Pride of America Hawaii Cruise

[Sugardimples]

We will be going on the NCL Pride of America Cruise of the Hawaiian Islands in May. Has anyone done this? Any advise? We want to do a few excursions and also want to do some exploring on our own. (I'm glad to be going, but feeling like I'm cheating on WDW!)

 

[MM27]

I did the Pride of America cruise a few years ago. I'm a Royal Caribbean fan, but their sailings didn't mesh with my schedule so I went with NCL. We had an aft balcony cabin. It was small. There were three of us in the room and we literally had to climb over the beds to move around.

We did a few days before the cruise at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. It gave us a few days to explore Oahu before the cruise started.

I had never been to Hawaii before so I liked the fact that the cruise visited a few different islands. The time was short at each so it gives me a reason to go back I thought it was a nice introduction to Hawaii.

One of the best excursions we did was watching the sunrise at Mt. Haleakala and then biking down

 

[CoP Luv]

I have not done this, but can point you in a good direction for information. Cruise Critic is a cruise forum that has TONS of information. If you join, you can access your roll call in which you can chat with other passengers on your sail date.

You can research excursions or private tour guides on the ports of call page.

Cruise Critic is my first stop when planning a cruise vacation!!! have fun!!!

 

[minniecarousel]

DH & I did this the first summer of sailing for POA. We loved it (funny how time can point out the good stuff and blur the problems!) We also spent a few days on Oahu before and had a mix-up as to where to wait for the bus to take us and our luggage to the port. We finally got that straightened out, but didn't know that our luggage wasn't taken to the port, since the first bus couldn't locate us (short story: we were waiting at one entrance and the bus picked up at another - both were at the bottom of an escalator).

We enjoyed the excursions. We went on the chocolate tour, showing where they grow it. Unfortunately, that is the afternoon that the chocolate buffet was on the ship (!?)

I love NCL's free-style cruising with regards to dining. Maybe more ships do this now, but DH & I like to eat alone. We made reservations at some of their signature restaurants too (worth the extra service charge - but make these reservations ASAP, before getting on the ship.)

I'm sure I'll think of more. In fact I kept a journal, so I'll go dig that up & post more later.

 

[ashleybea]

I went on this cruise a couple of years ago. Some excersions we did were ziplining in Maui, a helicopter tour of Kuai (this was really amazing), we spent an extra day on Oahu and went to the north shore and visited Pearl Harbor.

My favorite was ziplining.

There are also plenty of fun things to do on board the ship. One day I went and learned how to hula. and then I also made kaquwi(sp) nut necklaces.

Have a fun cruise!

 

[flit]

We just did this cruise in February. It was AMAZING! Loved the freestyle cruising. We did several excursions also. One of the best was the snorkeling with Capt. Zodiac at Kona. Februrary is prime whale season and they were EVERYWHERE! Saw several babies breaching on our way to the snorkelling spot. Also did ziplining in Kauai. Awesome! For the stop on Maui we rented Harleys and took the road to Hana one day and then went to the top of Haleakela the next.

We were in a balcony stateroom, 9090, and it was perfect for watching the lava flow when sailing from Hilo to Kona. All of the restaurants were excellent. Really liked Little Italy.

The first night on board they had a "Pub Crawl" which is when you go to 5 bars in 1 hour and have a drink at each one.

Have a great trip!

 

[jamie@dvcstore]

Hi Sugardimples,
I have not been on this cruise, though we did look into it. I apologize I can not provide any insight on the actual cruise. I just wanted to second what CoP Luv said about Cruise Critic.I found this website a few months ago while planning a cruise. It is fantastic and much like Disboards. We will be in Alaska this summer and Hawaii is one of our top choices for our next cruise.Good luck in planning and have a wonderful trip.
________
Kiaritta

 

[Sugardimples]

Thanks, everyone for your input. I have checked out the cruise critic site and there is lots of great information there.