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Pride of America much better than reviews - Pleasantly Surprised!

JeffSinPDX

By JeffSinPDX,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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JeffSinPDX

JeffSinPDX

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I would post a review under their review page, but I feel like that is a space for people who need to create an account and vent about issues they have. I used these boards and asked many questions with this community prior to going on my PoA cruise, so thought I'd give a summary here and allow anyone who had any follow-up questions to post those and I would respond as best I could since I did a lot of research and took a lot of notes. 

 

General Info - Our cruise was 12/17 to 12/24, we had nine of us with six of us (wife and I and 4 of our kids) in a suite in 13522 and my mother-in-law and two other kids in a regular cabin on the 9th floor.

 

First I should note that because one of my rooms was a suite, I (unexpectedly) was treated to a handful of suite features that I wasn't expecting and likely wouldn't be available to all. To that point, embarkation was really quick and easy as we were shuttled into a VIP roped off area and given drinks and snacks while we got all of our room details and room cards prepared. That's where we also met our Concierge Chris, who told us all of our suite advantages we'd receive. The main one that was legit compared to my other room was having access to go to Cagney's for breakfast and lunch, and only suite folks were allowed in there, so there was no wait and the food was like an all-star list of best of the best foods you'd want to eat for breakfast or lunch. And you only need one suite key card to get your whole group seated, even though we had non-suite guests with us. So it was nice they didn't micromanage which family members were actually in the suite or not. But we ate at Cagney's immediately upon getting on the boat and by the time we were done, our rooms were ready for us to go into.

 

I'll also mention up front that because we had a suite, we had our own butler, Peter, and he was amazing. Peter found the teens in my room and asked them what drinks they like, and next thing you know our fridge was filled with coke, ginger ale, root beer, sierra mist, orange crush, etc. that my kids all wanted. So he was great for info and for keeping us stocked up on treats. 

 

The rooms were very clean and staff did a great job in swooping in when all six of us happened to be out of our suite and would suddenly make it up and keep it from turning into a pigsty. Was a very comfortable bed, extremely quiet bathroom as we were expecting one bathroom for six people in our room to be an issue, but it was really quiet and never had smells come into the cabin. So that was an unexpected bonus. 

 

We were only able to pre-reserve our 2 free premium dinner reservations at Jefferson's Bistro or Cagney's prior to the flight. But once on the ship, we were able to get additional reservations for La Cucina (Italian) and we heard the Brazilian restaurant was open on day on Friday, but it was booked solid by the time we realized they had opened it for one evening. And note we never had a chance to pre-book either the Italian or Brazilian places online or on our app, but were only allowed on the ship down on the 5th floor. Food was fantastic in general. Admittedly I only ate at the regular sit down dining 3-4 times as Cagney's was open to me for Breakfast and Lunch, and I took them up on that offer most days given how good that option is. But I did Cagney's for dinner as one meal and it was incredible, and then did La Cucina for our second free meal and it was incredible as well. Kids said their highlight of the cruise was being able to go to the buffet and get endless options at any moment they were hungry. So the buffet was a hit for my party, I only ate there a few times and it was good when I went. The one side-note I'll mention is that the 2 free dining  meals were only available to 4 of our 9 family members between the two rooms. Just know that you need to have a room card with that 2D on it when you appear to get your free meal. So if #2 in your room with a free 2D on their card doesn't want fine dining, but the 3rd person in your room does, just have them swap cards as that works perfect and was what the staff recommended since they don't name-check people using those cards, only making sure each card only gets 2 free meals. 

 

The features with all of my family were the excursions. Maui had a torrential downpour that made the national news, so our Luau got cancelled, but were able to rent a car and see some sites around town. But wasn't quite as exciting given the downpour of rains for both days. Hilo was beautiful and we did a farm and waterfall tour that was fantastic, and the weather was nice all day. Kona was cancelled due to the fact it doesn't dock in Kona, but instead tenders to shore, and they said the swells from the previous storm were so large that they couldn't tender passengers safely to Kona. So we didn't get to go on our Kona Mocha tour, but got the dollars refunded to our online accounts. Instead, we spent our Kona day as a day at sea, and the captain took us to see Molokai, and then took us into a bay where there were a bunch of whales that people could watch come breach from the water near the ship. Disappointing, but not their fault. Would have rather seen Kona than some whales spouting water in the air. Next we went to Kauai and that was incredible. It was beautiful again, and we went on an ATV tour and saved $500 by just booking it direct and using Turo to get a car that could seat 8 of us delivered to the pier terminal directly without walking, and then just drove the Turo car out there to the ATV place and had a great time. Also went to Poipu Beach near our ATV spot and was able to spend some time at a world class beach that had a bunch of sea turtles hanging out on the shore with us for photo ops, etc. Last day was a day at sea with a tour of Napali Coast and the huge cliffs and views from the port side of the deck. So that was nice to see and a fun day to hang out on the sun deck and get our free drinks that. Still not sure why they give you an envelope and a receipt to sign off on when you've already paid for the service fees and the 20% gratuities for getting a drink. But I'm guessing they just use that opportunity to try and pressure folks into more tips above what they've already paid for. 

 

Entertaining was traditional cruise ship entertainment. Comedian was so-so during family night, but actually pretty funny during the adult show on Friday. Ukulele Group was what I'd expect to get for free and not pay money to see, but then 3 of the folks in my party thought they were the best entertainment on the cruise, so to each their own. 

 

Other thing I noted was that the boat had more movement than I recall most of my previous cruise ships having. It is a bit of a small and simple cruise ship, so I'm guessing it has something to do with the size and how close it was to the Hawaiian shoreline most of the time when moving, but luckily it spent half of the time docked in a port, so it really only rocked when moving from port to port during the evenings. Only one of my nine people in my group really was impacted by the movement, and he took some Dramamine and was fine for the rest of the evening trips. So it wasn't like it's a guarantee to make you seasick since eight of us didn't' take anything and didn't run into any issues there. 

 

Overall, I feel there were a lot of poor reviews, so I was pleasantly surprised at how friendly everyone was, how good the food was, how easy the lines were to manage and never really had to wait for anything, the only things closed where the Shave Ice/Gelato place by the pool, and some hot dog/hamburger stand next to the pool was only open on our days at sea. The Liberty regular dining area was closed and instead just had the Skyline dining for the regular sit-down dining area, so maybe that was a 10-15 minute wait with a little buzzer disk they give you to tell you when your table is ready, so even though they were only using half of their main dining area, the waits were short and you could go take your disk to some comfortable wine bar or something and just wait while getting free drinks. So it was all good.

 

I think that covers the main points. If you have any specific questions. Post a reply and I'll check back in and answer as best I can. 

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CruisinCoyote

CruisinCoyote

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18 hours ago, Paula_MacFan said:

Glad you had a good time.  We leave in 3 weeks.  I've read many positive reviews lately elsewhere.  Thanks for the report!

18 hours ago, Paula_MacFan said:

Glad you had a good time.  We leave in 3 weeks.  I've read many positive reviews lately elsewhere.  Thanks for the report!

are you January 21? 

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mcmomny

mcmomny

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We also had a much better experience on the POA than we were expecting based on reviews, I am becoming less and less concerned about bad reviews than I used to be as it just blows my mind what some people complain about!

 

We still refer to it as our best trip ever and we also had torrential rain in Maui and Kauai but we made the best of it! It was warm and beautiful!

 

We can always find the bright spot on any trip we have taken and stick to that, nice gesture to Captain made by showing your cruise Molokai and whales!

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JeffSinPDX

JeffSinPDX

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Yeah. I read a lot of reviews, then got really nervous, then once I got out there, it all melted away and we had a great time. 

 

Clearly rain was a bummer, but not an NCL problem, just a fact of life, and gives me a reason to revisit Maui and do more exploration next time. 

 

I think the NCL systems must be a little wonky. I pre-paid for a excursion in Hilo, and then got an invoice that it was paid for and confirmed. Then I noticed on my NCL app that I didn't have any excursions for that Tuesday on my cruise (which all of my other pre-paid stuff had a red "1" showing up on my app showing that I had paid for something on that day). So I was very suspicious of some issue happening since I didn't see the Hilo excursion on my NCL app, even though I paid for it, and then sure enough, I didn't have the "golden tickets" sitting in my stateroom when I first arrived, so I was quick to dig into it and then told by NCL staff that they just know I don't have an excursion and to pay a 2nd time for it and then get a refund from Miami NCL. So it all worked out, but tells me their systems clearly don't talk much. I also have to say that we had a pre-paid excursion at Kona that was refunded because we weren't able to do Kona due to the swells. They refunded the individual excursion amounts to each of my adult children's accounts, even though I pre-paid all of them ahead of time as one lump sum payment from my visa. So that tells me their financial systems aren't very strong if they can't tie who paid for an excursion back to the original payee, and instead are refunding credits back to a bunch of kids who had $0 balances or their own little $10 taxes and fees balances on their individual NCL accounts. I actually needed to get one of my daughter's boyfriends to sign a form to move his excursion credit over to my account. So they are struggling for sure, but we still had a great time and I was savvy enough in how systems work to keep it from impacting our trip.  

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mollymaloney

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On 12/26/2022 at 9:22 PM, JeffSinPDX said:

I would post a review under their review page, but I feel like that is a space for people who need to create an account and vent about issues they have. I used these boards and asked many questions with this community prior to going on my PoA cruise, so thought I'd give a summary here and allow anyone who had any follow-up questions to post those and I would respond as best I could since I did a lot of research and took a lot of notes. 

 

General Info - Our cruise was 12/17 to 12/24, we had nine of us with six of us (wife and I and 4 of our kids) in a suite in 13522 and my mother-in-law and two other kids in a regular cabin on the 9th floor.

 

First I should note that because one of my rooms was a suite, I (unexpectedly) was treated to a handful of suite features that I wasn't expecting and likely wouldn't be available to all. To that point, embarkation was really quick and easy as we were shuttled into a VIP roped off area and given drinks and snacks while we got all of our room details and room cards prepared. That's where we also met our Concierge Chris, who told us all of our suite advantages we'd receive. The main one that was legit compared to my other room was having access to go to Cagney's for breakfast and lunch, and only suite folks were allowed in there, so there was no wait and the food was like an all-star list of best of the best foods you'd want to eat for breakfast or lunch. And you only need one suite key card to get your whole group seated, even though we had non-suite guests with us. So it was nice they didn't micromanage which family members were actually in the suite or not. But we ate at Cagney's immediately upon getting on the boat and by the time we were done, our rooms were ready for us to go into.

 

I'll also mention up front that because we had a suite, we had our own butler, Peter, and he was amazing. Peter found the teens in my room and asked them what drinks they like, and next thing you know our fridge was filled with coke, ginger ale, root beer, sierra mist, orange crush, etc. that my kids all wanted. So he was great for info and for keeping us stocked up on treats. 

 

The rooms were very clean and staff did a great job in swooping in when all six of us happened to be out of our suite and would suddenly make it up and keep it from turning into a pigsty. Was a very comfortable bed, extremely quiet bathroom as we were expecting one bathroom for six people in our room to be an issue, but it was really quiet and never had smells come into the cabin. So that was an unexpected bonus. 

 

We were only able to pre-reserve our 2 free premium dinner reservations at Jefferson's Bistro or Cagney's prior to the flight. But once on the ship, we were able to get additional reservations for La Cucina (Italian) and we heard the Brazilian restaurant was open on day on Friday, but it was booked solid by the time we realized they had opened it for one evening. And note we never had a chance to pre-book either the Italian or Brazilian places online or on our app, but were only allowed on the ship down on the 5th floor. Food was fantastic in general. Admittedly I only ate at the regular sit down dining 3-4 times as Cagney's was open to me for Breakfast and Lunch, and I took them up on that offer most days given how good that option is. But I did Cagney's for dinner as one meal and it was incredible, and then did La Cucina for our second free meal and it was incredible as well. Kids said their highlight of the cruise was being able to go to the buffet and get endless options at any moment they were hungry. So the buffet was a hit for my party, I only ate there a few times and it was good when I went. The one side-note I'll mention is that the 2 free dining  meals were only available to 4 of our 9 family members between the two rooms. Just know that you need to have a room card with that 2D on it when you appear to get your free meal. So if #2 in your room with a free 2D on their card doesn't want fine dining, but the 3rd person in your room does, just have them swap cards as that works perfect and was what the staff recommended since they don't name-check people using those cards, only making sure each card only gets 2 free meals. 

 

The features with all of my family were the excursions. Maui had a torrential downpour that made the national news, so our Luau got cancelled, but were able to rent a car and see some sites around town. But wasn't quite as exciting given the downpour of rains for both days. Hilo was beautiful and we did a farm and waterfall tour that was fantastic, and the weather was nice all day. Kona was cancelled due to the fact it doesn't dock in Kona, but instead tenders to shore, and they said the swells from the previous storm were so large that they couldn't tender passengers safely to Kona. So we didn't get to go on our Kona Mocha tour, but got the dollars refunded to our online accounts. Instead, we spent our Kona day as a day at sea, and the captain took us to see Molokai, and then took us into a bay where there were a bunch of whales that people could watch come breach from the water near the ship. Disappointing, but not their fault. Would have rather seen Kona than some whales spouting water in the air. Next we went to Kauai and that was incredible. It was beautiful again, and we went on an ATV tour and saved $500 by just booking it direct and using Turo to get a car that could seat 8 of us delivered to the pier terminal directly without walking, and then just drove the Turo car out there to the ATV place and had a great time. Also went to Poipu Beach near our ATV spot and was able to spend some time at a world class beach that had a bunch of sea turtles hanging out on the shore with us for photo ops, etc. Last day was a day at sea with a tour of Napali Coast and the huge cliffs and views from the port side of the deck. So that was nice to see and a fun day to hang out on the sun deck and get our free drinks that. Still not sure why they give you an envelope and a receipt to sign off on when you've already paid for the service fees and the 20% gratuities for getting a drink. But I'm guessing they just use that opportunity to try and pressure folks into more tips above what they've already paid for. 

 

Entertaining was traditional cruise ship entertainment. Comedian was so-so during family night, but actually pretty funny during the adult show on Friday. Ukulele Group was what I'd expect to get for free and not pay money to see, but then 3 of the folks in my party thought they were the best entertainment on the cruise, so to each their own. 

 

Other thing I noted was that the boat had more movement than I recall most of my previous cruise ships having. It is a bit of a small and simple cruise ship, so I'm guessing it has something to do with the size and how close it was to the Hawaiian shoreline most of the time when moving, but luckily it spent half of the time docked in a port, so it really only rocked when moving from port to port during the evenings. Only one of my nine people in my group really was impacted by the movement, and he took some Dramamine and was fine for the rest of the evening trips. So it wasn't like it's a guarantee to make you seasick since eight of us didn't' take anything and didn't run into any issues there. 

 

Overall, I feel there were a lot of poor reviews, so I was pleasantly surprised at how friendly everyone was, how good the food was, how easy the lines were to manage and never really had to wait for anything, the only things closed where the Shave Ice/Gelato place by the pool, and some hot dog/hamburger stand next to the pool was only open on our days at sea. The Liberty regular dining area was closed and instead just had the Skyline dining for the regular sit-down dining area, so maybe that was a 10-15 minute wait with a little buzzer disk they give you to tell you when your table is ready, so even though they were only using half of their main dining area, the waits were short and you could go take your disk to some comfortable wine bar or something and just wait while getting free drinks. So it was all good.

 

I think that covers the main points. If you have any specific questions. Post a reply and I'll check back in and answer as best I can. 

 

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trstr

trstr

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My experience with pride of America is mixed.  Cruised December 24 to December 31.  First great itinerary.  Embarkation and disembarkation were great.  Food in specialty dining and service were good (did Cagney's, Cadillac diner, and Jefferson).  Main dining room was a 3-to-3.5-hour ordeal for a group of 10 for the two nights we ate there.  Booked air thru NCL air and one couple who had issues had to find their own way there since NCL air was closed and travel agent could not reach them either (I thought that was one advantage of booking with them!)  The cabin was not clean.  There was soap scum rings on the glass shelves in bathroom which we were able to wipe up, dirt bunnies and used tissues under the bed, and old dental floss under the desk chair!  The replacement linen for next cruise was under the bed the last night which I have seen before but not in any bag so with the dust bunnies and where the bathroom water supply line leaked and flooded the cabin floor the day before when they had to put a blower in.    I have been on multiple cruises and the cleanliness standard was certainly not up to par.  The MDR staff were working hard but either had a bad flow problem or significantly understaffed. Other cruises I have been on since covid are not staffed as well either but seem to manage better.  I have done POA twice now (first about 15 years ago) and you can't beat the itinerary but not sure I would do it a third time.

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Plainjane1

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Thank you for your trip report - there are 6 of us, 1st time cruisers & looking forward to visiting the islands of Hawaii from Australia. 
Im finding it confusing to pick a couple of tours we should do. Some of the tours are $600-$650 each (Aussie $’s) - considering the port locations, timeframe & island activities, which tours would be a must, or worth the money? We’re all in our 50’s & active. 
should we, and what ports should we go with another tour operator? Or should we hire a van & go on our own?

Which ports can we just get off, have a swim, enjoy a nice meal & wine & wander? 
thank you for any help in what to expect for each port.

 

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JeffSinPDX

JeffSinPDX

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On 1/2/2023 at 3:41 PM, mollymaloney said:

When can suite guests embark?

I'm not sure if timing is different for suite. What I know is we got ushered into a VIP section of the terminal with drinks and appetizers, a few couches for waiting, personal and immediate service upon walking in, etc. So we obviously got through the line much quicker and more comfortably being in a suite.

 

Also as a suite member we were allowed into Cagney's for a high end plated lunch while others are just hanging at the buffet or killing time. So once out of our VIP section, we were directly straight into Cagneys to get some steak frites and grilled salmon. But our plane didn't land until noon, so essentially we got shuttled straight to the VIP section, they took our bags, they directed us to lunch, and after lunch our room was ready to go up and move into. So it all was instant for us, but probably due to the flight coming in at noon already. 

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JeffSinPDX

JeffSinPDX

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17 hours ago, Plainjane1 said:

Thank you for your trip report - there are 6 of us, 1st time cruisers & looking forward to visiting the islands of Hawaii from Australia. 
Im finding it confusing to pick a couple of tours we should do. Some of the tours are $600-$650 each (Aussie $’s) - considering the port locations, timeframe & island activities, which tours would be a must, or worth the money? We’re all in our 50’s & active. 
should we, and what ports should we go with another tour operator? Or should we hire a van & go on our own?

Which ports can we just get off, have a swim, enjoy a nice meal & wine & wander? 
thank you for any help in what to expect for each port.

 

Tough to give a answer that isn't opinionated. Our luau plans in Maui were cancelled due to a torrential downpour. So it may have been a great experience, but wouldn't know. I know we saved a lot of money on that by purchasing the luau tickets prior to the trip, then getting an Uber from the pier to the airport, then renting a car at the airport, and coming back to pick up the other 6 of us at the pier (so they didn't have to deal with all of those logistics I did). Then we saved a lot of money and had a car to drive around all day.  We did a plantation and rainbow tour in Hilo that was incredible and nobody will ever forget. We planned to do a coffee/chocolate tour in Kona, but Kona is the one port that tenders, so you're at the mercy of the swells if you're going to get actually go on anything you book there. Kauai was another one I saved probably 25% in cost by booking the Kauai ATV tour directly from their website, and booking a car from Turo next to the dock. And we had the luxury of the car to tour around Kauai for a bit and see some sea turtles on some beach, etc. And everyone will forever remember their driving the ATVs through the jungle. So it was fun, but really expensive to do through the cruise excursion options. Didn't have time to do anything in Honolulu since we flew in, got on the ship, then came back and got off to ship and onto a plane. So if I were to do it again, I'd take them up on their offer to get the plane that comes in the day before on Friday, then spend Friday evening and Saturday morning at least seeing things like Pearl Harbor or something since we missed out on all of that. Otherwise, it's hard to say given we had people who were a little heavy and can't walk far, we had teens who didn't' bike (nor want to hike), and a mother-in-law who is not very mobile. So I think it could be very specific to the group you have and worth typing in the excursions you see displayed on the Pride of America's info page and then Google those tours and you'll see people who do video reviews of them and get a sense of what looks fun for your group. That's what I did. 

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mcmomny

mcmomny

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On 1/6/2023 at 7:20 PM, Plainjane1 said:

Thank you for your trip report - there are 6 of us, 1st time cruisers & looking forward to visiting the islands of Hawaii from Australia. 
Im finding it confusing to pick a couple of tours we should do. Some of the tours are $600-$650 each (Aussie $’s) - considering the port locations, timeframe & island activities, which tours would be a must, or worth the money? We’re all in our 50’s & active. 
should we, and what ports should we go with another tour operator? Or should we hire a van & go on our own?

Which ports can we just get off, have a swim, enjoy a nice meal & wine & wander? 
thank you for any help in what to expect for each port.

 

 

We did not use any ship excursions, we booked all on our own or rented cars at each port. This saved us a ton of money and gave us the freedom to do and see what we wanted and stop at beaches a long the way.

 

But if renting a van make those reservations now as they fill up quickly!

 

I spent months researching CC port of call for ideas and also tripadvisor for each island.  Just be prepared that on TA locals blast seeing the Islands by cruise that they feel the only way to do it right is to spend days on each Island which we did not have the time nor money to do so.

 

In Kona which is a tender port it was easy to walk around and do things on foot, all of the other ports were more industrial and not easy to walk around.

 

We did book several excursions with local companies, The Road to Hana on Maui and Helicopter over Waimea Canyon. The Road to Hana was very worth the cost, amazing views and wonderful driver. The rain was so heavy on the day of the helicopter ride that it had to be cancelled and we were given a full refund

We also booked directly for a Luau and they provided transportation to and from

 

We enjoyed the freedom of doing it on our own, no time frames other than getting back to the ship. Stopping at every beach we could find but first stopping at a store for local food and drink to bring to the beach. The Islands are small enough that you can drive the entire Island before having to get back on board the ship

 

Enjoy, we loved this cruise and yes it is expensive but to us it was well worth it!

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cruiseny4life Holiday Sharing Rare

cruiseny4life

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On 1/6/2023 at 7:20 PM, Plainjane1 said:

Thank you for your trip report - there are 6 of us, 1st time cruisers & looking forward to visiting the islands of Hawaii from Australia. 
Im finding it confusing to pick a couple of tours we should do. Some of the tours are $600-$650 each (Aussie $’s) - considering the port locations, timeframe & island activities, which tours would be a must, or worth the money? We’re all in our 50’s & active. 
should we, and what ports should we go with another tour operator? Or should we hire a van & go on our own?

Which ports can we just get off, have a swim, enjoy a nice meal & wine & wander? 
thank you for any help in what to expect for each port.

 

Thanks @JeffSinPDX and @mcmomny for sharing your perspectives. It's nice to hear Pride of America isn't a total Sh!tshow anymore. 

 

@Plainjane1, might I suggest you click over to the Hawaii ports of call section and review the information there. I bet you'll find a lot of helpful excursion info from others there. 

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/37-hawaii/ 

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Hhagatha

Hhagatha

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On 12/26/2022 at 8:22 PM, JeffSinPDX said:

I would post a review under their review page, but I feel like that is a space for people who need to create an account and vent about issues they have. I used these boards and asked many questions with this community prior to going on my PoA cruise, so thought I'd give a summary here and allow anyone who had any follow-up questions to post those and I would respond as best I could since I did a lot of research and took a lot of notes. 

 

General Info - Our cruise was 12/17 to 12/24, we had nine of us with six of us (wife and I and 4 of our kids) in a suite in 13522 and my mother-in-law and two other kids in a regular cabin on the 9th floor.

 

First I should note that because one of my rooms was a suite, I (unexpectedly) was treated to a handful of suite features that I wasn't expecting and likely wouldn't be available to all. To that point, embarkation was really quick and easy as we were shuttled into a VIP roped off area and given drinks and snacks while we got all of our room details and room cards prepared. That's where we also met our Concierge Chris, who told us all of our suite advantages we'd receive. The main one that was legit compared to my other room was having access to go to Cagney's for breakfast and lunch, and only suite folks were allowed in there, so there was no wait and the food was like an all-star list of best of the best foods you'd want to eat for breakfast or lunch. And you only need one suite key card to get your whole group seated, even though we had non-suite guests with us. So it was nice they didn't micromanage which family members were actually in the suite or not. But we ate at Cagney's immediately upon getting on the boat and by the time we were done, our rooms were ready for us to go into.

 

I'll also mention up front that because we had a suite, we had our own butler, Peter, and he was amazing. Peter found the teens in my room and asked them what drinks they like, and next thing you know our fridge was filled with coke, ginger ale, root beer, sierra mist, orange crush, etc. that my kids all wanted. So he was great for info and for keeping us stocked up on treats. 

 

The rooms were very clean and staff did a great job in swooping in when all six of us happened to be out of our suite and would suddenly make it up and keep it from turning into a pigsty. Was a very comfortable bed, extremely quiet bathroom as we were expecting one bathroom for six people in our room to be an issue, but it was really quiet and never had smells come into the cabin. So that was an unexpected bonus. 

 

We were only able to pre-reserve our 2 free premium dinner reservations at Jefferson's Bistro or Cagney's prior to the flight. But once on the ship, we were able to get additional reservations for La Cucina (Italian) and we heard the Brazilian restaurant was open on day on Friday, but it was booked solid by the time we realized they had opened it for one evening. And note we never had a chance to pre-book either the Italian or Brazilian places online or on our app, but were only allowed on the ship down on the 5th floor. Food was fantastic in general. Admittedly I only ate at the regular sit down dining 3-4 times as Cagney's was open to me for Breakfast and Lunch, and I took them up on that offer most days given how good that option is. But I did Cagney's for dinner as one meal and it was incredible, and then did La Cucina for our second free meal and it was incredible as well. Kids said their highlight of the cruise was being able to go to the buffet and get endless options at any moment they were hungry. So the buffet was a hit for my party, I only ate there a few times and it was good when I went. The one side-note I'll mention is that the 2 free dining  meals were only available to 4 of our 9 family members between the two rooms. Just know that you need to have a room card with that 2D on it when you appear to get your free meal. So if #2 in your room with a free 2D on their card doesn't want fine dining, but the 3rd person in your room does, just have them swap cards as that works perfect and was what the staff recommended since they don't name-check people using those cards, only making sure each card only gets 2 free meals. 

 

The features with all of my family were the excursions. Maui had a torrential downpour that made the national news, so our Luau got cancelled, but were able to rent a car and see some sites around town. But wasn't quite as exciting given the downpour of rains for both days. Hilo was beautiful and we did a farm and waterfall tour that was fantastic, and the weather was nice all day. Kona was cancelled due to the fact it doesn't dock in Kona, but instead tenders to shore, and they said the swells from the previous storm were so large that they couldn't tender passengers safely to Kona. So we didn't get to go on our Kona Mocha tour, but got the dollars refunded to our online accounts. Instead, we spent our Kona day as a day at sea, and the captain took us to see Molokai, and then took us into a bay where there were a bunch of whales that people could watch come breach from the water near the ship. Disappointing, but not their fault. Would have rather seen Kona than some whales spouting water in the air. Next we went to Kauai and that was incredible. It was beautiful again, and we went on an ATV tour and saved $500 by just booking it direct and using Turo to get a car that could seat 8 of us delivered to the pier terminal directly without walking, and then just drove the Turo car out there to the ATV place and had a great time. Also went to Poipu Beach near our ATV spot and was able to spend some time at a world class beach that had a bunch of sea turtles hanging out on the shore with us for photo ops, etc. Last day was a day at sea with a tour of Napali Coast and the huge cliffs and views from the port side of the deck. So that was nice to see and a fun day to hang out on the sun deck and get our free drinks that. Still not sure why they give you an envelope and a receipt to sign off on when you've already paid for the service fees and the 20% gratuities for getting a drink. But I'm guessing they just use that opportunity to try and pressure folks into more tips above what they've already paid for. 

 

Entertaining was traditional cruise ship entertainment. Comedian was so-so during family night, but actually pretty funny during the adult show on Friday. Ukulele Group was what I'd expect to get for free and not pay money to see, but then 3 of the folks in my party thought they were the best entertainment on the cruise, so to each their own. 

 

Other thing I noted was that the boat had more movement than I recall most of my previous cruise ships having. It is a bit of a small and simple cruise ship, so I'm guessing it has something to do with the size and how close it was to the Hawaiian shoreline most of the time when moving, but luckily it spent half of the time docked in a port, so it really only rocked when moving from port to port during the evenings. Only one of my nine people in my group really was impacted by the movement, and he took some Dramamine and was fine for the rest of the evening trips. So it wasn't like it's a guarantee to make you seasick since eight of us didn't' take anything and didn't run into any issues there. 

 

Overall, I feel there were a lot of poor reviews, so I was pleasantly surprised at how friendly everyone was, how good the food was, how easy the lines were to manage and never really had to wait for anything, the only things closed where the Shave Ice/Gelato place by the pool, and some hot dog/hamburger stand next to the pool was only open on our days at sea. The Liberty regular dining area was closed and instead just had the Skyline dining for the regular sit-down dining area, so maybe that was a 10-15 minute wait with a little buzzer disk they give you to tell you when your table is ready, so even though they were only using half of their main dining area, the waits were short and you could go take your disk to some comfortable wine bar or something and just wait while getting free drinks. So it was all good.

 

I think that covers the main points. If you have any specific questions. Post a reply and I'll check back in and answer as best I can. 

 

We were in this same room Nov 26 to Dec 3.  Agree, Christopher and Peter were very helpful.  We didn't have any of the weather issues you had, and we were able to see the erupting volcano from the ship - it was an awesome once-in-a-lifetime experience.  We had no wait at any of the dining venues so maybe they have increased capacity, which was only 40% when we went.

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mooline "Live from...." Rare

mooline

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Thanks so much for all of this helpful information! We're a multigenerational family of 6, in 2 suites sailing in June. The kiddos in our group are first time cruisers. Everyone is so looking forward to this trip and this thread whets the appetites even more! 

 

We, too have the beverage packages, will that include water? 
 

We're arriving on Thursday afternoon, so will have a full day plus to explore Honolulu. What is the earliest time on Saturday that we can head to the ship? I think everyone will be quite excited to embark even though the ship leaves in the evening.

 

I’m trying to think through options for disembarkation day. What time should we expect to be booted out? Our flight leaves at 4:30, but from what I’ve heard, we don’t want to hang at the airport all that time. Not sure about Pearl Harbor as we have a 6 year old in the group (and an 11 year old, but she’s old enough to understand- just very emotionally sensitive). Thinking about a day room at a local hotel, but whether that's sensible really depends on the time we're off the ship.

 

Thanks again for this great thread, here's hoping more 2023 POA cruisers chime in with reviews.

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