Aloha! Pride of America with Pictures July 25

[I.M.swimming]

Not sure what board will benifit the most from this review so I am going to post this in both the NCL and the Hawaii Board.

 

We just got back from 11 days in Hawaii. WOW. First time Hawaii, first time NCL, and hooked on both, but more on that later. Background: We are a family of four with two kids 12 and 15. This is our fourth cruise, 2 on Disney and one on Celebrity. If you have any questions involving anything, just ask. This website has been so helpful, so ill try to give back a little. And if you would like to see a specific picture of hawaii or the ship, ill do my best to find one and post it. All the negative reviews you read, I do not know who makes the stuff up, but it was great. Besides, its a cruise to Hawaii!

[jackswife]

I agree totally. We had a wonderful experience on the POA the end of March. Would do it again in a heart beat. The ship was wonderful, the crew was friendly and upbeat. No complaints whatsoever.

[Carey and Kerry]

Glad you had such a good time! What category cabin were you in and do you have pictures of it?

Thanks.

[Jeanny]

you can upload your pictures to webshots.com and share them that way too. Looking forward to your trip report. :)

[smrtypnts]

I hope you plan to post a review of all that you did; all that you liked and disliked both on and off the ship. I want to hear every detail. :)

[I.M.swimming]

We live in Greenville, SC so we drove to Charlotte to fly out to Phoenix and then Honolulu! If you live around Charlotte, they are offering a direct in December to Hawaii fyi. The leg to Phoenix took about 4 hours, so we weren't expecting any kind of food. Then the flight to Honolulu. This was a 6 hour flight. No food! You could purchase a sandwich or salad for 7 bucks, and we did, but you would expect on a 6 hour flight that they would provide some sort of meal or even pretzels. In the last 2 months I have traveled to China, Italy, and England, and although not much, they still gave you something to munch on. So tip #1, bring lots of food on the plane. We arrived in Honolulu about 5:30, grabbed our luggage and headed to the Thrifty van. By the way, we very impressed with Thrifty. We rented with them on all but one of the islands and no complaints. They always had a shuttle in 5 or less minutes to pick us up, very informative, and even gave complimentary drinks. Nice touch. Since we had traveled a LONG time that day, we just went to our hotel, called the Aston Waikiki Beach Hotel, and we went to bed. It is the last big hotel before you get to Diamond Head, right next to the Marriot. Awesome hotel. Although the elevators were VERY slow, it was in a great location, had great decor (tiki) and just a very fun hotel. And for a VERY nice price, we even got 2 coolers to fill up with breakfast foods, which they had like eggs, sausage, rice, ect. Nothing amazing, but good food.

[I.M.swimming]

Ill continue the review probably tomorrow morning and work on the pictures. I am having a little trouble posting them in the big size. They all turn out too small for my preference.

[I.M.swimming]

Glad you had such a good time! What category cabin were you in and do you have pictures of it?

Thanks.

 

We were in category CC cabin 4080 which is on deck 4 midship. Small cabin but nice and awesome room steward named Sheree. Very fun to talk to and did a great job on the room, but i'll go into detail later in the review with the pic. I am still experimenting with the pictures but will go as fast as I can.

[Carey and Kerry]

Look forward to reading the review, thanks!!

[I.M.swimming]

This is a photo of Diamond Head and Waikiki from the plane. Don't worry, many more photos left. took over 2500!:D:p. Just for thursday the pictures were just of the plane.

[I.M.swimming]

Sorry, here it is again

[I.M.swimming]

Okk

[I.M.swimming]

We woke up around 4 in the morning to see Diamond Head looming a few feet (hundred feet) from our balcony. We had a great room with a view of both Diamond Head and the ocean. Even though our hotel offered breakfast, we decided to eat our breakfast at Eggs n' Things. Very good food, and you get a LOT of it. As weird as it sounds, get the fish plate for breakfast. It’s great. Next we headed back to our hotel to pick up a second breakfast:p to eat after we were through snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. We got there around 8:30 and the parking lot was slightly full, but we saw guest coming in at all times. They now charge $7 or $7.50, for each adult but kids 12 and under are free. There is also a one dollar parking charge. Hanauma Bay is beautiful. There is no other way to describe it. To me it was one of the prettiest beaches we saw. Also there is great snorkeling, but I would either start at the information desk or the left side of the beach. When you look down at the crater and walking down, you can see where the coral and where the sand is. We tried swimming on the right, but it is very shallow and you will touch the coral this way. The left side has a much easier entrance. If you are an experienced snorkeler, swim out past the breakers. That is where the better coral and fish are. We saw a lot of great fish, but what made it was seeing a 4 foot Moray Eel come out of his hole and our first Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle. We left around 2 and headed to COSTCO. We wanted to get some water bottles instead of paying the 2.50 for one. Also, some of the locals told us to check out the souvenirs here. Believe it or not, most of the store was filled with Hawaiian stuff! You will find Mauna Loa macadamia nuts, Hawaiian shirts, ukuleles, Dried fruit, Hawaiian books, potato chips and more. It sounds silly but if you have a membership, it is worth going. We also ate lunch here to have more time to see Oahu, and then headed along the windward coast. Very beautiful. We stopped at about every scenic spot, including the Halona Blowhole and about every other beach. Our last beach stop was our favorite beach on Hawaii called Kailua. I strongly advise you to stop here. It was just like a beach you see in the magazines with the turquoise blue water, white sand, and palm trees. Great stop. We drove back through the Pali highway and stopped at the Pali lookout. We got back to the hotel, ate down and the Wolfgang Puck's restaurant since we were tired, and went to bed. Tomorrow, the Pride of America.

[I.M.swimming]

The first two pictures are from our hotel room window, the next is Eggs n' Things and the last two is of Hanauma Bay. Notice the brighter sandy spot in the water on the fourth photo is where I would recommend to start snorkeling from.

[I.M.swimming]

The next photo is of Kailua Beach Park, and last is the Pali Lookout

[Jenbo57]

The next photo is of Kailua Beach Park, and last is the Pali Lookout

 

I love Kailua! That's where we always stay when we go to Hawaii, and when we win the lottery, that's where we'll buy our $7 million beach house! :D

[mianmike]

We left around 2 and headed to COSTCO. We wanted to get some water bottles instead of paying the 2.50 for one. Also, some of the locals told us to check out the souvenirs here. Believe it or not, most of the store was filled with Hawaiian stuff! You will find Mauna Loa macadamia nuts, Hawaiian shirts, ukuleles, Dried fruit, Hawaiian books, potato chips and more. It sounds silly but if you have a membership, it is worth going.

 

Good review. Thanks for the descriptive tip on where to safely enter Hanauma Bay for good snorkeling.

 

The Costco idea is great. We are members and will definitely check it out. Sounds like one way to save money for more excursions!

 

Looking forward to more photos and your next installment. :D

[shayniec]

Looking forward to your review of POA! Hopefully, you will answer my question: I know they charge you a surcharge (tip) per person/per day (I heard $12). Who does that go to? Do you still have to tip anyone else for services? We plan on eating in some of the specialty restaurants and wonder if we should be adding a tip for the waiter when we do. Hope anyone out there has the answer!

[I.M.swimming]

Looking forward to your review of POA! Hopefully, you will answer my question: I know they charge you a surcharge (tip) per person/per day (I heard $12). Who does that go to? Do you still have to tip anyone else for services? We plan on eating in some of the specialty restaurants and wonder if we should be adding a tip for the waiter when we do. Hope anyone out there has the answer!

 

I am not totally positive, but ill answer the best I understand it. I assume you have cruised other lines where they use the envelope system. Basically, It pays for the assistant, head water (you do not have to tip for specialty, although we did), main waiter, stewards, and I am pretty sure that is it. You will still have to tip for drinks and spa services. If I am incorrect on this response, please correct me, but that is how I understand it.:o

[shayniec]

Thanks for your reply! So, if I understand correctly, we don't have to tip anyone else, unless we want to. Or give a "bonus" to our room steward if we want.

[I.M.swimming]

On Saturday (day 3 of our vacation) we grabbed another Waikiki Beach Hotel “cooler breakfast” and then headed to Pearl Harbor (around 9 15). When we arrived to the ticket line, the park ranger was handing out tickets for 10:45. For future reference, try to get to the ticket booth earlier if you do not want to wait for your tour. Also, it is about a 30-45 min. drive with traffic so plan accordingly. The later ticket time did force us to go explore the museums and the gift shop which were nice. When it is your time you first watch the movie (very sorrowful) and then head out to the monument. It is definitely an eye opener and a must see for every American and foreigner for that matter.

After Pearl Harbor, we drove to Thrifty to drop off our car. In about 8 minutes they had checked our car back in, and loaded the luggage onto the van, and then we were successfully on our way to the ship. This took about 15 minutes, and we arrived into the terminal about 1:30. This was WAY later than we wanted to get there, and you could see why. Lines everywhere! It was like everyone wanted to get on OUR ship at the time we were getting on. Oh well, this is freestyle right?! You stand in one long line to check the majority of your bags. Next you move to another long line where they check your carry-on and your driver’s license. And the last line is by far the longest, waiting to get your room key. Note: if you are a latitudes member, there is almost no line. After you have checked in with your keys, you are free to board the ship. This was about 2:30 for us.

Our first stop once we boarded was the Buffet. The Pride of America was the first ship for us to have different stations set up for the buffet instead of one long line. I must say it takes a little getting used to, but I liked it. NCL had a good variety of food for lunch from what I could tell, although we only ate here twice. Since my wife has a wheat and gluten allergy, we went to talk to Alan (He was the head buffet chef) about what she could eat. If you have any dietary problem, go talk to Alan. He was very helpful and knowledgeable about all of the food. My wife was impressed from the start and says NCL did the best job of catering to her needs. All the waiters were familiar with the allergy and found or changed dishes to suit her needs. It is a good idea to notify the staff at least two weeks before sailing if you have any dietary special requests so that they can prepare. They offered GF pizza, muffins, waffles, bread, and much more when asked. We always enjoyed taking our plate to the back to eat outside. Most people do not realize this is an option at first.

After a great first meal our room was ready for occupancy. The rooms are called by floors, and it was about 3:45 when all the floors were called. We had category CC cabin 4080. We have had the same category and same location for every cruise we have been on and really enjoy both. The room was the smallest we have stayed in, but still worked well with four people. Another tip, bring an over the door shoe hanger. This helped us a lot in keeping some of the clutter off of the desks. Our room steward was named Sheree and was probably our best room steward ever. She was very nice, talkative, and cheerful. She always kept our cabin nice and clean.

Time for ship exploration! The ship is very well laid out and very nicely decorated. Each room depicts a different aspect of America. We felt pride in America just to walk around the beautiful ship!!! The only flaw I found in the floor plan is getting to the main restaurants from the middle of the ship. You must pass through the picture gallery, which is very narrow and congested at night. The first night we dined at the Skyline restaurant. Speaking of dining, we never had to wait more than 5-10 minutes for a table, but it seemed that Shaba Shaba in East’s Meets West, Little Italy, Cadillac Diner, and Teppanyaki were always full at night so plan to make your reservations accordingly. Back to the Skyline, we really enjoyed everything here and had no complaints except that the service is a little slow for our liking (2 hours for dining). I do not know if this is normal for NCL. If anyone knows the answer to that please let me know. We learned on the last night that if we just ask for faster service, the meals go much more to our speed, (a little over an hour). If you feel that you may miss having the same server each night, we found that it was actually fun to meet different people each day. We did attend the show and it was good. After the show we headed to bed since we had a big day planned in Maui. THE ROAD TO HANA!!!

[I.M.swimming]

First two pictures are from our hotel, the entertainment for breakfast and our hotel from the beach. Next, is Pearl Harbor and the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial. Then, the lines to the Check in Desk, and finally, the Pride of America!:D

[I.M.swimming]

First, the U.S. flag flying proudly on the back of the Pride of America, at the aft of the Lanai. Next, are the Skyline, Liberty, Lazy J, and the Cadillac Diner.

[I.M.swimming]

The crew shows you what the inside of a Lifeboat looks like which I thought was pretty cool. In case you were hungry, I decided to entice you with some Mahi Mahi. Lastly, our cozy stateroom and the Top of the ship at night leaving the harbor.

[I.M.swimming]

One more tip for Sailing out. Since the ship departs at 8, I would try to eat dinner, and then be on the aft of the ship to watch leave Honolulu Harbor. Around the time you leave, Waikiki has a great fireworks show which is a very cool bon voyage treat and great to watch from the ship