My Hawaii Cruise Vacation onboard the Norwegian Cruise Line Pride of Hawaii

I recently returned from the Norwegian Cruise Line Pride of Hawaii. My family and I wanted to visit Hawaii so we did some research. We found the Pride of Hawaii offered the best itinerary of the options we looked into. We made 4 stops and had overnights in both Maui and Kauai’i. We had the option of going to a hotel for an evening Luau or to check out Hawaiian nightlife.

The ship was beautifully decorated and very clean. Food quality exceeded our expectations. We were able to eat in 5 different restaurants. My advice: Book your dinner reservations as soon as you board. Otherwise you will likely get locked out of the specialty restaurants. On our sailing all restaurants were booked solid by the 2nd day of the cruise. So, as soon as you board see the maitre’d and make your reservations. The nice part, you can get a table for just your family – they have many tables for 2, 4 & 6. The service in the main dining room was slower than we are used to but we later found out it’s due to an understaffing issue. We spoke with one of our waiters and they said NCL is actively working on this situation. Since it is an American registered ship it carries an all American crew.

All public areas were colorful and happy. Palm trees surround the pool and spray a light mist every ten minutes. She has a spiral slide into the kiddie pool. Next to it is an adult pool with a waterfall. Nice idea but they didn’t actively keep the kids out of the adult pool. The crew didn’t push drinks on us, a very relaxing atmosphere. If you wanted to stay busy they had a lot going on. The afternoon hula and lei making classes were very popular. The evening shows were excellent. I especially enjoyed the magic acts. NCL brought on 2 guys from Vegas to perform 2 evenings.

The captain altered our itinerary so we were able to sail past the Napali coastline in daylight. We sailed past sea cliffs, waterfalls and rainbows. One evening we were due to sail past Mt. Kilawea to see the lava flow into the ocean. We had just finished dinner and came upon the viewing. Our waiter suggested we go outside to view it. He held our table while we went outside and had dessert for us when we came back: Great treatment in my book. If you’re thinking of doing a Hawaii cruise, book the Pride of Hawaii. There are 3 ships that do the same itinerary. I didn’t hear as much positive feedback from friends who sailed on the other 2 NCL ships (Pride of Aloha and America).