Pride of America Cruise Review

Hawaii Cruise on the NCL Pride of America

Pros: Ports provided water and shades. Security check in was quick. NCL allows sodas, juices, and fruits back to the ship, except alcohol of any kind. Child care program was great, no charge from 9am-12pm and 7pm to 10pm. A charge of $5/hr between these window time. On board Safety exercise was performed in the Hollywood theater.

Cons:Bad odor in both the bedroom and bathroom. Stateroom maid had rude attitude. The staterooms were not clean when we went in. There were food crumbs and candy wrappers underneath the beds. The shower in the stateroom was not clean; it had a urine smell. The overhead vent in the show was completely caked up with dust. The water temperature was unstable. You'll get burned from hot water every few minutes. The men's bath room on deck 11 by the Gold Rush Bar smelled horrible (urine from rupture line). NCL did not bothered to take care of it. Mens room still open for service. My stateroom was on the deck #10. We were very bothered by the urine smell from deck #11.

Food in the buffet were OK. There are extra charge for the specialty dinners. The waiters in the SkyLine diner are very rude and often serve the same menu as the buffet. The meat server at the buffet is not neccessary. His service was totally unacceptable. At primerib nite, I was served with a little slice of prime rib like a size of silver dollar!! This guy cuts the meats like its coming off his body. TV comes with stupid control, doesn't work most of the time. Dirty tables at the buffet were not clear for more than 30 minutes. People have to move dirty plates from one table to another. They ran out of plates, bowls, silverware more than one occasion. Bowls, plates and cups are dirty. One clean cup in every 5 dirty cups!! Same breakfast item for 7 straight days! Boring menu!!! There were few occasions that a sudden load drop sound rumble through out the buffet area. And there were no announcement addressing what was actually going on/the cause of the sound.

Photos are too expensive and do not come in multiple size packages. ($24/sheet 8X10). The photographer was inexperienced or is brain dead. We selected nice palm tree background for our family picture. Our pictures were taken at closeup ranges so there were not much of the background. All you see of the picture was big head with shoulders cut off!! The photo gallery was so out of order. Only 5 percent of the pictures were purchased. Gift shops prices were kind of high. Shore excusion packages were too expensive. The extra $10 to $20 charge for the specialty diner were not necessary! They don't have late-night buffet/chocolate buffet. They put up bad parties (party to the 60's, 70's and 80's.) No miniture golf course. The swimming pool sizes are a joke. Cost for Internet was too expensive. The charge for easy fly was crazy, $20/person. The stateroom maid had bad service and you have no control over the tipping. It's $10 for adult/day and $5 for kid/day. The fitness class charges were too high and are not neccessary.

Bottom line. I'm very disappointed with the service on this ship. It's only two years old!! If you must cruise to Hawaii, choose Princess or Celebrity, I'll never cruise with NCL ever again. kitty-meo