Sailing on the Pride of America - November 5 - 12, 2022 - Review

[NikiPinkston]

DH and I had sailed aboard the Pride of America in 2016, taking the 11-day cruise tour at that time, and had enjoyed it so much that we scheduled a return cruise at the end of March, 2020 to celebrate our 40^th wedding anniversary. After rescheduling five times, we were finally able to sail on November 5! I'm starting this review with our stay in Waikiki and am happy to answer any questions you may have.

 

We were in Hawaii a total of 11 days, arriving on Oahu on November 1 and spending our first four days in Waikiki at the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani. I had read mixed reviews about the hotel, but selected it because the price was right and it was centrally located for us. The Royal Hawaiian Center is across the street, the International Marketplace is almost next door, Waikiki Beach is a few steps away, and the pick-up locations for our upcoming Polynesian Cultural Center tour and the Waikiki HO HO bus were just a few steps from the hotel. The hotel was built in the 1950’s but is immaculate and has been kept up nicely. The only telltale sign of its age was the old school bathroom, but it worked just fine for us.

 

We had reserved an ocean view room in the Princess Tower and we were on the 10^th floor overlooking the pool; this was the view of the ocean and the Moana Surfrider from our balcony. We could also see the Royal Hawaiian Hotel peeking out on our right and the beach on our left.  Here is our view of the pool, and Splash Bar restaurant where we had drinks and dinner our first night is under the umbrellas to the right. Guests also have signing privileges at the restaurants and bars at the Moana Surfrider, the Royal Hawaiian, and the Sheraton Waikiki. Dinner was good and it was quite lovely with the balmy breeze, the palm trees swaying and live entertainment playing Hawaiian music - a great first night of vacation!

  

The hotel’s hospitality manager had contacted me prior to our arrival and I had told her that we were belatedly celebrating our anniversary so, when we checked in, we were given two free drink tickets and this scene greeted us when we arrived at our room! Actually, all of the staff members we interacted with were amazing!

 

Lest you think this review is going to be all sunshine and rainbows, we had booked our air travel with Hawaiian Airlines way back in 2020 that we now needed to use. Our departure out of San Diego was scheduled for 8:00 a.m., but was delayed 4 hours due to the plane arriving late due to mechanical problems in Honolulu that had to be addressed. To make up a bit for the inconvenience, Hawaiian gave us a voucher for breakfast at the airport and, once aboard, the pilot told us that he had been given more fuel so that he could get us to Oahu faster. This made for a very long first day and that was 4 hours we missed in Waikiki. However, we obviously agreed that we’d rather have a safe flight than get there on time under the circumstances.

[NikiPinkston]

I forgot to mention that we had booked Hawaii23 taxi service to get us to the hotel from the airport and then, four days later, from the hotel to the port. I had booked online 10 days prior to our arrival and then, when I hadn't received a confirmation, contacted the number on the website 2 days before our departure from San Diego. Mark, the owner, texted me back and said that I would be receiving a confirmation, which I got the night before we left. It was kind of the same thing for our trip to the port on Saturday as Mark has that very relaxed yet likeable Hawaiian way about him, but the service was excellent and both drivers were on time and very friendly and informative, so I would highly recommend them. When the driver pulled up at the hotel to take us to the port, he immediately recognized us by the POA tags on our luggage. You may have to work a little bit, but you'll be very pleased with their service.

[BermudaBound2014]

I'm so happy you finally got to go!!! Looking forward to your review 🙂

[NikiPinkston]

1 hour ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

I'm so happy you finally got to go!!! Looking forward to your review 🙂

Thank you, @BermudaBound2014! We were so excited to finally sail.

[TSUmom]

Looking forward to more...My very 1st cruise was on the Pride of America back in 2006.  I loved it so much I did it again in 2007, 2008 and 2012!  Hawaii is one of my favorite places.

[NikiPinkston]

3 hours ago, TSUmom said:

Looking forward to more...My very 1st cruise was on the Pride of America back in 2006.  I loved it so much I did it again in 2007, 2008 and 2012!  Hawaii is one of my favorite places.

It's one of mine, too, @TSUmom! The people, the scenery,  the music, and the aloha spirit are just the best. (We listen to Izzy and Keali'i Reichel all year long.) This was our third time to Hawaii and I would go again in a minute!🌴🌺🍍

[NikiPinkston]

The morning of day 2 in Waikiki, we walked the few steps to the beach to catch the Hop-On Hop-Off Trolley as we had reserved a tour of Iolani Palace. But first, a photo of me with the big tiki at the hotel.😁 Our room had been quiet and the bed was comfortable, so we had a good night and give the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani two thumbs up.

The stop for the trolley is by the statue of Duke Kahanamoku, who not only introduced surfing to the world, but was also a multi-gold-medal-winning athlete who incredibly used his longboard to save 8 people who were drowning after their boat capsized off the coast of Newport Beach in 1925. Between 1925 and 1933, Duke starred in several Hollywood movies, and was later the Sheriff of Honolulu from 1934 to 1960. To many, Duke is the greatest waterman who ever lived and the epitome of the Aloha spirit.

The stop by Duke’s statue was only the second one for the trolley that morning, but it was already full! We finally found two seats that weren’t together, so we took ‘em. Coming back to our hotel later that day, however, there was standing room only and it was an uncomfortable ride back to our hotel as the driver often stops suddenly and takes some of those turns like an Indy 500 driver, so I really can’t recommend the trolley.

One of the stops that the trolley makes before arriving at Iolani Palace is the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Located in the caldera of a dormant volcano, Punchbowl Crater, it is the final resting place of over 61,000 members of the U.S. armed forces, including over 13,000 service members who were killed in World War II. Visiting the cemetery is a very moving and humbling experience.

Iolani Palace is the only royal palace on U.S. soil & was the home of the last ruling monarch of Hawaii, King David Kalakaua, who reigned from 1874 until his death in 1891, when his sister, Queen Liliuokalani, whom the King had named his heir apparent, ascended the throne. Both King Kalakaua and Queen Liliuokalani cared deeply for the Hawaiian people and tried to better their everyday lives. The King is known for being a patron of Hawaiian music, dance and culture, including the revival of the hula, as for awhile it had been banned by previous monarchs in an attempt to modernize the country. Can you imagine Hawaii without the hula?!

The gates of Iolani Palace display the Coat of Arms of the Kingdom of Hawaii. The palace was built on a site sacred to the Hawaiian people and completed in November, 1882 at a cost over $340,000 — a vast fortune at the time (that’s over $10,000,00 in 2022 dollars). The palace was outfitted with all of the most up-to-date amenities, including electric lights, indoor plumbing and even a telephone!

As we arrived early for our tour, we found a shady spot under a tree on the grounds where we could wait and DH decided to take a selfie of the two of us. I think these photos are the best vacation pic's ever. We sure had a good laugh!

Once inside, one of the first rooms we saw was the Throne Room, the largest room in the palace, where King Kalakaua and Queen Kapiolani held formal receptions and state balls. They actually disliked sitting on the thrones and preferred to stand while receiving their guests. The King and Queen’s crowns and scepters were also on display.

The lights are kept very dim in the palace to preserve the furnishings & it was not conducive to taking great photos, so we didn’t get very many. DH got a good photo of this hat in the King’s office that he frequently wore, and I loved this embellished dress that belonged to Queen Liliuokalani that was displayed in her bedroom.

We also saw the gowns that Queen Kapiolani and Liliuokalani, who was then still a crown princess, had worn when they visited London in 1887 to attend Queen Victoria's Jubilee. The Queen and Crown Princess had also been received by President Grover Cleveland at the White House that same year. Liliuokalani is the one on the right in the photo.

Queen Liliuokalani was the only queen regnant and the last sovereign monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom, ruling from 1891 to 1893, until the overthrow of the kingdom that year. Sanford B. Dole, a local businessman, formed a committee backed by the U.S. government that staged a coup against the Queen. She was then virtually imprisoned in Iolani Palace for eight months until she acquiesced to their demands, and Hawaii was proclaimed a U.S. protectorate on January 17,1893. There is much more to the story and I’m sure I don’t do it justice here, but there are still some native Hawaiians who believe the monarchy should be restored.

This 18-foot-tall bronze statue of King Kamehameha stands across the street from Iolani Palace in front of the Hawaii State Supreme Court building. Kamehameha was a great warrior and leader, who united the Hawaiian Islands into one kingdom in 1810 after many years of conflict. He is greatly revered in the Islands and there are numerous fascinating stories about him.  You may recognize this statue of him and of Lady Columbia in the cemetery from the opening credits of both the old and new Hawaii 5-0 shows. The exterior of Iolani Palace was even used as Steve McGarrett’s office in the old series.

Only two more days until we board! 🚢❤️

Edited November 19, 2022 by NikiPinkston

[georgiacat]

Enjoying your review.  We plan to go on POA in May.  Was the Iolani Palace worth the money?

[NikiPinkston]

Thank you, @georgiacat! We had never visited the palace and really enjoy learning the history of the places we visit so, for us, it was worth it. The palace is full of valuable and delicate antiques so I don't think that children would enjoy it, though, if you're bringing the family. We sprung for the docent-led tour and she was very knowledgable and informative. The story of Liliuokalani was sad and fascinating. 

[Crazy planning mom]

Thanks for posting.  We missed the Iolani Palace.   Great photos and info!  I did visit the Hulihee Palace in Kona.

Edited November 19, 2022 by Crazy planning mom

[YVRteacher]

Those selfies are the best!!

[fabby50]

Thank you!  We are on her on 12/10, it will be our third one of these cruises.  I do have a question.  I don't usually worry about phone service, but this trip, we have an elder dog that I might get phone calls about.  I am wondering if on the overnight port nights, if we can leave our phone on without it roaming.  I know we can turn it on when we get off the ship, which we'll do to check messages, but I wasn't sure if we could keep it on when docked since we will be in the USA.  Thank you and have a wonderful time, it is a great way to see lots of islands in a week.

[NikiPinkston]

7 hours ago, fabby50 said:

Thank you!  We are on her on 12/10, it will be our third one of these cruises.  I do have a question.  I don't usually worry about phone service, but this trip, we have an elder dog that I might get phone calls about.  I am wondering if on the overnight port nights, if we can leave our phone on without it roaming.  I know we can turn it on when we get off the ship, which we'll do to check messages, but I wasn't sure if we could keep it on when docked since we will be in the USA.  Thank you and have a wonderful time, it is a great way to see lots of islands in a week.

Hi, @fabby50, yes, we took our phone off of roaming whenever we were in port and were able to use it normally.

[NikiPinkston]

We had been to the Polynesian Cultural Center on the north shore briefly in 2016 when we had booked a cruise tour on the POA, which included a 3-day land tour prior to sailing. We had really enjoyed our visit, so this time I booked a package that included transportation there and a full day at the center, including a luau and their amazing show, “Ha.”

The ride to the PCC takes about an hour and, when we arrived, we stopped just outside the gates of the center at the Hukilau Marketplace for a quick lunch of hot dogs and shave ice. There are some shops located in this area, as well as some food trucks and stands. Last time we had visited, we had eaten at Pounders restaurant, which was excellent. (I have never had a good hair day in Hawaii, because it’s always humid, rainy, or windy or all three!)

The PCC is run by BYU Hawaii and most of the staff members are students who work there to help pay their tuition. Our guide, Mia, was adorable and guided us through all of the various “villages” where we enjoyed the shows and activities.

Our first stop was the village of Aotearoa (New Zealand), where we saw a haka. If you’ve never seen one, Wikipedia says, “Haka are a variety of ceremonial performance art in Māori culture. It is often performed by a group, with vigorous movements and stamping of feet with rhythmically shouted or chanted accompaniment. Haka are performed to welcome distinguished guests, or to acknowledge great achievements, occasions, or funerals,” All I know is that it’s a lot of fun to watch!

Next up was Samoa, and this guy was hilarious! If you ever go to the PCC, be sure not to miss him. The “villagers” in Tonga brought up 3 unsuspecting participants who thought that they were going to play the drums, but they also had to perform some crazy gyrations until a “winner” was selected. The student performer for Hawaii was a red-haired Caucasian student and, boy, did he surprise us with his excellent and energetic hula performance! All of the performers we saw were very talented. This man from Fiji is dressed in native dress and told us he was descended from Fijian royalty. Doesn’t the carving of a Fiji chief look like Elvis?!

There is also a replica of the double hull canoes that early Polynesians used to sail the 2,000 miles to Hawaii as early as 400 A.D. on display. If you ever have some time to kill and like to read, I highly recommend James Michener’s “Hawaii.” It’s 1,100 pages but it’s a great story. I read it during the pandemic.

After our tour, we headed to the luau, and it was by far the best we’ve ever attended! They started us off with a huge virgin pina colada. BYU does not allow any alcohol at the PCC, but it was delicious and you could have as many refills as you wished. (They do allow caffeine so they have coffee, however.) The roasted pig was removed from the imu and there was some fabulous live entertainment during our meal. They have you go up in groups to serve yourself so it was very organized, and the food was pretty good.

After dinner, we attended the show, “Ha: Breath of Life,” which included fire dancers and a set with a waterfall and erupting volcanoes! No photos are allowed, but here’s a brief video to give you an idea. Most of the performers are students and they’re incredibly talented. We thoroughly enjoyed it!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AARl2yu9VGs .

 

Edited November 20, 2022 by NikiPinkston

[NikiPinkston]

@BermudaBound2014and @CruzinMel, I just wanted to thank you for your kind comments! You are the reason I love Cruise Critic.❤️

[LouChamp]

Aloha! Love your review and of course pictures of Hawaii where we divide our time between New York and Honolulu. Sold our place in Florida as it reminded me of New York lol. Please no one bash me! But the pace in Hawaii is so much better and I believe healthier not that it doesn’t have its problems. Anyway Mahalo for taking the time to post and a blessed and healthy thanksgiving to you and yours and all my Cruise Critic friends!!!

[TSUmom]

Your review is so informative....perfect for those that will be taking this cruise for the first time.  So much to see and do on Ohau.  I always recommend people stay a few days pre and or post cruise.  

You are making me consider another Hawaiian cruise/vacation 🙂 

One of my favorite TV shows growing up was Hawaii 5-0 and when I was there I recognized so many things from the show.  

[Cruising Lynne]

I am also loving your review. It is bringing back memories of our last trip to Hawaii back in 2011. We enjoyed our two days pre-cruise, but never made it to the palace. We stayed at the Waikiki Marriot that had been booked through NCL. I did put a lei on the Duke statue! Our experience on POA was wonderful which was unexpected due to some negative reviews I had read.

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review and more pictures!

[NikiPinkston]

On 11/19/2022 at 8:33 AM, Crazy planning mom said:

Thanks for posting.  We missed the Iolani Palace.   Great photos and info!  I did visit the Hulihee Palace in Kona.

@Crazy planning mom, how was the Hulihee Place? We would have liked to have seen it but it looked like it was closed when we were there.

Edited November 21, 2022 by NikiPinkston

[NikiPinkston]

On our 2016 cruise tour with NCL, we had visited Pearl Harbor and had seen the Arizona Memorial and the USS Missouri & USS Bowfin submarine; the Nu’uani Pali lookout, the site of the battle that helped King Kamehameha conquer Oahu; the Dole Plantation; Kualoa Ranch and, as I mentioned previously, the Polynesian Cultural Center. If it’s your first time cruising on the POA, I highly recommend the 11-day cruise tour for a great sampling of the sites on Oahu!

Because we had already experienced those venues and due to the fact that DH has a back issue that sometimes makes doing a lot of walking uncomfortable for him, we decided to just hang around Waikiki close to the hotel. The International Marketplace and Royal Hawaiian Center had already put up their Christmas decorations, so we took some kitschy tourist photos, followed by cheeseburgers & fries for lunch. I’m terrible at remembering to take pictures of our food, so you will see very few. As we had eaten at the Splash Bar restaurant at the hotel the previous two nights (which was very good), we had dinner that last night in Waikiki at Kai Fresh, the waffle and smoothy stand in front of the hotel on Kalakaua Avenue and it was really good!

Saturday morning, it was time to board! We had checked-in online and selected the second time available, 11:00 – 11:30 a.m. Hawaii23 was to pick us up at the hotel at 10:30 and our driver pulled up at 10:15 to take us to the port. Check-in was quick and easy as there was a short line that moved quickly and we just needed our real ID’s and boarding passes. Then it was time for our boarding photo.  We always purchase some of the photos taken by the ship’s photographers and, for the past several years, we’ve used one as our Christmas card photo. It’s a fun way to look back and share our happy memory with family & friends. After waiting a short while, we were able to board at about noon.

Our stateroom wasn’t ready until about 2:00 p.m., so we hung out by the pool and had a couple of mai tais. When it was time, we met our cabin steward and I requested extra cream for our coffee, and he was great all week - very sweet and hard working! There were crew members from all over the country and Marlon, our steward, was from Guam. There was actually a lot of storage in our cabin, even some drawers which you don’t find on the newer ships, and I counted 23 hangers in the closet LOL. I even took photos if anyone is interested.

We normally have lunch in the MDR on our first day but, since it was only open for dinner, we ate in the buffet and, honestly, it was just okay all week. We had dinner at Cagney's twice and it was delicious, and dinner in the MDR twice, where I really enjoyed my meals, but DH was very disappointed (more about that later).

I really have to give a shout out to every single member of the crew that we encountered. They were all very friendly and went out of their way to make sure that we had a great time aboard. I had actually been a little apprehensive about the crew as, when we had sailed on the POA before, our cabin steward was less than stellar, but this time we may have had the best crew that we’ve ever encountered! 

At 7:00 p.m., we said good-bye to the Aloha Tower & the Port of Honolulu, and we were off on our adventure!

Edited November 21, 2022 by NikiPinkston

[NikiPinkston]

The Freestyle Daily for day 1:

SCN_0001.pdf SCN_0002.pdf SCN_0003.pdf SCN_0004.pdf

[MSUjohn]

hey teppanyakis is open!

[Crazy planning mom]

18 hours ago, NikiPinkston said:

@Crazy planning mom, how was the Hulihee Place? We would have liked to have seen it but it looked like it was closed when we were there.

It was interesting when we visited in 2017.

Sounds like you have a full, interesting schedule already.

[georgiacat]

Enjoying your pictures.  Thanks for the dailies too.

[NikiPinkston]

Aloha, my CC friends! Just wanted to let you know that we have family here for a few days so I'll continue my review after the holiday. Thank you for all of your kind comments. Wishing you all a very happy Thanksgiving!