Fly over or Cruise over?

Trying to decide whether to take one of the 15-17 day Cruises, from the west coast to Hawaii and back, or whether to Fly over to Hawaii and take the 7 day cruise around the islands. The funny thing is that the 7 day cruise is sometimes more expensive than the 15-17 day cruises. Very strange. Any suggestions? We're in our 70's and have been on only two cruises, Mediterranean and Canada. :)

We are aged 75 and 67 and decided to do a Princess 15 day Hawaii cruise in March 2018 out of Los Angeles. We have flown to Hawaii before for a week on Oahu and found the flights quite challenging. This time we will have lots of time to rest and enjoy the cruise before the land adventures on the islands. Then time to relax on the way home.

We will probably stay at the Doubletree in San Pedro for a night pre-cruise.

My personal preference would be to fly to Hawaii and then take a cruise. If you have not been to Hawaii before you would have about 7 days to enjoy a couple islands in addition to your cruise. All the islands are very different. You have done Mediterranean and Canada cruises which I assume were both port intensive. Between the west coast and Hawaii there are only sea days, so you need to enjoy sea days very much!!!! I am in my 60's and do not find the flights from LAX difficult. If you fly Hawaiian Airlines they even provide a meal in coach. Thoroughly enjoying the islands with additional time on land would be my suggestion, but I love the Hawaiian Islands and visit 1-2 times a year. It is surprising to me how expensive the cruises out of Honolulu are but they are a nice way to get a taste of each island. JMO, Cherie

We are aged 75 and 67 and decided to do a Princess 15 day Hawaii cruise in March 2018 out of Los Angeles. We have flown to Hawaii before for a week on Oahu and found the flights quite challenging. This time we will have lots of time to rest and enjoy the cruise before the land adventures on the islands. Then time to relax on the way home.

We will probably stay at the Doubletree in San Pedro for a night pre-cruise.

That's what I was thinking. Those are long flights especially from Orlando. Have you thought about going out of San Diego? Seems like that would be somewhat better than putting up with the crowded LA area and airport, unless of course you live in LA or nearby.

We thought about the 15 day cruise out of SF. But since we've never been to Hawaii (and may never have a chance to return) we wanted to stay in Hawaii for a few extra days either before or after the cruise which, wouldn't be possible if we took the cruise out of SF. So we're looking at the NCL Pride of America.

That's what I was thinking. Those are long flights especially from Orlando. Have you thought about going out of San Diego? Seems like that would be somewhat better than putting up with the crowded LA area and airport, unless of course you live in LA or nearby.

The subject of cruise vs fly comes up often here, and those threads should be easy to find. If you want to maximize your time in Hawaii, flying is the way to go, otherwise a huge chunk of your 15 days is spent at sea. If you have 15 days, why not do a 7 day cruise, in port every single day with two of those as overnights, and extend your stay by 8 days with a land vacation on any of the islands, either pre or post cruise, or both. Inter island flights are cheap and less than 1 hour flights.

I agree that the flights from the East coast, or even Chicago are not ideal. Many of them layover in California for a few hours as well. We avoid this by either flying into Pheonix or one of the California cities like LA, San Fran, San Diego for at least one night and then head out on a 5 hour flight to Hawaii the next morning. We have found that Hawaiian Airlines often has much cheaper flights out of Phoenix for some reason. We are in HNL by 11:00 am., usually 2 or 3 days precruise, and then stay on a few days after.

That's what I was thinking. Those are long flights especially from Orlando. Have you thought about going out of San Diego? Seems like that would be somewhat better than putting up with the crowded LA area and airport, unless of course you live in LA or nearby.

We live in southern New Mexico and fly out of El Paso. We can get a direct flight to LAX but not to San Diego or San Fransisco. I have flown through LAX several times and found it no more crowded than any of the other big hubs. There is a Super Shuttle from there to the San Pedro hotels.

We have always flown over and stayed. We like to choose 1 island and spend Ll the time there exploring and enjoying. However, we're going to take the 15 day cruise out of SF next year.

I think you might enjoy the 7 day island cruise and a 1 week land vacation best. You get both that way and since you've never been to Hawaii this gives you a chance to really enjoy it.

If you do that, I suggest staying on just one island for the land portion of your trip . That way you can take your time.

Chèers!

We have always flown over and stayed. We like to choose 1 island and spend Ll the time there exploring and enjoying. However, we're going to take the 15 day cruise out of SF next year.

 

Chèers!

We did this about 5 yrs ago and really enjoyed our week on Oahu. We stayed in a licensed B+B in Kailua and had a rental car. Part of the challenge we have with aging is the ability to haul luggage around and discomfort when driving in unfamiliar busy places. Cruising is allowing us to continue to explore the world.

We are flying to Honolulu in May and cruising back to Vancouver. It's a 10 cruise, but you only get 4 islands. We have been before. For you I wonder if it

would be best to do the 15 day Los Angeles and back, no flying. However if

you did do the 10, you could go early and spend some time there first and cruise back. There is also one that goes from Vancouver to Hawaii in Sept.

I have been on the Pride of Hawaii in 2008 and will be on the POA in December 2017. To me it breaks down to YOU and how much YOU enjoy or not enjoy sea days. I detest more than 2 sea days, so for me the decision is clear.

We've been to all the islands before and there are other places we'd like to cruise but we love sea days so we're doing the 15-day out of SFO primarily for the sea days with some island time as our bonus.

Call us odd but we'd seriously do a 7-day, 10-day, or longer CTN (cruise to nowhere) if they existed as to us the best part of cruising is ship time.

And yes, we do think a TA cruise is in our future...

We did Hawaiian cruises both ways. 7-day NCL, and 15-day r/t on Holland America. We enjoyed the 7-day NCL more. Our time was spent on visiting the islands rather than 5-days each way as sea days. Most of all, we have enjoyed land trips to Hawaii and have done that 12 times.

Alaskans, we have flown from ElPaso to San Diego on Southwest non-stop, so a San Diego departure is possible for you. Just checked and SWA is still doing that route.

Whatever anyone decides, Hawaii is wonderful.

 

Alaskans' date=' we have flown from ElPaso to San Diego on Southwest non-stop, so a San Diego departure is possible for you. Just checked and SWA is still doing that route.

 

Whatever anyone decides, Hawaii is wonderful.[/quote']

I'm not seeing non-stop flights on SouthWest from ELP to San Diego. Looks like Allegiant has a once per day flight.

Sorry, I thought I saw non-stop when I checked. Might have to play with days, or maybe I am just nuts!?!?!?!sorry

I'm not seeing non-stop flights on SouthWest from ELP to San Diego. Looks like Allegiant has a once per day flight.

Would you ever consider taking a train to the west coast? Amtrak's Sunset Limited can get you from El Paso to Los Angeles (and even on to San Diego) in a relaxed way.

I was kind of thinking finances. The R/T cruise from the west coast is actually less expensive than the 7 day cruise around the islands. Have no idea why that is. If you fly over, do the 7 day cruise, and stay over another week, we are talking double or maybe three times the cost of the R/T cruise from the west coast. Also, we enjoy a lot of time on the water. However, both ideas can be considered. I'm quite sure, whatever, we'll have a great time. :)

I was kind of thinking finances. The R/T cruise from the west coast is actually less expensive than the 7 day cruise around the islands. Have no idea why that is.

Because the Pride of America is the only cruising game in town if you don't want to spend days at sea coming here, going back - or both.

Also, POA doesn’t make any international ports so they can't skirt certain fees and it costs more. On the r/t from sf, they make a 4 hour stop in Ensenada to get around it.

By maritime law the RT cruises from the US are required to stop at what is termed a "near foreign port."

For RT cruises to HI Ensenada qualifies and thus the relatively brief stop there.

For RT cruuses to Alaska from Seattle (or SFO, etc.) Victoria qualifies and thus the relatively brief stop there.

Aha. So that's the reason the R/T is relatively less expensive. Also 17 days versus 7 days. The difference is huge. And, since the reason for going on a "cruise" is to cruise on the water, I think my preference would be the 17 days.

Would you ever consider taking a train to the west coast? Amtrak's Sunset Limited can get you from El Paso to Los Angeles (and even on to San Diego) in a relaxed way.

Thanks for the idea :) I'll check into it for 2018.

Aha. So that's the reason the R/T is relatively less expensive. Also 17 days versus 7 days. The difference is huge. And, since the reason for going on a "cruise" is to cruise on the water, I think my preference would be the 17 days.

The real reason the POA cruise costs more than a twice as long cruise from the West Coast is that the POA is US flag. Meeting the US labor, safety, and tax laws costs a lot of money. Also, even though the POA uses less than half as much fuel as the WC cruises, all of the fuel they use needs to be transported from the WC, so is more expensive. The same with food, and every other supply that the ship uses, it must be first shipped to Hawaii.

been to Hawaii five times now. first time was a guided tour with my former college roomie (she was separating from her husband so she invited me to buy his ticket). 3 islands in 9 days. Next time was my honeymoon. We went to Kauai for a few days and then Honolulu for a few days. Between those two trips we managed to see many sites.

Next three times, we did the RT from LA on Princess. we love sea days and we live about an hour's drive to San Pedro -- so two advantages there, especially as I hate to fly. Princess has many activities on the sea days, especially an excellent Hawaiian cultural program. never bored.

For my family this is the cruise to take. Otherwise, it would be to fly to Hawaii and stay in a nice hotel as a base of operations.

We were in the same position until I found the NCL Jewel repositioning cruise, leaving Vancouver, BC 10/3/17. Sea days are followed by stops in Hilo, Kona and Maui (overnight). Disembarkation is in Honolulu, allowing us to stay a few days to explore before flying home to Boston. The price was less than the 7 night POA cruise. NCL is offering $50 per person deposit (through the end of October) , so you may want to book it if the timing works for you.