Happy Birthday Jonah!

With much sadness, we had to farewell both Malcolm and his parents today. Malcolm left well before the children woke up to make his early morning flight back home. Nana and Grandpa drove with us to return the rental car at the airport before we split ways, them to their airport hotel and us on to the port.

Whilst it was exciting to meet up with Oma and Opa to board a cruise, it still wasn’t quite the same without Malcolm. Our home for the next week will be NCL’s Pride of America as we sail around the Hawaiian Islands. There would not be too many 10 year olds who could say that they got to go on a cruise for their birthday! Lucky Jonah!

NCL Pride

We booked the cruise a while back and got a great deal in a 1 bedroom ocean view suite which fit all 6 of us. The price ended up being cheaper than getting 2 balconies and so we took it and gladly embraced all the perks that came with a suite including priority check-in. We were able to board the ship as soon as she was ready and was sitting down at Cagney’s enjoying our lobster bisque for lunch by 12pm. At 1pm we were able to explore the ship and it was not long until our cabin was ready with our luggage lined up outside.

The first ones to board!

Waiting for our welcome drink

Oma is happy now

Let's get the dining started

Lobster bisque, one of our cruise staples

Studying the entertainment offerings

Lovely Hawaiin touches to welcome guests

One of the public lounge areas

A little hula

Whilst our suite was clean and comfortable, our first thoughts were that despite refurbishment around 3 years ago, the ship still felt old and tired compared to the other NCL ships we had been on. This was apparent in the fittings within the suite itself. Our continuing explorations took us to the children’s facilities which seemed alright, followed by the spa and gym. Our attempts to win at the spa raffle were in vain.

As the sun set, we sailed away for our first destination of Kahului, Maui. We did consider spending time on a select island but ended up deciding that NCL’s itinerary would give us a great sample of the main islands. With the help of our US travel agent, we chose a few travel companies for private tours at our stops to maximise the use of our limited time on each island. I'll include details of the companies we used as we go along.

Our suite

The adjoining second room

From our amazing travel agent!

Perks of being a frequent sailor

Perks of being a suite guest!

Time to sail away!

Our route

Our dinner this evening was at East Meets West, one of the complimentary restaurants onboard. They served Asian food which was a little hit and miss. Some of the dishes were too sweet, some were passable, but the one of the desserts turned out to be a winner! (Red bean fried pancake with green tea ice-cream)

We enjoyed the rest of our evening in our cabin sipping on our free sparkling wine and munching on our complimentary munchies. The children caught on to the complimentary on demand movies swiftly...

One guess for the theme of the restaurant!

Chinese, even sub par ones, was still welcomed when one hadn't had it for a while!

The winning dessert!