Dining
Prepare you're taste buds and appetites for the world-renown cuisines and pastries like no other. Are you ready? It doesn't matter whether you're in the mood for the casual atmosphere of a Cafe or the formal scene of a restaurant. Which ever the dining preference you prefer, you'll find exactly what you're looking for aboard Norwegian's Pride of Aloha. If you acquire a sweet tooth that has a craving for some type of sweets, you'll find pleasurable accommodations.
6 Restaurants
- Palace Main Restaurant
- Crossings Main Restaurant
- Royal Palm Bistro
- Kāhili Restaurant
- Pacific Heights
- Hukilau Café & Lānai
While Pride of Aloha offers NCL's much praised "Freestyle Dining" options, the smaller (and older) ship only features a handful of those found on newer and larger vessels like Norwegian Spirit, Norwegian Dawn and Norwegian Sun. Still, the dining experience never lacked variety.
The ship has two main dining rooms: the Palace and Crossings, both fee-free. At least one is open for breakfast every day, lunch on some days, and both serve dinner from 5:30 until 10 p.m. Tables for two were plentiful enough and staff were gracious, particularly at breakfast, in not forcing camaraderie upon those of us who prefer privacy.
Breakfast menus feature a variety of hot dishes (eggs, omelets, French toast) and otherwise usual suspects. There's a special each morning Spinach frittata for instance. One interesting touch: In the mornings, at the restaurant's entrance, is a cart stocked with ingredients for Bloody Marys not to mention a whole selection of sodas. Another point: service was swift and efficient and we were easily able to eat a cooked-to-order breakfast in 45 minutes (or less).
Lunch varies; there are a handful of hot dishes as well as salads. At dinner, the menus are very simple there's a long list of starters on one side (including soup, salad and appetizers; you can choose just one or mix and match to create a multi-course meal) and entrees. The menus don't actually change all that much throughout the cruise but what does change, every day, is a featured recipe from one of Hawaii's celebrity chefs (a seafood pot-au-feu dish, contributed by the head chef at a Hilton resort, was quite delicious).
The aforementioned Hukilau Cafe (and the adjacent, aft-facing Hukilau Lanai) is of course the ship's buffet restaurant and it's open for three meals every day. It was organized as efficiently as was possible the design of the facility preceded the cruise trend of multi-stations in order to eliminate lines. You will encounter lines, particularly during (but not limited to) high-traffic times. On the plus side, the ship has carved out niches for desserts, soups and NCL's trademark vegetarian Indian offerings. Food was fair to middling.
The ship's lunch and dinner buffets, held on the pool deck, were fun, festive affairs and ranged from good ol' barbecues to Hawaiian fare.
Tucked inside the Hukilau Cafe is Sprinkles, an ice cream station (confections are free).
The highlights of the Pride of Aloha dining experience really do revolve around its three boutique restaurants. In all cases, the service was sublime (though I have to say the main dining room service was genuinely excellent as well). My favorite on the first cruise, and again on this one was the Italian-themed Kahili; it's elegant and narrow, with banquettes overlooking windows, reminiscent perhaps of a meal on the Orient Express. If there's a scampi better than its "40 Cloves of Garlic" version, I haven't tasted it! Reservations are recommended and there's a $15 per-person fee.
At Pacific Heights, a vaguely Asian/Pacific Rim menu prevails. The most significant offering here is a sushi menu. It's priced a la carte but passengers can order up to $12.50 worth (the amount of the restaurant's service fee) without paying.
The Royal Palm Bistro represents NCL's stalwart "bistro" concept. It's easily the most romantic restaurant onboard; save room for the signature chocolate fondue for dessert.
Room service for most folks is fairly limited (sandwiches, salads and the like), though it is offered around the clock. Suite residents can order off of any restaurant menu (including the boutique eateries, though they will still be required to pay a fee) at the appropriate times.
Since this ship entered service, we have heard complaints about quality, much of it bland, over-cooked and underseasoned. Everything improves when you dine in the three alternative restaurants with a $12-$15 surcharge. Food in the Hukilau Cafe, the poolside cafeteria, was bland and tasteless, with the exception of pizza and the ultra-rich desserts.
Restaurants
Two main restaurants (Palace Main and Crossings) each have open, restaurant-style dining each breakfast, lunch and dinner. Palace Main is decorated in tropical style while Crossings has the ambiance of the grand yachts of the Trans-Pacific yacht races between Los Angeles and Honolulu. There are three reservations-only restaurants with a cover charge: The Kahili, Royal Palm Bistro and Pacific Heights Pan Pacific restaurant. The Kahili restaurant connects the two main restaurants on Deck 5. This long and narrow room is reminiscent of dining aboard a train, except for the floor-to-ceiling windows offering sea views. Here contemporary cuisine is served amid decor inspired by Hawaiian royalty. Enjoy surf and turf in the Royal Palm Bistro with its tropical setting. The Pacific Heights Pan Pacific Restaurant offers modern Hawaiian cuisine, including local fish, as well as Asian dishes and pizza. It features modern art by Hawaiian artists.
If something lighter than a full menu in the dining room is more your style, there is the buffet in the Hukelau Cafe; and Lanai, the indoor-outdoor lido restaurant on Deck 11, with the spirit of the Hawaiian Hukilau or community feast. Weather permitting, there is a barbecue on deck. And then there's the Ice Cream bar where you can indulge in sundaes, sherbets and just plain old ice cream.
