Thread: best hawaiin cruises

We are intent on doing the Hawaiin Islands on our next cruise. What is the best cruise to do the Islands. would really like some advice Have heard good and bad about the Pride ships!!

Originally Posted by parrothead

We are intent on doing the Hawaiin Islands on our next cruise. What is the best cruise to do the Islands. would really like some advice Have heard good and bad about the Pride ships!!

From what I've read it depends on whether you do the inter-island thing or sail return out of L.A. I noticed recently that Princess is offering a 15 day L.A. return. Lots of sea days, and a stop in Ensenada.

NCL, goes Hon to Hon...but there have been mixed reviews for the NCL ships in Hawaii.

Princess offers a great itinerary, just has quite a few Sea days, as it is out of Los Angeles.

Carnival is out of Ensenada...

Personally, if you don't mind sea days...I would go with Princess...as a first choice, and Carnival as a second.

We were on the Island Princess last December on the RT out of LA. For us, the positives were the many sea days (we love them), the Islands, the atmosphere (we got to see what a holiday cruise was all about).

The negatives are the rough seas out of San Pedro (there's a current that causes this...many ships encounter rough seas leaving LA or coming back. We didn't have rough seas returning, though and my hubby and daughter aren't bother at all), the possibility of missing a port (high waves caused us to miss Kona; the last cruise missed Maui; and some cruises the last year missed Kauai), any problematic cruisers you're stuck with for the whole cruise (there was a misbehaving extended family on our cruise who had also caused major problems on the exact same cruise the year before).

I wouldn't recommend this cruise for a first timer. There was a British couple on our roll call who were on their first cruise and the man didn't leave his cabin for the first few days as he got bad seasickness. But if you enjoy lots of sea days and seeing beautiful scenery, this may be a great cruise for you.

Originally Posted by djgifford

NCL, goes Hon to Hon...but there have been mixed reviews for the NCL ships in Hawaii.

Princess offers a great itinerary, just has quite a few Sea days, as it is out of Los Angeles.

Carnival is out of Ensenada...

Personally, if you don't mind sea days...I would go with Princess...as a first choice, and Carnival as a second.

Carnival also sails from Honolulu to Vancouver two times a year...the spring repositioning cruises before they do the Alaska run. We are doing Carnival this April from Honolulu. We have the 7 days on the islands and then 5 sea days to Canada.

We choose the Carnival cruise based on dates, itinerary and the fact that we received a fabulous military discount from Carnival that no other line can come close to. We are sailing in their Penthouse suite for less than a balcony on any other line.

Base your decision on what means the most to you......not all ports are a guarantee as someone else here has already mentioned. Mother Nature can have something to say about where you can make port. Look at the Hawaii cruises this year...who would have thought an earthquake would hit Hawaii!

I have been on Princess, RCCL, HAL and Carnival and it doesn't matter to me what ship line I am on as long as I am at sea!!!

I would love to see some more input on this.

I really only want to cruise the islands for a week. The extra sea days would be great, but it eats up too much of my precious time off from work.

Help here please.

Hanna, your only choice would be an NCL cruise, or a one-way cruise, those are usually 10-11 days. There are limited cruises that are one-way and only twice per year, typically April or May, then September or October.

Personally, I think a one-way sounds awesome, I love sea days, but after the trip over there, I may go stir crazy on the way home. Plus, a one way allows you to tack on some extra Hawaii days.

I've cruised NCL before and thought it was great, but it was not NCL America. The one thing that NCL has over any other line is the fact that they can cruise a 7 day round trip.

I didn't want to hear that. Darn.

We are doing Hawaii on Celebrity (Mercury) on March 16, 2008. It only has this one sailing. We are flying out of Phila (layover in Phoenix, then on to Honolulu). It's a 12 day cruise-7 days on the islands then 5 sea days to Ensenada, Mexico. Then we fly home from San Diego. We heard such mixed reviews with Norwegian and we didn't want to fly Honolulu round trip. We love Celebrity, so this is what we decided. Hope it helps!

A friend is about to go on the Pride of Hawaii with her two kids. So I'll have to see what she has to say about NCL America. As I stated above, the RT to Hawaii was better for us because we could leave from our home port of San Pedro and return there. No flight or hotel room necessary.