Anyone done Hawaii cruise over Christmas?

[hubble]

We are contemplating booking the Sapphire for the 14 night Hawaii cruise on 17DEC11. Port days in Hawaii are on 22-25DEC. Anyone who has done this particular Holiday voyage in the past I would appreciate your feedback. Some of my areas of concern are problems booking tours or rental cars during the holidays due to lack of availability or shortened operating schedules? How was the weather during the sea days, and in the islands? What was the demographic on board like? We prefer not to cruise with a huge number of kids and enjoy a more quiet atmosphere. Thank you for any information you can offer.

[Michelle19]

In my experience.. (did xmas cruises twice on princess) Anytime you travel during the Holidays there will be kids. In fact we are doing a family cruise with all 5 of our teens this Thanksgiving. Expect there to be children even though it's 14 days!

 

Enjoy!

[Princess Patches]

We just booked the Sapphire Christmas cruise because I could not believe the price was the same as the other fall Hawaii cruises on the Sapphire. Usually the charge for the Christmas cruise is significantly more, so we could not pass this opportunity up.

 

It will be our first holiday cruise. Some things will be closed on Christmas Day, which is in Maui, but I have been to the islands many times and am not concerned about what I see and don't see. I have sailed to Hawaii in November and the weather was very pleasant. I used my balcony daily on that cruise. Hawaii is a temperate region so the weather is wonderful year round. Not much more than 10 degrees variation between winter and summer. I am really looking forward to seeing the ship's Christmas decorations and the decorations along Waikiki Beach. It will be a thrill to enjoy Christmas without having to host it.

[califgary]

We did a holiday hawaii last year on the Golden - we were in Hilo on Christmas Day. I didnt notice a significantly larger number of kids than usual I do think the longer cruises usually have the fewer kids.

It was a great trip, very enjoyable! Have a great cruise.

[rayandshirl]

Spent last Christmas and New Years on the Golden. Great trip. Enjoyed all the families on board celebrating together. Lots of children, as it should be for the holidays.

 

Wonderful cruise. You'll enjoy it.

[cattolica]

More than likely the reason that the Sapphire is cheaper for this Christmas cruise is that she scheduled for a major month long drydock right after she returns from Hawaii. She will be in drydock the entire month of January. Sometimes certain venues may close during the cruise. There have been lots of posts about disappointment with things beginning closed.

 

We just booked the Sapphire Christmas cruise because I could not believe the price was the same as the other fall Hawaii cruises on the Sapphire. Usually the charge for the Christmas cruise is significantly more, so we could not pass this opportunity up.

 

It will be our first holiday cruise. Some things will be closed on Christmas Day, which is in Maui, but I have been to the islands many times and am not concerned about what I see and don't see. I have sailed to Hawaii in November and the weather was very pleasant. I used my balcony daily on that cruise. Hawaii is a temperate region so the weather is wonderful year round. Not much more than 10 degrees variation between winter and summer. I am really looking forward to seeing the ship's Christmas decorations and the decorations along Waikiki Beach. It will be a thrill to enjoy Christmas without having to host it.

[freetocruise]

More than likely the reason that the Sapphire is cheaper for this Christmas cruise is that she scheduled for a major month long drydock right after she returns from Hawaii. She will be in drydock the entire month of January. Sometimes certain venues may close during the cruise. There have been lots of posts about disappointment with things beginning closed.

 

She will be going into dry dock on Jan. 7th which is a week after the Sapphire gets back from Hawaii - there is a 7 day Mexican Riviera cruise in between.

[Princess Patches]

More than likely the reason that the Sapphire is cheaper for this Christmas cruise is that she scheduled for a major month long drydock right after she returns from Hawaii. She will be in drydock the entire month of January. Sometimes certain venues may close during the cruise. There have been lots of posts about disappointment with things beginning closed.

 

Actually, the New Year's cruise to Mexico is the Sapphire's last cruise prior to the drydock not the Christmas cruise. Princess is charging 50% more for the New Year's cruise than the usual fare to Mexico. So the drydock is clearly not the reason.

 

I think I figured out the reason the Christmas cruise was so cheap. It was either a very short sale or an error on the Princess website. Last week the mini suite price on the Sapphire Christmas cruise was nearly $1,000 less than the mini suite price on the Golden Christmas cruise. This week they are about the same price. So I guess Princess either made a pricing error that I was able to get last week or it was a very short sale. Why they would put the Sapphire Christmas cruise on sale for just a few days and not the Golden Christmas cruise I do not know.

[2fercruzin]

We have done the last 2 Christmases on the Golden to Hawaii and it's magical. The decorations are gorgeous and there is just the right balance between holiday and Hawaiian culture. We did the 4 day Sampler last year on the Sapphire before we boarded the Golden and the decor was the same.

 

Demographics will be "families". There will be tons of children, and yet on our 2 cruises, they were hardly seen. There is a great kids program that keeps them occupied. But one of the best things is aimed at kids, and yet great for adults. On Christmas Eve, the CD gathered all the children around, read them The Night Before Christmas and then Santa and his elves appeared with gifts for all the kids. I don't think I saw one adult face that wasn't beaming.

 

Weather will vary year to year, but the last 2 years the seas have been relatively smooth, it's been warm and we saw no rain. Although when on the islands, you have to remember you're in the tropics and it can rain every day - that's why it's so beautiful. It usually doesn't last long.

 

Ports in general will be ready and open - after all they love the tourists. The exception is Christmas day. We were in Hilo on the 25th the year before last and the only things open were Longs Drug & Hilo Hatties. I would imagine Lahaina will be about the same; although I hope not because it is a great little town with excellent snorkeling, shops galore and to die for shave ice!

 

It's a valid point about the "dismanteling" process before a major drydock, but I think a lot of the Grands problems stemmed from the humongous portion of her rear end being "prepped for surgery". I think the Sapphire's next cruise to Mexico will be at worse risk, but keep it in mind.

 

If you'd like a respite from decorating at home and putting decorations away in January, try the holiday cruise - it's addicting.

[Cruisin' Chick]

We are contemplating booking the Sapphire for the 14 night Hawaii cruise on 17DEC11. Port days in Hawaii are on 22-25DEC. Anyone who has done this particular Holiday voyage in the past I would appreciate your feedback. Some of my areas of concern are problems booking tours or rental cars during the holidays due to lack of availability or shortened operating schedules? How was the weather during the sea days, and in the islands? What was the demographic on board like? We prefer not to cruise with a huge number of kids and enjoy a more quiet atmosphere. Thank you for any information you can offer.

 

We did a holiday hawaii last year on the Golden - we were in Hilo on Christmas Day. I didnt notice a significantly larger number of kids than usual I do think the longer cruises usually have the fewer kids.

It was a great trip, very enjoyable! Have a great cruise.

 

 

Califgary, you must have been on the 2009 cruise as last December, the Golden was still on its way to Hawaii on the 25th.

 

Anyway, we did this itinerary in 2005 on the Island and 2010 on the Golden. The weather was pretty different those two times: the first cruise, it was cool the first few days and got warmer as we got closer to the islands. On the way back, it remained warm. On last year's, it was rainy the first day or two (we had record number of days of rain in Southern California at that time), the captain even steered away from another storm. On the way back it was cool and windy.

 

Both times we had some rocky seas from time to time. But that's not a function of the time of year.

 

As for tourist places being opened or closed, you can check with the websites for the various places you want to visit to see if they list any closed days. If not, you can email them with the date you'll be in that port. I doubt if the excursions would be booked for a specific place if they will be closed for a holiday; there may be a substitution if so.

 

I do know that I did check on our cruise for the places my daughter wanted to see and a couple were closed on the day we would be there, but because it's the day of the week they're normally closed (eg. the Bishop Museum in Honolulu is always closed on Tuesdays), not because it was the last week of the year.

 

As for kids, please understand that many school districts enforce a no vacation policy during the school year, except for holidays and breaks. So for us, we can only go when our daughter's school is closed. So don't book a cruise the last couple of weeks of December (and even the first week of January -- many schools are still closed), even the two week cruises, and then grumble about kids being onboard. For some odd reason, there were many, many elderly on our cruise who had a problem with kids being onboard and were quite rude to kids and other adults.

[d3661]

Some of my areas of concern are problems booking tours or rental cars during the holidays due to lack of availability or shortened operating schedules?

 

I'd reserve a car early. Were on Golden last year and I could not reserve a car on Kauai or at Hilo in late-November. Will be joining you on Sapphire this year and just made a car reservation on Kauai.

[califgary]

When we were in Hilo on Christmas Day it seemed there were plenty of tours available - we did a nice tour that day - we told the guide we were suprized he was working Christmas, and he said whenever there was a ship in port or tour running, they work!

[YumYumSweetiePie]

For those of you who got amazing, possibly "glitch" deals...do you mind sharing how much you paid and what kind of cabin?

[karatemom2]

We have done the Hawaii cruise at Christmas for four years in a row, so as you can imagine I highly recommend it. Christmas onboard is truly wonderful, so festive and fun. And Hawaii has proven to be beautiful for us each year, overall good weather with a little rain and breeze here and there. In all four years we never, ever missed a port due to poor conditions. On two of our four cruises, Christmas was on a port day and we never had a problem with finding things to do. Of course some things were closed, but most things are open. Remember, many people take land vacations to Hawaii for the holidays as well and so companies are still catering to tourists. We usually rent cars in the ports and never had an issue getting a rental. I did, however, always make sure to rent our cars at least two or three months in advance. Most people truly love this cruise which is why you will find so many repeat cruisers like us. We have run into people from previous cruises every year. It is a great way to spend the holidays. We are staying home this Christmas, but I have no doubt that we will take this cruise again some future holiday season!

[Princess Patches]

For those of you who got amazing, possibly "glitch" deals...do you mind sharing how much you paid and what kind of cabin?

 

I paid $2090 per person in AD mini suite. The lowest rate in AD category I can find now is $2849 (past passenger rate) or $3239 (new passenger rate).