5 Sea Days each way???!

To abandon ship, seems like it would cost the air-fares, and also a hefty fine for not visiting a foreign port on a cruise departing from the U.S.

Darn!!!

Maybe I will look at Vancouver departures!

explore4ever, thanks for the interesting report of how it went when you cruised with your relatives. Perhaps your mom had "been there/done that" with regard to some of the "classes", like the hula lessons. Or really isn't in to the sound of ukeles very much. Similar activities were held on a French Polynesian cruise we once took. Our ship also visited Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. On our way there, we had an entire day of grey, very blustery weather and high seas. The ship went up and down quite a bit and we nearly fell out of bed at night! That part was actually fun overall (I made sure I stayed on the Dramamine!) but there was air beneath our beverage glasses a few times! It was actually somewhat of an adventure and not bad since we'd had plenty of sunshine up until then. We did have some issues overnight trying not to roll out of bed, though! So it wasn't the most restful night. Definitely an adventure, though!

Unfortunately, I don't think cruising to HI rules out rainy or stormy wind or weather. At least for 2 days out from CA and 2 days returning there, from what I've read on these boards.

Are PASSENGERS fined for not visiting a foreign port? I always thought it was just the cruise line. (?)

A main reason we liked the RT HI cruise was because it wouldn't require a really long flight, plus HI is a great place to visit or revisit. Plus NCL's POA has seemed overpriced to me, esp. adding in the airfare to/from HI. Our longest flight was to China. About 13 hours from CA after flying there from the midwest, but we usually either rent a car and drive around exploring for a few hours before the leg out of California, or get there a day ahead of time and enjoy the area for a day and a half or so. That breaks up the flying. Heading to Europe or So. America doesn't require as much flying time so we don't stop overnight or anything en route. Having said that, assuming we do this cruise with all the sea days, it will be as a replacement for one out of New Zealand and on to Australia. The flight to NZ & back from Sydney is the reason we will likely not do that one. My dh just doesn't want to sit in a coach seat that long. He's 6'3" and also began having a bit of compromised mobility the past 2 yrs. which makes it a bit more difficult to get in and out of his seat. First class is above our budget for sure. However, I do like that the NZ cruise has 5 or 6 days at sea out of 12. And some of that time is spent in the fjords. Right now HI is in the lead. Guess I should bring some books!

Thanks for the input.

 

. The flight to NZ & back from Sydney is the reason we will likely not do that one. My dh just doesn't want to sit in a coach seat that long. He's 6'3" and also began having a bit of compromised mobility the past 2 yrs. which makes it a bit more difficult to get in and out of his seat. First class is above our budget for sure. However, I do like that the NZ cruise has 5 or 6 days at sea out of 12. And some of that time is spent in the fjords. Right now HI is in the lead. Guess I should bring some books!

 

 

Thanks for the input.

Were paying $100 extra for the bulk head next week. My tiptoes barely touch the wall in front of me. Might be an alternative to business class for you.

Yeah I'm too tall to sit in a cramped coach seat for more than 4 hours.

5 days at sea, lounging in the sun or taking a nap or swimming? Enjoying good food and drinks and company and entertainment? Yeah, sign me up for that one lol

Unfortunately, the charges for a bulkhead or any seat with even an inch of extra leg room are charged for each leg of a flight. (Some of the economy plus type or other extra fee coach seats are very slightly wider yet have NO extra leg room). I have looked at a few carrier's charges and they have been more than $100 for such a long haul flight. We flew to Ireland last fall and I was disappointed and surprised at the extra cost. My dh is against those types of charges anyway and would not agree to pay it. The only thing I have thought of so far is to use up pretty nearly ALL of my FF miles to purchase a business class seat for him and then purchase my coach seat. However, I often help him with things during a flight since only his left arm and leg work well, so not sure if that is that great of an idea either. I am sure we'll work it out IF we decide we want to go that badly. Since we have the HI cruise w/so many sea days and other options that we'd also enjoy, it's a tough decision!

Love the sea days. Activities on the different ships / cruise lines gives you the ability to do as little or as much as you want. We also just enjoy reading a book on the promenade deck & watching the sea go by. Go to a thread from the cruise line you'll cruise with & find out what other people are saying about their cruise for that itinerary.

Allan

Hey, we're doing 15 day out of LA December 2018 but I noticed your post, we're in Penetang!!! Small world.

We loved our RT LA/Hawaii, our next trip in April is flying to & from Hawaii not looking forward to that, but hey trade off is more time on the Islands. My husband is chomping at the bit to change this to another RT LA so who knows. We have also done 3 TA's and loved those again you need to like the lazy sea days :).

Yay, an "everyone has an opinion thread!" My 2 cents. For me, I have LOTS of sea days under my belt from being in the Navy. Trust me, lots more to do on a cruise ship (and more fun!). My wife loves sea days (we'll find out just how much), so we chose the April 2019 Carnival Splendor journey's cruise to Hawaii from Long Beach.

My wife was diagnosed with MS back in 2014 and, thank God, it hasn't progressed to the point she needs assistance. But.....you never know. Being on the ship vs. having to move around a lot on shore is something we took into consideration. Would we have liked to have flown there and just stayed put for awhile...you bet. But, the other side of the coin is how long of a flight she can tolerate. We both felt Hawaii might be stretching it.

So, as you can see, there are reasons for booking this type of cruise, even for Hawaii newbies.

I understand many would not like sea days. However, I am not one of those people.

In less than 30 days I will be leaving on my 4th Hawaii cruise. 5 days over and 5 days back. For me, this will be the best part. I am a small business owner and have two teenage children. my days (usually 6 sometimes 7 days a week) start at 6 a.m. or earlier. I can usually sit down and catch a breath around 8:30 or 9 p.m. I can't wait for those 5 days over. I will have nothing to do and I am excited about it. I will have no contact with the outside world so no reason to worry. I will be able to go 3 floors up and about 6 floors down. The other side of the ship will be about 150 feet. I can walk to the front which will be about 600 feet and aft will be about 600 feet. Someone is going to make my bed and clean my cabin. Someone else is going to serve me food and I will not need to prepare it or wash up after it. I already purchased the book "Hamilton" and it will be ready to read. I will down load some movies or tv shows that I would like to watch.

The only problem I see is that I will feel compelled to leave the ship when I get to Hilo. Not sure why I feel that way but I will.

5 sea days not a problem. I think it would be fun to see how many I could do before I felt the need to see land or get off the ship. Have never felt that way yet..

We're booked aboard the Star Princess for the LA to Hawaii RT, and frankly we booked it because of the sea days. We love being at sea, and specifically book particular suites with large balconies to enjoy the seas. We feel the ship the crew and passengers will provide diversions to keep us entertained. We can't wait to begin this cruise!:D

We've been on 3 RTs LA to Hawaii on Princess and loved them. We enjoy the sea days. I enjoy taking the hula and lei-making classes as well as reading chick lit books by the pool or catching up on movies I've haven't seen before. My hubby brought his guitar (we live within driving distance of the Port of LA) and he'll find a quiet little place to play. We've never been board.

Maybe I should explain that we love sea days – especially with temps warm enough to relax on deck in the sun. I catch up on magazine or books then a lot of times as well. Sounds like four of the sea days on the Hawaii round trip will likely not be warm enough for that. In general we also find our favorite type of ship leans toward Royal Caribbean‘s voyager class and newer – the ones that offer the flow rider’s, Broadway musicals, ice rinks, Latin music Bolero lounge, indoor promenade and/or Central Park and the boardwalk. My husband has a mobility issue of a sort so while he can’t do some of those activities, there are always lots of places to hang out or watch other people involved in those things. I truly wish the cruise to Hawaii was on a Royal Caribbean, or maybe even a newish Carnival ship. Also we seem to never have the scheduling issues on Celebrity that we have oon Princess for some reason. (While I’m at it, though maybe this is off-topic, we have shied away from Holland America due to reports from people we know who have cruised on that line and even loved it. It just sounds a little too sleepy for us though some of their itineraries are the best of all! Probably one of these days we’ll try it as I’m sure it has wonderful service and the ships are quite nice looking.)

I was just on the Crown Princess for five days. It was decent but the way the shows and outdoor presentations on the muts screen were scheduled, it either seemed like the things my ex sister in law and I wanted to do were often scheduled at competing times. On formal night we went to the Crown Grill for the lobster, as it was not being served in the main dining room And I had to free specialty restaurant vouchers to use. Only reservation we could get was 8:30, but the main show was at 10 PM. We arrived at the Crown Grill to find it sparsely filled yet our meal took 2 1/2 hours! Slow service was the only reason. While that can happen on any ship, it was disappointing to have missed the show. The newlywed game also did not work out due to our dinner, which my ex sister-in-law had really wanted to see. Unlike Royal Caribbean, it was not televised on subsequent days. so guess it boils down to the fear are finding ourselves board with reading, not caring about ukulele lessons, and too chilly to hang out sunbathing and reading. This makes me sound like a Debbie downer for sure and I don’t mean it to come across like that. I sincerely want to like this itinerary But I’m getting cold feet about it.

This all brings back around to the fact that some Like more relaxation, some like a combo and some like more hectic days. The time of year we want to go we are pretty much stuck with princess and an older ship at that. Still deciding if we will back out or go through with it. And I do appreciate all the positive remarks and I’m not so positive ones as well.

Maybe I should explain that we love sea days – especially with temps warm enough to relax on deck in the sun. I catch up on magazine or books then a lot of times as well. Sounds like four of the sea days on the Hawaii round trip will likely not be warm enough for that. In general we also find our favorite type of ship leans toward Royal Caribbean‘s voyager class and newer – the ones that offer the flow rider’s, Broadway musicals, ice rinks, Latin music Bolero lounge, indoor promenade and/or Central Park and the boardwalk. My husband has a mobility issue of a sort so while he can’t do some of those activities, there are always lots of places to hang out or watch other people involved in those things. I truly wish the cruise to Hawaii was on a Royal Caribbean, or maybe even a newish Carnival ship. Also we seem to never have the scheduling issues on Celebrity that we have oon Princess for some reason. (While I’m at it, though maybe this is off-topic, we have shied away from Holland America due to reports from people we know who have cruised on that line and even loved it. It just sounds a little too sleepy for us though some of their itineraries are the best of all! Probably one of these days we’ll try it as I’m sure it has wonderful service and the ships are quite nice looking.)

 

I was just on the Crown Princess for five days. It was decent but the way the shows and outdoor presentations on the muts screen were scheduled, it either seemed like the things my ex sister in law and I wanted to do were often scheduled at competing times. On formal night we went to the Crown Grill for the lobster, as it was not being served in the main dining room And I had to free specialty restaurant vouchers to use. Only reservation we could get was 8:30, but the main show was at 10 PM. We arrived at the Crown Grill to find it sparsely filled yet our meal took 2 1/2 hours! Slow service was the only reason. While that can happen on any ship, it was disappointing to have missed the show. The newlywed game also did not work out due to our dinner, which my ex sister-in-law had really wanted to see. Unlike Royal Caribbean, it was not televised on subsequent days. so guess it boils down to the fear are finding ourselves board with reading, not caring about ukulele lessons, and too chilly to hang out sunbathing and reading. This makes me sound like a Debbie downer for sure and I don’t mean it to come across like that. I sincerely want to like this itinerary But I’m getting cold feet about it.

 

 

This all brings back around to the fact that some Like more relaxation, some like a combo and some like more hectic days. The time of year we want to go we are pretty much stuck with princess and an older ship at that. Still deciding if we will back out or go through with it. And I do appreciate all the positive remarks and I’m not so positive ones as well.

Have you looked into the one way trips, kind of best of both worlds? Extra sea days one way and you can spend a few extra days in Honolulu. Not sure who else does them but carnival has one before and after the Alaska season. It's not the newer ship but it is going to be refurbished in 2018. We are hoping to do the Sept 2019 one, if they ever release it!! We have had 2/3 sea days in a row at the most so far and really enjoy Sea days. This will be a big trip, first with no kids for our 10 year anniversary (very anxious about leaving what will be about a 16 month old at the time, depending when it's born!) but so excited, I have wanted to do this cruise since I first saw they had it.

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Is our most so far, but our Hawaii trip from Australia includes a couple of 5 in a row ar Sea, to be honest doesn’t bother me at all, in fact I’m looking forward to it. Mrs G is a bit hesitant she found three enough.

A one way to or from Hawaii would not work at the time of year we want go but I appreciate the suggestion.

To the last poster, the sea days would probably get to me more than my husband because he takes lots and lots of naps! Meanwhile I roam around on the ship so the more things there are to do or watch, the better for me!

Hey, we're doing 15 day out of LA December 2018 but I noticed your post, we're in Penetang!!! Small world.

It is indeed a small world. On a ships shore excursion in Africa one time we met a couple from Midland. Enjoy your cruise.

Allan

We booked for Sept/Oct 2019 Eclipse B2B from Vancouver.

I dreamed many years with this vacation in Hawaii. The main reason to go there by sea it's my wife can't take long flights.

The longest consecutive sea days for us are 2. Not worried about 5 days at sea each way for a total of 10 in a 21 night B2B cruise.

My first cruise will be RT from Vancouver to Hawaii next April, and my wife and I are anxiously looking forward to it. We both work a lot during the year and vacations are work trips, so this will be a great chance to get away and do nothing. We want to just sit and relax and do nothing. Or maybe fill our day with onboard activities. Either way, it'll be fun.

 

A lot of people have told us that this is too long for a first cruise, but they underestimate our ability to enjoy relaxing.

Hi,

We are also from Vancouver and going to Hawaii April 2018 we are going on Princess. We love the sea days.

Mary

I am also a sea day cruiser. I love the repositioning cruises with lots of sea days. Have been to most ports and love to just see the sea.........Best cruise I ever took was an 11 day cruise from Japan to Hawaii - NO ports.

Emerald Princess in October from Vancouver to Hawaii for 15 days.

I'm considering booking this cruise. However, I don't want many cold days at sea. I know weather can change in a heart beat but has anyone taken this October cruise. What should we expect?

thanks,

Emerald Princess in October from Vancouver to Hawaii for 15 days.

I'm considering booking this cruise. However, I don't want many cold days at sea. I know weather can change in a heart beat but has anyone taken this October cruise. What should we expect?

thanks,

Celebrity Eclipse is also doing the 15 night round trip from LA, October 27, 2019. Very popular cruise.

We booked B2B from Vancouver for total 21 night cruise (10 sea days), and asked a friend who lives in Honolulu about weather in Sept/Oct, She answers me : it's the best timer to go to Hawaii, is hot and little rain.

Emerald Princess in October from Vancouver to Hawaii for 15 days.

I'm considering booking this cruise. However, I don't want many cold days at sea. I know weather can change in a heart beat but has anyone taken this October cruise. What should we expect?

thanks,

It could be (likely be) cool the first and last two days leaving and arriving Vancouver. You'd need a jacket while on deck. Once you get closer to the Islands it will warm up.

Good thread.

It all depends on what you like to do on vacation. If you'd otherwise rent a beach cottage and just enjoy the ambiance, then the sea days would be fantastic. I've sailed across the Pacific many times (as a passenger on the Lurline, in the US Marine Corps on Navy ships many times) as well as cruising off the west coast to Hawaii. I find the sea days relaxing and invigorating.

Some cruise lines (Princess makes a big deal out of this) have underway 'enrichment' lectures about the islands which are fun and interesting if you've never been to Hawaii.

The downsides of a trans-Pac are:

- Yep, the entertainers/comedians/ that boarded in the west coast will be telling the same jokes until they disembark in Hawaii. (Caribbean cruises tend to swap out entertainers ever few days)

- Yep, the food that was loaded aboard will start to run out. Now most folks wouldn't notice - it's a small thing, but bothers some people.

- Yep, if you're the type that gets nervous about not seeing land, that's a problem.

The one way/re-positioning cruises offered by Carnival, Holland American and others are a great way to do this. Linger in Honolulu for a few extra days prior to flying back; enjoy the time at sea enroute.

My husband and I have been cruising for more years then I even want to mention. We are up to about 30 cruises. Our needs have changed over the years and we find that more and more we enjoy the days at sea. Although the Celebrity Hawaii cruise offered on Oct. 27, 2019 from LA to LA has the five days going and five days coming back we look forward to the sea days being broken up by the stops at the 4 Hawaiian islands. It offers us the sea days but also some exploring in Hawaii. After chatting with some passengers on our recent Celebrity Caribbean cruise who will also be on the Hawaiian cruise we added as a B2B the Pacific Coastal cruise which will go from LA to San Francisco and back. The combination of the two cruises should satisfy all our cruising needs!

We are thinking about the Celebrity Solstice cruise to Hawaii, we were planning to fly to Hawaii and then would have 5 days back to Vancouver. I sometimes have problems with sea sickness and am wondering if it would be better to do it the other way. Does anyone have a thought on sea conditions coming or going?