Pride of America

[gzyteck]

Sailing on POA on Sept. 17 and would appreciate any info from cruisers that have sailed on her. This is our first NCL cruise and have lots of questions. Also any hints or ideas on excursions would be appreciated. Interested in how the freestyle dining works!

Gigi

[shoreguy]

Sailing on POA on Sept. 17 and would appreciate any info from cruisers that have sailed on her. This is our first NCL cruise and have lots of questions. Also any hints or ideas on excursions would be appreciated. Interested in how the freestyle dining works!

Gigi

 

Start here

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=211415

[KeystoneCruiser]

Remember that NCL is a freestyle operation as opposed to the traditional lines. Freestyle means the following:

1.) No set dining times. You decide when you want to go and who you want to sit with. The dining rooms are open from 5:30 - 10 p.m. each night. In the main restaurants, which offer traditional cruise dinners, you just walk up to the maitre'd when you arrive and tell him how many are with you and you are taken to a table like in a restaurant. If you want to meet others, tell the maitre'd that and he/she will find others who want the same and seat you together.

 

2.) You can also choose from a variety of specialty restaurants which require reservations and in most cases, a cover charge of $15-25 per person. These include italian, a steakhouse, tex-mex, japanese, etc.. You can make reservations for a specific time and day for the whole week your first day on board at a special desk. The main restaurants do not take reservations except for large groups of 8 or more. There is also a free buffet that is open for all meals and late night snacks. (of course there is also room service)

 

3.) You can dress as you like within limits. The dress code on the ship for dinner is "resort casual" which only means no shorts, t-shirts, cut-offs or jeans in the dining rooms after 5:00 p.m. Polo shirts and kahki pants or sundresses are fine. You do not have to dress up!! (my favorite part). There is an optional formal night during the cruise, but you will find it 50-50 between those who do dress up and those who don't.

 

4.) Tipping is automatic for room stewards and waiters. You are charged $10 per person per day on your bill and this handles the gratuity for these people. A 15% service charge is added to all bar & spa bills. No need to individually tip these people, but you can tip additionally if they provide exceptional service and you are so inclined.

 

5.) You can wait in your room for disembarkation until you are called. No need to crowd into public lounges like other cruise lines.

 

These are the "perks" of Freestyle Cruising which is why I like NCL so much. (only Princess offers something similar)

 

 

I was on the Star and I personally refuse to go to the pay restaurants.

 

Speaking of reservations, if you plan to dine in the specialty restaurants, I urge you to go to the reservation desk your first day on board and make your reservations for the week. That way you can get the restaurants that you want at the times you want them!

__________________

[donna@donnaanderson.com]

If I were you I would read the past reviews from past cruisers of each ship and then decide. The Hawaii route on P of America has only been completed by 2 groups so far though, so there are not many postings, but it looks like their service is improving and everyone says the ship's public areas and restaurants are beautiful. I do not know the cabin sizes of P of Aloha vs P of America; I know the balcony cabins of P of America as very small, as the bathrooms are. If that is an important issue with you, you may want to investigate size cabins further bet Pride of Aloha and Pride of America.

I think Pride of Aloaha docks in Laihana, Maui and involves tendering, whereas on the Pride of America docks in Kahului when in Maui. I prefer the later. Tendering takes time and when there is tendering involved you have a little more likely chance of not making it into port in rough weather.

Pride of Aloha reviews seem to be improving with each cruise,as is the case with Pride of America.

I like to think maybe our boards have helped to improve service. We have heard that some of the NCL staff reads the boards.

Hope this helps.

[donna@donnaanderson.com]

Cecilia can you move this to its rightful place?

Sorry!

[celebrate]

We are sailing Sept. 17 on the POAM too. We have just started thinking about excursions too. Will see what the next few cruisers have to say and then pick a few. You will love Freestyle as you can pretty much do as you want.

Only 7 more weeks...can't wait:D

[gzyteck]

My travel agent has been to Hawaii several times and is working on a list of must do things.

We are flying in two days early and staying at the Radisson Prince Kuhio. We want to go to Pearl Harbor before we board the ship.

Let me know if you have any tips on excursions.

Gigi

[lilirose66]

Hi. I am booked on the Pride of America next Fébruary. I have chosen cabins 7018 and 7020 because they are connecting. Could you tell me if we will be disturbed by the Mardi Gras cabaret and Lounge??? I also thought that the balcony was bigger. I'm I wrong????

 

Thank you for your help

[celebrate]

GZYTECK...We are staying at the Sheraton Princess k and have 2 days before the cruise too. We want to do pearl Harbor and Diamond head. Then we will play the rest by ear , I think and make choices when we get there. We will use the bus and not rent a car.

We want to do Volcanoes National Park and Waimea Canyon...not sure if we are doing on our own or from the ship. Has your travel agent come up with any good ideas? Have you cruised before?

 

Lilirose66...sorry I do not know much about the ship yet..maybe if you go to the NCL site it might give you the information you need

[lilirose66]

Celebrate....

 

No we haven't planned the excursions yet but we are also booked at the Sheraton prince Kuhio 3 nights before the cruise. We will not rent a car for sure in waikiki.

I know for sure that we will visit Volcanoes National park. I have called NCl and they assure me that I will not be disturbed by the noise :)

 

I think it will be the 12 th cruise I make. But we are planning to go on a cruise during the holidays if we get a good las minute bargain, before the cruise to hawaii

[snowsue62]

we had a group of 12 sailing on the Pride of America 7/23-7/30. Overall, our experience was very good. only cruised one other time (carnival), so not really picky about stateroom size. we found ours to be totally adequate for our family of four. very clean, but not completely stocked yet. we stayed on 4th floor (apparently above the engine room, so a bit noisy at night). rooms have a mini fridge and safe, which were both nice amenities. we didn't have coffee pot or ice bucket, but the cabins will all have them when ship is fully stocked. we found the beds to be quite comfortable. plenty of storage and room for suitcases under beds. staff is still learning, so we didn't get the polished experience that you're likely to encounter! example - towel animals made by cabin steward were few and basic. wait staff in restaurants were a little slow and we found some had an attitude (Lazy J waitress), which was frustrating because we were paying a $15 charge per person to eat there. by the way, do make your reservations for the specialty restaurants early!!! we couldn't even get in to Little Italy (no extra charge) by tuesday for the rest of the week! tried lazy j steakhouse ($15 charge per person) and found it to be nothing spectacular. did east meets west one night ($10 per person) at the Tappenyaki (sp?) tables and enjoyed it very much. the skyline and liberty restaurants use the same menu, just different atmoshere. we enjoyed our waiters at skyline very much, so made reservations in their station for our large group a total of three nights of the cruise. a note concerning kids program - our teenager enjoyed the teen space and other teens - she participated in at least half of their planned activities. our 10-year-old and his 11-year-old cousin didn't particularly care for their group since all 2-12 year-olds were housed in the same space and they could not sign themselves in and out of "the club" (our carnival experience allowed 10 yrs+ to sign in and out as they wanted). if we checked them in for the whole 3 hrs (7-10 pm), they had to endure all activities whether they found them "lame" or not. this area definitely needs some attention!! concerning shore excursions: try to book them on-line as soon as you know what you want, if you have more than 3 or 4 people participating. we tried a couple of weeks before our cruise and everything we wanted was sold out. overall, our experience was great! the ship was SO clean and nicely decorated with their themes. you can't take any opened food on board the ship - ever. so when in port, if you buy anything (candy), either eat it all up before getting back on board or wait to open when back on board. security confiscated a bag of pina colada licorice my daughter bought within walking distance of the ship and had opened for a quick taste on the walk back to the ship - ridiculous! FDA regulations or some nonsense...

hope this helped! have a great cruise!:)

[norcalgal]

We loved free-style dining! My husband & I sailed 7/23, and like snowsue, we couldn't get into Little Italy (the only specailty restaurant with no additional fee.) When we sailed on Disney cruises, we were seated with other people at tables of 8 - I realize that this is the norm, but when we sailed with our grown sons, we were seated with another family with sons - but they were 16 & 12! When just the two of us sailed, celebrating our 25th Anniversary, we were seated with 3 Honeymooning couples! So, I guess being able to eat at a table for 2 was very nice! We really liked Jefferson's Bistro, but we were seated at a table that had one of its' seats on a couch - I sat there and felt very close to my food ;) ! One couple seated next to us refused to sit there - the wife was very short and the husband said his back wouldn't be able to handle it - they were willing to walk out, when they found another table for them. Lazy J Steakhouse was good (not good enough to warrant $15 extra each though) and it was VERY COLD the evening we were there.

 

I'm going to start another thread going over the excursions we were on.

[dinobja]

I am booked in cabin 7020, can you tell me how your experience was in that cabin? Could you hear the noise from the lounge below?

[Leafpeeper]

I plan on booking Pride of Hawaii or Pride of America for my next Hawiian cruise. Last March we sailed on RCCL from Honolulu to Ensenada, It was a nightmare for me to be at sea for 4 + days going back to the mainland. I enjoy two sea days in warm weather, but the last two days at sea were rough and chilly going to Mexico. DH and I both agreed that as much as I hate to fly that it is worth it spending more time visiting the islands than cruising in rough seas.

 

We love sailing on NCL ships. All the restaurant choices really add to the vacation experience. I love trying a different venue each day--eating at whatever time I want. Sometimes we just want dinner for 2 in a quiet intimate romantic setting like LeBistro, and other nights we enjoy table conversation with others in the formal dining room. I like the options on NCL. I also enjoy having different waiters each day. I had a horrible waiter on our RCCL cruise and ended up eating in the buffet after 3 nights of bad service. NCL really has so many options for everyone. People can eat in the same room, same table, etc--but don't have to. That's what I like.