After DCL what's the next best cruise line to take to Hawaii?

[fairytalelover]

To be perfectly honest, no, you cannot. You absolutely will find a de-stressing environment on other cruise lines such as Princess where you will know that your son is safe and having fun in the kids club and making new friends while you get some alone adult time to relax by the adult pool, bars, shows, spa etc. DCL is not unique in that regard. But if you sail when school is in session, the other cruise lines that do Hawaii well (like Princess) might only have 20 or so kids on board. Your son will make some friends, but there just aren't going to be many kids to meet.

well that's good to know because we typically like to book our cruises when school is in session (it's cheaper).

 

[orion2185]

I have been on NCL's Pride of America. It is an entirely different cruise experience than my other cruises on Paquet, NCL, RCL, HAL and Disney. It is less a cruise, and more a floating hotel. You overnight in 2 of the ports. They really push and expect you to eat a lot of your meals on shore, not on the ship. That was creating a problem because a lot more people were coming back to the ship to eat, they just don't have the dining room capacity for all the passengers. And your longest stretch at sea is heading back to Honolulu, about 1 pm Friday until you get back to Honolulu at 6 am Saturday.
It was a good trip, but, on any other cruise, the ship is one of the destinations your vacation takes you to. On NCL America, not so much.
But having done entirely land based tours of Hawaii, it is nice to have to only unpack once, and have your hotel shuttle you to your next island while you sleep. No having to catch 4 flights to get to the other islands.

we have also been on the Pride of America sailing.

I think you hit the nail on the head...this is NOT a cruise...it's a floating hotel room.
You wont spend much time on the ship...and I think they know this. Or at least that's the impression we got...as there does not appear to be many planned events/things on the ship. Since its a very port heavy sailing.

Also the service will be nowhere near Disney
there are allot of American workers (I'm American so not hating here) but they just are not excited to be there or perform their duties. Very much a blanket statement...but just does not have that friendly cast member interaction...where everyone wants to go above and beyond for you.

Food on the ship is also an issue. Not many options if you come back hungry. My wife eats little and often...and felt like she was being food deprived (here words not mine LOL)

the decor is also old, tacky, vegas showgirl casino feel. (lived in worked in Vegas for years ughhh)

but we did not book this cruise for the ship or it's decor.
We booked to see Hawaii!

It's still an amazing cruise...and a great way to see and experience a little slice of multiple locations/islands of Hawaii. Would still recommend it...even if your a first time visitor to Hawaii.
just need to mange expectations...and Love that the other poster called it a "floating hotel room"....that's the perfect mindset to go on this cruise with.

 

[tvguy]

we have also been on the Pride of America sailing.

I think you hit the nail on the head...this is NOT a cruise...it's a floating hotel room.
You wont spend much time on the ship...and I think they know this. Or at least that's the impression we got...as there does not appear to be many planned events/things on the ship. Since its a very port heavy sailing.

Also the service will be nowhere near Disney
there are allot of American workers (I'm American so not hating here) but they just are not excited to be there or perform their duties. Very much a blanket statement...but just does not have that friendly cast member interaction...where everyone wants to go above and beyond for you.

Food on the ship is also an issue. Not many options if you come back hungry. My wife eats little and often...and felt like she was being food deprived (here words not mine LOL)

the decor is also old, tacky, vegas showgirl casino feel. (lived in worked in Vegas for years ughhh)

but we did not book this cruise for the ship or it's decor.
We booked to see Hawaii!

It's still an amazing cruise...and a great way to see and experience a little slice of multiple locations/islands of Hawaii. Would still recommend it...even if your a first time visitor to Hawaii.
just need to mange expectations...and Love that the other poster called it a "floating hotel room"....that's the perfect mindset to go on this cruise with.

Interesting on the food, Cadillac Diner is open 24 hours, and my kids loved that. Having a cheeseburger and fries at 1 am was a kick for them. They were very disappointed on Disney that there was no Midnight buffet every night like they experience on the HAL cruise we went on. We felt there were far more eating options on Pride of America than on Disney.
For us, Freestyle Dining wasn't a good idea. We waited almost 3 hours to eat the first night. This eat "eat whenever your want" stuff if baloney. Now, you can make a reservation in any of the extra cost restaurants the minute you walk the the ship the first day for the rest of the week. The main (read that as FREE) dining rooms you can only make a reservation 24 hours in advance. We discovered that if we made the next night's reservation when we arrived for dinner, requested the same servers, and left a small tip each night, we got amazing service.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Midnight buffet every night like they experience on the HAL cruise we went on.

Sadly, HAL no longer has a "Midnight buffet" either. There is a late night buffet (usually 11:00-12:00) on some ships, but that's it.

 

[tvguy]

Sadly, HAL no longer has a "Midnight buffet" either. There is a late night buffet (usually 11:00-12:00) on some ships, but that's it.

Yeah, we took our kids on a HAL Alaska cruise in 2002 and they loved the Midnight buffet. A year later we cruised Disney and they were disappointed in the lack of a nightly Midnight buffet, and that basically the shipped basically shutdown and everyone went to bed by 10 pm
Then in 2012 we repeated the HAL Alaska cruise, and not only was there no Midnight buffet, but THAT ship basically shutdown at 10 pm. Our kids are adults, and we had late seating, and we would go to the club after dinner for a drink, and we were the only one's there at 10pm. We became the bands official groupies (the band was Brian and the HALCats) for that week. They saw us in port and even called us their Groupies! We felt bad until they told us they have to play even if the bar is empty.
Far cry from my first cruise in 1980 when the nightclub didn't even open until 1:30 am!

 

[eeyorefanuk]

H

I guess RCCL is out because they only do 10 days, we were on the Radiance last month, Vancouver to Honolulu, and it was a wonderful vacation. They also had a native Hawaiian speaker who gave us a lot of interesting history and background on his culture. The ship was going on to Sydney Australia! I would have gladly stayed on board.

Hi
Do you have copies of the navigators on the sea days?
We have just done land based then disney hawaii cruise and fell in love with hawaii
Would love to see what they do on sea days