Hawaii in January??

[fellswoop]

Getting a bit worried that at the last minute Hawaii will extend its "no cruise ships yet" policy  January 1st. The last info from Safe Travels Hawaii was till "at least" January 2022.  That leaves room to extend it. Omicrom may sway them.  We are on Koningsdam January 16th headed there. 🤞

[KirkNC]

No way to know until they announce a decision.  We are sailing there in early March.

[cate54]

We are due to go Feb 2, it's all up in the air until Hawaii makes a decision.

🤞  mine too!

[SFO Peter]

Small ships started sailing.

 

 

[visagrunt]

We're on Koningsdam on January 16 as well.

I'm not letting this both me.  Just having a deck under my shoes will be enough!

[slb1949]

We’re on January 16 also. Still on our calendar. 

[Caribbean Chris]

Another January 16 hopeful here.
 

I wish the state would get on with it and announce their decision now, yes or no. There are around ten ships representing thousands of travelers scheduled to arrive in January.

[Heartgrove]

We are aboard the Koningsdam right now. Chatting with our MDR steward last night, the crew is still planning on the sailing to Hawaii next month.

[nocl]

With the Holidays rapidly approaching does not seem that much time remains to get the port agreements in place, and the changes made to the safe travel Hawaii system for the early January  cruises.

[visagrunt]

If the parties were starting from square one, I'd agree.

However, the ports' various cruise ship schedules for 2022 show vessels' dates (including a different set of dates for our January 2022 port calls...) which strongly suggests to me that ports are seized of the issue and have likely been working away on the necessary elements.

What they probably lack is political direction to proceed.  Ultimately the Hawai'ian government has to make the call, and that decision will likely go up to the highest levels.  It might be a very last minute green or amber light from which the ports will then reach out to sign agreements that are already substantially drafted.

[nocl]

keep in mind that the same sites listed the Nov and dec port calls as well until they were canceled.

 

The port agreements are going to be determined by state level requirements concerning how cases will be handled and other requirements. As such the negotiations will be driven by the state and the expansion of safe travels hawaii.

[lazey1]

and yet another Jan. 16th hopeful here.

 

[Josie201]

Fingers crossed for all of you.  We were on the Feb 2 sailing but cancelled.  Too much uncertainty for us to enjoy the planning.  And from Canada our flights to San Diego were getting too complicated with 2 plus connections and a 14 plus hour travel day.   18 months of planning and waiting gone in 20 minutes on the phone.  😞

[KirkNC]

23 minutes ago, Josie201 said:

Fingers crossed for all of you.  We were on the Feb 2 sailing but cancelled.  Too much uncertainty for us to enjoy the planning.  And from Canada our flights to San Diego were getting too complicated with 2 plus connections and a 14 plus hour travel day.   18 months of planning and waiting gone in 20 minutes on the phone.  😞

Understood, there are so many hurdles to traveling.

[chaunceyb]

On 12/9/2021 at 12:54 PM, fellswoop said:

Getting a bit worried that at the last minute Hawaii will extend its "no cruise ships yet" policy  January 1st. The last info from Safe Travels Hawaii was till "at least" January 2022.  That leaves room to extend it. Omicrom may sway them.  We are on Koningsdam January 16th headed there. 🤞

All depends what our King (I mean Governor) Ige decides.

[martinprof]

We are also on Jan 16 Koningsdam sailing.  On Oct 17, I emailed HAL about Hawaii Safe Travels for cruises.  They responded on Dec 14 with this:

 

Good Day,

 

The state of Hawaii is still working on their Safe Travels web platform to accommodate cruise lines and they have informed us that they hope to have it updated by the end of the year.

Thank you for your time,

 

FELIPE RODRIGUEZ

Documentation Agent    Who know if this is true or not.

[Caribbean Chris]

On 12/10/2021 at 2:26 PM, visagrunt said:

However, the ports' various cruise ship schedules for 2022 show vessels' dates (including a different set of dates for our January 2022 port calls...) 

 Visagrunt, I’ve been checking occasionally, too, for our January cruise. As you know, for weeks our itinerary has been shown as rearranged and the Kauai section of the site doesn’t show Konigsdam calling there at all until February.

https://hawaii.portcall.com/#!?tab=2

 

Today I noticed that our Oahu call (still one day later than our official HAL itinerary shows) now indicates “Last Port” as Santa Catalina. (For a while there it said Kauai.)

 

Hawaii PortCall seems to be a semi-official source of info that other government websites link to. So reading the tea leaves, we all may be in Avalon on Day Two after leaving San Diego. But with all the negative reports on the spread of Omicron, I won’t be at all surprised if the Governor decides to stay closed to big ships in January.

Edited December 22, 2021 by Caribbean Chris

[johnlcruise]

On 12/10/2021 at 2:54 PM, lazey1 said:

and yet another Jan. 16th hopeful here.

 

Us to. Fingers cross.

[SFO Peter]

Maybe there is still hope.   Call at Catalina is fine by me.   I started doing Hawaii Safe Travels and this is what I saw below.   Last port of call before Hawaii was Catalina not San Diego per Caribbean Chris.  I think Safe Travels for cruise to Hawaii is going to be a requirement.

You can use Clear Digital Pass to show your booster.  Booster not showing on Common Pass.

Peter

 

 

Edited December 22, 2021 by SFO PETER

[zelker]

Hi, guys - I've been watching all the roll calls that are supposed to visit Hawaii in the first few months of 2022 (we're booked on Zuiderdam Hi/SoPac at the end of February).  Our schedule on the Hawaii Port Calls website now shows us on Santa Catalina the day after San Diego too, and they've switched what would have been our first Hawaii port of Hilo to our last Hawaii port before we head south.

 

Here's the link to Santa Catalina's 2022 cruise ship schedule - you'll note that the HAL ships have been added within the last few weeks but do not show as confirmed yet so it's still a work in progress.

 

2022 Cruise Ship Schedule (lovecatalina.com)

[SFO Peter]

thanks zelker.   I was just about to apologize to everyone that I don't know what I am doing!

o.k. going back to struggle with Hawaii Safe Travels.   I think Hawaii will require you to do this to enter Hawaii on cruise ship.

 

Peter

Edited December 22, 2021 by SFO PETER

[SDARCH]

@SFO PETER @zelker

This is getting very interesting.  Love your sleuthing. We are on the Jan 16th voyage and I had completely convinced myself that this trip was not going to happen.  We were booked on the cancelled Nov 2021 Hawaii cruise....went on a 7-day Mexican K-dam cruise instead - and it was wonderful.

This is at least some positive news.  I think the changing of ports is a good sign.

 

Enrolled in the Hawaii Safe Travels site and our cruise is preloaded.  Not a guarantee of course, but some good news.

[zelker]

@SDARCH - thanks for the heads up about being able to enroll in the Hawaii Safe Travels site ... I just did ours.  I saw at the very end that it says cruise ship passengers must submit a negative test taken on the ship while enroute. 

[SDARCH]

7 minutes ago, zelker said:

@SDARCH - thanks for the heads up about being able to enroll in the Hawaii Safe Travels site ... I just did ours.  I saw at the very end that it says cruise ship passengers must submit a negative test taken on the ship while enroute. 

We can thank @SFO PETER for the info on the Hawaii Safe Travels site.  I didn't catch that about the test.  Thanks!   I ordered two Abbott home tests yesterday for the pre cruise test, but the internet was so awful on our last cruise, I wouldn't count on it to do the telemedicine eMed test on board.  I would imagine (hope) HA will have testing on board for this.

[SFO Peter]

HAL routinely administers Rapid Antigen (Abbott) on board no charge to passengers.    I think the fly in the ointment is whether Hawaii wants PCR test rather than Rapid Antigen.    Hawaii requires PCR for flights to Hawaii.   My understanding is that PCR on board is doable and PCR has been done for some Canadians who need PCR to fly home.   Whether HAL will buy the equipment to do PCR for the entire ship is another question.

 

Peter

 

Edited December 22, 2021 by SFO PETER