We are currently on a seven night Hawaiian cruise on Norwegian Cruise Line’s Pride of America. This has been a bucket list cruise for my wife and I and it’s been an incredible trip since we landed in Honolulu on Friday afternoon.
One unique thing about a cruise on Pride of America is the amount of time that you spend in port. There are no sea days and the ship spends 100 hours in port during each seven night cruise. We are currently docked in Maui for 33 hours giving us plenty of time to explore the island. Haleakala Crater is a must see but more on that later.
For those who are interested in following along on this Hawaiian cruise, we are posting updates several times a day on Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat (Cruise Fever). After spending a little over 48 hours on Pride of America, here is a quick look at our first impressions of the cruise.
Embarkation
Embarkation was a breeze with the first passengers stepping on the ship at 11:30 am. Passengers were given a Hawaiian lei when the entered the cruise terminal and total time from the curb to the ship was less than 20 minutes. It couldn’t have gone any smoother.
Ship
Pride of America has only been out of dry dock for four months and you would never know that ship is 10 years old. The ship looks brand new and the public areas of the ship are spotless. Being the only U.S. flagged cruise ship in the world, the public spaces ooze with Americana from the John Adams Coffee Bar to the Cadillac Diner to the “Great Seal of the United States on the atrium floor. Stay tuned for a photo tour of Pride of America in the next few days.
One thing I really love about Pride of America is the how all of the public areas are themed. It is quickly becoming one of my favorite ships I have ever sailed on.
Crew
The staff members been nothing short of spectacular so far. The wait staff in the Skyline and Liberty dining rooms have gone above and beyond to make sure everything is perfect. With my wife having an allergy to gluten, eating away from home can be a real challenge at times. Their attention to detail couldn’t have been better as they went dish by dish on the menu telling her what is safe for her to eat so she won’t get sick.
Our dining room staff also told us that they can make can anything on the menu for her, we would just have to put in a pre-order for certain items since it would take additional time to make. Now that is service! I cruise between 8-10 times a year and the dining room staff has been among the best waitstaff I have ever had on a cruise. Their attention to detail has not gone unnoticed.
It’s not just the dining room staff that have been spectacular, everywhere we go on the ship we are greeted with an “Aloha” and friendly smile.
Cabin
We booked a guarantee balcony stateroom and were assigned 8114. It’s a midship balcony that is near the stairs and elevators, giving us easy access to the public areas of the ship. The stateroom has a comfortable bed, decent size balcony (a must when cruising Hawaii), and a small couch. The bathroom is pretty much what you would expect a cruise bathroom to be like.
As I look out over my balcony, I can see a rainbow over the mountains in Maui. I’m going to take that as a sign to log off here and go spend another fabulous day Maui. Stay tuned for more as we will be doing a full review of this Hawaiian cruise when we get back. Follow along as we will post several times a day on Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat (Cruise Fever).
I love this cruise. In fact we are going again May 2017 and can hardly wait. It has been our favorite cruise of the seven we’ve been on.
Maui is an island, you cannot be IN an iisland, but ON it.