Opinions on the Pride of Hawaii

[Solo Wing]

My family and I are going to travel the islands on the Pride of Hawaii on the 17th of July so I was wondering how the new ship that had been made to sound so grand really was. So far, the comments and reviews that I've read about the Pride of Hawaii and NCLA were all negative, claiming that service and food on the NCLA ships were abysmal. If any of you have cruised on the Pride of Hawaii, please share your experience with me:).

[Jenninhawaii]

My family and I are going to travel the islands on the Pride of Hawaii on the 17th of July so I was wondering how the new ship that had been made to sound so grand really was. So far, the comments and reviews that I've read about the Pride of Hawaii and NCLA were all negative, claiming that service and food on the NCLA ships were abysmal. If any of you have cruised on the Pride of Hawaii, please share your experience with me:).

 

We will be on the same cruise, I have read both positive and negative reviews. I don't really care if the service is perfect, I am using this cruise to see the other islands not for the boat itself. This is a port intensive cruise so I will not be on the ship a whole lot anyway.

 

Also I wanted to invite you to the roll call for our cruise. Go to the roll call section, find the date of our cruise and introduce yourself. We are meeting the first night of the cruise for a little get together. Hope to see you there. Jen

[D&J38]

If you've read ALL the posts on this forum about the POH, certainly you realize they weren't all negative. zimmerjulie went to a lot of trouble within the last couple of weeks, repeatedly directing folks to some of the positive ones when asked this same thing. Read all the threads that have POH in the title since the first cruise started on May 22--it's doable. Or when you come across one of hers that links to the rest, read them. You'll find lots of positive input. Ours was positive, as were many others. And keep in mind that a huge majority of the world doesn't even know about this site; passengers go, have a great time, and you don't hear about it! Other than the CC group we were with, no passengers we talked to had even heard of CC.

 

On our inaugural cruise, service was a little slow in all of the restaurants we tried! So what? Like we had to be somewhere else? Service at the buffet was always immediate. We'd do it again in a heartbeat! The ship was gorgeous, the room was great, and the staff couldn't have been friendlier. And we were "stuck" at sea for six glorious days! Now that the POH is doing the seven-day island thing, you'll hardly be on it long enough to learn your way around. Enjoy it and quit worrying!

 

Janice

[CruisinMK]

I had a great time on PoH maiden voyage. My impression was most everyone was pretty happy on the ship.

The sailing immediately after (june 5) had a bunch of negative reviews though.

 

I know the maiden voyage was almost half empty, maybe the staff couldn't handle twice as many people the next week. :)

[Solo Wing]

:DNice to finally have some positive feedback on the ship, but i guess i was too worried. usually, in past cruises, i focused mainly on the service, entertainment, beauty, activities, and food on the vessel because we stopped only at several ports for a short time. i forgot that this time we would be at a port almost constantly so even if the ship isn't that great i would have the option of exploring the islands, which will be a new experience for me since ive only been to oahu(i live there). oh and jenninhawaii, ive already visited the roll call thread and am looking forward to meeting you and the others:). i think we'll all have a great time on both the ship and the exotic islands of hawaii. cant wait till the cruise!:D

[Eeyore1928]

After much talking and thinking....I cancelled our cruise on the POH next November. The reviews were all so bad with the exception of Julie's. The food is the main reason we were looking into a cruise around the island since it is so pricey. Although if you pay that much for a cruise and the food and service are sub-par then it really is not worth it. I just went and priced out airfare for my family and staying 8 nights on Oahu ( interisland air to other islands during that time) and 3 nights on Maui ( at the Ritz no less) and rental cars. The price was right at $4,000.00. Which is only $400 more than the 7 night cruise alone without airfare. We were looking at close to $7,000 once we added airfare and rental cars to the cruise. At this point I don't think we will spend $3,000 on food in 10 days. Breakfast is included at the resorts to boot! So for me the choice is easy. There is no way I have the patience to wait 1-2 hours for a table to eat dinner on a cruise...plus pay extra for it.

I guess NCLA is not for us.

[NCLcruisefan]

After much talking and thinking....I cancelled our cruise on the POH next November. The reviews were all so bad with the exception of Julie's. The food is the main reason we were looking into a cruise around the island since it is so pricey. Although if you pay that much for a cruise and the food and service are sub-par then it really is not worth it. I just went and priced out airfare for my family and staying 8 nights on Oahu ( interisland air to other islands during that time) and 3 nights on Maui ( at the Ritz no less) and rental cars. The price was right at $4,000.00. Which is only $400 more than the 7 night cruise alone without airfare. We were looking at close to $7,000 once we added airfare and rental cars to the cruise. At this point I don't think we will spend $3,000 on food in 10 days. Breakfast is included at the resorts to boot! So for me the choice is easy. There is no way I have the patience to wait 1-2 hours for a table to eat dinner on a cruise...plus pay extra for it.

I guess NCLA is not for us.

I say good for you! I wish more people would do this to teach NCLA to get their act together. Personally even though the ship service sucked; I had the best vacation of my life. It probably was the cheapest way to see all the islands. But if you really did find such great deals to go to all the islands; then we made a big mistake. I felt it was the only cheap way to do it. And I would have gladly spent just a little more to have better service; which a hotel would give. But my balcony room only cost $2650; so I don't know why yours would cost so much. But nonetheless. I had the time of my life and didn't harp on those issues while in Hawaii; after all we were off the ship by 9am everyday; but I have said and will continue to say that regardless, we will not cruise NCLA ever again. If only to teach them not to treat people with such disregard. They don't care about their passengers enough to straighten these issues out by the third ship. Not that just one little couple changes things; but us plus the thousands of others that are doing the same thing. It's just like voting, just one more can make a difference!

[zimmerjulie]

originally posted by D&J38

We'd do it again in a heartbeat! The ship was gorgeous, the room was great, and the staff couldn't have been friendlier.

I couldn't agree more, and would add that the food was excellent (with the exception of the scalloped potatoes in Cagney's).

 

Since I did spend that time compiling the list of reviews, it isn't much trouble to re-post them. People seem to find the negative ones just fine;) , but it seems that these are often overlooked, so I'll post links to them here.

 

Silver Girl's review posted on the "Reviews" section of the Cruise Critic website:

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=19067

 

 

bobnsandi's Review: "Just Back from Pride of Hawai'i Inaugural"

Kapuna's Review: "Pride of Hawaii June 5-12, 2006 cruise"

The thread starts with:

"Just returned from her 1st island cruise . We expected service problems etc. but encountered absolutely none !

 

We tried 7 of the 10 restaurants and received excellent food and service in all ( well , the buffet needs a little fine tuning ) . The weather was perfect , so that views of the Na Pali coast and lava flow were spectacular .

 

Everything went so smoothly that we would have to rate it as one of the best cruises in years ."

 

Live From the Pride of Hawaii by kat28

LCI 598's review:POH's Wonderful Inaugural Voyage

zimmerjulie's Pride of Hawaii Review

Just Back from Pride of Hawaii June 5 by hollym and with reviews from others on this sailing

 

Originally posted by Eeyore1928: The reviews were all so bad with the exception of Julie's

Originally posted by Solo Wing:So far, the comments and reviews that I've read about the Pride of Hawaii and NCLA were all negative, claiming that service and food on the NCLA ships were abysmal.

 

Eeyore, I hope you have a fantastic time in Hawaii! It sounds like you have a nice plan! I just wanted to reply to the quotes, as they do not reflect "all" or even "most" of the comments and reviews that I have seen on the board. So far I see 18 people who have given the ship great reviews here, using the words "Wonderful, outstanding, fabulous, fantastic, great" to describe the overall experience. Cityggal-Vacationbound, bobnsandi, zimmerjulie, Silver Girl, LCI 598, kat 28, RSM2354, D&J38, Shiraz, AndyP7, Kapuna, Mike Kaye, RuUp2It?, cruiser from MN, slk230red, slothandle, and JoeAndrew. I also got the impression that member Maeve 619 had a good trip. She gave a ton of info on the "Live from the Pride of Hawaii" thread.

 

There were 4 members whose opinions were mixed, "Good & Not so good"

loLa123, saydiver, jrozman, and stormy67

 

There were 5 that gave it bad to horrible ratings, "Save your Money, only good thing about this cruise was Hawaii itself", etc. Snowbrat, Ilovefuncruises, NCLcruiselover, Lynnie Sue, and hollym.

 

Did I miss anybody?

 

originally posted by Solo Wing

i think we'll all have a great time on both the ship and the exotic islands of hawaii

I hope you do have a great trip!!

[PhillyEagle]

The reviews were all so bad with the exception of Julie's.

 

LOL. Looks like you missed a few...er...most of them.

[konakraft]

So, from what I have read here (and on the POC-Hawaii board), POH is having the same sort of “debut” issues that POA and POAm had when they launched, right? And again, what I’ve read is that most of the service & food issues were resolved on the POA and POAm within a 9-12mos period. So, why not reason that the same would be true for POH? Based on questions that have been asked by newbie-cruisers here, I anticipated that the “kinks” would be worked out by 2008 when we are planning to cruise. We’ve already done the land trip, back in 2003 but we now want to see the other islands…..Two days each on Kauai, Maui and the Big Island, plus a post cruise stay in Oahu is exactly what DH & I need !!

Just my observation….

[Breezey]

After much talking and thinking....I cancelled our cruise on the POH next November. The reviews were all so bad with the exception of Julie's. The food is the main reason we were looking into a cruise around the island since it is so pricey. Although if you pay that much for a cruise and the food and service are sub-par then it really is not worth it. I just went and priced out airfare for my family and staying 8 nights on Oahu ( interisland air to other islands during that time) and 3 nights on Maui ( at the Ritz no less) and rental cars. The price was right at $4,000.00. Which is only $400 more than the 7 night cruise alone without airfare. We were looking at close to $7,000 once we added airfare and rental cars to the cruise. At this point I don't think we will spend $3,000 on food in 10 days. Breakfast is included at the resorts to boot! So for me the choice is easy. There is no way I have the patience to wait 1-2 hours for a table to eat dinner on a cruise...plus pay extra for it.

I guess NCLA is not for us.

 

 

Wow that is fast action considering your cruise isnt until next November (or was it this?). We are going in September and while I too was hesitant when I read the first few reviews, I also read positive reviews and hope that some of the blips would be fixed by the time we were on the ship. We look it at this as a floating hotel taking us from place to place so we can see various parts of Hawaii. And if you have cruised before, trust me I have read a wide range of reviews on these boards and if I would have only paid attention to the negative ones, I dont think I would ever go on one. I think you will have a wonderful trip and I suspect we will too. Thanks to Zimmerjulie for making me feel better with the decision we made

 

And hey, look for my review at the end of September. I am the first in line to honestly praise or slam a cruise.

[Eeyore1928]

Sorry that I missed the few good NCLA reviews. Once you read the POA< POA<and the POH reviews..all the same company...same location...why would I expect the POH to be the best. Or even expect anything better as far as service/food onboard, just because it is all new and shiny. I have read the good reviews about this cruise. Yes I agree that the islands and the scenery are all wonderful and that seemed to make the trip for some. However, waiting to eat dinner, having to pretty much eat on the islands for a lot of the meals anyway if you want to maximize your time there, and the lack of personal attention from room stewards and the rest of the crew, I think I made the right choice for us. We have been loyal DCL cruisers for the past few years, but were wanting Hawaii. I expect the same level of service for both my daughter and myself while onboard a cruise. It just doesn't seem that NCLA would match up to DCL's standards. I would be upset for spending so much money to have lousy service.

I know these are just my thoughts and I am sure that many people will enjoy the cruise in the future. I just have read too many plain awlful reviews on all of their Hawaii ships to do it myslef.

[konakraft]

We have been loyal DCL cruisers for the past few years, but were wanting Hawaii.

 

GEE, no wonder you cancelled the NCL trip.....DCL is more of "premium" cruise line than NCL would be. The Caribbean itineraries are just like all the others (Carnival, RCCL, NCL, etc...) but the BIG difference is the cost that DCL charges for their cabins. I cannot justify spending THAT much for a "floating hotel" in the Caribbean, because I could spend much less on another cruise line. As far as sailing to Hawaii is another story...I'll sail with whomever will give me the MOST time in the islands !!

Again, JMO.... :D

[Kapuna]

My family and I are going to travel the islands on the Pride of Hawaii on the 17th of July so I was wondering how the new ship that had been made to sound so grand really was. So far, the comments and reviews that I've read about the Pride of Hawaii and NCLA were all negative, claiming that service and food on the NCLA ships were abysmal. If any of you have cruised on the Pride of Hawaii, please share your experience with me:).

Negative reviews seem to get lots of attention on these boards while positive reviews sink without a trace . It must be human nature !

[Eeyore1928]

Well the reason we are loyal DCL'ers is because we travel with our 3 year old and the Oceaneers Club, mixed with the character interaction, the entertainment, the food, and the all around reputaion of Disney make it all worth while. After hearing that all of those things were way below Disney standards on NCLA, we were a little frightful. The when I clicked on the member reviews on the ships page, they were all bad except the one. I have read a little on this board but mostly the reviews on the ships page.

[endi302]

Well the reason we are loyal DCL'ers is because we travel with our 3 year old and the Oceaneers Club, mixed with the character interaction, the entertainment, the food, and the all around reputaion of Disney make it all worth while. After hearing that all of those things were way below Disney standards on NCLA, we were a little frightful. The when I clicked on the member reviews on the ships page, they were all bad except the one. I have read a little on this board but mostly the reviews on the ships page.

 

I agree the reviews on the review page paint a bad picture for the ship. If you read all of the reviews on this forum, overall most people enjoyed the cruise. I agree with you that this cruise may not be the best for you and your family, mainly because you sound like you want to be waited on hand and foot and spend a lot of time on the ship. I for one am going because I want to see as much of the islands as possible in the time available. We are booked on the July 10 sialing and will post our opinions when we return. I can assure you of one thing, service on the ship will NOT affect my trip because I will be on the islands or under water diving the whole time there. I also learned a long time ago to take reviews with a grain of salt. I have been on many cruises and have read bad reviews about each ship before we went. Each time I saw almost none of the things listed as negatives. Some people are just impossible to please no matter what you try to do for them.

 

Good luck with your alternate plans, but next time before you cancel due to a few reviews maybe you should do a little more research...JMO

 

Kevin

[endi302]

My family and I are going to travel the islands on the Pride of Hawaii on the 17th of July so I was wondering how the new ship that had been made to sound so grand really was. So far, the comments and reviews that I've read about the Pride of Hawaii and NCLA were all negative, claiming that service and food on the NCLA ships were abysmal. If any of you have cruised on the Pride of Hawaii, please share your experience with me:).

 

Hope you enjoy your cruise, we will be getting off as you are getting on the ship. We will try to keep the ship from sinking before you get there...LOL

 

Kevin

[COWBOYGIRL]

I also saw all of the negative posts prior to my cruise, and thought to myself, 'it can't be that bad its Hawaii", and for the most part I was right.

 

Most of the posts regarding the service on the ship are correct, I am sad to say, but it really isn't that bad! The food at Cagney's was good, but a lot of people complained because of the cover charge. We had reservations at 2 other specialty restaurants but unfortunately came back to late one night, and were to tired the other. We ate at Grand Pacific on Thursday night this is the formal night, they serve Lobster this night, but we had prime rib and it was good. You have to realize that these chefs are cooking for approx 2000 people 3 times a day, so naturally you will get better food in the smaller restaurants.

 

The first thing you should do is book your excusions on line, or make arrangements for rental cars. I loved all the excursions we went on the tour guides are locals with a whole lot of information, I loved Kona by Land and Sea,:D and Hollywood in Hawaii, (Kauai) hopefully you will get Ramie and Makahan :) ( I think that was his name) a very nice tour.

 

The ship is very nice it is clean because it is so new, but I must agree with others when they discuss the attitudes of the employees on the ship, :mad: but then again some are very nice, you just have to not let the bad ones get you down.

[Zeno]

After much talking and thinking....I cancelled our cruise on the POH next November. The reviews were all so bad with the exception of Julie's. The food is the main reason we were looking into a cruise around the island since it is so pricey. Although if you pay that much for a cruise and the food and service are sub-par then it really is not worth it. I just went and priced out airfare for my family and staying 8 nights on Oahu ( interisland air to other islands during that time) and 3 nights on Maui ( at the Ritz no less) and rental cars. The price was right at $4,000.00. Which is only $400 more than the 7 night cruise alone without airfare. We were looking at close to $7,000 once we added airfare and rental cars to the cruise. At this point I don't think we will spend $3,000 on food in 10 days. Breakfast is included at the resorts to boot! So for me the choice is easy. There is no way I have the patience to wait 1-2 hours for a table to eat dinner on a cruise...plus pay extra for it.

I guess NCLA is not for us.

 

How unfortunate that you will only see Oahu and Maui. Unfortunately "day trips" through interisland air are not too practical (excess time wasting at the airports and of course the added expense). If you were so concerned about NCLA, you could have considered another cruise originating on the West Coast - lots of sea days but at least you would get to see most of the islands. I do think you got an excellent "land' deal though - $4000 for air AND hotel AND car rental for two for 10 days is REALLY good. It is just too bad that you won't get to see BI and Kauai.

You have probably made the correct decision for you though, NCLA is definitely not DCL.

[pioneers]

I also saw all of the negative posts prior to my cruise, and thought to myself, 'it can't be that bad its Hawaii", and for the most part I was right.

 

Most of the posts regarding the service on the ship are correct, I am sad to say, but it really isn't that bad!

 

I went on the 6/19 and I agree that it isn't very bad but it has its problems. We arrived after 4:00 pm and they had no leis. I ordered a gift for my daughter in early May and it was not in our room. The reception desk took forever since the lines were huge. I questioned them on the leis and they said they couldn't help and didn't have any. I also asked about my daughter's package and was told that they will call Miami to find out because they had nothing on file. The next day, after my excusion I got a message that I didn't pay for the package that I was asking about. I had to get my cell and call my credit card company for assistance. I then went with information my credit card gave me and then they said that it was that someone gave the wrong info to the person who was to look into it. It was resolved but I didn't expect to spend two days to get what I paid for. We also had a coupon we turned in for each of us for our shore excursions and were told that we would see the credit on our statement on the last day. I didn't trust them after everything I heard and read on this board and asked for a note stating that I turned in these coupons. I am glad I did because we didn't get the credit on our statement. We had to go to get it corrrected at 6:00am on disembarkation.

 

As far as my cabin. I was always clean and on time. It was the same as other ships we have taken.

 

We ate at Papa's but didn't enjoy it not because of the food but because they made us sit in these benches and it was had for my older parents. My dad could barely get in and when it was time to leave he almost fell trying to get out. I did ask for other seat but was told that they couldn't put a party of 7 somewhere else.

 

I ate in the main dining rooms and we didn't wait an hour or more for the service. It was the same as in a resturant at home. Some of the dishes were a little spicy there were other choices but not too many. Our waiters were very nice in the Pacific and Alizar.

 

As far as the excursions, we went with the ship. It was well organized. We had a time and place to meet in our tickets. When you arrived to your meeting place there were signs and they were ready for you.

 

Overall, I did enjoy my trip. It was a beautifully ship and Hawaii is breathtaking. I feel that it is they best affordable way to see the different island.

 

I do want to thank all those that posted before. Their information was helpful. :)

[laura salzy]

We're booked on POH on October 2 for our 25th anniversary. I anxiously awaited the inaugural sailing and have read every review I can find on this board. I too got somewhat spooked after reading all the negativity but we discussed it again and decided to keep our original plans. We've been on NCL twice in the Caribbean, RCL and Celebrity about 5 times. We're going on this trip knowing ahead of time that the food will never be as good as Celebrity's was nor will the service. But we had terrific times on both NCL cruises, met great people and had no problem gaining weight! I'm with Breezy - we're using the ship to see as many islands on our first trip to Hawaii, it's brand new so how bad can it be? We've never encountered any issues with room stewards or waiters on over 15 cruises and I don't expect them on this trip. A smile and thank you has always gotten me the extra blanket or morning coffee. If I'm wrong, you'll hear about it on this board in October but I am not going to let 5-10 people out of how many thousands who have sailed these first few weeks ruin my anticipation or my anniversary celebration.

[Breezey]

We're booked on POH on October 2 for our 25th anniversary. I anxiously awaited the inaugural sailing and have read every review I can find on this board. I too got somewhat spooked after reading all the negativity but we discussed it again and decided to keep our original plans. We've been on NCL twice in the Caribbean, RCL and Celebrity about 5 times. We're going on this trip knowing ahead of time that the food will never be as good as Celebrity's was nor will the service. But we had terrific times on both NCL cruises, met great people and had no problem gaining weight! I'm with Breezy - we're using the ship to see as many islands on our first trip to Hawaii, it's brand new so how bad can it be? We've never encountered any issues with room stewards or waiters on over 15 cruises and I don't expect them on this trip. A smile and thank you has always gotten me the extra blanket or morning coffee. If I'm wrong, you'll hear about it on this board in October but I am not going to let 5-10 people out of how many thousands who have sailed these first few weeks ruin my anticipation or my anniversary celebration.

 

 

Congrats to you Laura (my daughter's name). We are cruising for our 30th anniversary.

[billsultra]

I also sailed on the 19th and overall I would say it was a night mare. Dirty rooms, no body to clean our room the first day until late afternoon because the other person quit, raw chicken in Italian rest., ran out of towels on Kona, not enough waiters at pool side, previous person left socks under bed, door slamming during entire meal in Italian rest., ran out of lobster in Cagney's, bought aniversary package which was in room with letter upon arrival but had twin beds (said ran out of rod to hold beds together and king spreads), changed itenarary and left Kuauii at 2pm verses 6pm as stated on our ticket and still says so on web site (had to canccel rafting) etc., etc..

 

Yes there was great food in French rest. with great service. Also De An at the main pool bar could do twice the work of anyone on the ship.

 

Islands were great but when you are on the ship (and pay as much as Royal, Disney or Carnival you should get excellent service and decent entertainment, neither was there. I have been on 5 cruises and never had an experience like this. Never again on this cruise line!

[laura salzy]

Wow, Breezey, congratulations to you too. I not only share your daughter's name but I work in NY for a Canadian bank!

 

I see we have another negative review just posted and I'm sorry Bill had such a bad cruise. Afterall, we all work hard all year and vacations are costly so nobody wants to have a trip like that. We're early diners so I'll make sure to get to the lobster before they run out and if they can't put our bed into one bed, well, our room steward will be followed until he finds that rod. I'm still remaining positive. Nothing can be worse than being shoved and pushed and jammed into crowded NYC subways every day. :eek:

[lovemypug]

I have to agree with billsultra we were on the June 19 cruise.

Ours was also a nightmare cruise.

Everything that could go wrong did.

I found out that alot of cruise staff quit right before we got on. They arent getting paid that tip that gets put on our bill automaticially. The $10 per day per person.

That made our cruise half staffed and they also added more passengers for our cruise. The crew also has to be coast guard certified because its a US ship. Most of the crew is not certified. What NCL does is - the crew that is not certified has to get off the ship before we leave and NCL flies them to the next island so that they can get back on board when we dock. That way they are not at sea. They even had crew from the other ships come to ours.

The bartenders didnt know how to make drinks. They always had to look it up in the book behind the bar.We never had anyone ask us if we wanted a drink at the pool. That has never happen before.

We didnt like the freestyle dining. It was always full or we could get in at 9pm. The buffet was always the same and the breakfast was also the same everyday.

Make reservations the day you board the ship for the whole week if you can. That way you will be able to get in the restaurants that you want.

If you have kids- the teen club is great. If you have kids under 12 (like 11yrs old) they wont want to go in there because they will be with 5 yr olds. They put them together and there is only 2 counselors for all those kids. They were going wild.

We will never go on NCL ever again. It was a complete nightmare.