Yes, I have studied the globe and maps to look at all the places we are going but what helped me most was adding all of our ports to the clock on my phone and seeing that French Polynesia is only 6 hours difference (as you say, same as Hawaii) from east coast US. Pago Pago is only 7 hrs.... but once you cross the date line... my mind starts getting confused again. So Apia, Western Samoa is in the same time zone as Auckland but Suva, Fiji is another hour different...
We have 8 sea days to get back from Moorea to LA and only 3 time zones.
Wishing you safe travels and smooth seas... will wave as we pass each other!