the crew members were enthusiastic and positive. I was proud to be on an American ship where I could visit with staff who shared my language and culture. I have not been unhappy on foreign-flagged ships, but it is really cool to meet a cross section of people from different states in the Union. The ship is beautiful! We had a primo location in cabin 11044 right off the pool, close to elevators. Who could ask for more? Yes...the cabin was small...especially compared to John and Nancy's suite, but we spent very little time in the room. We did spend a LOT of time on the balcony. Even though it was small, we were very copfortable out there. We left the door open almost every night. It was absolutely divine to hear the swells hitting against the side of the ship. Was everything perfect? Of course not. The poor ice cream machines got a real workout. Both of them broke frequently and needed parts that were unavailable when we we out of the country. But they nursed them along, and if I kept checking back during the day, there was usually some time that I was able to get some every day. (Where could they get parts in a foreign country or all of those days at sea? I wouldn't expect them to have a helicopter deliver the part for an ice cream machine. I was happy for the freebie. Other ships I have been on only had ice cream for an extra fee.) As for the food, yikes! I am afraid to step on the scale! Not everything was to my taste, but cruises are for experimenting and trying new things. I never thought I would pay for a specialty restaurant, but the filet mignon ($15 for the dinner) in the Lazy J Steakhouse was so good, I went back another night. Little Italy had great food, but we were only able to get reservations once. We discovered it too late. It was so good, and they didn't even charge an extra fee. Dining rooms were lovely. I liked some foods, and was not so crazy about others..but that is probably due to my tastes. Service was very good to EXCELLENT in all restaurants. The diner is a little slow, and the food was kind of like "diner food", but it didn't stop me from eating every bite. :eek: I would highly recommend that you go on board with a positive attitude, and go with the flow. There were a few little things that bugged me, but I got over it. Any time on board a beautiful ship has got to better than a day at work. You will absolutely love Rich, the cruise director. He is the most talented, funny, and genuine person I have ever seen on a ship. If anyone has questions, go ahead and ask. I'll try to address any that anyone else in our group doesn't have time to answer. For those of you who just read these posts, and don't get on the roll calls, you are missing out on a wonderful experience. Get invloved with the roll call for your sailing. This was by far the best cruise I have ever taken because of the wonderful people I sailed with!

 

Mary

[love2relax]

I'll try to write a more comprehensive review in the days to come.:)

[4 cruisers]

Thanks Mary! Say, how were the pillows? How many electrical outlets in the room? Should I bring an extension with multiple plugs for cameras and ipod charging? Is there a coffee machine in the cabin? As you can see, our date is VERY near! We "Lucky Devils" are really looking forward to our crossing and Hawaii!!!!

[stargazers]

Good morning! Dave and I were soaring with the Eagles last week with Nancy and Mary. We had a great time! Was everything perfect? No, but our experience was that people bent over backwards trying to fix problems that we had. We did find that saying we were part of a Cruise Critic group did seem to get some attention, and EVERYBODY we talked to was aware of this site!! :) We often started the conversation with staff with "Where are you from?" and they were more than happy to talk with us. I think there are a 'few' that are missing home! Many were the age of our kids, so we had fun talking with them.

 

4 Cruisers-The pillows were fine, and after a bit of searching, our steward brought us more ( His idea). After a few days I did ask for an egg crate mattress. I have a bad back and was starting to hurt, and it really did help! We took a power strip, and did not use it. Basically all we did was recharge batteries for our camera and didn't need any more. I only remember the one plug on the desk area. There was a coffee pot and fixings for coffee or tea (Different area, did not use the plug). The room was smaller than I have had on other ships, and I thought the storage space and closet was small. There were two drawers by the closet that were taller and about 10 inches wide, and over by the TV were two more that were much wider. Inside the closet were three small shelves, and a larger shelf and two baskets on the other side. There were shelves above and below the coffee set up. I personally took WAY too many clothes, but expected to be extremely hot going through the Canal, but it was much cooler than anticipated. DO TAKE A SWEATER OR LIGHT JACKET FOR THE PUBLIC AREAS. They are still working on the air conditioning system, and I often was cold during dinner and especially, in the Hollywood Theatre.

 

Our neighbors hated the cruise, I knew they were next to us but it felt like they were on a different ship! We had a great time, and would go back in a heartbeat. :)

 

Kristy

[lhall85917]

 

 

 

Our neighbors hated the cruise, I knew they were next to us but it felt like they were on a different ship! We had a great time, and would go back in a heartbeat. :)

 

Kristy

 

 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and I'm glad you had a good time. I'm curious as to why your neighbors hated the cruise - do you know? Was it something in particular or just that they didn't like cruising? :confused: I'm hoping that the cruise was just not their thing and not problems with the ship.

[donna@donnaanderson.com]

Do you think your cabin was about 135 square feet?

We were all trying to figure out the size of balcony cabins since it seems that NCL site posted them as larger than they really are and you have to subtract the balcony from the cabin size.

Is that the case?

So glad you had a good time. It seems you were with a great fun group of people too and that always makes things more enjoyable.

Thanks for your comments on your cruise.

[bobnsandi]

Do you think your cabin was about 135 square feet?

We were all trying to figure out the size of balcony cabins since it seems that NCL site posted them as larger than they really are and you have to subtract the balcony from the cabin size.

Is that the case?

So glad you had a good time. It seems you were with a great fun group of people too and that always makes things more enjoyable.

Thanks for your comments on your cruise.

 

We felt that our balcony (7168) was smaller than our balcony on the Star (9 something). We two managed, but we had to negociate before one of us walked from the door to the balcony slider window. Bathrooms were definietly smaller than the Star.

 

Bob

[bobnsandi]

Thanks Mary! Say, how were the pillows? How many electrical outlets in the room? Should I bring an extension with multiple plugs for cameras and ipod charging? Is there a coffee machine in the cabin? As you can see, our date is VERY near! We "Lucky Devils" are really looking forward to our crossing and Hawaii!!!!

 

We did not need the power strip/multitap on this ship, there are PLENTY of 110 outlets. This is in contrast to the Star, and Legend, where there was only one 110 outlet. Yes, some of the appliances are 220 volt, and the fact that the ship was outfitted in Germany is pretty obvious. Coffee pot in cabin, but we stored ours, taking our tea/etc from the buffet, which has the 24 hour water/coffee/etc. They have nice machines in the food areas that make fresh coffee/decaf, and some sort of espresso. Some people joked that everything that came out of the combination machine tasted the same. I found the decaf espresso to be quite good.

 

Pillows were very confortable, as was the bed. We did not have back problems, but you never know when that might strike. We just bought a SelectComfort for home, to keep our aging backs happy.

 

Hi to all the Crusin Eagles, we had such a wonderful time with all you folks!

 

Bob (and Sandi) Swanson

[love2relax]

As for the power strip issue, we brought one, but didn't use it. I still would recommend to do so, just in case. There were two 110 on the desk/vanity that were available, but it was a tight squeeze to get my charger plug for walkie talkies in it. I was able to plug it in upside down which kind of surprised me. The hair dryer was probably a 220, but the plug was underneath, so I never paid attention to it. There was a 110 outlet in the celing of our bathroom, but I heard that some people found the bathroom outlet inside thier medicine cabinet: go figure. The cofee maker had a 220 outlet in a separate area. We only used it once. I agree with Bob. We were on deck 11 and the coffee machines in the Aloha Cafe had lots of cofee choices! I have a terrible back with a bone problem, and I slept like a baby. Cabin steward gave me two pillows for starters, and there was an extra in the closet. The cabin was small, and the shower....wow! I couldn't shave my legs in there! We spent very little time in the cabin so the size wasn't really a problem. I agree with Bob that you have to cooperate with your partner to negotiate around the beds to get to the closet and balconies. I really liked the chairs on the balcony. We spent a LOT of time there. They had fabric. One was fixed, and the other would adjust to a chaise lounge. We were almost always protected from the sun and rain, so it was a joy. We left the door open almost every night. I agree with Kristy in that you should bring a sweater! Brrr!!!! Some people would find fault and problems no matter where they were! We were with a great group of fellow cruise critics, and the American employees had very positive attitudes. Keep a positive attitude and have fun! I wish I were going with you!

[4 cruisers]

Thanks so much to all of you for answering my questions and sharing your cruise with us! I packed the cord just in case (I have electric rollers and curling iron too). I am glad to know that you can ask for an egg crate, just incase a joint starts acting up (with me it's a hip). Glad the pillows are comfy!

 

One more question, if you don't mind...any robes in balcony cabins?

 

Many more happy voyages to you all!

 

Nanette

[love2relax]

Sorry Nanette! There are no robes in balcony cabins. Ah well....we can't have everything....sigh. Have a lovely trip!

[RainyDay4Me]

How wonderful that things are shaping up nicely with Pride of America. Reading a review like this makes me glad that I booked for next summer :D

 

Question: We booked a balcony cabin on Deck 9..... towards the front of the ship. According to deckplans it seems that those balconies are larger than those midship (even though it's the same category - BC)...

Could you take a peek at cabin 9028 and tell me what it looks like??? (Only kidding...don't want you to get in trouble :D )

 

Enjoy the rest of your cruise....

Herb:

So...what was the cabin 9028 like on Deck 9 of Pride of America? I'm looking at that one right now for a future cruise and was interested in what the balcony was like for you.