Hawaii first time

[lovedeals]

My husband and I just got back from Alaska and are planning our first Hawaii vacation. Any one have opinions on the best time of year to go. Also the best cruise line for Hawaii. Thanks for any help.

[Rev. Joe]

If you would like half of your vacation time to be at sea, try Princess, RCCLs, Celebrity's, or HAL's, one way or round trip sailings from the Contenental U.S. If you want to spend the majority of your time in Hawaii, NCL is the way to go. There is a thread about the better cruise line in Hawaii a few threads down from yours. If I were you, I would spend a few days in Oahu, cruise the islands with NCL, and then spend one or two more days in Oahu. There are tons of ways to do it, it just depends on how much time you have to take off. For the best time to go, NCL sails round trip year round while the other lines mentioned above sail only in the fall and winter months. But the question for you is, do you want a taste of Hawaii or the whole thing?

[calgarygary]

Many cruiselines offer the same amount of time in Hawaii as NCL and provide a much higher level of service and/or quality. However, they are usually repositioning so you will have 5 sea days at either the beginning or ending of your cruise.

[flamomo]

The r/t sailing out of California are a very nice way to do it. You get about 4 1/2 sea days each way, going out and coming back, with 4-5 days in Hawaiian ports.

Yes, it's true you don't get an in-depth visit in Hawaii, but you do get to see enough of the ports to allow you to decide which one(s) you'd like to spend a longer vacation in.

The sea days are a wonderful way to get fully relaxed before getting to Hawaii, and fully rested before returning to the mainland.

[bronxite]

That's exactly what we did. We did Alaska in June 2006 and are booked for Hawaii in March 2010. POA seems to be the best they hit all the Hawaiian islands and return you back to the same port. That's what we plan on doing.

[whale-watcher]

Late December through March would be my choice, for whale watching.

 

Both RT west coast and NCL interisland cruises are good (but very different) options, IMHO. Depends what how you want to spend your vacation days...enjoying relaxing sea days on a ship (and all the great on board activities), or seeing as much of Hawaii as possible

 

We found the service on NCLA to be about on par with RCCL and not far behind princess. See other current thread for lots of good comments on RT from the west coast vs. NCL. Port times on NCL are longer, with two overnights, even than the repositioning options (which tend not to be in whale season, unfortunately).

[50thBdayCruise]

We did Pride of America in March and loved it, in spite of the fact that it rained all week. There were whales everywhere, which I thought was just incredible! I definitely recommend going during whale season.

[transam84]

Just keep in mind that Dec - March are winter and it does rain quite a bit. So, if the rain is going to spoil your vacation think twice. As others have mentioned on Norwegian sails from the islands all year round. The other sail from the mainland and it is usually fall and winter. In my opinion the best months would be May and June. We just came back and the weather was gorgeous. In 14 days there was sunshine every day, most were sunny all day, A few semi cloudy days, luckily when we were doing touring, and only 1 partial day where it actually rained.

[flashdog_1]

A neat aspect of sailing with NCL is that they have an overnight in both Maui and Kauai, giving you two days in port. This allows you time for a full 10 hour excursion during the day, and a Luau at night, or other activity PLUS another excursion the next day. Or it allows you to get up before daylight and take a sunrise excursion over the volcano which would be impossible on a ship that did not dock until 8 a.m. (plus, if you want to see Ohau, come at least a day early, or just book a late flight for disembarkation day and do the circle Oahu shore excursion). This constant excursion taking is not as relaxing as a cruise that has sea days. Totally different animal.

 

MY DD absolutely cannot get off two consecutive weeks from work, so NCl works fine for us.