Edge 9 night Hawaii cruise

[Salf777]

Hi all

Have a 9 night Hawaii booked on the edge next year. There really is only 2 stops in Hawaii with an overnight and then 5 days at sea to Vancouver. Has anyone done this and their thoughts? We plan on arriving about 4 days early and having more time in Hawaii. While we 

Iike sea days 5 in a row may be a lot for us. 
On top of all this we are onboard now and really aren’t crazy about the direction X is taking. We were talking with staff the day the ship was in Coco Cay as we had no interest in getting off with another huge royal ship there and over 10,000 people. The staff says the management is determined to attract a younger crowd and make X more like royal that’s why they tried things like allowing vaping and all that. Their cruise l8ne they can do what they want I have the option to sail or not if I don’t like it. To each their own and that’s just not for us. 
Wondering what X will look like next year when we go next May. So asking those who have done it for some insight 

[39august]

We did a Hawaii 15 night round trip from San Diego years ago. Great itinerary. But even considering going 4 days early, I would not book this cruise. Two ports is not enough to take  that long flight over and 5 sea days back. I would fly to Hawaii for a land trip first. 

[Jim_Iain]

We just returned from a similar and longer cruise on Solstice.   Possibly you would like to look at Solstice as theri cruise will be different.

 

On our Cruise we did an overnight in HNL, and overnight in Hilo and and overnight in Hana followed by all those sea days to Vancouver. 

 

Agree with your opinion of the direction that Celebrity is heading.

 

[jelayne]

We did the Sydney to Honolulu repo 2x 18N and loved them.  The recent one had 6 straight sea days, great for us but others were over sea days after 4.  
If you don’t think you will like 5 days at sea and you don’t like the direction X is taking you are probably better off looking at other options.

[SbbquilterUT]

2 hours ago, jelayne said:

We did the Sydney to Honolulu repo 2x 18N and loved them.  The recent one had 6 straight sea days, great for us but others were over sea days after 4.  
If you don’t think you will like 5 days at sea and you don’t like the direction X is taking you are probably better off looking at other options.

We are booked on that in 2025 (postponed from 2021) and am happy to hear you enjoyed it.  I even snuck in the 12 night NZ which sails prior to take full advantage of the long and expensive flight.

[dogsdogs]

We just got off the same cruise on the Solstice (4/25/24) too.  We like sea days, so we didn't mind them, but something worth mentioning is that while the weather is great in Hawaii, it gets cold and windy on the way to Vancouver--so no pool days unless you are very lucky.  My husband went to a couple of the enrichment talks at 10:00 am on sea days and he liked them.  Our cruise was 11 nights, and as mentioned, with Honolulu, Hilo and Kona--all overnights. 

[C4HCG]

3 hours ago, Salf777 said:

Hi all

Have a 9 night Hawaii booked on the edge next year. There really is only 2 stops in Hawaii with an overnight and then 5 days at sea to Vancouver. Has anyone done this and their thoughts? We plan on arriving about 4 days early and having more time in Hawaii. While we 

Iike sea days 5 in a row may be a lot for us. 
On top of all this we are onboard now and really aren’t crazy about the direction X is taking. We were talking with staff the day the ship was in Coco Cay as we had no interest in getting off with another huge royal ship there and over 10,000 people. The staff says the management is determined to attract a younger crowd and make X more like royal that’s why they tried things like allowing vaping and all that. Their cruise l8ne they can do what they want I have the option to sail or not if I don’t like it. To each their own and that’s just not for us. 
Wondering what X will look like next year when we go next May. So asking those who have done it for some insight 

We’ve just done the same cruise on the Edge, 9 days ending last Saturday. I too wasn’t keen on the 5 sea days but they were fine, first 3 days the weather was nice enough and sunny so we could sit on the sun deck, last two cold but plenty of activities inside to fill the days with.

 

We didn’t see anything on the cruise that we would say was designed to attract younger crowds, plenty of older people and everyone we saw and spoke to seemed to be having a great time as we did, a brilliant cruise.

[hcat]

4 hours ago, 39august said:

We did a Hawaii 15 night round trip from San Diego years ago. Great itinerary. But even considering going 4 days early, I would not book this cruise. Two ports is not enough to take  that long flight over and 5 sea days back. I would fly to Hawaii for a land trip first. 

I agree.

We did the 15 day rt from San Pedro  yrs ago on Summit.. 5 days over..and 4 or 5 back..but we had several ports which we enjoyed.

 

There were many Hawaii oriented activities and lectures on board that kept us busy  .It was good for us as we flew west to Ca from NY 2 days pre cruise and gently crossed time zones on the cruise.

 

Only 2 ports would not be worth it! 

[twincheryl]

We are on Edge now in Alaska… the day before boarding we left Summit on a Pacific Coastal… a marked difference in the vibe between ships.  Edge seems very noisy with hard flooring in the main traffic areas and everyone is directed down the same, albeit wider, corridors to get from venue to venue or restaurant.

 

This is a nice comparison for us, with over 30 cruises, many on Celebrity, we are able to see the positives and negatives between M and E class back to back.  While we also enjoy S class, the new direction Celebrity is taking does not seem to be the path we’re on, unfortunately… we have preferred them to the others.  Lots of loud music that makes it hard to have conversation.

 

We have a HAL and a RC booked for next year before another Celebrity, so we’ll see how the whole new direction thing plays out.  Nice to have plenty of options out there!

[jwlane]

8 hours ago, Salf777 said:

Have a 9 night Hawaii booked

In reality, this is just the termination of the Transpacific repositioning for the Alaska summer season---not so much a "Hawaii" cruise.

[Winter2010]

We’ve just done the same cruise on the Edge, 10 nights ending on Saturday, May 11. There were 3-4 too many times of itinerary changes, even after boarding the ship (skipping the Napoli Coast because the previous sailing from Sydney to Honolulu got too close to the coast). So for 10 nights from May 1-11, 2024 we had 2 overnight stops in Hilo and Kona then 5 days at sea. It rained when we got to Hilo so a lot of people including us without a tour didn’t even get off the ship. Apparently it rains often in Hilo.

 

The weather turned windy and chilly shortly leaving Kona. The pool deck was emptied on the sea days as it was too windy (cold wind). The activity staff had lots of activities to keep people busy/entertain. The evening shows were excellent. We usually don’t care for the evening entertainment on Celebrity ships but we were blown away after seeing the show on the 3rd night and didn’t skip any shows after that. We ate in Blu at dinner and OceanView Cafe at lunch. The food was very very good. The relaxing seas days flew by. If you don’t mind the 2 stops or a bit rough water and sea days, then you will have a fabulous cruise like we did.

[kwokpot]

1 hour ago, jwlane said:

In reality, this is just the termination of the Transpacific repositioning for the Alaska summer season---not so much a "Hawaii" cruise.

Celebrity and Royal don't seem to be interested in doing a real Hawaii cruise. Besides NCL's dedicated ship, which is basically a floating and moving hotel, Carnival has the most sailings to Hawaii of the mainstream cruiselines. Their itineraries are all round trip LA, SF, or SEA and visit the four main islands;Oahu, Maui, Kauai, Big Island. We've done two Hawaii cruises with Carnival, one with Princess, and have had stops in a couple of Hawaiian islands on Royal and Celebrity as part of longer TPs.

Edited May 16 by kwokpot

[C4HCG]

3 hours ago, Winter2010 said:

We’ve just done the same cruise on the Edge, 10 nights ending on Saturday, May 11. There were 3-4 too many times of itinerary changes, even after boarding the ship (skipping the Napoli Coast because the previous sailing from Sydney to Honolulu got too close to the coast). So for 10 nights from May 1-11, 2024 we had 2 overnight stops in Hilo and Kona then 5 days at sea. It rained when we got to Hilo so a lot of people including us without a tour didn’t even get off the ship. Apparently it rains often in Hilo.

 

The weather turned windy and chilly shortly leaving Kona. The pool deck was emptied on the sea days as it was too windy (cold wind). The activity staff had lots of activities to keep people busy/entertain. The evening shows were excellent. We usually don’t care for the evening entertainment on Celebrity ships but we were blown away after seeing the show on the 3rd night and didn’t skip any shows after that. We ate in Blu at dinner and OceanView Cafe at lunch. The food was very very good. The relaxing seas days flew by. If you don’t mind the 2 stops or a bit rough water and sea days, then you will have a fabulous cruise like we did.

We were on this cruise too, hired a car in Hilo and had 2 brilliant days touring waterfalls, volcanic park, and generally enjoying the wonderful island. Loved it and it was warm rain!

[jwlane]

10 hours ago, kwokpot said:

 interested in doing a real Hawaii cruise. 

Mainly due to PVSA and flagging requirements.

[Mark_K]

With four days on land I wouldn’t worry too much about only two ports and not getting a real taste of Hawaii.

 

I would worry about the sea days if you really don’t like them. I would worry even more about a r/t cruise where you get 8 sea days.

 

 

Edited May 16 by Mark_K

[lovecruzin]

On 5/15/2024 at 5:00 PM, twincheryl said:

We are on Edge now in Alaska… the day before boarding we left Summit on a Pacific Coastal… a marked difference in the vibe between ships.  Edge seems very noisy with hard flooring in the main traffic areas and everyone is directed down the same, albeit wider, corridors to get from venue to venue or restaurant.

 

This is a nice comparison for us, with over 30 cruises, many on Celebrity, we are able to see the positives and negatives between M and E class back to back.  While we also enjoy S class, the new direction Celebrity is taking does not seem to be the path we’re on, unfortunately… we have preferred them to the others.  Lots of loud music that makes it hard to have conversation.

 

We have a HAL and a RC booked for next year before another Celebrity, so we’ll see how the whole new direction thing plays out.  Nice to have plenty of options out there!

We were also on Summit and now Edge. Quite a difference. Edge has a very shopping mall feel on deck 4 & 5. I attribute some of that to the cold days and everyone being indoors. Beautiful ship but some areas are louder and more crowded than I expected.