Input regarding Hawaii Cruise Experience

[Sailfish]

We are thinking about going with NCL to Hawaii for our next group cruise in 2006. We have about 40 people - all good friends - who have cruised with Carnival and most recently, with Royal Caribbean aboard the Navigator in 2003.

 

I'd love to get your feed back concerning cruising instead of a land based resort. Did you enjoy island hopping? What kinds of shore excursions did you do? And could you enjoy the island if you didn't book a tour?

 

We cruise the Caribbean often and thought it would be fun to go somewhere different. I have not cruised with NCL since 2000 - loved the free style dining concept, but didn't care for the cruise. I've heard things are better now.

 

Thanks.

[sassycruiser]

We cruised on the Star to Hawaii in Feb 2004. We loved it. However, we called it our Taste of Hawaii vacation because we would have liked so much more time in Hawaii (about 6 months would do!). Seriously, I wouldn't go to Hawaii again without 10-14 days to spend there. We did enjoy the cruise and thought it was a great way to see a little of every island. When we priced a 7 day land trip (which was all the vacation time we had) it was much more expensive than the Star.

[gardencat]

I agree with sassycruiser that a cruise will give you a taste of a number of islands but not enough of anyone. If you do a land vacation you will see more of one or two islands but none of the others unless you have 3 or 4 weeks for vacation.

 

Island hoping by plane isn't that feasible for a short vacation either. When we were there in May we spent a few days on Oahu and about a week on the big island. Because of security at the airport and a delay on our interisland flight we wasted pretty much a whole day getting from Oahu to Hawaii.

The flight was less than an hour but getting to the airport,dropping off the rental car ,going through security, waiting for the delayed flight, getting our luggage, picking up the new rental car etc. used up most of one whole day.

 

I guess the best solution, in a perfect world, might be to cruise this year, decide what island you just have to do again and go back to that island for a week or so next year:D

 

On another note, where have you heard things have gotten better on NCL since 2000? As someone who has been following the NCL board pretty closely lately, I think you would find a lot of disagreement with that statement.

[orcatek]

We had a good time on the Star, but port times could have been longer.

 

Now the Pride of Aloha solves that, with plenty of time in ports. We are booked and it looks to be a great vacation.

 

The start-up problems don't worry me (lots of threads), as the Star had a real bad rep when it started, and by the time we were on it - it was awesome.

[Guest alexMD]

Pride of Aloha mimics the route I took on my first Hawaii cruise on SS Independence. With a faster ship, and no need to go to a distant port, you get to spend your sleeping hours traveling to a new island, and your daytime hours exploring it.

 

In addition, you would be hard pressed to find a hotel or resort in Hawaii that caters to your every need and whim as they do on a cruise ship for a comparable price. (Assuming, of course that Pride of Aloha's service is on par with other cruise experiences.)

[Sailfish]

On another note, where have you heard things have gotten better on NCL since 2000? As someone who has been following the NCL board pretty closely lately, I think you would find a lot of disagreement with that statement.

I never visit the NCL message boards (as I do not cruise with NCL anymore), however, several agents I have recently spoken to regarding NCL and our negative experiences in the past, have indicated the service and food quality have imporved. I for one am not a big fan of NCL, but as I am researching itineraries for a group cruise in 2006, I have begun to investigate our options - an NCL cruise around the Hawaiian Islands is one of them. I came to the NCL message board to get some input.

 

We cruised as a group aboard the Navigator last December and had a great time. Although I could keep going back to the Caribbean every year (and I do!), our group, that consists of volleyball players, like to plan vacations to different destinations every year. We alternate land based trips with cruises and we like to do something different every year. A cruise to Hawaii is something NONE of us have ever done, although most of us have been to some of the islands before. My concern is people will be compelled to book shore excursions to get the most out of our port visits, and that's something most of us are NOT interested in doing, as we will also have a volleyball tournament planned to coordinate with the cruise. Shore tours are fine, but when you want to include a few hours every day to volleyball, I'm not sure Hawaii is the place to do this.

 

Our other option is a Mexican Riviera cruise or one to Alaska. At the moment, a Mexican Riviera cruise has more to offer us, but Alaska comes in a close second (with lots of days at sea where people can play on the ship).

 

Suzi

[awatt]

Have sailed on both NCL(Dawn) and RCCL(multiple ships). We loved both and consider the overall experience comparable on both lines. Each has its plusses and minuses,but these were minor in our experience.

 

Our last NCL cruise was on the Dawn last summer. We were a group of 6,ages from 4 to 79,and each of us found the Dawn a truly wonderful ship,really a magical week. Lovedhe,service and kids club.

 

I've been following the POA threads and it seems the kinks are being worked out . This is similar to the launch of the Star several years ago. In short order,problems were fixed and then people were raving about it. I think teh POA itinerary can't be beat if you want to see the most of Hawaii on a cruise. I would continue to follow the threads here and see how it evolves.

 

Good luck with your planning.

[gardencat]

You obviously know your group better than I do. I don't know how many games you are hoping to fit in each day etc. but my gut feeling is that you might be better to combine the volleyball tournament with a cruise with at least a couple of sea days.

 

Any time you are in port and people are getting on and off the ship there is always the chance that late docking or tendering hold ups will throw the schedule into disarray.

As I found in Hawaii there is so much to see and do that the time in port already looks too short to me. Having to rush back to the ship to make a scheduled game would not be my idea of fun.

 

I think I would prefer to do the Hawaii cruise when I could concentrate solely on Hawaii. That's just my opinion of course.