Since Celebrity isn't doing this cruise.....

[TRadle]

which line would you sail for a Hawaii Circle Cruise and why?

 

Thanks.

[traveling6pack]

NCL is the only cruise line that circles, round trip the Hawaiian islands

[TRadle]

Princes and HAL do a circle cruise from the west coast with a stop in Mexico.

[WpgCruise]

Princes and HAL do a circle cruise from the west coast with a stop in Mexico.

 

Well then I guess I'd take either H.A.L. or Princess :D

[Stateroom_Sailor]

We're doing NCL ourselves. There might be a TA out there offering 2 pre-cruise hotel nights, all shuttles, and a Honolulu tour, at as little as $100 pp above the cruise fare.

[TRadle]

We're trying not to fly to or from the islands. We are not by a large international airport so flights can be difficult for my husband who has MS. NCL cruises around Hawaii not to Hawaii from the mainland so that one is out.

 

We've only sailed on Royal Caribbean and Celebrity and we love Celebrity and haven't sailed any other line so comparisons are greatly appreciated.

[TFLG]

We're trying not to fly to or from the islands. We are not by a large international airport so flights can be difficult for my husband who has MS. NCL cruises around Hawaii not to Hawaii from the mainland so that one is out.

 

We've only sailed on Royal Caribbean and Celebrity and we love Celebrity and haven't sailed any other line so comparisons are greatly appreciated.

 

Celebrity does a few each year, usually in April and Sept. They sail around the islands for 5, 6 or 7 days and sail to or from Vancouver. I've done it 3 times and it's a great cruise. Usually a couple of days in Honolulu, a day in Hilo, Kona and 2 days in Lahina plus 5 sea days. It's usually the Solstice and one of the M Class ships

[Id rather be diving]

We sailed 15 round trip out of SF to Hawaii on Princess. Loved it, but I am a Princess girl at heart.

[TRadle]

Celebrity does a few each year, usually in April and Sept. They sail around the islands for 5, 6 or 7 days and sail to or from Vancouver. I've done it 3 times and it's a great cruise. Usually a couple of days in Honolulu, a day in Hilo, Kona and 2 days in Lahina plus 5 sea days. It's usually the Solstice and one of the M Class ships

 

They are only going one way right now and out of Vancouver which is a tough flight for us. They used to do the circle and I keep on watching for one to pop up. This is #1 on the bucket list!

[TRadle]

We sailed 15 round trip out of SF to Hawaii on Princess. Loved it' date=' but I am a Princess girl at heart.[/quote']

 

We've never sailed on Princess. What are some of the things that you like better than X and do you think if we love X Princess will be a good fit. (I have to convince DH that it is okay to sail on a different line for this!)

[Host Jazzbeau]

If you are not averse to flying, I recommend the NCL Pride of America cruise [despite reservations -- read on]. We took this cruise last October, DW and I plus adult DD. Booked a Suite with 2 bedrooms, butler service, unlimited dining, all the amenities. Even with all that, NCL is crap. The butler wasn't trained, the specialty restaurants aren't as good as Celebrity MDR. BUT -- and this is the big positive BUT -- this unique itinerary makes it worth ignoring all the negatives about the ship. Fly to Honolulu, spend a few days on Waikiki, go to Pearl Harbor, rent a car for a day to drive to the north shore -- then the NCL cruise takes you to all the other islands with plenty of time to visit each one. On return to Oahu you can fly home, knowing that you have seen the Hawaiian Islands in much more detail than any California-based cruise can do.

[bigbenboys]

We are booked on the May 7th Celebrity Solstice cruise Hawaii to Vancouver. It is 5 nights around Hawaii then 5 nights to Vancouver. Solstice does it 2 times a year. You have Princess or HAL. But any cruise you are going to have to fly somewhere.

[TRadle]

We are booked on the May 7th Celebrity Solstice cruise Hawaii to Vancouver. It is 5 nights around Hawaii then 5 nights to Vancouver. Solstice does it 2 times a year. You have Princess or HAL. But any cruise you are going to have to fly somewhere.

 

We can get a non-stop flight to a few of the west coast ports. Changing planes and too many hours on a plane are pretty huge challenges for him. The beauty of cruising is that he gets to go to different places and he says that even if he is unable to get off the ship on a bad day it is still a nice vacation day for him.

 

The ship is important, cabin comfort is important, and a non-stop flight. We're just trying to get a couple more trips in while he can still can.

[lostchild]

Crystal Serenity does a 16 days roundtrip from Los Angeles to Hawaii. The ship is rated really high in reviews, but it is a long cruise and many sea days (10 or 11).

[richsea]

We've never sailed on Princess. What are some of the things that you like better than X and do you think if we love X Princess will be a good fit. (I have to convince DH that it is okay to sail on a different line for this!)

 

I think X & Princess provide a similar experience. I would say the MDR food is comparable, but X has a better buffet. Princess has better & more entertainment, but their theaters are smaller, & not as nice. Princess ha Movies Under the Stars poolside, but if that's not your thing, they have other pools, including an adults only pool. Service is comparable. Princess standard balcony roons do not have a couch; can't speak for their handicap rooms. We have come to think of both lines as equal. Princess sails to Hawaii from LA and SF on 15 nighters..

 

Enjoy your cruise, whichever line you choose!

[TRadle]

Crystal Serenity does a 16 days roundtrip from Los Angeles to Hawaii. The ship is rated really high in reviews, but it is a long cruise and many sea days (10 or 11).

 

Thanks! I hadn't come across this one and will check it out.

[TRadle]

I think X & Princess provide a similar experience. I would say the MDR food is comparable, but X has a better buffet. Princess has better & more entertainment, but their theaters are smaller, & not as nice. Princess ha Movies Under the Stars poolside, but if that's not your thing, they have other pools, including an adults only pool. Service is comparable. Princess standard balcony roons do not have a couch; can't speak for their handicap rooms. We have come to think of both lines as equal. Princess sails to Hawaii from LA and SF on 15 nighters..

 

Enjoy your cruise, whichever line you choose!

 

Thanks for the comparison. I was getting the feeling from from reviews and pictures that Princess was more in line to an X experience than Holland American. With a long cruise I want to be sure about it before going. Maybe I can get DH to take a couple of practice cruises to check out the different cruise lines.:ship:

[gcorgain]

I think you will like Princess better than HAL. While I prefer Celebrity, I have sailed Princess three times and find the experiences of similar quality. I do recommend you look at the mini-suites. The regular balcony cabins are significantly smaller than Celebrity, while the mini-suites are a little larger. I agree with the earlier poster's comments about food and entertainment. I especially like their piano bars.

 

 

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[roxievegas]

when we were on our last cruise, we booked the Celebrity Hawaii - start in Honolulu and end in Vancouver. We live in LA area, so flying to Hawaii was okay.. We got a Balcony SV cabin for $1800pp with OBC. When we got home, I started looking at other companies and found:

Holland America - 18 nights round trip out of San Diego - we booked this for $2199 pp (balcony) - no perks - will use our OBC from travel agency to pay for the gratuities. Holland offers a beverage card that you can purchase for $25 that gives you $50 in credit on the card for soft drink. This is to Hawaii islands.

Princess - 28 nights round trip out of LA - we booked this for $5799pp (balcony) - got an alcohol drink package with this.this cruise goes to Hawaii, then on to South Pacific islands and then back to LA. again will use TA OBC to pay for gratuities

Once I found the Holland and Princess - I cancelled the Celebrity and changed it to an Alaska cruise for next month. I watched the Celebrity Hawaii go way up in price and then came back down to what we original paid. The Holland America has gone way up and the Princess has stayed the same, but no drink package offered (now offering gratuities).

We are trying to find cruises that go out of the west coast and no more long flights. We have never done Holland or Princess, so this will be interesting.

[TRadle]

The prices on Celebrity have skyrocketed for some of their cruises. I was pricing out the Edge just for that brand new ship experience and when I was pricing the Crystal Serenity 18 day Hawaii cruise the state room for that was the same as the sky suite on Celebrity for 7 nights in the Caribbean!

[richsea]

Thanks for the comparison. I was getting the feeling from from reviews and pictures that Princess was more in line to an X experience than Holland American. With a long cruise I want to be sure about it before going. Maybe I can get DH to take a couple of practice cruises to check out the different cruise lines.:ship:

 

We have been X diehards for years, & when we tri d our first Princess cruise, we enjoyed it but found ourselves constantly comparing the 2 lines. On our 2nd Princess cruise we decided to try not to compare, but just experience the cruise, & enjoyed ourselves more. Are there differences, sure, but viva la dfferance! They excell in different areas.

[zoncom]

Many no fly HA cruises this Fall out of LA and SF. No need to fly. Princess doing 15N RTs. Oct and Nov. Also Emerald 28N Oct 8, saw $3,400 Insides.Great itin too.Look em up on any discount cruise agency website.

[Cruise Raider]

We've never sailed on Princess. What are some of the things that you like better than X and do you think if we love X Princess will be a good fit. (I have to convince DH that it is okay to sail on a different line for this!)

 

We would definitely go on Princess if not on Celebrity. But, as you can see by my profile, we are right here outside of San Francisco so that would always be my first choice. I do like Princess a lot and have sailed on that line over 25 times ... and yes, done the Hawaii itinerary a few times from the west coast.

While I like Princess, I absolutely love Celebrity ... but I do like the itineraries Princess offers a lot better than those Celebrity does. That comes from living on the west coast I think.

 

The Princess experience is very comparable to that of Royal Caribbean but Royal's ships are so much nicer, in my opinion. The ship that is home ported in San Francisco is my least favorite but the service is beyond excellent. Sailing out of LA would give you a nicer ship but sailing under the Golden Gate is amazing!! The pre-cruise hotel and food will most likely be a lot more costly in SF if that is a consideration.

Celebrity will probably have less kids onboard but if you are doing a 15 night itinerary, you won't have many children on Princess either. Celebrity's cabins are more to my liking but I guess that all depends on which category you will be choosing.

The Princess cruises from LA had some awesome enrichment activities onboard, including ukulele lessions, pop choir singers, lei making, Hawaiian singers and naturalists, etc. The last time we did this itinerary out of SF, though, that was mostly missing. I didn't even see any Hawaiian featured dishes in the buffet or any Mexican tapas for our obligatory stop in Ensenada ... so that did disappoint.

 

Food is subjective but I think Celebrity has taken top place for this, especially in their buffet. The specialty restaurants on Princess are also top notch, though and at a much lesser price. As a matter of fact, drinks are also a lot less on Princess.

Maintenance on their ships does not seem to be quite up to par with that of Celebrity.

Service is equally good on both lines...no complaints on either!

Princess still has formal nights but the specialty restaurants are always smart casual.

You can stack your benefits on Princess whereas you are not able to do that on Celebrity. So, you can put in for a referral credit or have someone refer you both and each get $25 obc. On top of that, you can add a future cruise certificate, military obc, stockholders obc, etc ... as many as apply. So, you can end up with some real bargains.

The entertainment on Princess might be a little better overall ... but again, subjective. I like the venues that Celebrity uses for entertainment better than the ones on Princess, which don't seem to have enough room for everyone to be seated unless you get there way ahead of time.

Princess probably has more onboard activities.

 

While I still like Celebrity more overall, I always have a great time on Princess as well.

[TRadle]

Thank you to everyone for great comparisons between X and the other lines. I'm starting my spreadsheet with pros/cons/costs comparisons.

 

Cruise Raider, thank you for such a detailed comparison and included RC in there! I've never been to SF so sailing under the bridge will be a consideration!

[h0mbr3]

We are booked on the May 7th Celebrity Solstice cruise Hawaii to Vancouver. It is 5 nights around Hawaii then 5 nights to Vancouver. Solstice does it 2 times a year. You have Princess or HAL. But any cruise you are going to have to fly somewhere.

Wife and I did this cruise last April. Arrived in Oahu 4 days early. Rented a car and drove the island hitting all the hot spots! Great time! After that and the other islands, I was ready for 5 sea days back to Vancouver!!!