Norwegian Cruise Line’s Pride of America is unique. It was the only American flagged large cruise ship in almost 50 years in 2005 when it first sailed. That allows the ship to sail within the islands without leaving the US. US employment rules also mean that three-quarters of the ship crew have to be American and follow US and Hawaiian labor rules which are much stricter than for other international ships.
On the other hand, what the ship has going for it was Hawaii. The tight-knit archipelago allows the ship to be docked for over 90 hours total on Maui, the Big Island and Kauai during a week of travel. Week-long Caribbean cruises often have as little as 25-40 hours in port. POA overnights in Maui and Kauai and stops in Hilo and Kona on the Big Island. This schedule gives travelers a lot of flexibility to experience the islands.
In its first years, Norwegian struggled to provide a satisfying ship-board experience for cruise guests on Pride of America. The most common complaints in reviews and from my clients were poor service and maintenance of the ship. For that reason, I had lowered expectations.
As it turned out, I didn’t need to. The Hawaii cruise on Pride of America far exceeded my expectations.
The Ship
The ship looked great. It has been almost two years since the ship was last refurbished and you would never know it. I did not see any major wear and tear. Our cabin smelled fresh as did the halls and other public spaces on the ship. There was continuous cleaning and maintenance going on and the result was impressive.
As far as design, it was intentionally low brow and primarily all-American. The color palette was not the bland grays and beiges of many newly renovated ships and personally I found that refreshing to have the richer colors and dark woods. The signature room for me was the Liberty Dining Room. On our last night we sat under a picture of Frederick Douglass, a nice addition to paintings of the Founding Fathers.
On several public decks there is only one passageway for moving from one end of the ship to the other. This made movement through the ship slow at times of heavy traffic.
The Crew
Something has clearly changed in the hiring and training of staff for the ship. I suspect that you can read hundreds of reviews of poor service on the Pride of America on websites. Many of these are years old. Our experience last week was nothing like that.
The crew who assisted us were universally friendly and helpful. Now and then they were a bit confused and unknowledgeable, but I can tolerate that if the person has a positive attitude and is willing to help.
Beside being mostly American, the crew was also younger on average than other ships. What they lacked in experience they made up for in positive attitude.
Food
Just like the service, it was better than I thought it would be. There was only one stand-out dish that I can rave about – the Bouillabaisse in Jefferson’s Bistro – but there were no menu failures either. We ate at the Teppanyaki Grill, Cagney’s Steakhouse, Jefferson’s, the Liberty Dining Room (serves the same menu as the Skyline Dining Room) and the Aloha Café (Buffet).
The Buffet has many beverage stations which minimized waiting to get a cup of coffee. The seating was in short supply occasionally as is common on many larger ships. And the outside deck off the back of the ship was not ready before 7am when I like to sit outside with a cup of coffee. But the options at breakfast and lunch were varied and tasty.
The only food category that did not live up to expectations was bread. In particular, the French bread was generally dried out. But considering the quality of everything else, I can live with that.
Cabin
Standard cabins on the Pride of America are narrow. And the bathrooms are claustrophobic as is typical of large cruise ships. There was enough storage for a 7-day cruise if you don’t overpack. The bed was comfortable and almost king size. It could be split into twins if the husband’s snoring proved intolerable.
The TV system was poor with two movie channels but no schedule for when the movies were playing. Beside a proliferation of cruise information channels, we were limited to 4 or 5 news channels and a few sports channels. There were pay-per-view movies for $10.
Entertainment
The ship production shows were the most disappointing aspect of the cruise. I am not a fan of the Broadway and Vegas style shows of many ships. But these were worse than average. I was disappointed that they did not have a production show with local Hawaiian musicians and dancers. (They did have a group performing on the ship atrium when we boarded – see pictures.) The magician was good. The comedian (who has been working on Norwegian for 20 years) was excellent.
We did not participate in the onboard activities though they seemed to have a full complement of participatory games and competitions. Because the ship is docked so much, the shipboard entertainment was far less important to us than normal. I suspect many others felt the same.
Conclusions
I recommend this cruise to those visiting Hawaii. It is a great way to see the major islands on a budget. On a per day basis, the Pride of America costs more than your average cruise. But it is worth it.
(I will talk about the shore excursion experience on separate blog posts about Maui, the Big Island and Kauai.)
One month before sailing on the Pride of America, we had sailed on the near-luxury Viking Star. I was worried that experience color our Hawaii cruise experience. In fact, the Pride of America did quite well by comparison. The Viking Star has a guest to space ratio of 52 while POA has only 31. It didn’t feel like that most of the time. Perhaps this was because there were few children filling the 3rd and 4th beds in the cabins.
Norwegian’s Pride of America offers the only 7-day all-Hawaii cruises. All other Hawaii cruises have many days at sea sailing from other continents. So even for those accustomed to luxury, the POA is worth considering as a cruise option.
Gingerline Travel 