When my Dad and traveling partner reached his 70th birthday, he reached out to my brother Adam and sister in law Amy in hopes of doing a trip with them (all expenses paid) instead of just us. While that never came to be, he reached out again for his 72nd birthday and this time Adam and Amy came back with the suggestion of doing the one cruise that visits multiple Hawaiian islands. This cruise is only available via Norwegian Cruise Lines' Pride of America ship. Unlike every other cruise ship that requires by law to visit at least one foreign port on its itinerary, this one sails under the American flag and visits only Hawaiian ports. As a result, it also employs perhaps the largest amount of American born crew.
We'd never sailed NCL before but as with any upcoming trip, I set about researching and planning all I could. Several times I came across reports warning passengers not to judge NCL by this ship as it doesn't have anything but the Freestyle mentality in common with other ships in the line. I'd also heard many reports that service is lacking because the American crew aren't as service oriented or as reliant on any tip earnings to support their families back home. This ship carries the American theme throughout dedicating their one "formal" dining room known as the Liberty dining room to portraits of presidents throughout. The coffee bar is named after John Adams and the French specialty restaurant is named after Thomas Jefferson. There is no casino on board and they get around Hawaii's gambling laws by offering ship themed prizes at bingo instead of cash. Hawaiian law (up until recently) prevented the ship from offering an alcohol based drink package though they still serve everything you could want to drink. Other NCL ships have race tracks and other unique onboard activities. This ship had a couple pools as their onboard amenities. A common reference to this ship is to just consider it your floating hotel as it transports you to where you could spend all day off the ship in the various ports.
Unlike other NCL ships, Pride of America does not have the one unique NCL offering of The Haven. Whereas most cruise lines will offer something for their suite guests like breakfast in a specialty restaurant or their own lounge space, The Haven is one of the few spaces on a cruise line that creates a whole mini cruise ship space just for their suite guests. They have a sectioned off area on the ship for these guests with their own pool and lounge area, their own bar, and their own restaurant. We knew we still wanted to enjoy the suite life and reached out to NCL's website feature where they let you chat with someone they refer to as an experienced cruiser. Through them, we found out that the next available sailing (we started this planning back in March) that had an Owner's Suite that connected to the neighboring Penthouse Suite wasn't until November 2018. We next reached out to a new travel agent recommended to us and they were able to book Dad and I in the Owner's Suite and Adam and Amy in the Penthouse Suite.
With several long flights under our belts already and the prospect of another that would have added up to around 16 hours of flights in a row, it made me tired just thinking about it. Instead I jumped at the suggestion of breaking up the flights and spending a couple days exploring a stop on the west coast. Dad gave me the option of either Seattle or San Francisco and my mind went right to Ghirardelli and sourdough bread. While my Atlanta based brother and sister in law opted to not leave their home until our few extra days pre-cruise we'd planned to see Honolulu, Dad and I booked a flight on United Airlines from BWI to SFO for the Sunday before we'd meet up with Adam and Amy in Honolulu the following Wednesday.
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