NCL RT Honolulu or a One Way Sail to/from West Coast?

[BostonGal35]

Pros and cons to sailing NCL Pride of America vs. taking a longer one way sail to/from the West Coast?

 

we live on the East Coast and i dont do well on long flights so im thinking that starting or ending on the west coast will mean that i only have the really long flight either coming or going to Honolulu depending upon where i embark.

 

but will i miss alot of Hawaii in doing this? I know the longer sails include about 5 sea days which im ok with.

[srlafleur]

We, too, live on the east coast and hate the idea of a long flight home harshing our vacation vibe. So, what we did was stay in California for a couple of days on the way out and back. We could as easily have stayed at any of the westerly locales that have direct flights to HNL.

It was definitely worth it to be able to take advantage of the overnights in Kauai and Maui that POA has. (we're not big sea day fans)

[punkincc]

Pros and cons to sailing NCL Pride of America vs. taking a longer one way sail to/from the West Coast?

 

we live on the East Coast and i dont do well on long flights so im thinking that starting or ending on the west coast will mean that i only have the really long flight either coming or going to Honolulu depending upon where i embark.

 

but will i miss alot of Hawaii in doing this? I know the longer sails include about 5 sea days which im ok with.

 

Will you miss a lot of Hawaii with the West Coast cruise? I'm afraid the answer is yes. Right off the bat, you lose those 5 days spent at sea which could have been spent in Hawaii on the POA or extending your vacation either before or after on one of the islands. I'm afraid the cons far outweigh any pros.

 

Look at the itinerary for one of those one way cruises and see how many days you actually spend in a Hawaiian port. The POA gets you in port for 7 full days. O'ahu, overnight in Maui, overnight in Kauai, and two port days on the big island of Hawaii in both Hilo and Kona. You also get a sail by of the Na Pali Coast which few ( no other?) offers. Consider roughly 32 hours in port for Maui, for example, vs a possible 6 or 8 hours. And I would not dream of missing a single one of these islands, which are all so different.

 

We agree with the previous poster, just book a flight to LA or San Fran or even Pheonix, ( you have to get there anyway for the one way, right? ) anywhere you can book a non stop 5 or 6 hour flight to Hawaii from, overnight at minimum and then head out refreshed the next am. The am flight usually arrives at HNL @ 11:30 am. You'll be in Hawaii before the one way cruise even starts boarding😉.

[Silver Sweethearts]

We agree with the previous poster, just book a flight to LA or San Fran or even Pheonix, ( you have to get there anyway for the one way, right? ) anywhere you can book a non stop 5 or 6 hour flight to Hawaii from, overnight at minimum and then head out refreshed the next am. The am flight usually arrives at HNL @ 11:30 am. You'll be in Hawaii before the one way cruise even starts boarding😉.

 

Agreed also. At the moment, there are 16 non-stop flights from Los Angeles to Honolulu every day. Fly into LAX, stay at someplace close to the airport (there is a very quiet Hyatt right next to the airport that offers fair rates and a constant free shuttle bus for instance) and fly out to Honolulu the next day at your choice of time. We have done this more than once and it works out well.

[BostonGal35]

thank you everyone!

[Tatka]

My parents also live in Boston and they absolutely loved POA cruise. To avoid such a long flight they did spend several days in SF, and then flew to Honolulu.

They are not a huge cruise lovers and absence of sea days was a huge plus for them.

[Donray]

I know the longer sails include about 5 sea days which im ok with.

 

These are all round trip and there are 9 sea days on a 15 days trip.

[julie3fan]

I personally love sea days, so the West coast Hawaii round trips are right up my alley! I'm within driving distance of LA and San Francisco, so I don't have to worry about flights. If you like sea days and have the time for a 15 day cruise, compare the cost of a POA cruise and all airfare to the cost of just airfare to the West coast and the longer cruise. You might be surprised at the comparison.

[PCWalton1]

It will be difficult for you to get a non-biased answer as it is rare to find someone who has done both the POA cruises and cruises that originate from the mainland. I have just done the one way cruises to or from the mainland and my recommendation (bias ;p) is towards that.

 

Our latest cruise started in Honolulu and spent a full 7 days in the island with overnights in Kauai and Lahaina, Maui. Similar to POA except our Maui overnight was on the west side of the island. I actually prefer that as it makes it much easier to attend a luau and most of them are on the west side. we went to the Old Lahaina Luau with no worries of getting back across the island after dark

 

We flew into Honolulu 5 days prior to the cruise so we had 12 wonderful days in the islands. Then we had that bonus of 5 sea days over to Vancouver BC before heading home.

[asand5554]

Not sure when you are planning your trip, but we are on the NCL Jewel, Vancouver to Honolulu this October. Itinerary is 5 sea days, Hilo, Kona, overnight in Maui (Kahului) and ending in Honolulu. We are staying in Honolulu for 3 nights before flying home to Boston. This sailing is one leg of the Jewel's repositioning to Austailia and the South Pacific.