Why no Hawaii ships in the summer?

[MSBerliner]

We would be very interested in seeing if a LA - Hawaii - Alaska - LA cruise could be offered. I believe the Princess demographic could support such a route.

[paul929207]

I would love something like that.

 

We were on the Grand around South America earlier this year and asked if Princess would consider more trips that started and ended on mainland US. Princess is offering a 75 day around the Pacific round trip Sydney and a 90 day Med cruise also from Sydney. The Future Cruise Rep did not think so.

[runnerodb83]

Anyone know how to contact the corporate office, possible email?

 

Perhaps they could be contacted and their reply posted on CC.

 

Tom:)

 

They respond on twitter also, but its very much a "canned" response. I asked about 9/10 day RT Seattle Alaska cruises and they basically said "oh we offer 7 days RT from Seattle, but we'll forward the request along."

 

It is very much amount the money as many have said. The NY to carribean route does well because East coast passengers typically spend more than west coast passengers. In fact, west coast passengers, are some of the stingiest when it comes to cruising. Combined with limited itinerary options and the PVSA which further limits those itineraries, and environmental regulations its hard for Pacific Coast itineraries to do well. Perhaps 1 way hawaii cruises would do well from vancouver, but in the winter months the northern pacific is pretty rough.

[caribill]

We would be very interested in seeing if a LA - Hawaii - Alaska - LA cruise could be offered. I believe the Princess demographic could support such a route.

 

I would love something like that.

 

 

Being at least a 25 day cruise, I doubt there would be much demand for this on a regular basis.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Keep in mind that a trip to Hawaii is 14-15 day. A lot of summer cruise traffic is families with children, when they are out of school. The numbers drop off rather quickly when it comes to families doing 14 day vs 7 trips during the summer. A lot of the retired crowd does not cruise during the summer when children are out of school. Also would families be interested in a cruise that is mostly at sea days, with only 4-5 days actually on the Islands.

 

Bottom line is that summer time trips would probably be harder to fill that the current schedule. Even the current ones are pretty heavily discounted. While the 7 day Alaska trips are also heavily discounted they do sail pretty full, are pretty port intensive with some fairly pricey excursions. Since there are a lot of families on the 7 day Alaska cruises you have a lot of cabins with 3-4 people in them, making up for the discounts.

 

We've done the two-week Hawaiian cruises three times, all during the holiday time. Plenty of families like this particular cruise as it covers two major holidays (our reason) and it's completely within the winter break window. So don't count out families going on longer cruises. It's often that desirable cruises are often when we can't take the kids out of school.

 

And many here are skipping over what I said in my first post on this thread: Princess has done the summer Hawaiian cruise (from my googling, it seems to be in 2007). My question was how did do cruises do? There seemed to be a lot of buzz back then.

[Vexorg]

Actually, a 7-day Alaska cruise out of Vancouver added to a 10-day Hawaii cruise would be a PVSA violation unless it was a roundtrip back to Vancouver. And none of the Vancouver-based Alaska sailings are roundtrip at this point, only the Seattle ones.

[paul929207]

Being at least a 25 day cruise, I doubt there would be much demand for this on a regular basis.

Probably not, but they could offer it once each spring and fall, like they do with the LA r/t to Hawaii, Tahiti and Samoa (I think that is where it goes now)

[MSBerliner]

Ensenada, Mexico satisfies the Hawaii round-trip, could do the same for the Hawaii - Ak route.

[paul929207]

Ensenada, Mexico satisfies the Hawaii round-trip, could do the same for the Hawaii - Ak route.

Ensenada, Victoria and Vancouver satisfy the PVSA requirements for a closed circuit cruise.

 

Not sure what you mean by Hawaii - AK route. If you mean a one way cruise starting in one US port and ending in a different one, Ensenada, Victoria and Vancouver would NOT satisfy the PVSA requirements. For a cruise like that the ship must call on a distant foreign port. The closest would be Colombia

[runnerodb83]

Actually, a 7-day Alaska cruise out of Vancouver added to a 10-day Hawaii cruise would be a PVSA violation unless it was a roundtrip back to Vancouver. And none of the Vancouver-based Alaska sailings are roundtrip at this point, only the Seattle ones.

 

Next summer there will be RT vancouver sailings on the Pacific Princess.

 

The 2007 summer sailings must not have done very well, since they haven't done them since. Just because a ship sells out doesnt mean that a cruise is financially viable; on-board spending is key. Even if the ships are doing well there may be other itineraries where the ships will do even better.

 

Princess has its lowest partime/full time North American fleet count in years starting this fall. With the Sea, Sun, and Dawn permanently in asia/austrailia and the sapphire and diamond joining them, the "milk run" fleet is down to 10 including the royal. In 2010 the fleet was at an all time high with 13 ships running repetitive "milk run" itineraries. This is the most evident indication that the cruising markets are shifting to other locales.

 

Cruise lines have been trying to do more "homeport", US based cruising for a few years, but i dont think they are getting the on board revenue to make it profitable. Foreign part departures typically attract more nationalities they typically spend more on board than the average US passenger which helps "subsidize" the cruise for the US passengers and makes it more profitable.

[RDC1]

But I said one way Hawaii, making it a 10 day cruise. Families could opt for more time in Hawaii or add 7 days for Alaska.

 

If the family was willing to spend atleast 5 hours on a plane one way (along with the cost) they are probably willing to fly both ways and spend all of their time in Hawaii.

 

Still more cost effective to do port intensive Alaska.

[RDC1]

We've done the two-week Hawaiian cruises three times' date=' all during the holiday time. Plenty of families like this particular cruise as it covers two major holidays (our reason) and it's completely within the winter break window. So don't count out families going on longer cruises. It's often that desirable cruises are often when we can't take the kids out of school.

 

And many here are skipping over what I said in my first post on this thread: Princess has done the summer Hawaiian cruise (from my googling, it seems to be in 2007). My question was how did do cruises do? There seemed to be a lot of buzz back then.[/quote']

 

Apparently it did not do well enough for them to continue it.

[paul929207]

Actually, a 7-day Alaska cruise out of Vancouver added to a 10-day Hawaii cruise would be a PVSA violation unless it was a roundtrip back to Vancouver. And none of the Vancouver-based Alaska sailings are roundtrip at this point, only the Seattle ones.

PVSA only applies to cruises that start AND end in the US. So any cruise starting in Vancouver would not violate the PVSA.

[Cruise Junky]

Ensenada, Mexico satisfies the Hawaii round-trip, could do the same for the Hawaii - Ak route.

 

This is my fantasy itinerary, there shall be no Ensenada ;) That's why it must start or end in Vancouver so the PVSA isn't involved.

[MSBerliner]

Hello Paul,

 

Think of it. Board in LA. Sail North to Alaska. One day between whichever ports are chosen. Perhaps four days in all. Then South to Hawaii, several sea days (probably about 4). One day between whichever ports are chosen. Perhaps as many as four days in all. Then East to Los Angeles, with a service stop in Ensenada, Mexico. Another five days. Total cruise time perhaps 17 days. Could be cut to 15 if only three ports visited in Alaska and three in Hawaii.

 

The current Hawaiian cruise is 15 days!

 

Think about it.

[paul929207]

Works for me. I would prefer for it to be more relaxed. Say 4 days to Alaska. 4 or 5 ports there. 6 or 7 days to Hawaii. 4 or 5 port their and then 4 days back to LA. I think that is 22 or 23 days. Probably not something done many times each season, but I would be on it and I live on the east coast.

[OceanPrince]

Hello Paul,

 

Think of it. Board in LA. Sail North to Alaska. One day between whichever ports are chosen. Perhaps four days in all. Then South to Hawaii, several sea days (probably about 4). One day between whichever ports are chosen. Perhaps as many as four days in all. Then East to Los Angeles, with a service stop in Ensenada, Mexico. Another five days. Total cruise time perhaps 17 days. Could be cut to 15 if only three ports visited in Alaska and three in Hawaii.

 

The current Hawaiian cruise is 15 days!

 

Think about it.

 

As good as that seems, I dont think that's possible... i'm making extremely agreessive assumption that Alaska to Hawaii can be done is 5 days which I highly doubt.

 

1. LAX

2. Sea

3. Sea

4. Victoria, to satisfy jones act

5. Sea

6. Ketchikan

7. Sea

8. Juneau

9. Tracy Arms/Glacier bay

10. sea

11. sea

12. sea

13. sea

14. sea

15. Kuaui

16. Oahu

17. Maui

18. Sea

19. Sea

20. Sea

21. Sea

 

 

even if we cut out Skagway and Hilo.. it's 22 days minimum.

[Loonbeam]

Doing a little back of the napkin math, it came up to 21 days for me, but with more sea days than a TA.

 

More importantly, the currents on the AK to HI leg look like they could be a fuel hog depending on the route.

 

That said, once the royal and the regal are fully on line and the larger canal opened, this could be a cool 1 per year itinerary for something like the Coral

[sjbj]

The 2007 summer sailings must not have done very well, since they haven't done them since.

 

Wow, how quickly we forget. 2007 was the height of the recession. Nothing did well.

[sonnenschein]

Ensenada, Mexico satisfies the Hawaii round-trip, could do the same for the Hawaii - Ak route.

Hello MS Berliner, sorry for hijacking this thread but I am curious about your Berliner sign-in. I am actually from Berlin,came to the U.S. in 1961 and live in California.I still have family in Berlin but have not been back there since 1990 when my dad passed. Been to busy spending my money cruising, in November we are doing the San Francisco to Hawaii roundtrip for the 6th time, just love this cruise and the many sea days.Would like to hear from you and find out if you are a real" Berliner Pflanze" like me. Gloria:)

[Cruise Junky]

Wow, how quickly we forget. 2007 was the height of the recession. Nothing did well.

 

Wasn't the Alaska Tax put in place around 2006 too, no wonder it had an effect on 2007 cruises.

[runnerodb83]

Wow, how quickly we forget. 2007 was the height of the recession. Nothing did well.

 

Most of the economy didnt feel it till 2008, most people would have booked those summer 2007 cruises to hawaii in 2006 or early 2007. The cruising business was still doing well at that time

 

I've heard that the 2007 summer hawaii itinerary didn't sell very well. Being that it was the Regal's last year with the mainline fleet there's no point in sending her through the canal in the summer to the carribean where she couldn't compete with the larger/more luxurious ships, and alaska was probably full. Hawaii is really the only place they could send her. It didn't sell well.

[MSBerliner]

Hello sonnenschein,

 

My wife and I met on the MS Berlin in September 1955 during hurricane Ione while sailing from Bremerhaven to New York. We were Fulbright students.

 

My wife is from Berlin, I am from Iowa.

 

We're sailing from LA to Hawaii over Thanksgiving this year, doing it for the second time. Last time it was on the Golden in 2009.

 

I'm not a navigator or travel agent, so I only know that a summer LA - AK (our son lives in Anchorage) - Hawaii - return to LA would for us be a real interesting itinerary.

 

Have a super trip from San Francisco.

[Ronnieslady]

Hello Paul,

 

Think of it. Board in LA. Sail North to Alaska. One day between whichever ports are chosen. Perhaps four days in all. Then South to Hawaii, several sea days (probably about 4). One day between whichever ports are chosen. Perhaps as many as four days in all. Then East to Los Angeles, with a service stop in Ensenada, Mexico. Another five days. Total cruise time perhaps 17 days. Could be cut to 15 if only three ports visited in Alaska and three in Hawaii.

 

The current Hawaiian cruise is 15 days!

 

Think about it.

Sounds perfect:D

[Cruisin' Chick]

Apparently it did not do well enough for them to continue it.

 

Wow, how quickly we forget. 2007 was the height of the recession. Nothing did well.

 

If these sailings didn't do well, was it because not too many people wanted to sail to Hawaii at that time, or was it that in general travel was down because of the recession? Or was it that many wanted to go, but other factors such as high fuel costs and/or the elderly status of the Regal were in play?

 

At that time, I wasn't really paying attention due to some family situations, and the only travel we did for a few years was a two-day trip up the coast, about an hour's drive. I just remember feeling jealous that there were summer cruises going to Hawaii.