I am fairly new to cruising and would like a consensus on which cruiseline would be preferred on a 2 week Hawaii cruise? Basically all of the itineraries are the same or very similar.
I voted for Celebrity since I have cruised to Hawaii on the Summit and the Infinity.
Just a month ago I returned from another Hawaii cruise on Royal Caribbean (the Radiance of the Seas).
We enjoyed both of them equally well and would recommend either cruise line...although you didn't have Royal Caribbean in the poll I mentioned it so that perhaps you can look at their Hawaii itineraries, too.
A good Hawaii itinerary will include late night departures or overnighting at some of the ports. There is just so much to see and do that leaving at 5PM makes for a short day.
Ask any questions and we will be happy to give you our experiences.
I voted for HAL as we cruised to Hawaii on the Amsterdam.
To be truthfull, we spent 5 days going over to Hawaii and 5 days back. So on a 15 day cruises that left us only 5 days for the islands. That is not very much time to see the islands. JMO
Thankfully we have been to Hawaii several times on our own and really got to appreciate the islands.
Should you choose a cruise, once you have seen some of the sights, I am certain that you will want to go back there on your own and see all the sights that a cruise just can't provide.
Okay I voted for Princess because I sailed on the Island Princess RT to Hawaii. And have never been on HAL or Celebrity.
The negative for going on Princess after this year is that they are dropping Kona from the itinerary.
The positives for Princess is that their ships have self-service laundries (very important for a two-week cruise at least for us as we try to keep down our luggage, we don't like paying a lot of money such as a dollar to wash a pair of panties, and we need to use allergen-free detergent for my daughter's clothes). Many Holland ships also have self-service laundries, but Celebrity doesn't.
Also, Princess has many fun activites for sea days. On our cruise, for example, my girl and hubby both took ukelele lessons. And if you have kids and are going when there's plenty of kids, there's special Hawaiian-oriented science activities, designed by the California Science Center.
We haven't gone yet,but have chosen Carnival for a 12 day from Hawaii to Vancouver in April '09. Overnight on Oahu, 2 Maui ports,2 Big Island ports,+ Kauai.Then 5 wonderful days at sea to recover ! Celebrity offers the same itenerary 2 days later ,but we chose Carnival to save $3,000.00 difference. We can use that to go to Alaska !
The Customs and Border Protection's decision on any changes to the Passenger Vessel Services Act is still pending. Hopefully, they will decide not to enact the revisions asked for by Senator Inouye (and NCLA) as these will adversely affect RTs to Hawaii from the west coast, as well as negatively affect US port cities.
We actually are looking at RCCL for Hawaii for fall 2009 and possibly Princess. We want a cruise that goes roundtrip from the west coast and want a larger ship. Holland America and Celebrity go out of San Diego but the ships are smaller. Both RCCL and Princess go out of either San Diego or Los Angeles.
Many of the cruise lines leave from Vancouver, Honolulu, or Ensenada ... we don't want the cost of airfare to or from Vancouver or Honolulu or both (depending on the itinerary).
RCCL is suppose to release their Hawaii itineraries May 20, so we are taking the wait and see attitude till then. Pricing will impact our decision too.
Carnival Spirit is a great ship ... we often travel with my sister, BIL, and nephew. Now that my BIL is disabled for them to travel on the Spirit with a handicap accessible cabin, they have to rent 2 cabins. So not cost effective at all. Also easier for them to have shorter airplane rides into SD and LAX. On Radiance class ships (RCCL) and on Princess they can get 1 handicap accessible cabin that will hold 3 people.
We sailed the Radiance OTS 15 day R/T Hawaii itinerary last September. We sailed out of San Pedro (LAX). Had a marvelous time and would do it again. This was our 3rd Hawaii cruise.
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