Small cruise

[MELSMOM47]

I’m sorry if this question has been asked before. I tried the search bar and got no results. I am wondering if there is a small cruise option around Hawaii. Would prefer to fly direct and then cruise the islands. Norwegian is the only line I am aware of and that’s a larger ship than we were looking for. Thanks so much. 

[CruiserBruce]

Only the NCL ship can sail totally within the islands without coming or going to the mainland ( Canada for one way trips, any port for round trips from the West Coast), or sailing to Fanning Island. 

 

If you do some research,  you might find a smaller ship repositioning across the Pacific that meets your goals.

[Silver Sweethearts]

As an alternative, you might look at doing Papeete-Papeete on the Paul Gauguin.  You can get a non-stop flight from New York to Honolulu.  Hawaiian offers a non-stop from Honolulu to Papeete every Saturday.  You could fly in to Honolulu, stay there for a few days to get rid of any jet lag and then catch the Saturday HNL-PPT flight.  One pleasure for us on that is avoiding going through LAX.

[princeton123211]

11 hours ago, MELSMOM47 said:

I am wondering if there is a small cruise option around Hawaii. Would prefer to fly direct and then cruise the islands. Norwegian is the only line I am aware of and that’s a larger ship than we were looking for.

As others have said, the answer is no. But you can pick up some smaller ships that are going through. Seabourn, Regent, and Silver Sea have often had cruises running through the Hawaiian Islands coming back from Asia or French Polynesia that you can book segments that start/end in Hawaii. 

 

That being said most of those only have like 2-3 days at most on the Islands and are not a great way to see Hawaii if that's the goal. 

[MICHE99]

1 hour ago, princeton123211 said:

As others have said, the answer is no. But you can pick up some smaller ships that are going through. Seabourn, Regent, and Silver Sea have often had cruises running through the Hawaiian Islands coming back from Asia or French Polynesia that you can book segments that start/end in Hawaii. 

 

That being said most of those only have like 2-3 days at most on the Islands and are not a great way to see Hawaii if that's the goal. 

z

Edited February 26 by MICHE99
wrong post

[chengkp75]

As others have said, in order to cruise the Hawaiian Islands exclusively, the ship needs to be US flag.  Currently, there is only one cruise ship that is US flag and positioned in Hawaii, NCL's Pride of America.  While there are a few small US flag cruise lines, that operate smaller ships, none of them have itineraries that are Hawaii exclusive.

[MELSMOM47]

Thanks everyone. This is what I thought but I had hoped I was mistaken. DH has a small plane phobia. Trying to figure out a way to deal with that and still see several islands. 

[princeton123211]

6 minutes ago, MELSMOM47 said:

Thanks everyone. This is what I thought but I had hoped I was mistaken. DH has a small plane phobia. Trying to figure out a way to deal with that and still see several islands. 

Just fly Hawaiian Airlines-- they do their intra-island flying mainly on very comfortable Boeing 717's (which are basically updated versions of the MD-80)-- large, twin jet airliners you've flown on tons of times in the past domestically. 

 

Of course flying a local carrier like Mokulele Airlines on their smaller planes provides dramatically better views (the flight from Kapalua to Honolulu will often provide you with a bonus fly by of Molokai's stunning North coast which folks pay hundreds of dollars for on tourist helicopters). But, for someone who doesnt like small planes, it means flying on a single engine Cessna Caravan. 

[chengkp75]

16 minutes ago, MELSMOM47 said:

Thanks everyone. This is what I thought but I had hoped I was mistaken. DH has a small plane phobia. Trying to figure out a way to deal with that and still see several islands. 

Compared to what I used to fly in with Bar Harbor Airlines, I don't consider the Hawaiian Airlines B-717 to be "small planes", but to each their own phobias (I know I've got my share).