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Weird Vibe On Pride of America


wordsjustfly
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Are you kidding me?! There were many activities on the ship throughout the day, and a new show in the Theatre each night, as well as various other musical entertainment at various lounges. There are POA Freestyle Dailies posted on CC, take a look for yourself. It seemed a shame to miss most of it, but Hawaii came first, and we were exhausted when we reboarded at the end of a very long day. And after all, that's why we cruised Hawaii. Not for cruise ship activities.

 

Agreed, there were a lot of activities onboard when we sailed last year, but unfortunately we were too tired to enjoy everything (never completely got over the jet lag, combined with early mornings). And I have to disagree with the staff being curt; we found everyone to be very accommodating and warm, with only one or two exceptions.

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The mostly American crew is different, pretty much the same service we get in regular life here at home, and yet we survive.

 

The thing is, if I'm paying cruise ship prices, I'd want better service than I get in regular life.

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i would be pretty pissed if i paid suite prices to not be afforded the perks that are supposed to come with a suite, fleet wide.

This is how we felt when we were told how they do things on POA. But, thems the rules...so, we made the best of it.

As far as activities, I attended two lei making classes and had beautiful orchid lei to wear onboard to dinner each night.

Gave ribbon lei to our butler, as he was new to POA and had not had time to make his. All staff onboard have ribbon leis they wear.

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If you want people to be obsequious you won't get that service on POA. If you are happy with polite, friendly, typical American service, much like you would get anywhere in Hawaii, you will be fine. When we were on board in April they were a little understaffed, they said they have a hard time filling all of their positions.

 

Vic

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If you want people to be obsequious you won't get that service on POA. If you are happy with polite, friendly, typical American service, much like you would get anywhere in Hawaii, you will be fine. When we were on board in April they were a little understaffed, they said they have a hard time filling all of their positions.

 

Vic

 

One thing folks need to remember about the crew on the POA. While most international crew on foreign flag ships make a very decent middle class income in their home countries (even though they are way below the poverty line for US wages), the vast majority of crew on POA are earning minimum wage for a 84 hour week. Most could make more money flipping burgers at MickeyD's and live at home, or at least be able to go out every night and do whatever they wanted. Many don't get the opportunity to see the "wonderful Hawaiian islands" that the passengers see, most only see the stores and laundromats in the harbor area.

 

As to sailing short handed, this has been a perennial problem with the POA crew, and the other NCL US flag ships when they were out there. Unlike the international crew, where only the deck and engine departments are credentialed mariners, the USCG requires that anyone on a ship that is assigned an emergency duty (so nearly 98% of crew), must be a fully credentialed merchant mariner. The training, and documentation required for this (including an FBI background check) costs the company about $8-10,000 per crew member, just to get them to the ship for their first day of work. Now, when someone quits, they cannot call the crewing agency in the Philippines, like the international ships would do, and have a new cabin steward on the next flight out, they need to hire, train and document a new merchant mariner, since there is not an available pool of qualified and certified cabin stewards just sitting around waiting for a job.

 

By all means, if you feel the need, complain both onboard and to corporate, but know that crew attitude has been a problem since the project started in 2004, and while it has gotten better, until the pay improves significantly, with an increase in cabin fares (which won't happen because of pressure from the foreign flag ships doing Hawaii from the West Coast), crew attitude won't improve. The crew wages for the POA are well below hospitality industry standards, nearly anywhere in the US.

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We sailed POA last year , in Owners Suite. We also noticed a different attitude from some of the staff. Room steward and butler were great. Very surprised at curt attitude from concierge. Told they do not do in suite dining , which surprised me. Butler said concierge makes the rules and a letter to our Suite laid out his rules for the cruise. No Suite seating for entertainment etc. If we wanted escort off ship, we had to make it at his time. One escort per port.

Did go to HD and leave a comment. I had organized the Cruise Critic M & G and had chatted with him then. He apologized for a couple of incidents and ended up sending wine to our cabin.

Butler, did bring us dinner one evening, as a special favor to us, hope he did not get in trouble. We had specialty dining for each night of cruise, so we had him bring Cagney's.

Since POA has to hire a certain number of Americans as staff, many are not accustomed to NCL work schedule. We spent most time off ship, renting a car at a couple of ports and driving in Maui and Kauai . Went snorkeling at Poipu beach, and then Grand Canyon of Kauai.

Try to ignore grumbling and enjoy your cruise. It is the best way to experience all the islands. We have spent many years going to Maui and Kauai. It was cool to see the other islands.

PLEASE , have a great time on the islands...

Also.....

Love going to Alaska....going again next month on the Pearl ...

 

We sailed in POA in a suite last September. We had in suite dining no problem. It's one of the included perks. I agree about the concierge. He was totally useless. Our butler, Guy was wonderful and picked up some of the slack from the concierge.

 

We wanted to get into a booked restaurant and concierge told us he couldn't do it. We thought this was oddd as this is part of his job. We ended up not tipping him as we were really dissatisfied with him.

 

If you don't get your suite perks, call the hotel manager and complain nicely. Things should go smoothly after that.

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Is NCL aware of all these complaints? It would be helpful to future passengers ( like myself ) if they were. They have no access to this thread...I don't think... There's just no excuse for poor service and attitude. There's too many people out there that would love to work on a ship that circles the Hawaiian Isles.

 

I had a really nice discussion with the concierge of the ship and voiced some of my concerns and he agreed with me that the vibe is just different.

 

All of my comments we're duly noted :)

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Who was the concierge on your cruise?

 

Chris is the conceirge on PoA.

 

Peter is an amazing Butler.

Boni fabulous steward

Zuben a very talented sommelier

Martha is the assistant restaurant manager - amazing and gets things done. Love her. She's in Cagney's. but I think she had one more week and she's off ship for 6 weeks.

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We were on POA last year. As the organizer of the Meet and greet, got to know many cruisers on board. The officers had some of us meet with them at end of cruise. I did tell the HD about the issues we noticed unique to that cruise. He listed and had his assistant make notes. Called out Food and Beverage Manager for doing a great job and many meals we had were on point.

They were going to SF for drydock after our cruise. Captain had a lot on his plate. We spent 10 minutes, privately, chatting about Nespresso. He told me they were going into the Suites. He and I have a favorite model and we had fun comparing notes on the different machines and pods.

Feedback to appropriate departments is valued.

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One thing folks need to remember about the crew on the POA. While most international crew on foreign flag ships make a very decent middle class income in their home countries (even though they are way below the poverty line for US wages), the vast majority of crew on POA are earning minimum wage for a 84 hour week. Most could make more money flipping burgers at MickeyD's and live at home, or at least be able to go out every night and do whatever they wanted. Many don't get the opportunity to see the "wonderful Hawaiian islands" that the passengers see, most only see the stores and laundromats in the harbor area.

 

As to sailing short handed, this has been a perennial problem with the POA crew, and the other NCL US flag ships when they were out there. Unlike the international crew, where only the deck and engine departments are credentialed mariners, the USCG requires that anyone on a ship that is assigned an emergency duty (so nearly 98% of crew), must be a fully credentialed merchant mariner. The training, and documentation required for this (including an FBI background check) costs the company about $8-10,000 per crew member, just to get them to the ship for their first day of work. Now, when someone quits, they cannot call the crewing agency in the Philippines, like the international ships would do, and have a new cabin steward on the next flight out, they need to hire, train and document a new merchant mariner, since there is not an available pool of qualified and certified cabin stewards just sitting around waiting for a job.

 

By all means, if you feel the need, complain both onboard and to corporate, but know that crew attitude has been a problem since the project started in 2004, and while it has gotten better, until the pay improves significantly, with an increase in cabin fares (which won't happen because of pressure from the foreign flag ships doing Hawaii from the West Coast), crew attitude won't improve. The crew wages for the POA are well below hospitality industry standards, nearly anywhere in the US.

 

 

In talking with the crew they state they receive minimum wage of 9.25 and time and a half. And waitvstaff have the opportunity to earn tips. We tip 20% at all specialty restaurants aboard ship.

 

On international ships no time and a half. Everyone says they make money aboard this ship than they do any other ship in the fleet

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I think Poster # 17 spoke the truth. There is a world of difference in the attitude of crew members who are from the USA, compared to (Other ships) where you will find non-USA crew members. Put your hard-earned $$$, and valuable travel / vacation time into virtually any cruise ship other than POA.

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There's too many people out there that would love to work on a ship that circles the Hawaiian Isles.

 

In talking with the crew they state they receive minimum wage of 9.25 and time and a half.

 

Here on Maui at least, we saw an ad in The Maui News looking for a dishwasher. It pays $15.00 an hour. If you are local, why go through all that is required of a POA crew member when you can stay home and make more money?

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I don't have high expectations when I travel. I usually don't travel to be pampered as my husband and I go to see the sights and have a few good meals. We do expect people to be helpful when we have questions. We have only cruised on Carnival and we are not huge cruise people. We are taking this cruise as we want to see as much as Hawaii as we can in a short amount of time.(we do have a few days before the cruise in Honolulu.)

I have read the reviews on this ship and it seems reviews are mixed. As long as staff is not rude and the ship is as pretty as it looks on their website we will be happy.

 

I get what you're saying -and it all depends what you're looking for in a vacation I guess. We cruise every other year and I'll be the first to tell you that when I cruise it's to relax, eat amazing food, be pampered, see some fun entertainment, meet and make new friends and see cool places. I want it all :)

 

Ship's pretty, international staff are fabulous, American staff is okay :) food this time around was just okay. My best meal believe it or not was a really delicious egg salad sandwich that came from the crews mess hall.

 

If you have the opportunity rent a car in Maui as you spend the night. Explore the island - the excursions to tour the island are kinda lame. They don't take you to Lahaina, and you don't get to see the Banyan trees.

 

But this cruise is really a destination cruise as the ship takes you to each island and that's the fun of it.

 

❤️❤️

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In talking with the crew they state they receive minimum wage of 9.25 and time and a half. And waitvstaff have the opportunity to earn tips. We tip 20% at all specialty restaurants aboard ship.

 

On international ships no time and a half. Everyone says they make money aboard this ship than they do any other ship in the fleet

 

The way that international crew are paid on the foreign flag NCL ships is that the base wage of the required $615/month, and the time and a quarter for hours in excess of 40/week are calculated and paid in a "blended" rate that makes the base wage higher than minimum, but the overtime less than the time and a quarter, so all hours are paid at the same rate.

 

Yes, they make more money on the POA than any other ship, but when you look at the standard of living in the crew members' home countries, the POA wages are still pretty well minimum wage, since they are only paid while on the ship. In the Philippines, and other countries where the majority of the international crew come from, they earn a fairly good middle class income. It is all relative.

 

To give an example of how low the wages were/are for the POA crew in relation to other industries, the deck and engine unlicensed crew are represented by the Seafarer's International Union (SIU). The original contract signed between NCL and the SIU had these professional mariners, who on any other ship flying the US flag would receive time and a half for hours worked over 40/week, on POA and her sister ships (at the time) earning $0.65/hour less than their base wage for overtime hours. This has been subsequently redressed due to poor participation of the union members in taking the jobs for NCL.

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I'm on NCL Pride of America- we boarded yesterday, the 12th of August, and set sail at 7 pm.

 

Boarding was fine, no issues. I had broken my foot at a Neil Diamond concert a few weeks before - and they were very kind about wheel chair assistance. It's when we boarded things felt a little weird.

 

 

We went to Cagneys for lunch, and the staff were actually sniping at each other, raised voices etc... in all the times I've cruised I've never experienced that.

 

 

 

The food was off - not terrible but not Cagney standards. Again weird.

 

 

We booked a suite- so we met our butler and steward who were/are super amazing.

 

 

♀️

 

We sailed the 7/1 cruise.

 

Aft cabin nice, most of the staff OK. Food in MDR average at best. Specialty restaurants not worth it.

 

Mid cruise they let 35 restaurant/hospitality staff go.

 

Yes, very weird vibe on this ship. But the cruise was fun and a great way to see the islands.

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I'm sailing on POA in June. Heard the same complaints. Called NCL to see if I had options of switching- oftentimes the crew really makes the trip amazing! They said no problem. The NCL rep said she had once been a travel agent years ago and back then they knew of this problem. She concurred that it was the American crew. I'm sticking with the cruise because I'm telling myself that it's all about the islands. As much as I live my days at sea, this will be about land and a ship to get me there. Cheers!

Edited by goosemay
POS instead of POA- whoops!
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