Trans Pacific: East or West?

[Lazz58]

I am just starting to research Trans Pacific repositioning cruises via the South Pacific.  My first question is should we begin or end in Sydney?  Looking to begin or end in Hawaii.  I am trying to find a cruise that stops at both Tahiti and Fiji at the present time, but I am also open to suggestions on this subject as well. Thanks for you help.

[Arizona Wildcat]

If you cruise heading West you pick up.an hour for each time zone. 25 hour days easier than 23.

[LACruiser88]

We live in the Los Angeles area so we prefer going from Sydney to the west coast.  This way we get the long flight out of the way at the beginning of our trip.

 

We are currently on the Majestic Princess going from Sydney to Seattle.

[hpeabody]

1 hour ago, Lazz58 said:

I am just starting to research Trans Pacific repositioning cruises via the South Pacific.  My first question is should we begin or end in Sydney?  Looking to begin or end in Hawaii.  I am trying to find a cruise that stops at both Tahiti and Fiji at the present time, but I am also open to suggestions on this subject as well. Thanks for you help.

It may be difficult if not impossible to find a flight to begin or end in Hawaii.  But, there are usually twice yearly round trip from LA cruises that do the South Pacific like you mention in April and October/November.  If it is really Sydney that you interested in on a one way/repositioning cruise look for departures out of LA, I know that exists....  Perhaps San Francisco, Seattle or Vancouver, but I have done no research on those.

[hpeabody]

I should have added that I was referring to Princess cruises.  It may be possible that a small more specialty cruise line does begin or end in Hawaii/Honolulu.

 

[Tranquility Base]

In '25 or '26 the Grand, Royal & Discovery are doing cruises which begin or end in Honolulu.

If you live in the U.S. I agree with LACruiser to head East to avoid the long haul flight home.

Otherwise I personally prefer West for the 25 hr days as Arizona Wildcat mentioned.

[skynight]

Depends on where you live. I would prefer to fly.out, sail home. 

[Mark_K]

Assuming you want to spend some time in Sydney, if you fly there first, your internal clock is likely to be discombobulated, but if you arrive by ship, it should be pretty much in sync.  I know it takes me a day or two…
 

There are currently no SYD<>HNL cruises scheduled that stop in Tahiti and Fiji.
 

There are cruises that start on the US west coast that have stops in Hawaii, Fiji, and Tahiti. One on Carnival this September, and one on Princess, September, 2025.

Edited April 13 by Mark_K

[Honolulu Blue]

12 hours ago, hpeabody said:

It may be difficult if not impossible to find a flight to begin or end in Hawaii.  

I've been researching transpacific cruises for the past year and I had a pretty easy time finding flights to HNL from my nearest big city airport. Most of them are expensive, I'll concede.

 

To the OP, I will say that the cruise I eventually chose and hope to sail on in October goes from Honolulu to Sydney. It stops in Tahiti but not Fiji. It's not on Princess. 

[rideev]

FYI, we are on a TP from LA to Sydney this fall.  On the way back we are stopping in Hawaii for a few days.  We found that we could book a Fiji Airways flight and stop over in Fiji for a night.  Breaks up the long flight from Sydney to Hawaii, and let's us eat a meal in Fiji.  Same cost no matter how long we stayed in Fiji.

[memoak]

On any long distance cruise we like to get the longer flight out of the way first

[dockman]

royal  princess does syd to hnl in april 2025...no fiji

[jagoffee]

I suggest you factor in the weather/season when your decision.  We did a repositioning cruise from Hawaii to Sydney on a different cruise line in October.  Therefore the weather was cooler has we cruised to New Zealand.  

[PescadoAmarillo]

I definitely recommend going west. Much easier on the body to have 25 hour days instead of 23 hour days. Plus, going east, the last several days (at least 5) are all sea days and, in our experience, people are just ready to be off the ship. Going westbound, the excitement of Sydney (or Auckland, etc) awaits, and give you something to look forward to right to the end.