Cruises in August

[shaklee3]

I was looking for cruises in mid-August in Hawaii on *************.com and there are only a few available, and they're all through Norweigan. Are Hawaiian cruises during this time period not possible or do they just not list all of them?

[CruiserBruce]

Only NCL does Hawaii in August. The other lines will return in later October. This is the normal rotation of ships from Alaska during the summer, and Hawaii or Mexico for the winter.

[shaklee3]

Thanks for the quick response!

[DAGVBSB]

NCL is the only cruise line that does Hawaii year round. NCL is also the only cruise line that can do inter-island cruises because the Pride of America is the only large American flagged cruise ship currently in service.

 

The big differences are:

1.) NCL's Pride of America is a 7 day cruise that leaves and returns to Honolulu.* It then sails to Maui, Hilo, Kona and Kauai. It is a very port intensive cruise, with very little time on board and only 1/2 day sea day.

 

2.) Because the POA is American flagged, she can overnight in ports and so overnights occur in both Maui and Kauai and you can come and go from the ship all night long if you want to.

 

3.) The other cruise lines must touch a foreign port on their cruises and so they are forced to do cruises from the West coast that stop in Mexico. Because of the time needed to sail to or from Hawaii and the west coast, these cruises are usually at least 12 days with 4-5 sea days.

 

4.) Because of US laws, these foreign ships cannot overnight in US ports and so there is less time in Maui and Kauai. Many of the shorter foreign flagged cruises also do not stop in all five ports that the POA does.

 

5.) Casino: Hawaiian Law forbids gambling. As a result, the Pride of America does not even have a casino. The other cruise ships must close their casinos once they reach Hawaiian waters. (or not open them until they leave Hawaiian waters on the way back to the west coast.)

 

 

*if you do take a cruise that begins or ends in Honolulu or the POAm 7 day cruise, make sure to schedule a 2-3 day pre-cruise or post cruise stay in Honolulu. Otherwise, you will not have enough time to see all there is to see there.

 

 

US Law (known as the "Jones Act" dating from the 1800's.) is very strict on foreign flagged cruise ships in US waters. (hence why all the Alaska cruises begin, end or stop in Canada for example). This has greatly limited the other cruise lines ability to tap the Hawaiian cruise market.

[CruiserBruce]

DAGVBSB:

 

All of that is true, but one added consideration. NCL used to have 3 ships in Hawaii. Now only 1. I would say the market isn't there for more than one.

[DAGVBSB]

You are exactly right Bruce. I think that NCL rushed the market back in 2005-2006 when they went from one ship to 3 ships. (and they had the Norweigan Wind there doing the Fanning Island run.)

 

NCL had difficulty staffing all three US flagged ships with good crew because they could only use Americans to work on those ships. By going down to one ship, they could combine the best crew members to one ship and increase the price of the cruises since the "supply" of rooms was now limited.

 

They have said that if the economy improves, they may return a second ship to Hawaii and go back to 2 ships. Their deal with the US Government says that as long as the Jade does not sail in US waters, she can be converted back to the "Pride of Hawaii" (her original name). That is why the Jade stays year round in Europe.

 

NCL-America seemed like a good idea, but it was too limited a product (Hawaii only) and then we had the economic downturn.