This is the Pride of Hawaii, built in 2006. It is the largest Hawaii-based, U.S. flagged ship. It is 965 feet long, 14 stories tall and has a 28 foot draft. There are 10 restaurants, 12 bars and lounges, a beauty salon, card room, library, fitness center, chapel and the Galleria Boutique for on-board shopping. It is really quite an amazing ship. You can even go to the 11th floor, toward the front, and view the bridge. (The line of enclosed windows just above the bow is the bridge.) It has 1,000 crew members (90% of which are American) and it can hold almost 2,500 passengers. And yet, never did we feel crowded or cramped at any time! There are just so many things going on at the same time that everyone is distributed around the ship.
This is the port side of the ship while docked in Maui. There's mom down on the right, in the pink pants, with her shopping bag! Those are the life boats up above with the orange covers. Just standing next to this gigantic ship makes one feel oh so small!
This is our state room, with two single beds. There was more than enough room for the two of us and all of our things. Behind the door where you come in, there was a big closet, with hangers, 4 shelves and 3 drawers so we were able to unpack our suitcases and hide them under our beds. You can see, reflected in the mirror on the right, that we had a TV in our room. We mostly used it to look up the weather for the day and to see the view from the bow of the ship. There were TV stations on it also, but we were not in our room long enough to watch much besides a news update.
The colors used in the ship were so vibrant! This is the carpet in the hallway by our cabin door. This ship is so big that it was easy to get "turned around." The rule of thumb was the dolphins on the carpet are swimming towards the front of the ship!
Here is another carpet, located in the Aloha Lounge on the 7th floor.
This is the Aloha Nui Cafe, located on the 12th floor, aft. It was set up cafeteria style and was open early every morning and stayed open late every night. The food was very good — we ate breakfast here every morning. You could then take the food to one of the many tables, or outside on the lanai, or even to your room, if you wished! This kiosk, marked Pasta, was one of about 7 that catered to different foods for each meal. This was the epitome of "all you can eat" dining!!!
This was a roast beef that was being served for dinner one night at the Aloha Nui Cafe. It was delicious!
These beautiful flowers are the ceiling decoration in the Aloha Lounge. They were incredible when the light shown through them. Each flower is about 2 feet wide.
There are so many things to do on the ship, including this large chess game, and also a checker game located on the other side of the ship. They are outside on the side decks, level 13.
Here I am practicing for the life jacket drill. I figure that if they are going to find me floating in the ocean, this is what I'll look like! We all had to gather at our own "station" with our life jacket and run through the drill, just in case there was an emergency. Luckily, we only had to use these for the drill!
Here is a picture that I took from above of the lift raft. When we were visiting Kona, there is no dock big enough for our ship. So, to go ashore, we had to go down to the 4th level, and board one of these lifeboats. They used it to transfer us to the shore. In an emergency, this boat can hold 150 people, but for the purposes of a transport, they put in only 100 people. It was a fun and bumpy ride!
We found a life ring strapped to the railing on the starboard side. We refused to contemplate the full extent to which this would be used!
This is the 13th level, aft, of the ship. This is where a lot of the action occurs! You can see the big, yellow waterslide, not just for children! There are two pools here, four hot tubs, and hundreds of lounge chairs, both ground level and the level above, and the level above that, seen at the back right. The green and white awning always had some group playing Hawaiian music. Or, it would be used for a meeting place where someone would be explaining the how-tos for the day. Below me (I am standing on the 14th level balcony above) there is a cafeteria style bar, complete with hot dogs, hamburgers, fries, salads, soups, side dishes and drinks. Good food is found everywhere on this ship!
These two men were our favorite Hawaiian singers! They are such "big dudes," their music was very upbeat, yet had that mellow Hawaiian sound to it. I asked them if they had a CD of their music, but they told me that they are in the process of making one! Don't know how long it will be before it's done, but I gave them my email address to let me know when it's ready.
Created: 16 Mar 2007 Modified: 19 Mar 2007