Hilo cancelled on February Hawaii cruise

[Cruise Junky]

Maybe when you have more vacation time, hell could freeze over & you might be able to enjoy a Hawaiian cruise like us. :p

 

Never say never ;) we just love Hawaii so much that the more time the better spent there. We got married there too so it will always have a special place with us.

[bdjam]

I think the Hawaii cruises from the West Coast are really cruiser's cruises - for people who love to be at sea...the majority of the trip is at sea, with Hawaii as the icing on the cake. If you do the cruises enough, you can see a lot of Hawaii. But if you're more into ports than you are into sailing, then this is not the itinerary for you and you should choose something else. The rest of us will enjoy our days at sea. Personally, two weeks at sea on a fabulous ship would be sublime.

Granted no cruise will give you an indepth experience...BUT with limited vacation time taking two weeks off work for 4 days in Hawaii isn't for us. I can cruise the Med for 12 days and get 9 or 10 ports so the ratio is just way off on a Hawaiian cruise. I like sea days and would consider a one way to Hawaii so I can get off and spend another week in the islands. I just can't imagine sailing 5 days there and 5 days back when I can be there in 5 hours.

[donscomp]

I disagree.

 

My wife and I went to Hawaii an the Sapphire in March (click for my review) and it was an incredible experience. Loved the ship. Loved the sea days. Loved not having to think too much. Enjoyed our port days and felt we got a good sense of the Islands should we decide to go back for a land based vacation. I would do it again in a heartbeat. Glad that it appears they are still stopping in Hilo.

 

 

Agree with you as well. LOVE the sea days and Hawaii is a bonus. Sure you can spend more time on the islands flying over. We rent a house when we go. To us? That works. To find the old hawaii if we want. Instead of hotels.

As far as this cruise? We have taken it 2 times and we will again (we hope) in 2012. Hilo was shortened an hour by getting in at 9am instead of 8am. Then later in Mexico. Only 4 hours there. No biggy there.

Love this cruise.

[Cash123]

Ditto. Loved that cruise so much, we are going back in November. The itinerary seems to have a very small change, i.e., getting into Hilo at 9:00 a.m. instead of 8:00 a.m., and arriving in Ensenada at 4:00 p.m. instead of 2:00 p.m. Now, I really don't understand some of those posters... The OP asked a question, it was answered, but they absolutely had to give their two cents about not cruising to Hawaii... Was that really necessary?

 

Maybe they thought that as this was a forum where people discuss topics they would post their comments which who knows maybe would give the OP some food for thought.

 

For my pennies worth we did the POA cruise last year and thought it was fantastic to see so much of the Islands in a relativly short time especially as flying from the UK is a bit of a trek. Would admit that the POA doesnt come anywhere near the class of a Princess ship

[Cruise Junky]

I think the Hawaii cruises from the West Coast are really cruiser's cruises - for people who love to be at sea...the majority of the trip is at sea, with Hawaii as the icing on the cake. But if you're more into ports than you are into sailing, then this is not the itinerary for you and you should choose something else.

 

I think you nailed it with that. We cruise for the ports which is why we have such strong opinions on this cruise.

[Cruise Junky]

Maybe they thought that as this was a forum where people discuss topics they would post their comments which who knows maybe would give the OP some food for thought.

 

 

Shocking as it is, I read a review about a month ago of someone on a Hawaiian cruise and they were utterly shocked about how little time they spent in Hawaii. We avid cruisers of course would think how did you miss that little detail? but you never know! and I agree, both sides should be talked about. Especially since this thread started as a posting that 1 of the 4 ports were being dropped.

[west coast cruiser]

We have our 4th R.T. L.A. to Hawaii trip booked. We love the sea days and that is why we do it. I agree,to get the real Hawaii flavor you need to spend a few days there. I have done that and right now am enjoying the ship.

WCC

[Toddy709]

We did the round-trip cruise when it was still a 15 day cruise with five stops in the Islands. I absolutely LOVE sea days, but when they cut out Kona it really dampened my desire to do that cruise again. If I knew it was only going to be three stops, there is no way I'd do it -- and, like I said, I love sea days, but there needs to be balance, too. JMHO!

[Hornet]

We've done both a land trip and the 15 day cruise and loved them both. I do wish they'd go back to five port stops though. We love sea days and did all the must do things that take more time on the land trip. What we didn't like about the land trip was packing/unpacking several times and taking additional flights to the next island - lots of time spent doing that too. Also, it is a long flight from Chicago to Hawaii and sailing on a ship is much more fun. We plan to do the cruise again.

 

We cruise with the understanding that our visits to the ports will be short.

[wilfros]

Thanks for the post. We also received a notification of Itinerary change for our Golden Princess Cruise to Hawaii in Feb 2012.

 

The change was a change to arrival and departure change. Everything shifted buy one hour.

 

I questioned the logic behind such a decission on an earlier post and got some interesting responses. When I read your title I thought there may have been further changes.

 

We are really looking forward to our stop in Hilo and would hate to see it eliminated.

 

Having never been to Hawaii before we love the ports we are visiting and are doing our research now as we anxiously await departure date.

 

I have even gone and bought new camera equipment, including a new lens for 3D photos just for this trip. Can you tell I am excited already. It's going to be a long time till Feb.

[PescadoAmarillo]

If I knew it was only going to be three stops, there is no way I'd do it -- and, like I said, I love sea days, but there needs to be balance, too. JMHO!

I completely agree, and I love sea days too. For me, Hilo is the exciting side of the Big Island, and if that was missed, I would be totally uninterested in the cruise. When you consider that Kauai is occasionally missed due to winds, and Maui is a tender port with all the possible issues that brings, there are just too many opportunities for disappointment. Plus, and this is a big one for me, of those 4 days at sea each direction, it's possible that 3 of them will not be conducive to enjoying the open decks and balconies due to cold temps and wind (not to mention heavy seas). That many people cooped up in a ship for that long brings back too many memories of rainy weekends stuck in the house with my brothers. There's no way I'd call that a vacation!

[whale-watcher]

It sounds like they may be delaying arrivals in certain ports to allow for the ship to sail slower and thereby save a bit of fuel. I guess that I'd rather have some possibly shorter port stays than a reinstatement of the fuel supplement. ;)

 

Not me...I would rather pay the fuel supplement than have reduced time in port.

 

Although the RT Hawaii itinerary is not one I would choose (we opted to go on the POA even though princess is generally our preferred cruiseline), I totally understand why someone would opt to take this cruise. When I select a vacation, I choose whatever will make me (and more importantly, DW) happy. I doesn't matter to me if we fully "experience" a destination...even two weeks is not enough for this...it only matters that we have fun and enjoy ourselves. That's why there are so many options available in the first place :)

[triple7tahoe]

On our Hawaii cruise this past January, the ship missed Maui and Kauai due to weather and related issues. Some folks were greatly disappointed (imagine flying from the UK for this cruise and missing two of four Hawaii stops) while others were happy for the extra sea days. To each his own.

Princess was nice enough to give each passenger $250 toward the cost of a future cruise. We have already used our $500:)

Way back (and I am talking about 50+ yrs) my family was able to take a ship one way from SF (Lurline); spend 6 weeks in Hawaii and then take a ship back. A few years later we took the Lurline to Hawaii and then flew to the Orient. We came home from Hong Kong on another ship. Ships were a major form of transportation with some families using them to travel to new homes. We now cruise for the fun of cruising-Quite a difference

[shepp]

Although I have been to hawaii only once, I really have no interest in doing a land vacation there -- too many people, too much stress too much go, go, go.

 

But that's precisely the reason to plan a land-based vacation instead of dealing with the pressures and hassles of squeezing sightseeing into a too-short port day. I have fond memories of staying off the beaten path on Kauai in a place with perhaps two dozen other people, wandering around the quiet and near-deserted grounds at sunset. Even if you're staying in Honolulu, you can take a public bus and soon be all by yourself, hiking up in the hills. Not everywhere in the Islands is Waikiki, just as in San Francisco, not everything is the Fisherman's Wharf/Pier39 area that too many cruisers confuse with the actual city.

 

My stays in Hawaii have been some of the most relaxed vacations I've ever taken. Though I'm a fan of sea days, I too have no great desire to do a Hawaii cruise unless it were dirt cheap.

[west coast cruiser]

Am I the only one who misses Kona? I love that part of the Island and have been very disappointed since they dropped it.

WCC

[Nancyquilts]

[quote name='west coast cruiser']Am I the only one who misses Kona? I love that part of the Island and have been very disappointed since they dropped it.
WCC[/quote]
We miss Kona. For a while we stopped taking cruises to Hawaii because we like the port so much. I'd rather they skipped something else (actually, anything else.):D