Hawaii or Partial Panama

[lovescats5]

We are thinking of sailing NCL in 2021.  Looking at Pride of America in an SC suite (Deck 13, 13500 or 13000) and was wondering who has stayed in one of those rooms and how they were.  Also how was the Hawaii cruise? 

[Turtles06]

I'm trying to figure out what the original post has to do with a partial transit of the Panama Canal, which is in the title of this thread.  🙃

[tallnthensome]

1 hour ago, Turtles06 said:

I'm trying to figure out what the original post has to do with a partial transit of the Panama Canal, which is in the title of this thread.  🙃

I agree  ..... 🤔

[valleyvillage]

I am going to pretend like the OP is asking for thoughts on the two and to compare and contrast. Mainly I would then say that the PC cruise is more like a cruise and Hawaii is more like a luxurious sight seeing trip with not a lot of actual cruising. YMMV

[BirdTravels]

For Hawaii, since you are in port every day (with 2 overnights), there is really not a lot of time you’re on the ship. I would save my money and book a balcony vs suite and splurge on a couple of excursions. And take Hawaii over a partial canal. 

[Sailing12Away]

We just got off the POA in August of this year. It's a great cruise if you want a taste of all of the Hawaiian islands while letting someone else take care of the transportation. You go to bed and magically wake up at a new island the next day. With the 2 overnight stays in Maui and Kauai you can really see a lot and do a lot of great excursions to explore the areas.

 

As bird said, with the POA it's more of a glorified floating hotel. You're not really in your room all that much. So unless you have too much money that you don't know what to do with (in which case, I'll gladly take donations), or you somehow found an amazing deal on the price, go for a large balcony room on the left side of the ship for POA and spend the extra money saved on great excursions around the islands. Or, use the saved money to put towards doing the Panama canal trip the following year instead of picking between the 2 trips.

[bonvoyagie]

Will let you know about the canal in Feb when I get back. Hawaii is wonderful and the POA is a great floating hotel. We did this cruise when the POA was new and did not have suites. We did opt for a balcony but it was not really necessary as we spent most of our time in port and on tours. We also flew into Honolulu a few days early and toured the Polynesian Culture Center, Pearl Harbor and touring around the island. Pearl Harbor is something that is very emotional even for those of us who were not in the service.  We went in mid May which is just prior to the rainy season so we did have good weather.

[tallnthensome]

I’ve done the full Panama Canal transit but I’d do Hawaii over a partial transit.

[lovescats5]

Sorry, we were looking at the Partial Panama that sails from Tampa but is not available in the 2021 schedule yet.  Honestly, after looking at all the Panama options I do not even remember which ship.  We are just looking at those options.  Usually sail RCI but think either of these two cruises would be awesome.

[Peachypooh]

We have done the partial Panama Canal cruise out of Miami on the Pearl, and 4 land vacations

on various  Hawaiian islands but not POA( but as someone said you are just using the ship as a hotel anyway).

They are both wonderful and would not want to choose. But if I had to I would choose Hawaii. It

just has that special something that I have never encountered anywhere I have traveled. I

loved the Panama Canal cruise too so you can't go wrong with either.

 

 

Edited October 27, 2019 by Peachypooh

[Motegi]

Pride of America gets my vote.  It was one of the absolute best cruises we've done in the past few years.  

 

We had a two bedroom family suite with large balcony and let me say that the aft corner balcony was absolutely huge.  It was actually larger than the floorplan diagram on ncl.com and wrapped around the corner of the ship.  We had amazing views of each of the islands from our balcony and enjoyed early morning coffees outside with the family.    The butler service and concierge were fantastic and we really loved our daily breakfasts at Cagney's.  The daily snacks and sweets in our cabin were great touch too!   

 

BTW, if you decide to go with Hawaii (I hope you do!) for your excursions I would highly recommend that you check out Roberts Hawaii Shore Excursions (rhshorex.com).  They specialize in cruise excursions and have nice air conditioned motor coaches that pick you up right at port next to the cruise line sponsored buses at a fraction of the cost.  They even offer multi island bundle packages based on your itinerary and dates.  We did the 4 island package for under $250 per person.  One excursion for each of the port stops.  The money we saved on excursions for the five of us was enough to pay for the suite.

 

 

[Caroldoll]

On 10/26/2019 at 10:25 AM, lovescats5 said:

We are thinking of sailing NCL in 2021.  Looking at Pride of America in an SC suite (Deck 13, 13500 or 13000) and was wondering who has stayed in one of those rooms and how they were.  Also how was the Hawaii cruise? 

FABULOUS CRUISE.  I think they have reimagined The Pride.  We had an Owners Suite and it was wonderful.  I am not sure of SC suite??

[Caroldoll]

10 hours ago, Peachypooh said:

We have done the partial Panama Canal cruise out of Miami on the Pearl, and 4 land vacations

on various  Hawaiian islands but not POA( but as someone said you are just using the ship as a hotel anyway).

They are both wonderful and would not want to choose. But if I had to I would choose Hawaii. It

just has that special something that I have never encountered anywhere I have traveled. I

loved the Panama Canal cruise too so you can't go wrong with either.

 

 

I would not do the Panama Canal one at this time.  On the Regent Board there is some discussion of some of the ports closed.  We have done it twice, and although the Canal itself is wonderful, the rest of the ports are not.

[dexddd]

6 hours ago, Caroldoll said:

FABULOUS CRUISE.  I think they have reimagined The Pride.  We had an Owners Suite and it was wonderful.  I am not sure of SC suite??

The suites, studios, and insides were added two drydocks ago on 13.

 

Last drydock extensive refurb of the ship.  Not sure if they altered anything on 13.

 

13 is a very quiet floor and the rooms op is looking at would be great.

[WillCruiseForMoney]

 

On 10/26/2019 at 10:25 AM, lovescats5 said:

We are thinking of sailing NCL in 2021.  Looking at Pride of America in an SC suite (Deck 13, 13500 or 13000) and was wondering who has stayed in one of those rooms and how they were.  Also how was the Hawaii cruise? 

 

We were recently in 13500, it along with 13000 are great suites.  Very bright as they are a little more modern in style, so not full of the traditional dark wood like most suites.  Plenty of interior space.  The balconies may be the largest balconies you will ever find on a cruise ship, probably around 1200 square feet.  You have both covered and uncovered space.  We had 4 loungers, 2 tables with chairs, 4 end tables, and there was still a huge amount of open space.   You could easily hold a party for 50 people.  Amazing views when cruising the Napali coast.  Unlike some of the other owners suites, no hot tub on the deck and no 2nd bathroom.

Edited October 28, 2019 by WillCruiseForMoney
error on room #

[FranknBeans]

Hands down Hawaii for me. Because if your going to do Panama you should make it a FULL transit.

 

Its my opinion that Panama is a one shot cruise, if you do it a second time which we did 2010 & 2015 the 2 nd time became rather boring and anti climatic, that is unless you like ship longer ship time.

[FranknBeans]

The Hawaii cruise with NCL is the best bang for your buck. Because land vacations can be very expensive for food and other things.

Where as POA is your hotel and meals. 

Also NCL has the advantage  of over nighting in two of the best ports. The other cruise lines have very short port times thus off ship excuirsion compnaies don or wont over the normal tours due to lack of time. Most of the islands only have one road in and out so if there is a major accident you get stuck and may miss the ship thus the tour companies don't want to run the risk. 

The islands are very easy to get around so seriously think of renting a car. There are a lot of maps at your ready with all the major attractions marked.

 

We have done this cruise 3 times B2B and still are not tired of this cruise.

[Sailing12Away]

11 hours ago, FranknBeans said:

The Hawaii cruise with NCL is the best bang for your buck. Because land vacations can be very expensive for food and other things.

Where as POA is your hotel and meals. 

We first priced out a regular land vacation stopping at 2 islands, Maui and either Big Island/Kauai. Not counting the benefits of the free food and drinks on the POA, the prices were similar. However, with the POA you go to bed and magically wake up in the next island. For the land vacation, you will end up wasting several hours getting to/from the airports and flying between islands. Plus with POA you get to 4 islands instead of just 2.

 

When the travel dates ended up matching perfectly with my sister's furlough, the POA was a no-brainer pick for us.