I am back from a wonderful vacation cruising on the Pride of America.
My intentions were to write a blog everyday on each island that we sailed into. By the second day, everything was going so fast…the days were filled with stuff to do. By the time I got back to the cabin and turned on the computer, I would fall asleep. So here we go with everything I can share about my trip and experience on the Pride of America.
March 31, we departed Honolulu. I personally got on the ship late as I worked a 1/2 day schedule. The ship will allow people to get on as early as 1pm, but your cabin may not be cleaned and available for you to check into. When you check in your bags, make sure to keep one bag with you with extra clothes and important things that you will need as your bags that you check in with the port will not be delivered till early evening. I got our bags around 7pm in the evening. It was a good thing that we dress appropriate getting on board. Even though NCL is all about "free style" cruising, they still have a dress policy for the certain restaurants. They were pretty lenient the 1st night as they knew guest would not have their luggage to later in the evening.
When you 1st get on board, try to make your reservation for the next evenings dinner if you plan to eat at one of the finer dinning establishments. On this ship it was "Jefferson’s Bistro", "Little Italy", "East meets West", "Lazy J’s Steakhouse". The cover charge for these restaurants are from $15-$20 per person. Reservations for these restaurants can only be made 1 day in advance and they fill up fast. The main dinning room will take restaurant reservations for a party of 5 or more. We only had 2 of us, and our wait time was no longer than 10 minutes. We made sure to eat early (around 5pm - 6pm nightly). I think later in the evening it gets busier.
The 1st day is full of excitement for everyone. The cruise has all kind of stuff to start the cruise celebration. From 6:30pm till 10pm music, dance and contest were part of the celebration. Even the Kids from 2 - 12 years that their own celebration activities.
April 1, we arrived in Hilo. See my blog on April 1 for stuff I did. After we got back to the ship that evening I talked with guest to see what kind of stuff they did. The majority did the Volcanoes National Park Tour. You can get on the tour as early as 8:45am till the latest 12:15pm. The tour takes 5 Hours. The cost will run you $54 per adult. Other just walked around the Hilo town. It’s a 15 min walk to the town. When I say town it’s the area on Banyan Drive were the hotels are. There are wonderful parks to walk thru and take photo’s. There are 20 other shore activities to choose from. Check NCL.com under shore excursions for more details.
When I got back from day with family/friends, I meet a vendor that rents bikes that you an tour the town of Hilo. If we didn’t have plans with our family/friends then this is what I would have chose to do. I have already seen the Volcano, so a ride on a bike thru the town would have been nice. My daughter wished we had done that too. Well, maybe on the next cruise. The evening on the ship was full of entertainment, We saw a comedy show, we joined the Black Sand Party at Pool side. Then the ship sailed to were the Volcano flowed off the side of the island, it was a awesome hour view of mother nature at one of her best moments. If we had the energy to stay up, we could have joined the Karaoke Party and Country Line Dancing that was held till late into the evening.
April 2, we arrived in Maui for a overnight stay. I picked up a car rental for the day and drove around Maui at leisure. I started by going to Makawao were they have the best Long John Pastry and Cookies (of course I brought cookies home to share with family and friends), then we drove down to Kihei to check out some hotel and beaches in the area, we then drove to Kaanapali to check out more hotels and beaches (checking out the hotels is part of my job so that I can make proper recommendations to clients), We then spent the afternoon at Whalers Village doing what a girl likes best…"Shopping!!". Before heading back to the ship, we stopped at Maui Ocean Center for a quick tour. You will need at least a 1/2 day for this venue and you add on a Whale watching too. We then headed back to the ship. You can get on at any time of the evening. Port agents are there all night to receive guest back on. If you do rent a car and plan to return it the next day, I would advise that you get back to the ship early as overnight parking is limited and some guest experience their car rentals were towed the next morning (Signs are posted all over that you can’t park in certain areas, but if you come back to the ship late and don’t find parking you take a risk parking just any where).
The evening activities: "Who wants to be a Basillionaire" game hosted by our Cruise Director, Big Band Music @ 8pm, Karaoke @ 9pm, Pride of America Crew Show @ 9:30pm…..this was so cool to see the talent of the employees, they did some cool stuff, and very entertaining. Midnight dancing in the Mardi Gras Lounge.
April 3, this was our second day in Maui. We just stayed on the ship to enjoy the activities offered. My daughter, went to join the fun at the "Teen Club". They did stuff with the kids from 9am -12pm, then from 2pm - 5pm, and again from 7pm - 10pm. This allows the grown ups to do things that would normally boar anyone under 17yrs…..or that’s what my daughter thought. For me, there was a morning trivia game (fun), Movie: Over the Hedge in the cruise theatre. From 2pm till Sundown, the pool deck has all kind of activities. Then in the evening a group called "Three Mo Tenors" performed 2 shows (each were different than they other), Chris Alpine did another comedy show. and Midnight Dancing.
April 4th, we arrived in Kona. Kona does not have a pier to doc at so you get tendered in. The tender ride was only about 15 min and it ran all day back and forth from ship to shore. A lot of people got off to do shopping for souvenirs at Hilo Hattie, others I found out did water excursions, for us we just cruised Kona town by feet. Actually, my daughter didn’t bring enough clothes and we needed to wash what she had. Because I knew the Kona town area, I knew where to go. When other passengers saw us bring our clothes they wanted to know where the Laundromat was as they needed to do the same thing. Some passengers mentioned to me that they wished their travel agent mentioned little things like where a Laundromat was located on one of the port stops. After the clothes were washed (about 1 hour), we), we walked thru Kona town, checked the Kona Museum out, …we just took it easy. I talked with one passenger that did a shore excursion that involved a Kona Coffee Farm tour. He and his wife really enjoyed it. I did this tour before and yes, anyone that chooses this for their shore excursion will not be disappointed. Check out the full description of this tour at ncl.com and click on shore excursions for Kona.
The evening on the ship was fun…..we had Lobster for dinner in the main dinning room. I ate 3 of them….yikes!!, but it was so good. For the evening entertainment we had a Magic Show by Dave Cox and the No-so-Newlywed Comedy Game show. Both were so entertaining. The midnight dance party was themed "50’s Rock in Roll Party.
April 5th, we arrived in Nawiliwili Kauai. We started out early with a car rental. I knew our plans were to go to the Waimea Canyon and the ride would be about 1 1/2 hours plus time to check out the Canyon. Other passengers took the tour buses to the Canyon. Kauai is not hard to drive at all. It’s a small island and the maps are precise. Road signage was excellent. If you do rent a car there is also overnight parking at the ship, but again limited. Wow!!!, the Waimea Canyon was a beautiful site. I totally recommend you see, whether on a tour excursion or renting a car and getting their on your own. On our way back to Lihue, there was a community craft fair, so we stopped and picked up a few things. We stopped by the Kauai Cookie Factory, we cruised down Poipu to check out the beach. We returned the car early and headed back to the ship. The evening events were another comedy show by Full Impact, they did 2 shows and each were different than the other, Karaoke and a Band did a show dedicated to the 70’s.
April 6th, 2nd day in Kauai, because this was our last full day, we just stayed on the ship and enjoyed the pool and all the pool side activities. Most of the passengers had the same idea. My daughter joined the "Teen Club" which had a Pajama party for the kids from 7pm till 10pm. For the Adults, you had your choice of a comedy show, music show, dancing, Karaoke, everything was happening on this the last evening of our 7 day cruise. Of course we had to have our last cruise dinner, which was a repeat menu of the 1st day, but it was good that having it 7 days later was not a problem. The meal was a Skirt Steak with purple sweet potatoes mashed and a papaya salsa, but for the appetizer we had scallops and shrimp, dessert was a Macadamia Nut crème burle. After dinner I just went back to the room to get our bags packed. Luggage needs to be ready by 12midnight so that the crew can take it to ready to come off the ship the next morning and be ready for what ever activity you are planning to do in Honolulu. Once our bags were packed I got my daughter from the Pajama party and joined the farewell dance party @ 11pm.
April 7th, we arrived back in Honolulu to disembark from this wonderful cruise we just experienced. I really enjoyed myself, and plan to take this cruise again in the future. I think my advantage is that I live in Hawaii and don’t need to pay for airfare. I know if you choose to cruise aboard any of the 3 ships currently in Hawaii, you will not be disappointed.
Call me to get a quote started for your preferred travel dates. I look forward to sharing my experience with you and assisting you in creating special Hawaii memories with your family as I did with mine.
Lisa Zablan
Hawaii Aloha Travel
6800 Kalanianaole Hwy #127
Honolulu, Hawaii 96825
lisa@hawaii-aloha.com
1-800-843-8771 ext 27