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Pride of America Review - 26 August 2017 to 2 September 2017


felicityd
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Well I'm back in Australia now after two weeks in Hawaii, and while everything is fresh in my mind I thought I'd post my thoughts on our cruise on the Pride of America. My mother and I went on this vacation together and we stayed on the port side inaccessible penthouse cabin 11528. Things you might need to know before I get into the nitty gritty - my mother is in a wheelchair but she can walk short distances, so we planned the whole trip, including hotels, our room on the ship, shore excursions and other tours that we did pursuant to her needs. This holiday was over a year in the making for us - we started planning and booked in July 2016, so I had twelve months to read every single Pride of America post on Cruise Critic, Trip Advisor, etc. Like, all of them. I was totally prepared.

 

We had low expectations about the ship going in. The reviews are incredibly mixed. Some people love it, some people hate it. I am happy to say that it completely exceeded our expectations and we had a great time - we thought the ship was lovely, really well maintained, and we didn't have a problem with any of the staff on board. In saying that,we've also never been on any of the "super ships" like Oasis of the Seas, and we'd never been on any other Norwegian ship so we really had no idea what to expect in that regard. We're used to cruising out of Australia and to me, this ship felt a lot like that. A relaxed atmosphere.

 

Anyway, here's a breakdown of our holiday.

 

Thursday 24/08 - we arrived in Honolulu after a god awful nighttime flight from Brisbane (which seriously made me re-evaluate whether I ever want to do another "long haul" flight again in my life, and currently the answer is no). I had zero sleep on the plane, and when we landed my mother's ears had played up so she was pretty much deaf - a fantastic start! At the airport we were assisted by one of the porters who took controlof Mum's wheelchair and guided us straight through security to the baggage claim, and thank god he did as we would've had absolutely no idea whatsoever about where to go! We used Diamond Head Vacations as our transfer from the airport to the hotel, and it was a little hectic (and the bus a little crowded), but it was effective. We spent our two nights pre-cruise at the Marriott Waikiki Beach (utilizing the free night of accommodation). When we arrived our room wasn't ready, but we went and had some lunch at their restaurant overlooking the beach (it was kind of a surreal experience, after 24 hours of travel, sitting there eating a burger in Hawaii!), and when we came back to reception to pick up our room cards, they decided that because we'd arrived early (this is what they said, I have no idea what the actual reason was), that they would upgrade our room for free. So our first two nights in Honolulu at the Marriott were spent in an accessible room with two bathrooms and three beds - one king size and two queens. Unbelievable. It was a fantastic start! It was the best hotel room we had all holiday, and really, the best hotel experience we had as well.

 

Friday 25/08 - This was a day of shopping for us. We don't have Walmart in Australia so the first thing we did was go to Walmart! The one near the Ala Moana shopping center. We then decided to walk up to the shopping center to kill some time, and we had lunch at Bubba Gump, which had come highly recommended. We are not people with expensive tastes in food or accommodation or really anything, so there won't be a lot of us eating at fancy restaurants in this review!

 

In the afternoon we went to the Paradise Cove Luau, another thing I was iffy about having booked. We splashed out for the royal package, figuring we were only going to be going to Hawaii once, and wanting to make everything as easy as possible for Mum in the wheelchair. We hit rush hour traffic leaving Honolulu so it took us about an hour to get to the luau, but they whisked us through. It was not really suitable for a wheelchair (too sandy), and we weren't really interested in any of the activities, but we had a good time. We thought the food was just okay, but the service was great, and we really enjoyed the show as well. The setting of the luau was lovely and all of the staff were great. Commercial? Probably, but I have no other experience to go by, and we had a good time, so that was all that mattered.

 

Saturday 26/08 - Embarkation day. We caught the transfer from the hotel to the ship. The bus was 90% empty, and it was a quick ride over to the terminal. Going through security was fine, but always a bit hectic and hard with the wheelchair. Because we were in a penthouse we were directed to the suites desk, but the lady tried to turn us away and point us over to the other section, and I had to say, no, we're in a penthouse. She wasn't very pleasant! We then went over to the room for the suite guests and checked in, which was nice and easy. The concierge, Thomas, gave us a rundown of what to expect. He's a nice enough guy, but I still don't really understand what his job was? When we were on the ship he would just kind of appear and ask us how things were going!

 

It was a bit of a drama getting the wheelchair onto the ship (the other cruises we've done, the crew has taken over control of the wheelchair to get Mum up and down the ramps onto the ship, but this time they stood there while I juggled our bags and did it, which was annoying), but once we were inside we were taken to Cagneys for lunch. Our first impression of the ship was that it was lovely. The open area where the champagne bar is, with all of the seating, is just lovely and so relaxing. We enjoyed our lunch at Cagneys, and I especially loved the carrot cake. It was delicious!

 

After lunch we only had to wait half an hour or so before deck 11 was released, and we went up to our room. This is where things took a somewhat disappointing turn. As we had booked this a year ago, we were under the impression that there would be two beds - either two singles, or one queen/king and a foldout bed. We get into the room and there is a king size bed and a foldout couch, which is fine, but the king size bed was so high that Mum couldn't actually get into it without sort of "jumping" up, and also there was no room for her to maneouvre her wheelchair in beside the bed. This was a problem because she needed to be able to transfer from the bed to her wheelchair as easily as possible, and with the height of the bed/space issues, she couldn't.

 

So that was the big complaint about the room. Everything else was great. Size-wise, for the two of us, it was perfect. There was a king size bed with a bench across the front of it, plus a couch and a coffeetable. There was a set of shelves with room for a suitcase near the door, and outside of the bathroom there was a wardrobe and another set of shelves. The bathroom itself was fantastic - raised toilet, shower seat, adjustable shower head. Everything Mum needed. The balcony was my favourite part - it was large enough for a round table with four chairs, plus an extra chair near the door, and two banana lounges with a coffee table in between them. Everything was clean and in great condition. Our butler, Peter, was fantastic right from the start. I had only been able to make one of our dinner reservations for 9pm, and he got straight on and changed the time for me without a problem. He also said he would do what he can to fix the bed situation.

 

I won't get into the nitty gritty, but there was really nothing they could do about the beds. Mum thought she might sleep on the foldout but it was too low, so Peter ended up bringing in a step stool so she could climb up onto the bed. We ended up sharing it for the week on the ship, and it really wasn't that bad, because it was a king size bed and we could've fit a third person on it easily and still had plenty of room. The bed was really the only disappointing part of our cabin. Everything else was great.

 

We had dinner at the buffet the first night, and didn't go back. The food wasn't bad - it just wasn't for us. It was ordinary. I had breakfast there a couple of the mornings when I had early tours (just to make myself some toast that I slathered with Vegemite I brought from home!) but we didn't have any other lunches or dinners there.

 

We didn't see any of the shows. I would've liked to, but our dinner reservations seemed to fall smack bang in the middle of all of them so we missed them. And most nights we were too tired anyway.

 

Sunday 27/08 (Maui day 1) - We decided to split up for the day. Mum wanted a day of rest, so she stayed on the ship, and I did the Road to Hana tour via Valley Isle Excursions. It was fantastic. There was a small group of about ten or twelve of us, our bus driver was very knowledgeable (I think his name was Barry?) and the road was just as spectacular as I hoped it would be! He was great about stopping every so often so wecould dash out and take photos of waterfalls/beach scenes/points of interest. We did the whole loop around Haleakala and back to the port. They warned us that the tour could go for 12 hours, but we left at 8 and returned at about 4pm, so it wasn't that bad. I'd highly recommend Valley Isle - the prices were much more reasonable than the ship excursion, and I didn't feel as though I missed out on anything on the road during the tour.

 

We had dinner in the MDR (Skyline, not Liberty - we didn't bother going to Liberty) that night, and the food was lovely. Service was very prompt and our wait staff were fantastic - in fact, they remembered us the rest of the week, even though we didn't sit in their section again. We really enjoyed the MDR! We had three specialty restaurants, but the rest of the time we ate dinner there very happily.

 

Monday 28/08 (Maui day 2) - We booked the Lahaina on Your Own tour through NCL. I really like NCL's way of organising their tours - for us there wasn't any "meet in Mardi Gras at 8.30 and then be taken down to the bus", it was make your way off the ship at 9am and join the queue for the buses. It seemed to be a lot smoother than other cruises we've been on (probably because they do the same thing every single week!). The bus driver was very friendly and gave us a great history lesson on Maui as we drove over to Lahaina. Lahaina is a great little town and I'm really glad we decided to go there. We did a bit of shopping (got suckered into the bloody pearls at Maui Divers in Hilo Hatties, grrr), tried shave ice for the first time (amazing and I can't believe it hasn't made its way to where I live yet, it's the perfect hot weather food!) and had lunch at the Lahaina Fish Company which was delicious. We were back on the ship by about 4pm again. We had our first specialty dinner at Cagneys - delicious. Great service and the food was fantastic. Couldn't fault it.

 

Tuesday 29/08 (Hilo) - We decided to skip the NCL tours and instead booked Mary Lou's Big Island tour. Ken was our driver. The car was a van and there were only six of us on the tour - us two from Australia, two from Florida and two from England. It made it much easier to cater to what we wanted to do. This tour is also cheaper than the NCL tours. Ken first drove us to Volcanoes National Park, and we made it to the Jaggar Museum before the rest of the tour buses arrived, which was great! From there we went though the park to some lookouts, and then to Thurston Lava Tube. We then decided to leave the park and head out for an early lunch. Ken took us to this little place in Volcano (if I had been driving, I never would've stopped there) and we were able to order delicious fresh salad sandwiches and have a break. From there, we went to the orchid farm (I could've lived without this part) and after that, to the Mauna Loa macadamia farm. I definitely spent some money there! After that we went to Rainbow Falls, which were spectacular. It was a little cloudy in Hilo by that time, and very misty! We then had just enough time to see if the turtles were sunning themselves on the rocks at this little beach (I don't remember what it was called), and they were! Very exciting. We made it back to the ship with an hour to spare. All in all, another great tour that I would highly recommend.

 

We had dinner in Skyline again, and then went to the promenade deck to get ready for the lava sail by. If you're going to watch it from the promenade deck, make sure you get there about 30 to 40 minutes earlier to nab your spot at the rail. We cut it a bit close but thankfully managed to find a place. I really loved it. They turned the lights off for the sail past and it was really special, being out on deck with the stars out and the lava pouring into the ocean. You could also see hot spots along themountain where lava was flowing. It was fabulous.

 

Wednesday 30/08 (Kona) - Another rest day for my mother, but we did have our first breakfast at Cagneys which was very nice. I took the tender ashore about 10.30 and caught the shuttle to Walmart, as Mum had given me a list of things she wanted and I figured Walmart was the easiest place to get them. Once I came back down from Walmart I went on a walk through the town for about an hour or so, and then came back to the ship. We had lunch at the Cadillac Diner, and really enjoyed the food. We had a lazy afternoon playing cards on our balcony, and then we had dinner at La Cucina. Again, can't fault the food. My pasta was divine.

 

Thursday 31/08 (Kauai day 1) - Here's where we had a little bit of trouble. When we started looking at our shore excursions about six months ago, we picked The Director's Cut because it said there was very little walking, and so it would be suitable for Mum. We assumed it would just be a bus tour and she would be able to bring her wheelchair. Well, it was wrong of us to assume that, because the shore excursions desk called us while we were at Hilo and said she wouldn't be able to come because her wheelchair wouldn't fit on the bus (it was a smaller bus with big windows, and no room for a wheelchair). So she was incredibly disappointed and so was I, because it meant she didn't get to go ashore at Kauai. We had no back-ups, and the port really wasn't suitable for me to push her anywhere interesting. So she missed out on what I thought was the best island, and I'm still annoyed that NCL didn't pick up on this earlier, which would've given us the option of choosing something else. Anyway, she booked herself in at the spa on the ship and had some pampering, so ultimately she wasn't complaining!

 

The Director's Cut tour itself was really enjoyable. It gave me what I wanted, which was an overview of the island with some movies thrown in. The bus driver (Sam) played a ukelele and sang for us, and he was a natural storyteller so it made the whole day really fun. The highlight for me was Hanalei Bay. I would go back to Kauai just to spend a few days swimming at Hanalei Bay. What a spectacular spot. In fact, if I ever find myself going back to Hawaii one day, I would probably skip Oahu and Maui and go straight to the Big Island and Kauai. They were the absolute stand-outs for me.

 

We had our last dinner in Skyline on this night, and probably the least-friendly wait staff of the trip. Still, they weren't rude or anything, just not as overly friendly as some of the others we had.

 

The one recurring "problem" we seemed to have is that our steward, Larry, would turn up at 6.30 or 7 wanting to tidy our room, and would always be surprised to discover that our dinner reservations weren't until 8. Possibly we spent more time in the room than other people? But after doing tours in the day, we liked having a few hours to chill out in the air-conditioning and rest before having a later dinner. Larry was fine - he was very nice and pleasant, but just... a little bit pushy sometimes!

 

Friday 01/09 (Kauai day 2) - We talked about walking into "town" but ultimately decided to have a day on the ship for the last day. I didn't fancy pushing the wheelchair in the hot sun, and there really wasn't anything mind-blowing to look at near the port. So we had breakfast at Cagneys again, and then did some souvenir shopping on the ship. We had lunch at Cagneys as well, which was the slowest service we had for the entire trip. I was getting very antsy because the ship was leaving, and I wanted to be out on our balcony ready to go with my camera to watch the whole trip around to the Na Pali coast. So we were trapped in Cagneys for longer than we wanted to be, and we ended up getting the carrot cake to go and having it out on our balcony.

 

The Na Pali coast was just as spectacular as I hoped it would be. It was kind of a surreal feeling, having spent so long looking and planning and reading every little thing about this holiday, to be standing on our balcony looking at that unbelievable coastline and realising that it was the last day of the cruise we'd spent so long planning.

 

For our last night we had dinner at Cagneys, which, as it had been for the whole trip, was great. No complaints there at all.

 

I will give a little rundown of the rest of our holiday as well, if anyone is interested!

 

Saturday 02/09 - An early start. We put our luggage out the night before to be collected, and because our transfer wasn't picking us up until 9, we had breakfast in the room. Larry appeared between 7.30 and 8 wanting to know when we were leaving so he could clean the room, and I was like, Larry, buddy, it's 7.30, we're not being picked up until 9 so we're not leaving just now. Nice guy, but a little pushy! Other than that, disembarking was relatively smooth. We had arranged another transfer through Diamond Head Vacations, and the van was very slow in arriving, as they were sending a wheelchair van. We had booked our last four nights at the Moana Surfrider, and what a disappointment that turned out to be. The older part of the hotel is gorgeous, but right from check-in, when we discovered there was only one bed and I would be sleeping on a rollaway, we knew we were going to have problems. Our room was an accessible room, yes, but it was in the diamond wing of the hotel, and honestly, they need to tear it down. There are nicer drive-in motels in Australia than this supposedly four star luxury hotel on Waikiki Beach. Our room was tiny. An accessible room, sure, but Mum couldn't get her wheelchair around the bed to look out the window where the teeny tiny balcony was. Not to mention there was zero room for any luggage, and once they brought in the rollaway, even less room. We were really disappointed, because we'd planned this for a year, and I stupidly thought that we're going to have this fantastic view of the beach and Diamond Head and it was going to be great, but... it was just a total let down. The hotel then said they would transfer us to a room with two double beds (still accessible) the next day, so we would only suffer one night in the shoebox, but the damage was already done for us. We had completely soured on the whole experience at the Surfrider.

 

Sunday 03/09 - We booked the premier movie tour at Kualoa Ranch. We were picked up from our hotel at 7am and arrived at the ranch at 8am. As someone who is a bit of a movie buff, this tour was EVERYTHING. Jurassic Park is such an important movie for me, so to be standing in the place where they filmed it, that I had seen in countless other movies, was like an absolute dream come true. And the premier movie tour was well worth the extra money. You were in an an air-conditioned van with seven other people, the driver provided snacks and running commentary (she was a total joy and couldn't do enough for my mother) and most importantly you got to get out and walk around, take pictures and actually go into the movie sets. It was brilliant.

 

We returned to Waikiki at around 2pm, at which time the saga of the Surfrider recommenced. They had transferred us into another room in the same section, but it was just as awful (the word to describe it is dated - it is old fashioned and not in a good way) and it smelled. So we were totally frustrated at this point, and I decided to call around to other hotels to see if I could find us another room. I called the Hilton first, hoping it would be the best bet, and they found us an accessible suite with two double beds in the Hilton Garden Inn, which was on the street behind the International Marketplace. So not on the beach, but there were no resort fees as well, and the room rates were reasonable. So we switched, and thank god we did. It made our last three nights much more enjoyable.

 

Monday 04/09 - We had a day off in Waikiki. I came down with a cold so I wasn't in the mood for much. We just did some exploring and a little shopping.

 

Tuesday 05/09 - We booked a tour through Private Tours Hawaii to take us on a scenic drive around Oahu. It was brilliant! I highly recommend. Our driver was Adam and he took us on a beautiful scenic drive along the Kamehama Highway and around to the north shore. We stopped at a fruit stand, and at the food trucks for lunch, and had our final shave ices in Hawaii. It was a fantastic way to end our trip, and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to do a leisurely tour of Oahu. I feel like I've had a great overview of the four main islands now.

 

So, to sum up, we had a pretty wonderful time (dramas at the Surfrider aside). I was pleasantly surprised by the ship in every way. We really, really loved the cruise. I can't say I would do it again if I was going back to Hawaii, but I would definitely recommend it to people going for the first time. I'm also not sure if I would cruise Norwegian again, but it might be nice to try a different ship and see what that's like, one day. In our situation, a suite was the way to go. It meant that when I was off the ship doing tours, anything my mother wanted was taken care of by our butler, and she was pampered the way she deserves to be! So yes, we had a fantastic time. I might try to post some pictures tomorrowonce I've gone through all 2000 of them!

 

Happy to answer any questions - we obviously didn't rent a car anywhere, so I can't help with that, but if there are any questions about the tours or ship, I can try. Most of all I just want to say that I really hope shave ice makes its way to Australia as soon as possible, because it is the best thing ever, and also I don't think I will ever get Hawaiian music out of my head for the rest of my life! Really great holiday, though. :)

Edit: Well, posted this and had some formatting dramas, hopefully they are all fixed now!

Edited by felicityd
Formatting dramas!
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Wow that was quite the review very well done . Did you make reservations to mdr and Cagney's in advance? We are first timers and are in two bedroom suite on deck 10. What time did you leave for ship on Saturday. We also got the free night at Marriott

 

 

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Wow that was quite the review very well done . Did you make reservations to mdr and Cagney's in advance? We are first timers and are in two bedroom suite on deck 10. What time did you leave for ship on Saturday. We also got the free night at Marriott

 

We had the three nights of dining included for free (which I believe you will be getting as well). I did book Cagneys and La Cucina through the cruise planner about two weeks before we cruised, but even if I hadn't, it wouldn't have been a problem to just walk in. In fact, for our last Cagneys dinner, we actually messed up the time that we were supposed to go because we were watching the Na Pali coast sail by, and they rang us to find out where we were and if we were still coming. I told them we'd forgotten and would be another hour, and they had no problem fitting us in. There were empty tables both nights at Cagneys and when we went to La Cucina. I think walk ins would've been fine.

 

When we arrived at the Marriott they gave us a yellow sheet of paper which set out what was to happen with regard to the ship transfer and where we were supposed to be. They set our time down as 12.15, but we were ready to go at about 11.45 and they put us on that bus and took us over to the ship. I think if you wanted to go earlier it would probably be okay - or later. They seemed to be running buses every 15 minutes or so.

 

Enjoy your trip!

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We are also wondering about the disembark we are not flying home until Sunday. How fast do we have to get off because we have no excursions planned for the day. We are staying at embassy suites again just like the last two vacations there. Thanks felicityd for your insight . We have six months to wait we are so excited

 

 

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We are also wondering about the disembark we are not flying home until Sunday. How fast do we have to get off because we have no excursions planned for the day. We are staying at embassy suites again just like the last two vacations there. Thanks felicityd for your insight . We have six months to wait we are so excited

 

 

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Usually by 9:30 they are calling for all passengers to be off the ship.

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Thanks for the review! We cruised on the POA back in 2015, and I totally agree with you about the Big Island and Kauai--my 2 favorite. As a matter of fact, we are going back to Hawaii in March and we are going to spend a week on Kauai and then back on the POA to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary.

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We are also wondering about the disembark we are not flying home until Sunday. How fast do we have to get off because we have no excursions planned for the day. We are staying at embassy suites again just like the last two vacations there. Thanks felicityd for your insight . We have six months to wait we are so excited

 

Well Larry wanted us out of our suite before 8am, but we left between 8.30am and 9am because our transfer wasn't picking us up until 9. And because we sat there waiting for our transfer until nearly 10am, I noticed people were still getting off the ship between 9 and 10. So I think you'd be fine to hang around a little longer, but we had our room steward making us feel guilty, which is why we left when we did!

 

We just took our luggage to our hotel and left it there for the day while we went and did other things.

 

I hope you enjoy your trip!

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Thanks for the review! We cruised on the POA back in 2015, and I totally agree with you about the Big Island and Kauai--my 2 favorite. As a matter of fact, we are going back to Hawaii in March and we are going to spend a week on Kauai and then back on the POA to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary.

 

That sounds amazing! When I eventually go back to Hawaii (one day!), I will definitely be spending a week on Kauai and a week on the Big Island. They were such standouts for me. I hope you have a great time!

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Do you have any recommendations for which side of the ship to be on for the lava flow and Na Pali coast? Thanks.

 

For the lava flow you want to be on the starboard side. They sail past at around 9.45pm and they turn off all the lights. We decided to go to the promenade deck because it was easier for Mum to get to in her wheelchair (and I hoped it would be less crowded than the top of the ship).

 

For the Na Pali coast, you want to be on the port side. Our cabin was on the port side so we just watched the sail by from our balcony. It was wonderful.

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Hi Felicityd,

Did you happen to look at the wine list ?? Its a BIG anniversary for us, and we are been advised that we can take 2 x bottles of wine on board with us ....but with a $15USD corkage fee per bottle !! Just wondering whether to bother taking something we like from NZ or not :) Thanks

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Someone recently posted the daily activities letter. Having just got off of the ship, I found it to be accurate. Do a search and you will find all of the activities and times.

 

 

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Will look that that this evening.....if anyone does find it - give us a clue :)

Thanks

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Thanks so much for the information. Next question: Do you need to make reservations, before boarding, for the complimentary and speciality restaurants? Any information would be appreciated. We have never cruised on NCL. Thanks!!

 

I wasn't sure of this myself in the lead up, so I made the reservations in advance just in case (only for Cagneys and La Cucina). East Meets West seemed to be the most busy of the complimentary restaurants and I didn't look at any of the others (in fact I don't even remember walking past them on the ship) so I can't say how busy they were. But I walked past Jefferson's every night and it was practically empty, every single time I saw it. Cagneys and La Cucina were equally as slow. So I think you could wait until you were on the ship, but if there was somewhere you really wanted to go to, I would make the booking in advance just in case. Hope this helps!

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