Pride Of America Cruise Ship Rushes to Honolulu to Hunker Down During Storm

With Tropical Storm Lala bearing down on Hawaii, Norwegian Cruise Line’s Pride of America is making sure to steer clear of the intensifying storm. 

The 2,180-guest ship is making an early return to Honolulu, where the vessel will be able to safely ride out the inclement weather in the vicinity of its homeport.

Unfortunately, this means that the Hawaii-based ship will not be able to operate the rest of its 7-night itinerary as planned and debarkation will be pushed back by one day. Of course, this also means that the 7-night cruise that was supposed to begin on August 15 will also be delayed.

“A developing tropical storm in the Central Pacific, southeast of the Hawaiian Islands, is expected to bring strong winds and challenging conditions to the region, resulting in the potential closure of the Port of Honolulu,” Norwegian Cruise Line wrote in a letter to current guests.

The ship is following in the footsteps (or should we say wake) of Norwegian Spirit. Cruise Hive previously reported that the other NCL ship also booked it to Honolulu to get ahead of the tropical storm.

Avoiding Port Closures Leads to Delays

Pride of America departed from Honolulu on August 8, 2026, to begin its current 7-night sailing.

Guests have already gotten to enjoy an overnight visit to Maui and day trips to Hilo and Kailua-Kona. Nawiliwili (Kauai) is the first port call to be impacted.

With closures expected, NCL has decided to cut the overnight port call to Nawiliwili (Kauai), Hawaii, short, heading back out to sea at 6:30 p.m. on August 13 instead of 5:30 p.m. on August 14. Pride of America is now expected to arrive in Honolulu at 7 a.m. on August 14.

“To ensure we can safely arrive in Honolulu ahead of these anticipated restrictions, Pride of America will depart Nawiliwili on August 13, 2026, and proceed to Honolulu where we intend to remain until 5:00 pm local time on August 14, 2026,” Norwegian Cruise Line wrote.

However, the 2005-launched ship won’t actually wait out the storm in the port. Instead, it will head out to deeper waters just outside of the Honolulu Cruise Port to safely weather the storm.

“We then intend to head back out to sea ahead of the anticipated port closure, and return to Honolulu on Sunday, August 16, 2026 for disembarkation,” the cruise line added.

Debarkation was originally scheduled for August 15, meaning guests will have to scramble to adjust their travel plans and the next sailing (which also should have begun on August 15) will be delayed by one day.

Guests booked on the following 7-night sailing should have been spending August 16 in Maui, so at least one port call will be cancelled or rescheduled for the subsequent voyage.

It’s unclear how Norwegian Cruise Line will handle the delayed embarkation, but current guests have two options when it comes to debarkation.

They can either disembark early when the ship arrives in Honolulu on August 14 or they may remain onboard until the official disembarkation process occurs on August 16, 2026.

The cruise line encouraged passengers to reach out to hotels as soon as possible to ask about booking a new stay or to extend an existing reservation and recommended three hotels that have availability, including the Hilton Garden Inn Waikiki Beach, Hilton Waikiki Beach Resort and Spa, and Embassy Suites By Hilton Waikiki Beach Walk.

How Likely Are Port Closures?

With Tropical Storm Lala expected to strengthen into a fully-fledged Category 1 hurricane before it reaches the Big Island of Hawaii, storm-related port closures are likely.

The ports close for safety reasons, as high winds, violent storm surges, and heavy swells can lead to severe damage to both pier infrastructure and any ships that are docked.

As of the evening of August 13, 2026, the US Coast Guard has nearly every port in Hawaii listed as Condition X-Ray, meaning gale-force winds are expected in the next 48 hours.

The only two ports not at Condition X-Ray are Port Allen and Nawiliwili Harbor on Kauai, which will feel the brunt of the weather slightly later. They are both at Condition Whiskey, meaning gale-force winds are coming within the next 72 hours.

At the time of this writing, the National Hurricane Center (NOAA) has the storm positioned 620 miles east-southeast of Hilo, moving west-northwest at 10 miles per hour. NOAA predicts that Lala will reach Hawaii on Friday night (August 14) or Saturday morning (August 15).

Currently, NOAA has all of Hawaii County under a Hurricane Watch, meaning hurricane conditions are possible in the next two days.