DrVal's PRIDE of ALOHA Review...

[DrVal]

My partner and I were on Pride of Aloha’s March 4th sailing. As promised, here is our review:

 

First: The all American crew was a highlight. For us, it was the perfect balance of courteous and helpful, but not overwhelmingly subservient. We wish we had this option on other lines/itineraries. In short, compared to our nightmare aboard Dream, this was a very pleasant experience.

 

Embarkation: We boarded in Maui. The airport transfer company employees were 5 star. We had had a visit to the emergency room 2 days before sailing and were still feeling the effects. The transfer company employees took the injured one of us to the bus and waited with the other to help with our luggage. We watched as the luggage was boarded onto a truck for delivery to the pier (this will prove important later on). At the door of the bus, they refused a tip. We were very pleased and felt like we were on our way to an amazing vacation.

 

Check-in in Maui was a breeze. I think we went from bus to ship in 20-30 minutes. Since most passengers got on/off in Honolulu, Maui was not crowded at all and our muster drill was held without bulky life vests while seated in a lounge *perfect*. Although it was perfect for us, there can be a downside to this: no one offered to take our picture upon boarding (imagine that!!!) – though we did get a fresh flower lei and once aboard, there were no bells and whistles like you get on embarkation day – you felt a bit like the * child of the previous cruise – it was odd. The cruisers we interacted with that first day were on their last full day onboard and were grumbling a bit about the bad weather and their cruise "issues". If we had been on our Honeymoon, or it had been our first cruise this would have detracted from our experience, but for a seasoned cruiser who doesn’t need to feel "special" it was fine.

 

Luggage Delivery: Here we hit our first snag. We checked 3 bags. Only 1 was delivered to our stateroom. We were watching whales from the boat most of the afternoon – you could see them from the boat with binoculars while docked in Maui – so by the time we checked on our luggage, it was late in the day. We had hoped to shower quick and change for the evening shows (another benefit – if you’re not too jet-lagged to stay awake - you miss the "meet everyone" embarkation show & get to see a real show the first night). We called reception and found out that security had our bags for a "contraband" check. "Ok," we thought, "no problem," we don’t have any contraband, so we’ll just go get our bags. Down to security, big surprise. Only 1 bag is there and the offending item: suntan lotion. Always prepared, we brought a variety of lotions SPF 8, 15, 36 and 45 – I guess that was 1 too many plastic bottles for security. Anyway, we insist there must be another bag. "Nope. Not here." We inform them that we SAW it get loaded onto the truck at the airport – all 3 together – So, "where is it?," we ask. Lost :eek: . We go to reception and interact with a young man who in our opinion should not be working reception. His name was Brady and in our opinion he had a very poor attitude. He gave us a lost luggage form and told us that 99.5% of the time, the bag is located. "Where?" we asked. "Maybe Misdelivered" was the response. That began a floor to floor search of the ship for our luggage. An hour or so later (one of us was still on our floor to floor and shipwide search) , we get a call from the original Security person telling us that they had the bag all along and apologize for the mistake. Aggravating, sure, but we moved right along.

 

**Let me add that Brady’s poor attitude was countered by Tonya at Reception who had a smile that could light up a room. She was pleasant, courteous and efficient. Definitely a 5 star employee.**

 

Side Note: We bought U.S. Mail Postage Stamps onboard and paid SALES TAX on stamps. Is it us, or is that strange?!? :confused:

 

Moving on...

 

Oahu:

We went to Waikiki and had a great day at the beach. It was a bit overcast so we packed up early and went to the Academy of Arts Museum where they had a once-in-a-lifetime display of actual artifacts collected by Cook during his explorations of the islands in the 1700s. Very cool.

 

Kauai:

We rented a car on day one, cruised the island and went to Ke e beach to snorkel. We had a great day. Traffic was bad late in the day, so we gave back the car and went back to the ship.

 

Day two we went to Kalapaki beach which is 10 minutes from the boat. The water was not clear and clean, so we went calf high only and relaxed with our books.

 

Napali Coast Sailing:

This was very scenic and again we saw many whales right from the ship. We hit a bit of rain, but we chose a seat under the awning and it was no problem.

 

Hilo:

We had been to Hilo numerous times and it was raining so we used this day to shop and make calls to friends and home. Relatively uneventful.

 

Volcano viewing Sailing:

Here we hit our second and final snag. Viewing was announced to be at 10pm and because of the rain, the pre-party was moved from pool deck to Outrigger on Deck 11. Deck 11 has an open front, but because of the wind, it is typically locked if the seas are rough. We arrived to the party late, maybe 9:40pm or so and people were already lined up waiting for the doors to be unlocked (the rain had stopped). We asked a waitress about unlocking the doors and were informed they’d be unlocked at 10pm. Long story short – at 10:10pm after more staff assurances that the doors would be unlocked, the doors were still locked. We called reception from the lounge and spoke with a woman first and explained what we were told and that everyone is still waiting and then, you guessed it, Brady comes to the phone and tells us that the doors are opened "weather permitting" and they will not be opened because of the weather and we should tell everyone. :eek: We said "No Way, how unprofessional, you send a staff member down here to tell these people, some have been waiting for 40 minutes now." We have no problem with the Captain or NCL making a safety decision, but that information has to be relayed to the guests promptly so that they can make other arrangements. We went upstairs to Deck 12. Maybe 10 minutes later, remarkably Deck 11 forward was opened. About 10 minutes after that, the skies opened and we were drenched by the craziest rain storm ever!!!. We had waterproof suits on and it was an amazing experience. I should mention that **the lava viewing before the rainstorm was AMAZING. Definitely the highlight of our trip!**

 

Kona:

We went snorkeling at Kahuluu?!? Beach and drove around the island a bit to Hapuna beach where we saw a whale fluke right off shore. Wonderful. The weather by Hapuna was drizzly, but in Kona town it was very good.

 

Maui:

First day we drove around, got acclimated and went on a Pacific Whale Foundation whale watch. We asked them to put a hydrophone in the water and we were able to hear the whale songs from the boat. We had a nice trip, but we had seen sooooo many whales breaching, fluking, tail slapping from the ship that the somewhat lazy whales during our whale watch were anti-climactic.

 

Maui:

Here we disembarked. We went to Kanapaali Beach and Lahaina (whale watching again) for a while. Then we spent most of the day at a locals’ beach. We took a shower here and had an amazing afternoon.

 

What have we left out….

Restaurants: We never went to the restaurants, not even once, so we can’t offer a critique. We evaluated what went wrong on Dream and tried to eliminate any potential problems. We did hear people complaining that even starting dinner at 5:30pm, they were missing the 7:30pm show.

 

Food: In our opinion, service at the buffet was better than food at the buffet. There were no options for white meat chicken breast (maybe one day?!?) and no fat free/low fat Italian dressing so we ate a lot of snacks for dinner: popcorn, cheese sandwiches, ice cream and dessert.... :p yummy :p. We had planned that this would be our default and it was. We countered the lack of protein by ordering hard boiled eggs every morning. We offered to go to the restaurant on our way to the buffet in the AM to pick them up, but Maitre D Brandt (an AMAZING guy) would not hear it – so most days they were there no problem. About Brandt, apparently, he worked his way up to M.D. from waiter and the staff under him have nothing but praise and respect for him. We really enjoyed learning about the crew – they were young and new and we could really relate to their stories. There were buffet veterans like Joni and Stacy who work SO HARD every day and really have a great attitude and then there are brand new employees like Robert and Chloe who were breaking in during our sailing. Some people around us were grumbling about service or food, but we honestly felt that on such a port intensive itinerary, there is no need to complain. If you hate the food, get off and buy something else.

 

Room Steward:

Sonny was very good. No complaints.

 

Bars, Room Service, Shore Excursions:

We didn’t use any of these.

 

We did shop in the boutique quite a bit and Roderick and Kea are great!

 

Lectures:

 

1) On our first day, we went to a Trusts and Estates talk. MISTAKE. Clearly, we made the speaker nervous. When we entered the room she asked us why we were there -- we told her to hear the talk -- we were the youngest in the room by a good 30 years -- and when she learned one of us was trained as an attorney she got even more nervous and began speaking directly to us and saying "right?" She was confused, ill-prepared and basically a mess. She was holding a ton of newspaper clippings -- we still have no idea why?!? Sitting there we thought "we could do this... I wonder if she gets a free cruise?!?" Since we felt we were distracting the other cruisers, we left early.

 

2) A few days into the cruise we went to a talk by the Pacific Whale Foundation. This we wholeheartedly recommend.

 

So, overall, we would rate the experience an 8 out of 10. We had a great time and although we would not necessarily cruise NCL again, we can now understand at least where their customer base comes from. Aloha! and Mahalo NCL.

[JerseyMom]

Thanks for the Review, DrVal. Glad that this experience was better than your last on NCL.

 

And BTW, I do find it odd that you paid tax on postage stamps. Never heard of that.

[newmexicoNita]

Thanks for the Review, DrVal. Glad that this experience was better than your last on NCL.

 

And BTW, I do find it odd that you paid tax on postage stamps. Never heard of that.

I agree about the postage stamps. Did you question them about this?

[Barb Nahoumi]

I work for the post office. There is NO tax on stamps.

 

Barb

[cruiser-dude]

How much total $ did you pay in stamp taxes?

 

Brady has apparently decided to take the space of the one knucklehead you can find anywhere. Can't let the one dude spoil your day.

 

Seems like you are a target for problems, as evident by the bag issue and Brady being a part of it. (I see some consistency here, do you?) Glad it was found.

 

I am not understanding one thing, though - "you felt a bit like the * child of the previous cruise" because at embarkation, the expected picture takers and bells and whistles were absent? What did they do to "*" the whole embarkation experience? I can't see this...

[yancycruiser]

Thank you DrVal for an informative post which will serve many of us future Aloha Cruisers. We will also be cruising out of Maui and we have got a long wait as you can tell from our clock. I'm sure we have have more questions for you as time goes by. Hopefully, you will check this thread often.

 

Again, thank you!

[brittany21]

My partner and I were on Pride of Aloha’s March 4th sailing. As promised, here is our review:

 

First: The all American crew was a highlight. For us, it was the perfect balance of courteous and helpful, but not overwhelmingly subservient. We wish we had this option on other lines/itineraries. In short, compared to our nightmare aboard Dream, this was a very pleasant experience.

 

Embarkation: We boarded in Maui. The airport transfer company employees were 5 star. We had had a visit to the emergency room 2 days before sailing and were still feeling the effects. The transfer company employees took the injured one of us to the bus and waited with the other to help with our luggage. We watched as the luggage was boarded onto a truck for delivery to the pier (this will prove important later on). At the door of the bus, they refused a tip. We were very pleased and felt like we were on our way to an amazing vacation.

 

Check-in in Maui was a breeze. I think we went from bus to ship in 20-30 minutes. Since most passengers got on/off in Honolulu, Maui was not crowded at all and our muster drill was held without bulky life vests while seated in a lounge *perfect*. Although it was perfect for us, there can be a downside to this: no one offered to take our picture upon boarding (imagine that!!!) – though we did get a fresh flower lei and once aboard, there were no bells and whistles like you get on embarkation day – you felt a bit like the * child of the previous cruise – it was odd. The cruisers we interacted with that first day were on their last full day onboard and were grumbling a bit about the bad weather and their cruise "issues". If we had been on our Honeymoon, or it had been our first cruise this would have detracted from our experience, but for a seasoned cruiser who doesn’t need to feel "special" it was fine.

 

Luggage Delivery: Here we hit our first snag. We checked 3 bags. Only 1 was delivered to our stateroom. We were watching whales from the boat most of the afternoon – you could see them from the boat with binoculars while docked in Maui – so by the time we checked on our luggage, it was late in the day. We had hoped to shower quick and change for the evening shows (another benefit – if you’re not too jet-lagged to stay awake - you miss the "meet everyone" embarkation show & get to see a real show the first night). We called reception and found out that security had our bags for a "contraband" check. "Ok," we thought, "no problem," we don’t have any contraband, so we’ll just go get our bags. Down to security, big surprise. Only 1 bag is there and the offending item: suntan lotion. Always prepared, we brought a variety of lotions SPF 8, 15, 36 and 45 – I guess that was 1 too many plastic bottles for security. Anyway, we insist there must be another bag. "Nope. Not here." We inform them that we SAW it get loaded onto the truck at the airport – all 3 together – So, "where is it?," we ask. Lost :eek: . We go to reception and interact with a young man who in our opinion should not be working reception. His name was Brady and in our opinion he had a very poor attitude. He gave us a lost luggage form and told us that 99.5% of the time, the bag is located. "Where?" we asked. "Maybe Misdelivered" was the response. That began a floor to floor search of the ship for our luggage. An hour or so later (one of us was still on our floor to floor and shipwide search) , we get a call from the original Security person telling us that they had the bag all along and apologize for the mistake. Aggravating, sure, but we moved right along.

 

**Let me add that Brady’s poor attitude was countered by Tonya at Reception who had a smile that could light up a room. She was pleasant, courteous and efficient. Definitely a 5 star employee.**

 

Side Note: We bought U.S. Mail Postage Stamps onboard and paid SALES TAX on stamps. Is it us, or is that strange?!? :confused:

 

Moving on...

 

Oahu:

We went to Waikiki and had a great day at the beach. It was a bit overcast so we packed up early and went to the Academy of Arts Museum where they had a once-in-a-lifetime display of actual artifacts collected by Cook during his explorations of the islands in the 1700s. Very cool.

 

Kauai:

We rented a car on day one, cruised the island and went to Ke e beach to snorkel. We had a great day. Traffic was bad late in the day, so we gave back the car and went back to the ship.

 

Day two we went to Kalapaki beach which is 10 minutes from the boat. The water was not clear and clean, so we went calf high only and relaxed with our books.

 

Napali Coast Sailing:

This was very scenic and again we saw many whales right from the ship. We hit a bit of rain, but we chose a seat under the awning and it was no problem.

 

Hilo:

We had been to Hilo numerous times and it was raining so we used this day to shop and make calls to friends and home. Relatively uneventful.

 

Volcano viewing Sailing:

Here we hit our second and final snag. Viewing was announced to be at 10pm and because of the rain, the pre-party was moved from pool deck to Outrigger on Deck 11. Deck 11 has an open front, but because of the wind, it is typically locked if the seas are rough. We arrived to the party late, maybe 9:40pm or so and people were already lined up waiting for the doors to be unlocked (the rain had stopped). We asked a waitress about unlocking the doors and were informed they’d be unlocked at 10pm. Long story short – at 10:10pm after more staff assurances that the doors would be unlocked, the doors were still locked. We called reception from the lounge and spoke with a woman first and explained what we were told and that everyone is still waiting and then, you guessed it, Brady comes to the phone and tells us that the doors are opened "weather permitting" and they will not be opened because of the weather and we should tell everyone. :eek: We said "No Way, how unprofessional, you send a staff member down here to tell these people, some have been waiting for 40 minutes now." We have no problem with the Captain or NCL making a safety decision, but that information has to be relayed to the guests promptly so that they can make other arrangements. We went upstairs to Deck 12. Maybe 10 minutes later, remarkably Deck 11 forward was opened. About 10 minutes after that, the skies opened and we were drenched by the craziest rain storm ever!!!. We had waterproof suits on and it was an amazing experience. I should mention that **the lava viewing before the rainstorm was AMAZING. Definitely the highlight of our trip!**

 

Kona:

We went snorkeling at Kahuluu?!? Beach and drove around the island a bit to Hapuna beach where we saw a whale fluke right off shore. Wonderful. The weather by Hapuna was drizzly, but in Kona town it was very good.

 

Maui:

First day we drove around, got acclimated and went on a Pacific Whale Foundation whale watch. We asked them to put a hydrophone in the water and we were able to hear the whale songs from the boat. We had a nice trip, but we had seen sooooo many whales breaching, fluking, tail slapping from the ship that the somewhat lazy whales during our whale watch were anti-climactic.

 

Maui:

Here we disembarked. We went to Kanapaali Beach and Lahaina (whale watching again) for a while. Then we spent most of the day at a locals’ beach. We took a shower here and had an amazing afternoon.

 

What have we left out….

Restaurants: We never went to the restaurants, not even once, so we can’t offer a critique. We evaluated what went wrong on Dream and tried to eliminate any potential problems. We did hear people complaining that even starting dinner at 5:30pm, they were missing the 7:30pm show.

 

Food: In our opinion, service at the buffet was better than food at the buffet. There were no options for white meat chicken breast (maybe one day?!?) and no fat free/low fat Italian dressing so we ate a lot of snacks for dinner: popcorn, cheese sandwiches, ice cream and dessert.... :p yummy :p. We had planned that this would be our default and it was. We countered the lack of protein by ordering hard boiled eggs every morning. We offered to go to the restaurant on our way to the buffet in the AM to pick them up, but Maitre D Brandt (an AMAZING guy) would not hear it – so most days they were there no problem. About Brandt, apparently, he worked his way up to M.D. from waiter and the staff under him have nothing but praise and respect for him. We really enjoyed learning about the crew – they were young and new and we could really relate to their stories. There were buffet veterans like Joni and Stacy who work SO HARD every day and really have a great attitude and then there are brand new employees like Robert and Chloe who were breaking in during our sailing. Some people around us were grumbling about service or food, but we honestly felt that on such a port intensive itinerary, there is no need to complain. If you hate the food, get off and buy something else.

 

Room Steward:

Sonny was very good. No complaints.

 

Bars, Room Service, Shore Excursions:

We didn’t use any of these.

 

We did shop in the boutique quite a bit and Roderick and Kea are great!

 

Lectures:

 

1) On our first day, we went to a Trusts and Estates talk. MISTAKE. Clearly, we made the speaker nervous. When we entered the room she asked us why we were there -- we told her to hear the talk -- we were the youngest in the room by a good 30 years -- and when she learned one of us was trained as an attorney she got even more nervous and began speaking directly to us and saying "right?" She was confused, ill-prepared and basically a mess. She was holding a ton of newspaper clippings -- we still have no idea why?!? Sitting there we thought "we could do this... I wonder if she gets a free cruise?!?" Since we felt we were distracting the other cruisers, we left early.

 

2) A few days into the cruise we went to a talk by the Pacific Whale Foundation. This we wholeheartedly recommend.

 

So, overall, we would rate the experience an 8 out of 10. We had a great time and although we would not necessarily cruise NCL again, we can now understand at least where their customer base comes from. Aloha! and Mahalo NCL.

 

DrVal,

 

I was on that same cruise with you, atleast briefly. We cruised from 2/26 to 3/5, but we embarked and disembarked in Honolulu. So we we together on the cruise for one day. I agreeed with j ust about everything you said. We only ate in the Royal Palm Bistro, we avoided the other dining rooms and mostly ate in the Hukilah Cafe and Lanai, Joni was terrific!!!. I was happy with breakfast and lunch but dinner was a little disapointing. The bistro was superb tho. We ate there the night of the volcano viewing, and had a great view.

The cruisers that you met and complained about the weather were from earlier in the week of my cruise. We did have a bit of weather trouble but we kept calling it liquid sunshine.

Werent the whales amazing??? We saw quite a few on the Napali Coast, and also did the pacific whale foundation watch. Saw more from the ship. The wind was very strong that day so the captain did not want to go out too far. We did see whales, but mostly just dorsal fins.

 

Did u get a chance to see the comedian the first night you boarded?? I thought he was pretty good. How about the sea legs cirque??

 

We also had a really great time, and am glad to hear that you did too...

 

Aloha,

Brittany

[DrVal]

I agree about the postage stamps. Did you question them about this?

 

Is the Pope Catholic? Of course we questioned them. We even asked to speak with a Manager. She was very sweet and confirmed that we had to pay the tax. I told her, "I think this is wrong" but in the end, it was a small amount and we didn't want to make any waves, so we signed for it, twice (we underestimated our first purchase) :p . I just wanted to confirm that I wasn't crazy. We really did have a great trip.

 

I remembered a few other things that may bother some people and/or may be fixed when Aloha is refurbed in dry dock. 1) We were on Deck 8 -- there was sometimes a funky smell in the hallway. It really wasn't bothersome because we only smelled it when walking to/from our cabin. The public areas were typically ok, 2) Our bathroom smelled funky the entire cruise, but if you closed the door, the smell did not permeate, so again, no biggie, and 3) the plumbing is "interesting" one day we came back and had almost no water pressure -- additionally, during almost every shower we played the "guess the temperature" game because the water temperature fluctuated wildly. Again, these things did not bother us **we were in Hawaii** but they may bother some or they may be fixed in dry dock.

 

I'm glad that we were able to help. Let's all say a prayer for those missing in Kauai. We were on that road last Monday... but for the grace of G-d.

[Shami]

I have read in the posts and in yours DrVal that the Pride of Aloha is going into dry dock. Do you know when they are scheduled to go into dry dock? We are cruising on her July 23rd.

 

I was curious about your post of those missing in Kauai. I didn't hear anything. Did something happen?

 

Glad to hear you had a great cruise. I know that we will also, no matter what, because we will be in Hawaii.

Shari

[newmexicoNita]

Is the Pope Catholic? Of course we questioned them. We even asked to speak with a Manager. She was very sweet and confirmed that we had to pay the tax. I told her, "I think this is wrong" but in the end, it was a small amount and we didn't want to make any waves, so we signed for it, twice (we underestimated our first purchase) :p . I just wanted to confirm that I wasn't crazy. We really did have a great trip.

 

I remembered a few other things that may bother some people and/or may be fixed when Aloha is refurbed in dry dock. 1) We were on Deck 8 -- there was sometimes a funky smell in the hallway. It really wasn't bothersome because we only smelled it when walking to/from our cabin. The public areas were typically ok, 2) Our bathroom smelled funky the entire cruise, but if you closed the door, the smell did not permeate, so again, no biggie, and 3) the plumbing is "interesting" one day we came back and had almost no water pressure -- additionally, during almost every shower we played the "guess the temperature" game because the water temperature fluctuated wildly. Again, these things did not bother us **we were in Hawaii** but they may bother some or they may be fixed in dry dock.

 

I'm glad that we were able to help. Let's all say a prayer for those missing in Kauai. We were on that road last Monday... but for the grace of G-d.

being you were on a different island almost every day, I think I would have waited and bought them on shore. Of course as you said it was only a few cents. NMNita

[sammymd]

DrVal

 

I will be on this cruise in 2 weeks. I thought I read

somewhere that there were coffee makers in the

room? Did you have a coffee maker in yours?

Was on this ship when she was the Sky

and no coffeemakers then.

sammy

[brittany21]

Is the Pope Catholic? Of course we questioned them. We even asked to speak with a Manager. She was very sweet and confirmed that we had to pay the tax. I told her, "I think this is wrong" but in the end, it was a small amount and we didn't want to make any waves, so we signed for it, twice (we underestimated our first purchase) :p . I just wanted to confirm that I wasn't crazy. We really did have a great trip.

 

I remembered a few other things that may bother some people and/or may be fixed when Aloha is refurbed in dry dock. 1) We were on Deck 8 -- there was sometimes a funky smell in the hallway. It really wasn't bothersome because we only smelled it when walking to/from our cabin. The public areas were typically ok, 2) Our bathroom smelled funky the entire cruise, but if you closed the door, the smell did not permeate, so again, no biggie, and 3) the plumbing is "interesting" one day we came back and had almost no water pressure -- additionally, during almost every shower we played the "guess the temperature" game because the water temperature fluctuated wildly. Again, these things did not bother us **we were in Hawaii** but they may bother some or they may be fixed in dry dock.

 

I'm glad that we were able to help. Let's all say a prayer for those missing in Kauai. We were on that road last Monday... but for the grace of G-d.

 

We were also on deck 8, 8040, and we noticed an almost fishy smell when u came around the bend by the elevator.. we never had a problem with pressure, but yes the temp did flucuate like crazy. It was a very touchy nozzle. Again i agree tho, we were in Hawaii..

[DrVal]

I have read in the posts and in yours DrVal that the Pride of Aloha is going into dry dock. Do you know when they are scheduled to go into dry dock? We are cruising on her July 23rd.

 

I was curious about your post of those missing in Kauai. I didn't hear anything. Did something happen?

 

Glad to hear you had a great cruise. I know that we will also, no matter what, because we will be in Hawaii.

Shari

 

Hi Shami:

 

I believe that Aloha's dry dock is sometime in April. If I am remembering correctly, it was unscheduled *meaning* they had cruises scheduled, but they offered to move those cruisers w/o charge to the Pride of America for the same week.

 

This Tuesday, a dam broke in Kauai killing at least one, leaving many missing and with destroyed homes and property and wiping out the highway and leaving those vacationers and locals on the North Shore stranded with limited supplies. Kee beach is on the North Shore and we were just on that highway and on that side. It's very sad. :(

 

There was another sad story while we were on Maui. Last Thursday, a Pacific Whale Foundation whale watching cruise filled with local schoolchildren (part of their non-profit community work) struck two whales -- a mother and calf humpback -- and the calf was pretty badly damaged. The locals were all talking about it on the locals' beach. PWF is such a great organization.... I think this was their first major accident. :(

 

Sammymd:

 

No coffeemakers, but there was a fridge. Be prepared, the rooms are SMALL. :eek: I think the smallest I've ever been in. We left one bag packed and on the loveseat because there was no closet/shelf space.

[brittany21]

Hi Shami:

 

I believe that Aloha's dry dock is sometime in April. If I am remembering correctly, it was unscheduled *meaning* they had cruises scheduled, but they offered to move those cruisers w/o charge to the Pride of America for the same week.

 

This Tuesday, a dam broke in Kauai killing at least one, leaving many missing and with destroyed homes and property and wiping out the highway and leaving those vacationers and locals on the North Shore stranded with limited supplies. Kee beach is on the North Shore and we were just on that highway and on that side. It's very sad. :(

 

There was another sad story while we were on Maui. Last Thursday, a Pacific Whale Foundation whale watching cruise filled with local schoolchildren (part of their non-profit community work) struck two whales -- a mother and calf humpback -- and the calf was pretty badly damaged. The locals were all talking about it on the locals' beach. PWF is such a great organization.... I think this was their first major accident. :(

 

Sammymd:

 

No coffeemakers, but there was a fridge. Be prepared, the rooms are SMALL. :eek: I think the smallest I've ever been in. We left one bag packed and on the loveseat because there was no closet/shelf space.

 

OMG, that is so sad about the whale.. we went out on one of their tours and saw a mother and calf, they are so beautiful.

[sammymd]

I cruised to Alaska on this ship when she was the Sky,

I thought the rooms were small too, until I cruised

on the NCL Sea. Our inside room on the Sea was actually smaller

than the same category on the Sky, which was called

a Superior inside. The first time I went on a Carnival cruise,

I could not believe all the room, and a king size bed.

I guess it must be some of the newer ships that that have

the coffeemaker,or the suites.

I know I read it somewhere on these boards.

.

I wasn't going to take as many suitcases this

time, but tried to pack all my stuff last night.

Not enough room, have to downsize some more.

I always take way to many clothes.

Did they show a couple of movies on the flight over

from the mainland?

Thanks to everyone who took time to write a review.

sammy

[S.S.Oceanlover]

Food: In our opinion, service at the buffet was better than food at the buffet. There were no options for white meat chicken breast (maybe one day?!?) and no fat free/low fat Italian dressing so we ate a lot of snacks for dinner: popcorn, cheese sandwiches, ice cream and dessert....

 

This is always a constant in NCL reviews. While I am teetering on the edge of giving NCL another shot I read things like this and it makes me hesitant. I don't want to spend my money on a what if proposition when there are many other cruiselines who don't have such issues.

 

Why can't they upgrade the food? All these years and it is still substandard.

I like my food and if the food isn't that good I wouldn't be happy. Last time I cruised NCL albeit a long time ago, the selections were minimal and horrible.

I am in no way a picky eater, as I've been told I'll eat anything.

 

Bill

[dcp81]

Sammymd, we didn't have a coffee maker in the room when we boarded, but simply asked the room steward and one was delivered along with Kona coffee packets. If you don't have one, just ask. The absolute worst thing that can happen is that they tell you one is not available.

 

I wonder if they are not routinely placed in the rooms to make it easier to prepare the room...less work if they don't have to clean the coffee maker and replenish supplies.

 

Don

[mbisson]

Food: In our opinion, service at the buffet was better than food at the buffet. There were no options for white meat chicken breast (maybe one day?!?) and no fat free/low fat Italian dressing so we ate a lot of snacks for dinner: popcorn, cheese sandwiches, ice cream and dessert.... :p yummy :p.

 

Just wondering why you didn't skip the buffet and eat in the dining rooms if you didn't like the buffet food? I know you had problems on the Dream, BUT that is one of the oldest ships in the fleet.

 

-Monte

[mbisson]

This is always a constant in NCL reviews. While I am teetering on the edge of giving NCL another shot I read things like this and it makes me hesitant. I don't want to spend my money on a what if proposition when there are many other cruiselines who don't have such issues.

 

Why can't they upgrade the food? All these years and it is still substandard.

I like my food and if the food isn't that good I wouldn't be happy. Last time I cruised NCL albeit a long time ago, the selections were minimal and horrible.

I am in no way a picky eater, as I've been told I'll eat anything.

 

Bill

 

Bill, I would agree with DrVal about shortcoming in the buffets (but I like them for breakfast). BUT I'm not fond of the buffets we've gone to on RCI or Carnival either. However, I've never had a problem on any ship (NCL or other) finding the food to be fine in the main dining rooms. Is the food as good as it was years ago? Probably not, but I don't think it's as bad as you seem to believe. In fact, I find it good.

 

jmo

-Monte

[S.S.Oceanlover]

Monte,

Does this mean that at lunch I have to go to the dining room to get a decent bite to eat? I really don't want to have to sit through 60 -90 minutes in the dining room every day.

 

Do they have decent burgers, hot dogs, or chicken on a grill?

 

From what I experienced on my one and only NCL cruise the lunch buffet consisted of cold cuts every day. One day they splurged and put a pig with an apple at the buffet.

 

Bill

[mbisson]

Like I said, I'm not fond of ship buffets on ANY cruise ship I've been on, (my favorite would have to be the RCL Radiance-but that was several years ago). However, on our last couple of NCL cruises, they did have on deck BBQs a couple times for lunch. Our recent Jewel cruise had one day of some pretty good jerk chicken and pork on the buffet for lunch (dining room wasn't open when we got back from an excursion). And they had a pretty decent "built it yourself" sandwich bar on the Sun. Food is highly subjective and what I didn't like on the buffet you might-we all have different tastes.

 

IMO-60 to 90 minutes in the main dining room is a good investment of time. You might also consider some of the alternative dining rooms (for dinner).

 

BTW-when I have checked out the lunch buffets, I've always found a better selection than just cold cuts. But I do refer to the buffet burgers as "sawdust burgers" ;)

 

jmo

-Monte

[newmexicoNita]

I cruised to Alaska on this ship when she was the Sky,

I thought the rooms were small too, until I cruised

on the NCL Sea. Our inside room on the Sea was actually smaller

than the same category on the Sky, which was called

a Superior inside. The first time I went on a Carnival cruise,

I could not believe all the room, and a king size bed.

I guess it must be some of the newer ships that that have

the coffeemaker,or the suites.

I know I read it somewhere on these boards.

.

I wasn't going to take as many suitcases this

time, but tried to pack all my stuff last night.

Not enough room, have to downsize some more.

I always take way to many clothes.

Did they show a couple of movies on the flight over

from the mainland?

Thanks to everyone who took time to write a review.

sammy

the only cabins as small as the Sea were those on the RCI Majesty of the Sea; almost identical in size; very small!! We didn't think the cabins on the Sky were that small. We had standard outside and were happy with them. NMNita

[newmexicoNita]

This is always a constant in NCL reviews. While I am teetering on the edge of giving NCL another shot I read things like this and it makes me hesitant. I don't want to spend my money on a what if proposition when there are many other cruiselines who don't have such issues.

 

Why can't they upgrade the food? All these years and it is still substandard.

I like my food and if the food isn't that good I wouldn't be happy. Last time I cruised NCL albeit a long time ago, the selections were minimal and horrible.

I am in no way a picky eater, as I've been told I'll eat anything.

 

Bill

Bill, food is so subjective. We have been on 7 NCL cruises as well as about 12-15 others, food overall has gone down hill and I have yet to have a good buffet. I didn't realize there was no fat free dressing on the buffet. The main dining room food is general good, not Ruths Chris, but cetainly not bad. I am not sure what DrVal means about living on snacks for dinner with all the restaurant choices, many with no extra charge. I guess I lost something there. Try one of the newer ships, and plan on having a good time. NMnita

[newmexicoNita]

Monte,

Does this mean that at lunch I have to go to the dining room to get a decent bite to eat? I really don't want to have to sit through 60 -90 minutes in the dining room every day.

 

Do they have decent burgers, hot dogs, or chicken on a grill?

 

From what I experienced on my one and only NCL cruise the lunch buffet consisted of cold cuts every day. One day they splurged and put a pig with an apple at the buffet.

 

Bill

they have great hamburgers and hot dogs as well as taco bars, etc depending on the day. We usually eat in the dining room a couple of lunches, but mostly the buffet. The breakfast buffet has an omelette bar, eggs made to order, lox and bagels and the rest of the usual breakfas items. Again, great, no but buffets aren't meant to be Great, they are meant to be quick. NMnita

[Cosmopolitan]

Monte,

Does this mean that at lunch I have to go to the dining room to get a decent bite to eat? I really don't want to have to sit through 60 -90 minutes in the dining room every day.

 

Do they have decent burgers, hot dogs, or chicken on a grill?

 

From what I experienced on my one and only NCL cruise the lunch buffet consisted of cold cuts every day. One day they splurged and put a pig with an apple at the buffet.

 

Bill

 

We've never spent 60-90 minutes in a dining room for lunch.

Though, I would have enjoyed that!

 

Buffet on Dawn and Jewel has MANY hot choices.

You're on vacation..relax and enjoy:)