Hawaii: Limited Sailings?

[Huddler]

I have been to Hawaii a couple times but have never cruised the Islands. I would like to take the family on a cruise there next summer. The problem is that most lines dont offer Hawaii cruises in the summer. There are some early May, and then nothing really until after the kids are back in school. My question is why dont cruise lines offer cruises between end of May and first of August? I am assuming it is weather/rough sea's related but I dont know for sure. NCL Pride of America does 7 day Island cruises year around so we may be limited to that option. Thanks in advance for any help here.

[Arizona Cruz Chic]

RC only offers Hawaii sailings when the repo the ships as they are one way voyages. Some cruise lines offer full time sailings in the winter and spring, but for summer they repo their ships as well, mostly to Alaska.

 

Only NCL (NCLA) offers year around Hawaii sailings, you fly to Honolulu and do a 7 day around the islands. Word of advice on that, do your homework and read as much as you can on reviews.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Edit, forgot to add, other cruise lines offer 14 day round trip sailings out of CA usually not very doable for anyone with a school spring break schedule.

 

***

[Beth C]

I have been to Hawaii a couple times but have never cruised the Islands. I would like to take the family on a cruise there next summer. The problem is that most lines dont offer Hawaii cruises in the summer. There are some early May, and then nothing really until after the kids are back in school. My question is why dont cruise lines offer cruises between end of May and first of August? I am assuming it is weather/rough sea's related but I dont know for sure. NCL Pride of America does 7 day Island cruises year around so we may be limited to that option. Thanks in advance for any help here.

 

NCL will most likely be your only option if you want to wait until school is out. They have one ship dedicated to that route whereas the other major lines use Hawaii as a stop on their repo cruise. The Rhapsody/Radiance cruises in May are to get the ship back from Aussie to do Alaska until September when they'll sail back.

 

I debated booking NCL for next year but for the price of Rhapsody i'm getting more Hawaii days and almost double the days at Sea for the same $$

 

Rhapsody $1500

or

POA $1200

Air from Hawaii to Vancouver $300

 

no brainer to take the 13 nighter over the 7!

[cruisinskier]

I have been to Hawaii a couple times but have never cruised the Islands. I would like to take the family on a cruise there next summer. The problem is that most lines dont offer Hawaii cruises in the summer. There are some early May, and then nothing really until after the kids are back in school. My question is why dont cruise lines offer cruises between end of May and first of August? I am assuming it is weather/rough sea's related but I dont know for sure. NCL Pride of America does 7 day Island cruises year around so we may be limited to that option. Thanks in advance for any help here.

 

Hi Huddler. It is actually more about ship registration than anything else. In order for a cruise ship to sail to only US ports including Hawaii, the ship has to be registered in the US. The Pride of America is the only ship registered in the US so it is able to sail these 7 day itineraries in Hawaii. All other ships do sailings to and from Hawaii however there are lots of days at sea and they must also stop in a foreign port such as Vancouver or in Mexico. Given the fact Hawaii is so far from a foreign port, it is expensive for the cruiselines to run these routes.

 

While I am not fully up to speed on the full legal impact, my understanding is that the US registration also means the ship falls under various US laws which means they must hire a certain % of US staff, the pay scale is higher, the hours worked are more restricted, etc. At one time NCL had 3 ships doing these routes but I can only assume do to the costs they are now down to just the POA.

 

We did a week on POA a few years back (there is a link to my review in my signature below). The ship is just ok but the itinerary is the best in Hawaii by far. Enjoy!

[Beth C]

Only NCL (NCLA) offers year around Hawaii sailings, you fly to Honolulu and do a 7 day around the islands. Word of advice on that, do your homework and read as much as you can on reviews.

***

 

My father did the NCL Hawaiian cruise 5 yrs ago but he went with the mentality that it was a hotel each night and free transportation to each island... definitely wasn't Royal Caribbean customer service standards with it's all american crew.

[nukester]

Poa is an average ship with all amenites avaerge... Other lines are far better... If you can go from mainland for 15 days do it... Had a balconcy cabin mid ship very small 3700 for the week... Overpriced and undervalued

 

john

[Jeano222]

About a week ago Celebrity was offering the Millenium 11 night sailing from Ensenada to the islands for 699.00 pp for inside and 749.00 pp for oceanview for the 10/22/2012 sailing, we couldn't book it because hubby had used all of his vacation, but had that not been the case we would have jumped on it. We like the one way cruise better than the roundtrip.

[time4u2go]

We did an NCL 7 nighter around the islands and LOVED it! Overnighted in a couple of the ports. A great way to see Hawaii. We'd highly recommend it.

[Familygoboston]

Have you considered French Polynesia? It's not all that much further than HI to fly if you are considering taking an inter island trip anyway. Then you would have more choices.

[joyride21]

My father did the NCL Hawaiian cruise 5 yrs ago but he went with the mentality that it was a hotel each night and free transportation to each island... definitely wasn't Royal Caribbean customer service standards with it's all american crew.

 

I have to disagree...I sailed POA this spring and noticed no difference in service standards. The ship is less than impressive, but the service was top notch.

[lah66]

Totally agree with BethC. We were on POA a few years ago...we set our expectations low and they were barely met! We saw bored teenagers and young adults...not service professionals. It is an embarrassment to us Americans! The islands themselves were fantastic and we loved the overnight stays...If you are looking for service, go to another line. If you use POA as a floating hotel and come in knowledgable about the level of service on board, you will be fine! Our best memories were Volcano National Park, snorkeling at Capn Cooks monument, visiting Pearl Harbor and driving the road to Hana!

[beachchick]

I have been to Hawaii a couple times but have never cruised the Islands. I would like to take the family on a cruise there next summer. The problem is that most lines dont offer Hawaii cruises in the summer. There are some early May, and then nothing really until after the kids are back in school. My question is why dont cruise lines offer cruises between end of May and first of August? I am assuming it is weather/rough sea's related but I dont know for sure. NCL Pride of America does 7 day Island cruises year around so we may be limited to that option. Thanks in advance for any help here.

 

It's not really rough seas or weather related. Although that area of the Pacific does get tropical storms and the occasional hurricane, it's not like the Atlantic season. Hawaii is hottest and can be quite humid in the summer, but that's all relative.

 

I believe there are a couple of factors involved. The primary one is that late spring-early autumn is the only time the ships do Alaska, Canada-New England, and Scandinavia region cruises. The cruise lines send the ships there because that's when they can do it. As well, the Med and Europe are very popular during that time, so many cruise lines concentrate there. Like the Caribbean, Hawaii is easily accessible year round. Finally, I think that demand may not be as high because of the number of sea days required. Of course, all of these reasons are just guesses on my part.

 

Hope you can find a cruise that works. If not, you might want to consider a land trip? That is actually our preferred way to visit Hawaii. We really enjoyed our NCLA cruise several years ago (with pre- and post-cruise land days, of course), but went back to land trips after that. When we visit Hawaii, we want to be in Hawaii now, not in 4 or 5 days. But that's just our preference; some people love the many sea days.

 

No matter which way you go, you know they will love the islands.:)

 

beachchick