Pride of America:

Cheers for the

Red, White and Blue

By Carol Eannarino

You might nickname this ship the Pride of NCL America. After a well-publicized shaky start with NCL America’s first U.S. flagged-ship Pride of Aloha in 2004, basically because of service problems, the brand bounced back with the Pride of America in June 2005 (and, as we speak, it is introducing a third ship, Pride of Hawaii, which we’ll detail in a future issue).
Because its ships are U.S. flagged, NCL America can ply the Hawaiian waters without visiting a foreign port. It also must employ U.S. officers and crew and abide by U.S. labor laws. In order to attract a fresh crop of workers after the Pride of Aloha “challenge” (as president and CEO Colin Veitch termed it), the line advertised in newspapers throughout the U.S. and started a training program in Maryland to allow recruits to experience the reality of working on a cruise ship.
The result is that the ship’s staff consists mainly of young Americans from the mainland (along with some from Hawaii, Guam and Puerto Rico). For those accustomed to an international staff, American servers may take some getting used to — and perhaps they do operate a few nanoseconds slower than their Filipino or Indonesian counterparts. However, on a recent cruise, we found the service to be friendly, efficient and a breath of fresh air.
The American service blends in nicely with the ship’s décor — a tribute to everything American. Enter the three-story Capitol atrium and you are transported to Washington, DC. The stone floor is inlaid with the Great Seal of the United States, while the ceiling features a backlit stained glass replica of the interior of the Capitol’s dome. There are white colonial banisters and a sweeping grand staircase carpeted in red. Next to the elevators stands a replica of the Washington monument — all in all, an impressive sight. Even the stairwells feature beautiful giant photographs of popular destinations throughout the U.S.

Each lounge is themed to an American city or venue:
• Pink’s Champagne & Cigar Bar was inspired by Waikiki’s legendary Royal Hawaiian Hotel (a.k.a The Pink Lady) and includes nightly piano entertainment.
• Mardi Gras Cabaret Lounge and Nightclub is festively themed in the New Orleans Mardi Gras style, featuring purple, green and gold. This popular night spot has live music and dancing with full sound and lighting, cabaret styled entertainment and a stage and karaoke.
• Gold Rush Saloon resembles a pub from the Gold Rush era in Alaska. Along with lanterns and barrels are some modern amenities such as a video juke box, karaoke, darts and several TVs, including a large screen for sports event viewing.
• John Adams Coffee Bar, designed to replicate (pre-Starbucks) Colonial America, serves frozen coffees, espresso, cappuccino, tea, Viennese pastries and cookies.
• Napa Wine Bar features rough stone and wood and large tables for passengers to sip wines from around the world.
Like other NCL ships, Pride of America offers Freestyle Dining, enabling guests to explore a variety of dining options on their own schedule, selecting with whom and at what time they dine. A reservation system uses LCD screens located in high traffic areas. The screens display a color coded status grid showing availability in each restaurant — “empty,” “filling up,” “short wait” or “full/longer wait.” There is also a reservations agent at the purser’s desk and passengers can call in reservations from their stateroom.
Travel agents should advise their clients that, to avoid disappointment, they should make reservations for the entire week as soon as they can after boarding the ship. These restaurants fill up FAST.

Here are the ship’s eight restaurants:
Liberty and Skyline, the two main restaurants, both serve the same tasty traditional food (there’s always at least one vegetarian entrée). Skyline’s décor, New York in the 1930s, pays tribute to the city’s Art Deco skyscrapers, complete with window frames that resemble the stainless steel crown of the Chrysler Building and support posts covered with mini-skyscrapers. In the Liberty Restaurant, it’s a red, white and blue Colonial America world, including life-sized statues of the founding fathers and paintings depicting important moments in American history.
Lazy J Restaurant, with its Texas décor and down-home waiters in cowboy garb, is an upscale steakhouse also serving veal, pork, lamb, seafood and grilled chicken ($15/pp/surcharge).
East Meets West: Lively chefs prepare Japanese food involving lots of chopping in front of guests at the Japanese teppanyaki room (two tables accommodate 32). There’s also a sushi and shashimi bar that seats eight. ($10/pp for restaurant; a la carte pricing for teppanyaki room and sushi dishes).
Jefferson’s Bistro. The Bistro is NCL’s signature restaurant. So how do you fit this into an American themed décor? Turn it into Jefferson’s Bistro (Thomas Jefferson was Minister to France, after all) and serve an a la carte menu of nouvelle and classic French cuisine. (Brilliant!) This elegant Bistro is modeled after Jefferson’s home library in Monticello. Be sure to allot a leisurely amount of time to enjoy your meal. ($10/pp).
Cadillac Diner boasts a 1950s décor complete, with rock ’n roll memorabilia, retro juke box and booths arranged around a vintage red Cadillac that was cut in two. No charge for the diner fare (except for milkshakes and sodas). Open 24 hours.
Little Italy: This casual Italian eatery is a popular spot. There’s no cover charge, so advise your clients to reserve early. It’s worth it!
Aloha Café: Enjoy a buffet breakfast, lunch or dinner in a brightly-colored Hawaii themed atmosphere. What the ship calls “food action islands” — or self-serve stations — contain a wide variety of hot and cold food, along with a tempting dessert bar and an excellent salad bar. While it may take your clients a visit or two to figure out the scheme of things, once they do, they need never stand on line. We enjoyed the food and lively atmosphere. Outdoor seating is available.
A corner of the room is devoted to the Kids Café. Children (and often their parents) sit on mini sized tables and chairs and munch on the buffet’s offering of kid-friendly food (burgers, hot dogs and the like).
Some really good snacks are offered on Deck 12 at Key West Bar & Grill (open in the daytime only). It overlooks the South Beach on Deck 11, the main outdoor pool that features a trampoline with harness and a gyroscope. For a more secluded pool, head to Deck 12 to the small Oasis pool and, just above on Deck 13, the Waikiki Bar featuring surfboards, surfers and a lifeguard sculpture.
Room service is available 24-hours.
Our cheerful oceanview stateroom with balcony — there are 612 in this category ranging from 179 to 233 square feet — was quite comfortable. Cherrywood finishing, a safe, refrigerator, Internet connection and a tea and coffee maker, complete with Kona coffee, made us feel very much at home.
Once on the balcony, however, we were transported into another world, especially when we sailed along Kauai’s stunning Na’pali Coast by day. Another treat was watching the lava from Kilauea Volcano on the Big Island slide into the Pacific in the dark of night.
Staterooms include 227 inside at 132 square feet; 178 oceanview at 144 square feet; and eight family suites featuring a living room, separate den with a single sofa bed, a private bedroom and a living room with a sofa bed and entertainment center.
Four additional family suites feature two inter-connected cabins with two bathrooms that sleep eight and range in size from 330 to 356 square feet. At the top of the line, including all the bells and whistles, are 28 penthouse suites between 494 and 598 square feet; two deluxe family penthouse suites at 607 to 650 square feet; three deluxe penthouse suites at 676 to 697 square feet; six owner’s suites at 766 to 875 square feet and one 1,382 square feet grand suite.

Among the choice of onboard pastimes:
Shuffles Card room fills with all ages playing cards and some of the limited variety of board games. (We tried Trivial Pursuit while waiting for a complete Scrabble set to surface.)
The S/S America Library is stocked with a large selection of books and magazines and features memorabilia and artifacts from its historic namesake.
The Internet Center on Deck 8 offers packages for surfing the Net and rents laptops with Wi Fi or wireless cards for those who bring their own laptops.
Nightly entertainment is offered in the glamorous two-level Hollywood Theatre, where large Oscar-like golden statues adorn the walls and entrance.
The Sante Fe Fitness Center on Deck 12 features state-of-the art Cybex exercise and Lifefitness cardiovascular equipment. An aerobics room offers high/low impact aerobics, yoga, power walking and belly busters classes.
Nearby is the Santa Fe Spa and Beauty Salon featuring Mandara Spa, a full service spa and unisex beauty salon with 14 treatment rooms, including one especially for couples. The soothing New Mexican décor provides a tranquil atmosphere for relaxing.
Rascals Kid’s Center on Deck 12 is a cheerful, supervised area for kids 2 to 12 years. There’s a play area, rest area, computer terminals, movie room and jungle gym. Outside is an area with an animal theme, featuring slides and a paddling pool.
Teens have their own “hip” Connections Teen Club, featuring comfortable seating, a dance floor, soda bar, video jukebox, fooze ball and air hockey. At night, the club turns into a teen disco complete with D.J.
Upscale shopping is offered at the Newbury Street shops on Deck 5.
There is a nice selection of Hawaii-themed activities throughout the week. We opted to make a red, white and blue ribbon weave lei which patient instructors guided us through.
Pride of America offers 7-day cruises embarking/disembarking in Honolulu with an itinerary that features a day in Hilo, Hawaii, two days in Kahului, Maui, a day in Kona, Hawaii and two days in Nawiliwili, Kauai.