Hi all. We just booked our Hawaii cruise on Pride of America for this August. My husband has never been to Hawaii & has always wanted to go. I went 20 years ago when I was in grammar school, only remember the island vaugely. Soo excited!

We had trouble booking this. "Pride of America" is NCL's newest ship. All of July & August was completely booked every time I called. I had Lee from 1-800 Cruises keep calling to see if anything opened up. Then I called Lydia, the travel agent we always work with from Liberty Travel. She got avilibility when she called NCL for 1 date in July & 2 in August! (She jut called NCL & they gave her a choice! And I had been calling for days on end with no luck!) The only bad thing about Liberty Travel is that you never get a discount, it will cost the same if you book it yourself. But Lydia has been known to get her clients a cabin when things are "booked up", so it's a fair trade-off.

We are staying 2 nights in Waikiki pre-cruice (Hilton's romeomantic Alii Towers, 639.00 for 2 nights! Ouch!) When Lydia showed us our balcony cabin, I fell in love! Mid-ship, port side, perfect!

The only thing i'm dreading the flying over there. We picked our own air with Continential in Newark. We are flying nonstop both ways, 10 1/2 hours going & 9 1/2 hours return! (& I'm afraid of flying now that i'm in my 30's, yet it never bothered me up until my 20's, no particular reason, never had a rough flight. I just became petrified of flying as I got older. On out last flight I took 1 xanax an hour before we flew, did absolotely nothing to calm me!) I panic on a short 2 hour flight to Florida! I hope I can handle this flight! ) :

But as I look at our itinerary, I am getting so excited about our trip.

I'm always go greateful for the advice I get from everyone on these boards! I just wanted to share our good news!

~ Marina

Marina - I became afraid of flying also and waited 25 years before I told myself if I wanted to see anything of the world I would have to get over it. I was very nervous at first but now it is a piece of cake. The longest I have flown, the whole trip home (with four flights) took 36 hours. I have flown 10 passenger planes in Africa and even a helicopter in Fiji. Have a wonderful trip and just do it - it will get better the more you fly.

Which sailing did you book? I just got off the phone with NCL this morning and was surprised that the August 8th was already sold out. The reservation agent did offer me a choice of 3 other August dates but prices are high!

My travel agent was able to give us our pick of July 18 or Aug 15 (I used my travel agent Lydai at Liberty Travel in N.Y.) I had called Norwegian myself for several days, I was told the earliest availability was August 22. I even had an agent calling for me from 1-800 Cruises, he also tried a few days with no luck. My travel agentt was very lucky, when we booked the agent at Norwegian said that they have been getting bombarded with calls for this boat this summer. We were even allowed to select our cabin (yet when I tried booking with Norwegian, they would only give us a guarantee.)

That's the sailing I was looking into also. Unfortunately, the only quad cabins left are Penthouse Suites and up! I think we'll just go to Maui for the week instead. Enjoy your cruise!

In the process of booking this same cruise in October 2004 for our 10 year wedding anniversary. Not a big fan of flying either. Just curious, were your flights non-stop? Or is this impossible to get? Thanks and Happy Cruising.

Disregard the last message. Re-read your post. I see that it is a non-stop. Thanks!

You may want to call your travel agent. Pride of America is partially under water at the shipyard (somewhat sank last night) and probably won't be ready on time.

Link to another article:

http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/s...2/daily39.html