I had been looking forward to the multiple days at sea as the Pride of America crossed the Pacific. I imagined sleeping late, coffee on the balcony and lazy days reading by the pool. The others were more concerned that there would be nothing to do and they would become bored. Well...we were all wrong.
The Freestyle Daily that had been delivered to our cabin the previous night had scores of activities listed. It appeared that our major problem was going to be trying to find time to participate in all that we wanted to do! I hadn't been sure what to expect since normally the Pride of America cruises have NO sea days, but the crew did a great job of filling the days.
The four of us went to breakfast in the buffet and then Kent, Laurel and Bob attended the cardio dance class by the pool with assistant cruise director, Jasper. My choice was the arts & crafts class in the Mardis Gras lounge to make a beaded lanyard. The class was scheduled to start at 10 am. I arrived early and it was a good thing I did. I was able to find a seat up front with a table (which made working with the beads much easier.)
Since the craft classes are usually held on a day when the ship is in port and most passengers are gone, I think they were caught off guard by the huge crowd that showed up. The staff kept busy running for more and more supplies, but eventually everyone had what they needed to complete the project. I was quite proud of the lanyard that I made and it was something I used through out the cruise to keep track of my cabin card.
From the craft class I went directly to Jefferson's Bistro where our Cruise Critic meet & greet was held. The turnout was good and Malu, the cruise director, and some other officers were in attendance.
Most of the questions directed at them were concerning how NCL was going to handle the compensation for our missed cruise day and expenses for the night in San Francisco. At that point we had been told we would receive:
- Refund of one day of the cruise fare and service charges (tips)
- Reimbursement for the extra hotel night in San Francisco
- $300 in airline change fees for affected guests
- 25% of the amount paid for this cruise towards a future cruise (by the end of the cruise this had been increased to 50%)
- The chance to cancel without penalty
I suggested that we go to the Skyline dining room for lunch to avoid the inevitable crowds at the buffet. Unfortunately the service was incredibly slow and took much longer than I had anticipated. Once again...since the regular route has the ship in port every day, serving lunch to a large group in the dining room was something out of the ordinary.
To be seated quicker, we agreed to share a table with other people and ended up with a nice, older couple from Michigan (Al & Lucy) sitting with the four of us. They were both retired teachers which gave us something in common. When Al offered to pray before our meal we discovered we also shared our faith as well. He told us that he was trying to plan a service on the ship for Palm Sunday and we agreed to stay in touch and hopefully take part.
Following a nap in our cabin, Bob, Kent & I went to a class on origami at the John Adams coffee bar near the atrium. We learned how to fold paper into the shape of a turtle! Laurel went to a lecture on the history of Hawaii that Malu, the cruise director gave in the theater.
Immediately after the paper folding, there was a Wacky Putt-Putt Challenge...also in the atrium. Each contestant had to do the same three silly puts. There was no prize, but if you competed you got an activity card. For each competitive activity that you did during the cruise you would get an additional signature and qualify for a prize at the end. If there had been a prize, Kent would have won with his two holes in one!
The Pride of America has a multitude of different dining options, but most required an additional fee. There were two main dining rooms that were complimentary and that was fine with us. On nights we wanted faster service we went to the buffet.
The two dining rooms had the same menu, but the Liberty Dining Room had a dress code whereas the Skyline Dining Room was more casual. Since no one felt like dressing for dinner, we went to the Skyline. Most of the other passengers must have had the same thoughts and there was a long line waiting for tables. The hostess just suggested we go up the flight of stairs to the Liberty and eat there instead because there was no wait. Bob's fluorescent green t-shirt certainly didn't fit the dress code guidelines, but hey...at least he was dressed appropriately for St. Patrick's Day!
Service once again was VERY slow. It was over an hour and a half before we got our main course and twenty minutes after finishing our meal the dirty plates had still not been cleared. We finally told the waitress we would skip dessert because it was getting late and we wanted to get to the Not So Newlywed Game. She apologized over and over for the wait and said they were implementing all new menus and things were a mess in the kitchen. The waitress offered to get us some dessert quickly if we would stay, but we decided to leave and find some dessert later.
We watched about half of the game show in the Mardis Gras lounge and then left to find seats in the theater to see the musical production "Lights, Camera, Action." The show was excellent and we were very impressed with the talented singers and dancers.
From 9 pm to 11 pm, the Aloha Cafe (buffet) serves "late night snacks" and we were able to get our dessert that we had missed at dinner. By 10:45 pm we were back in our cabin and ready to call it a night. Before going to bed, the clocks were turned back an hour...a practice that would continue for the next couple of nights. By the time we reached Hawaii our clocks would be on the correct time zone...and hopefully our bodies too!
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