Thread: NCL Pride of America 6/25/11 Review

I just posted a rather long review about our trip to Hawaii that included a cruise on the Pride of America. It's in two-parts and I hope you find the information useful.

Pete

Pete, it is a very good review. Your review should be very helpful to anyone thinking of taking this cruise.

Thanks, Nancy.

I hope it's helpful - that's the reason it's a bit longer than it should be because I was hoping some of the comments and details would provide a different perspective than most of the reviews we've read.

Glad you liked it.

Pete

For a long time I thought I will never sail on any of NCL's ships. In my mind, a 15-night San Diego round trip cruise would be ideal - if I stay on the ship in Ensanada, of course.

Then I read reports about rough water the first and last two days. Also, people have said HAL does not have much entertainment, which tells me it would not be good for eight sea days. Mom has no interest in spending that much time at sea anyway. So I think I need to find a cruise that begins and ends in Hawaii because no doubt my mom would love to go with me if it is 7 days without too much time at sea.

If NCL is not a good cruise line for me I will wish another one had a U.S. flagged ship that permitted it to stay in Hawaii all the time.

Unfortunately, at least for the foreseeable future, the NCL Pride of America is the only one available for a 7-night cruise around Hawaii.

They were going to have 4 ships doing it, but after getting the first two in there, realized immediately this was not going to happen. So they cancelled construction of the last two ships, renamed the Pride of Aloha the NCL Sky, and refurbished it to add a casino.

Now, with that said, if I hadn't done this cruise and really wanted to take a cruise around Hawaii, I would have no problem doing this one.

The only other option is to do a one-way cruise and fly the other way. For example, the Celebrity Solstice is doing a one way from Hawaii to Vancouver that looked really nice. And having been on the Eclipse, I can tell you this is a wonderful class of ship.

These one-way cruises provide a very good option if you don't want to do the NCL POA without adding alot of time at sea. Only problem is you have to pay for a one-way flight either to or from Hawaii, so that does add to the costs.

Pete

I will worry about Hawaii later. Right now I just want to know when I should book the Wine Country cruise from L.A. to Vancouver on May 11, 2013. (Right now Mom is getting ready to put her house on the market, which must be sold before Thanksgiving because my older sister in Gainesville is expecting twins. That is the main reasons for my delay in trying to book it.)