Just Returned from the Pride of Aloha July 8th-16th

[wam957]

Hi all--my wife and I just returned from our 25th wedding anniversary tour of the Hawaiin Islands aboard the Pride of Aloha. This is the first review I am writing. I will try to give you a good play by play of our trip and my honest opinion.

 

By way of background, my wife and I have done a lot of travelling but have not cruised before. We are pretty casual, laid back, fun loving people. We live at the Jersey shore which is a pretty easy going area for the New York metro area, but we do make frequent trips to the city to dine, shop or see shows. We have four kids who we left home for this trip. :D

 

As far as arrangements go, Christine and I had been planning to go to Hawaii for about two years for our big anniversary. (Never been there before). I looked into many options and figured out that an NCL cruise was the most cost effective way to see most of Hawaii in a short time. I decided on the Pride of Aloha because I knew Christine would prefer the island vibe over the Pride of America and was afraid to book on the new Pride of Hawaii without time for them to work out any kinks.

 

We booked a month before sailing, got a special on a one night hotel stay at the Waikiki Marriot through the cruise line and let NCL make our air arrangements. I booked a guarantee K (for an unbelievably low rate) and let them know at the time of booking that we were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary and asked if she would upgrade us to the best room possible. She said she would see what she could do. I orderd the Romance Package and booked two excursions ahead of time. We sailed out of Honolulu. We booked a car in Kaui and Maui. The cruise documents arrived about two weeks before sailing and we found we had been upgraded 5 categories to a category II. (Cabin 8032 inside forward port) :)

 

Day One

 

We arrive at Newark Airport at 5:30 in the morning for the first leg of our flight on United Airlines to Chicago. We had some air miles and asked if we could use them to ugrade any leg of our trip to first class. The check-in person put us on a priority waiting list for first class. Our leg to Chicago we were in economy (killer tight for my hefty frame), but our leg from Chicago to Honolulu was upgraded. (yipee!) Needless to say, it was a great fligth as far as 8 hour flights go. When we arrive in Honolulu we were greeted by an NCL rep as soon we got into the terminal. She escorted us and the others she was waiting for to the baggage area and after getting our bags she took us to the shuttle. We arrived at the Marriot and all the NCL bags were put in one pile and delivered to our rooms while we checked into the cruise and bought an excursion to the Arizona Memorial for the following day which we would do on the way to the ship. (This was necessitated by the fact that NCL scheduled us for a 1 PM departure on Sunday, which would leave us no time for sight-seeing in Honolulu on departure day as had been our original plan). We arrive in our ocean view room on the 11th floor, threw on our bathing suits and took our first plunge in the pacific in front of the hotel, We ended our first evening in Hawaii swimming at Waikiki beach, happening upon a free local beachfront Hula show, walking along the beach at sunset, catching a lite bite at Duke's and browsing around the International Market.

 

(To Be Continued)