We did this cruise in March 2023 and loved it! You need to remember that this is NOT a Caribbean cruise. It is very port intensive. For us, the ports were more important than the ship itself. We treated the NCL Pride of America like a floating hotel. No idea on what the entertainment was because we’d get back to the ship each day, relax a bit, eat dinner, sit on the aft deck behind the buffet area and then head to bed and get ready for the next days activities. We typically ate breakfast and most dinners on the ship but had lunch on whatever island we’re on. Try all the different foods that you cannot get back home. Try a shave ice. Do recommend getting there a few days early to tour Oahu & take in the sites. We stayed in Lai’e at the North Shore Courtyard Marriott. Just a walk across the street and you can be at the beach and it was way more relaxing & less crowded than any beach in Waikiki. Another recommendation is to get a day use hotel on your last day there. There are a couple of websites for this. It was a normal hotel but they had some rooms that they make available just for the day. We had the room from 8-6 but the hotel clerk gave us an extra hour without us even asking. A lot of flights back to the mainland USA are really late at night. We got off the ship, took a taxi to the hotel we reserved , dropped off our luggage and explored Waikiki. Swam on the beach, took a dip in the hotel pool, were able to take showers and then checked out at 7 pm. Headed to the airport for our 11:30 pm flight home. We came from the eastern time zone. Saw many sunrises but very few sunsets. Didn’t suffer from jet lag until 2 days after we got back home.
Awesome! Sounds like you had a great time. Thanks for sharing. We also enjoyed visiting all the islands and experiencing great foods like shave ice. Appreciate hearing about your experience and your tips.
Kathy in Missouri here, love your videos. We are planning to cruise TO the islands, and either back, or flight home. I am concerned about all the "rogue wave, rough passages and such " . Do you have any experiences with the passage, or helpful thoughts? Thank you.
Sounds like an adventure. We'd love to cruise there and have our eye on a Hawaii + Alaska combo cruise at some point in the future. Can't speak to what this passage will be like as we haven't done it yet. To get less motion, we try to book a stateroom that is in the center of the ship, preferably on a lower deck. We did encounter some larger waves on a Caribbean cruise. In that case, we used motion sickness medicine, ate light & ate some ginger candy, and took it easy. Remember to have one hand for the ship and one for you. Here are two videos where cruisers described their experience. Hope these help. Cruise with Ben and David: ruclips.net/video/Qhb5ctzuZWE/видео.html Very unOfficial Travel Guide: ruclips.net/video/B_MBbqB00LA/видео.html And here is one on how to avoid seasickness from Life Well Cruised ruclips.net/video/UKlmgRfUL-o/видео.html Good luck with your cruise and let us know how it goes.
Thank you for the tips, I have read that renting a car and exploring is the best way to see the island and it appears as if you utilized tour guides which is fantastic! If you could do it over, would you rent a car and explore or do guided tours?
This was our first time in Hawaii. We opted to do excursions for most of our adventures. It worked great - we had good guides who explained things we likely would have missed. We did rent a car one day in Kauai which gave us a bit more flexibility and enabled us to spend more time at Waimea Canyon. If we are lucky enough to go again, we'll likely use a mix of excursions and exploring on our own. As the ship is in port overnight in Maui and Kuai, exploring on your own there might be an option. If you want to see what we did, check out our NCL Pride of America Excursions video.
My husband and I are going on this one soon. I have an Auntie in Hawaii so we will stay with her front and back of cruise. The question I have is, did you book excursions every day? we have long excursions booked with 2 days open 1. open when at Kona 2. one of 2 open a Maui. I saw on another person's vid that the ship kind of shuts down after 10p - did you spend any time on the ship? with the entertainment? or music?
We hope you have a great cruise! We booked excursions each day except for one day in Kauai where we rented a car and explored on our own. It was our first visit to Hawaii and we found excursions that enabled us to see some of the must-do things. However, we may do a bit more exploring on our own if we are lucky enough to return. As for the ship & entertainment, we enjoyed meals onboard, saw a comedy show one night, and enjoyed a fun show led by the cruise director another evening. After exploring the islands, most nights some light entertainment was enough. On other cruises we've done, the onboard entertainment has had a bit more to offer in terms of production shows or music. But for this itinerary, what was offered was OK. Hope that helps.
SO helpful!! How much is the "Free at Sea" option? I would love for us not to be worrying about gratuities, drinks and the specialty dining!! Thank you for all your videos! I asked a couple questions on another video-I hope you will see and answer those those too-😀
Thanks for your questions. We appreciate it. Free at Sea is a promotional rate offered by NCL. We found it worked well for us as the things it included were things were a good fit for us. On prior cruises, we would typically have a bill for things like gratuities, dining, and beverages. While we likely didn't get the maximum value out of all of the perks, it was great to have no surprise bill at the end of the cruise. The alternative is to book a basic cruise. NCL calls that a sailaway rate. It appears that with that rate, you may get the lowest fare but you may not be able to select your stateroom. To find out how much Free at Sea costs, I guess the best thing would be to price out the cruise two ways. Once with selecting your room and including Free at Sea. Then try it a second time with the basic rate plus gratuities. To that, add on things you are likely to do such as purchase water, soda, a glass of wine with dinner, etc. While that isn't an easy answer to how much it costs, I hope that helps.
My cruise back in 1982 on a different ship and line that is no longer there, was befor costco but I heard the cheap place was Walgreens right across the street from Waikiki beach. Also some of the beest and cheapest food options for me. I went as a single cruiser and went cheapest rate as a guarentee share that was bumped up a single room. Fun.I agree go early to see the sights of Oahu. You may never be back. My dad had been on Oahu during WW2 and said how much he loved it. At that time only the The Pink Hotel was on the beach. I went into the lobby and took a picture just for my dad. I wished I would have booked a stay after to. Good tips.
Thanks for the question. Short answer - I think Uber would work for your ride to the port. Longer answer. We had arranged shuttles & taxis for our transportation between the airport, hotels, and cruise terminal. Those generally worked well. However, we did have a few issues. When we ran into an issue with our shuttle from the port to Aulani, we used Lyft and it worked great. And, the Lyft ride, similar to Uber, ended up being less expensive than the transportation we had arranged. Since you asked specifically about Uber, you may want to check out this article from Uber on transportation in Honolulu. www.uber.com/global/en/r/cities/honolulu-hi-us/ Hope that helps.
We did this cruise in March 2023 and loved it! You need to remember that this is NOT a Caribbean cruise. It is very port intensive. For us, the ports were more important than the ship itself. We treated the NCL Pride of America like a floating hotel. No idea on what the entertainment was because we’d get back to the ship each day, relax a bit, eat dinner, sit on the aft deck behind the buffet area and then head to bed and get ready for the next days activities. We typically ate breakfast and most dinners on the ship but had lunch on whatever island we’re on. Try all the different foods that you cannot get back home. Try a shave ice. Do recommend getting there a few days early to tour Oahu & take in the sites. We stayed in Lai’e at the North Shore Courtyard Marriott. Just a walk across the street and you can be at the beach and it was way more relaxing & less crowded than any beach in Waikiki. Another recommendation is to get a day use hotel on your last day there. There are a couple of websites for this. It was a normal hotel but they had some rooms that they make available just for the day. We had the room from 8-6 but the hotel clerk gave us an extra hour without us even asking. A lot of flights back to the mainland USA are really late at night. We got off the ship, took a taxi to the hotel we reserved , dropped off our luggage and explored Waikiki. Swam on the beach, took a dip in the hotel pool, were able to take showers and then checked out at 7 pm. Headed to the airport for our 11:30 pm flight home. We came from the eastern time zone. Saw many sunrises but very few sunsets. Didn’t suffer from jet lag until 2 days after we got back home.
Awesome! Sounds like you had a great time. Thanks for sharing. We also enjoyed visiting all the islands and experiencing great foods like shave ice. Appreciate hearing about your experience and your tips.
Thank you so much for these videos. You have answered so many of the questions I had.
We are happy to be helpful. Thanks for letting us know it was useful.
Doing that cruise next year. Thanks!
Thanks for the feedback. We hope you have a great cruise!
Kathy in Missouri here, love your videos. We are planning to cruise TO the islands, and either back, or flight home. I am concerned about all the "rogue wave, rough passages and such " . Do you have any experiences with the passage, or helpful thoughts? Thank you.
Sounds like an adventure. We'd love to cruise there and have our eye on a Hawaii + Alaska combo cruise at some point in the future. Can't speak to what this passage will be like as we haven't done it yet.
To get less motion, we try to book a stateroom that is in the center of the ship, preferably on a lower deck. We did encounter some larger waves on a Caribbean cruise. In that case, we used motion sickness medicine, ate light & ate some ginger candy, and took it easy. Remember to have one hand for the ship and one for you.
Here are two videos where cruisers described their experience. Hope these help.
Cruise with Ben and David: ruclips.net/video/Qhb5ctzuZWE/видео.html
Very unOfficial Travel Guide: ruclips.net/video/B_MBbqB00LA/видео.html
And here is one on how to avoid seasickness from Life Well Cruised ruclips.net/video/UKlmgRfUL-o/видео.html
Good luck with your cruise and let us know how it goes.
Thank you for the tips, I have read that renting a car and exploring is the best way to see the island and it appears as if you utilized tour guides which is fantastic! If you could do it over, would you rent a car and explore or do guided tours?
This was our first time in Hawaii. We opted to do excursions for most of our adventures. It worked great - we had good guides who explained things we likely would have missed. We did rent a car one day in Kauai which gave us a bit more flexibility and enabled us to spend more time at Waimea Canyon. If we are lucky enough to go again, we'll likely use a mix of excursions and exploring on our own. As the ship is in port overnight in Maui and Kuai, exploring on your own there might be an option. If you want to see what we did, check out our NCL Pride of America Excursions video.
My husband and I are going on this one soon. I have an Auntie in Hawaii so we will stay with her front and back of cruise. The question I have is, did you book excursions every day? we have long excursions booked with 2 days open 1. open when at Kona 2. one of 2 open a Maui. I saw on another person's vid that the ship kind of shuts down after 10p - did you spend any time on the ship? with the entertainment? or music?
We hope you have a great cruise! We booked excursions each day except for one day in Kauai where we rented a car and explored on our own. It was our first visit to Hawaii and we found excursions that enabled us to see some of the must-do things. However, we may do a bit more exploring on our own if we are lucky enough to return.
As for the ship & entertainment, we enjoyed meals onboard, saw a comedy show one night, and enjoyed a fun show led by the cruise director another evening. After exploring the islands, most nights some light entertainment was enough. On other cruises we've done, the onboard entertainment has had a bit more to offer in terms of production shows or music. But for this itinerary, what was offered was OK.
Hope that helps.
SO helpful!! How much is the "Free at Sea" option? I would love for us not to be worrying about gratuities, drinks and the specialty dining!! Thank you for all your videos! I asked a couple questions on another video-I hope you will see and answer those those too-😀
Thanks for your questions. We appreciate it.
Free at Sea is a promotional rate offered by NCL. We found it worked well for us as the things it included were things were a good fit for us. On prior cruises, we would typically have a bill for things like gratuities, dining, and beverages. While we likely didn't get the maximum value out of all of the perks, it was great to have no surprise bill at the end of the cruise.
The alternative is to book a basic cruise. NCL calls that a sailaway rate. It appears that with that rate, you may get the lowest fare but you may not be able to select your stateroom.
To find out how much Free at Sea costs, I guess the best thing would be to price out the cruise two ways. Once with selecting your room and including Free at Sea. Then try it a second time with the basic rate plus gratuities. To that, add on things you are likely to do such as purchase water, soda, a glass of wine with dinner, etc.
While that isn't an easy answer to how much it costs, I hope that helps.
This is the perfect answer. Thank you so much!
I’m doing this cruise July 12 2025. My travel agency is putting together a 3 or 4 day pre cruise tour
I’ve heard that about Costco
My cruise back in 1982 on a different ship and line that is no longer there, was befor costco but I heard the cheap place was Walgreens right across the street from Waikiki beach. Also some of the beest and cheapest food options for me. I went as a single cruiser and went cheapest rate as a guarentee share that was bumped up a single room. Fun.I agree go early to see the sights of Oahu. You may never be back. My dad had been on Oahu during WW2 and said how much he loved it. At that time only the The Pink Hotel was on the beach. I went into the lobby and took a picture just for my dad. I wished I would have booked a stay after to. Good tips.
Is there Uber to take you to NCL port for embarkation if we book at Waikiki Marriott?
Thanks for the question. Short answer - I think Uber would work for your ride to the port.
Longer answer. We had arranged shuttles & taxis for our transportation between the airport, hotels, and cruise terminal. Those generally worked well. However, we did have a few issues. When we ran into an issue with our shuttle from the port to Aulani, we used Lyft and it worked great. And, the Lyft ride, similar to Uber, ended up being less expensive than the transportation we had arranged.
Since you asked specifically about Uber, you may want to check out this article from Uber on transportation in Honolulu. www.uber.com/global/en/r/cities/honolulu-hi-us/
Hope that helps.
I would add. Buy trip insurance. An air transport back to mainline could be $ 100,000.
Great recommendation and we agree. For a trip like this, trip insurance is a must-have item.