Best cruise line for Hawaii??

[missholly24]

I'm trying to plan a bucket list 14 day-ish cruise to Hawaii. I'm pretty loyal to Carnival with RCI scattered in. Does anyone have any insight on what line does it best? Carnival or NCL (Pride of America) or Princess/RCI for that matter.  Sea days definitely appear to be the difference with Carnival having 8?!?! 😲

 

Any insight on differences would be appreciated! Thank you! 

[mz-s]

NCL has an American-flagged vessel so they can cruise the Hawaiian islands without needing to visit a foreign port. The other lines need to visit a foreign port which is why they have so many sea days.

[nwcruiselover]

It depends on whether your goal is to see as much in Hawaii as you can, or whether you enjoy the sea days.  For maximum exposure to Hawaii, you can’t beat NCL’s Pride of America.  The cruises start and end in Honolulu.

[missholly24]

48 minutes ago, nwcruiselover said:

It depends on whether your goal is to see as much in Hawaii as you can, or whether you enjoy the sea days.  For maximum exposure to Hawaii, you can’t beat NCL’s Pride of America.  The cruises start and end in Honolulu.

Thank you! Good point.

[missholly24]

Of note the price difference is interesting. Approx $6200 for 7 days on NCL and $5090 for 14 days on Carnival. Must be because NCL has to have mostly Americans workers d/t Jones Act? 

[bar1068]

11 minutes ago, missholly24 said:

Of note the price difference is interesting. Approx $6200 for 7 days on NCL and $5090 for 14 days on Carnival. Must be because NCL has to have mostly Americans workers d/t Jones Act? 

That probably accounts for some of the cost difference. The other could be the NCL cruise operates the entire 7 days in Hawaii where as the 15 day Carnival cruise spends only 4. But thats just a guess. 

[1025cruise]

Yes, because the NCL ship is US flagged (nothing to do with the Jones Act/PVSA), it is required to have a mostly US citizen crew.

 

The other ships sail from the West Coast and stop in Ensenada either to/from.

[csm5986142]

We have done the Hawaii cruise twice (only on Carnival) but are currently looking at other lines now because I'm not finding that Carnival does the 1-way itenerary anymore.  It was perfect for us, 5 days at sea initially, then 7 days around the islands, ending in Honolulu where we spent another day or two, and then we flew back home. For us it was the perfect balance of sea and port days.

 

[missholly24]

19 minutes ago, csm5986142 said:

We have done the Hawaii cruise twice (only on Carnival) but are currently looking at other lines now because I'm not finding that Carnival does the 1-way itenerary anymore.  It was perfect for us, 5 days at sea initially, then 7 days around the islands, ending in Honolulu where we spent another day or two, and then we flew back home. For us it was the perfect balance of sea and port days.

 

The other lines I am seeing are shorter and sparse. Fun to research!

[shiner6]

we just did the Princess one from LA. It was perfect!

[csm5986142]

4 hours ago, missholly24 said:

he other lines I am seeing are shorter and sparse. Fun to research!

 

I agree, the cruise I mentioned (one way, about 12 days) looks like it's only done as a repositioning and Celebrity is the only one I see doing it now (Vancouver BC to Honolulu in the fall and vice versa in the spring). So not many dates to choose from.

We absolutely loved the itenerary (more than enough time at all the islands, and not too many sea days).  

[KeepCalmBearOn]

11 hours ago, csm5986142 said:

We have done the Hawaii cruise twice (only on Carnival) but are currently looking at other lines now because I'm not finding that Carnival does the 1-way itenerary anymore.  It was perfect for us, 5 days at sea initially, then 7 days around the islands, ending in Honolulu where we spent another day or two, and then we flew back home. For us it was the perfect balance of sea and port days.

 

Carnival leaving from where?

 

For the OP, I've done Princess 4 times now and HAL once. Obviously we love the Princess itinerary. we cruise FOR the sea days. That the ship stops at ports in Hawaii is a bonus to us, but the stops aren't important. We live the pace and rhythm of so many consecutive sea days.

 

As I am sure you know, both Princess and HAL are part of Carnival.

[Erreyl]

On 3/1/2023 at 2:29 PM, shiner6 said:

we just did the Princess one from LA. It was perfect!

We also did this, around a decade ago, and loved this itinerary.  The sea days before felt like the first vacation, the time at the islands was awesome.  Then when we were headed back it felt like a 3rd vacation, time to relax without our vacation being over yet.

[Hogladyrider]

On 3/1/2023 at 10:18 AM, missholly24 said:

Of note the price difference is interesting. Approx $6200 for 7 days on NCL and $5090 for 14 days on Carnival. Must be because NCL has to have mostly Americans workers d/t Jones Act? 

Curious is this price for a single or for two?

 

We LOVE sea days, hence we are booked on HAL balcony cabin 18-day to Hawaii with the Have It All Pkg and the price is comparable to what you shared NCL's price is just for the cruise.  Remember with NCL Pride you would have to fly to the island and home.

 

We are platinum on Carnival and now that we are retired we have moved over to HAL as we love the atmosphere on HAL, the food and the live entertainment and the ships are amazing.

 

Watching a lot of You Tube videos preparing for our first visit to Hawaii!

[missholly24]

23 hours ago, Hogladyrider said:

Curious is this price for a single or for two?

 

We LOVE sea days, hence we are booked on HAL balcony cabin 18-day to Hawaii with the Have It All Pkg and the price is comparable to what you shared NCL's price is just for the cruise.  Remember with NCL Pride you would have to fly to the island and home.

 

We are platinum on Carnival and now that we are retired we have moved over to HAL as we love the atmosphere on HAL, the food and the live entertainment and the ships are amazing.

 

Watching a lot of You Tube videos preparing for our first visit to Hawaii!

Oh I'm not sure now, I just went to each site and did a search. The prices change daily. Just do a mock booking! I usually type in 2 our 4 though so it was definitely one of those. 

[torybruno]

We are currently looking for our first visit to Hawaii.  We are looking at four different cruises for the fall, celebrity Solstice, and RC Brilliance, Quantam or Ovation.  All are out of Vancouver, and seem to be good deals right now.  We just don’t know if it’s better to cruise, or just fly to Hawaii and book hotels at two different islands.  🤷‍♀️

[KeepCalmBearOn]

11 minutes ago, torybruno said:

We are currently looking for our first visit to Hawaii.  We are looking at four different cruises for the fall, celebrity Solstice, and RC Brilliance, Quantam or Ovation.  All are out of Vancouver, and seem to be good deals right now.  We just don’t know if it’s better to cruise, or just fly to Hawaii and book hotels at two different islands.  🤷‍♀️

 

It depends on how long you have, what your priorities are (cruising vacation vs landbased sightseeing), how much you want to see and do you think you'll return to Hawaii some day.

 

I grew up on Oahu, visit on business 5-8 times a year and take vacation days in Hawaii (usually Kauai and Oahu) at least once a year, sometimes twice. We love the West Coast round trips cruises because of the 10 sea days. We find that very relaxing. I think most of the Vancouver cruises are one way, so you can do landbased days when the cruise ends.

 

I would not do any cruise that skipped Kauai and Hilo on Hawaii Island (the Big Island).

 

If you chose two islands, landbased, it again depends on what you want to see,

[Oakman58]

Wife and I did a 16 day roundtrip Hawaiian cruise this past January out of San Diego on the Diamond Princess.  If you book a standard balcony cabin with Princess be sure to check the room configuration to see if there is seating for two people in the cabin.  I was surprised to discover that our cabin did not have a love seat for two people, all it had was a chair at the desk.  When we ordered room service breakfast I would drag in a chair from the balcony.

 

That cruise was also the most boring I've ever been on.  The majority of the music was ballroom dance or easy listening lounge music.  Motown, The Beatles, and Rock and Roll didn't exist on this cruise and that included the music on the Lido deck.  Princess is a one and done for us.

[CruiserBruce]

2 hours ago, torybruno said:

We are currently looking for our first visit to Hawaii.  We are looking at four different cruises for the fall, celebrity Solstice, and RC Brilliance, Quantam or Ovation.  All are out of Vancouver, and seem to be good deals right now.  We just don’t know if it’s better to cruise, or just fly to Hawaii and book hotels at two different islands.  🤷‍♀️

If you do any reading around the board you will see the very common opinion that the "best" way to see Hawaii is on a land trip, not a cruise. If you have that option, I would suggest you take it.

[93yearsyoung]

The best cruise line to Hawaii is Matson; lovely service, delicious food and menus so colorful you can collect them. I hear a rumor they've stopped Hawaii cruises though.

 

We've done Princess to Hawaii a dozen times because the port is 40 minutes from our home, Holland America twice because San Diego port is 90 minutes. We also did Celebrity once from Vancouver and while we like Celebrity, we didn't like doing Hawaii one way. We prefer the round trip.

[alrose251]

I did extensive research on cruising Hawaii for the perfect itinerary.  Hands down NCL has the best itinerary in my opinion.

 

NCL allows the most time (entire time) in Hawaii.  The overnight in two ports opens up some many more opportunities to explore the islands.  Pride of America sails to more Hawaiian islands than any other cruise line (that I could find).

 

I love sea days, which NCL Pride of America does not have any, but I can get sea days on any other cruise.  My purpose for the Hawaiin cruise is to see Hawaii and NCL will allow me the most time on the islands. 

 

Happy Cruising!

[CruiserBruce]

5 minutes ago, alrose251 said:

I did extensive research on cruising Hawaii for the perfect itinerary.  Hands down NCL has the best itinerary in my opinion.

 

NCL allows the most time (entire time) in Hawaii.  The overnight in two ports opens up some many more opportunities to explore the islands.  Pride of America sails to more Hawaiian islands than any other cruise line (that I could find).

 

I love sea days, which NCL Pride of America does not have any, but I can get sea days on any other cruise.  My purpose for the Hawaiin cruise is to see Hawaii and NCL will allow me the most time on the islands. 

 

Happy Cruising!

A little misleading here...there are 4 islands that cruise ships can go to...Kauai, Oahu, Maui and Hawaii. Most cruise lines stop at all 4. NCL starts and ends at Oahu, so, unless you arrive early, or stay beyond your cruise, you aren't "visiting Oahu" on your cruise. NCL doesn't stop at any more islands than most other cruise lines. Yes, occasionally, some cruises only stop at 3 islands.

 

Most cruise lines stop at one port on Hawaii, NCL stops at two.  

[alrose251]

3 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

A little misleading here...there are 4 islands that cruise ships can go to...Kauai, Oahu, Maui and Hawaii. Most cruise lines stop at all 4. NCL starts and ends at Oahu, so, unless you arrive early, or stay beyond your cruise, you aren't "visiting Oahu" on your cruise. NCL doesn't stop at any more islands than most other cruise lines. Yes, occasionally, some cruises only stop at 3 islands.

 

Most cruise lines stop at one port on Hawaii, NCL stops at two.  

Not misleading if you compare each cruise for the number of islands and the amount of time at each island.    All I am saying is NCL gives the most time spent in Hawaii. 7 days in Hawaii!

 

The Pride of America leaves from Oahu (great deal of people do arrive at least a day early),  stops at Maui (overnight), stops at Hilo, stop at Kona and Kauai (overnight).  I think that is more than 2 stops!

 

 

[princeton123211]

9 minutes ago, alrose251 said:

stops at Maui (overnight)

My biggest issue with NCL (aside from the ghastly decor on Pride of America) is the fact that in Maui they dock at Kahului instead of tender at Lahaina. My criteria for that stop would be a ship that tenders on the side of the island I want to do things on vs docking in the industrial port away from most attractions. 

[alrose251]

8 minutes ago, princeton123211 said:

My biggest issue with NCL (aside from the ghastly decor on Pride of America) is the fact that in Maui they dock at Kahului instead of tender at Lahaina. My criteria for that stop would be a ship that tenders on the side of the island I want to do things on vs docking in the industrial port away from most attractions. 

I can understand your preference.  For me, I just want to spend as much as I can in Hawaii!