Hawaii dilemma

[Paulette3028]

If you are making a first time visit to Hawaii, do a land based trip. Plan on at least a couple of weeks to get a taste of the islands. We have made six land based trips there and stayed in Ohau, the Big Island, Maui, and Kauai. Maui is, by far, our favorite.

 

We are looking at the NCL cruise for 2016, coupled with a week before or after the cruise. It will be a combined 60th birthday / retirement celebration. The cruise will give us a little time to revisit some of the islands we may not include in our pre and post cruise stays.

 

It has always been a long trip for us, but now with our kids in the Bay Area, we can break it up before taking the flight to Hawaii. And after retirement, scheduling vacation time will not be an issue.

 

Not everyone has the luxury of being able to plan a 2-3 week land vacation to Hawaii and cruising may only give someone the ability to get a taste of Hawaii -- but for some, that is what it has to be.

[impatientlywaiting]

There are several Transpacific cruises that Royal does....they are long, I believe 16 days. That is what we will be considering in a few years, when we have the time (after retirement) to do a cruise of that length.

 

We are doing that in 2016!!! Vancouver, B.C. to Hawaii (10 nights); Hawaii to Sydney (17 nights). And, drum roll please, I just made a deal with hubby ... when he retires next summer, he's going to buy a new pro bicycle (he fancies himself a cyclist - :D) and I'm going to add a week in Tasmania once we reach Australia and then do Sydney to Perth (16 nights) and Perth to Sydney (17 nights)!!! These last 2 cruises would be the Circumnavigation of Australia with ports of call in Bali and New Zealand! All on Royal, of course! We did Sydney to Hawaii in 2009 and had so much fun and can't wait to head down under again!

[PuterMonkey]

If you are going with the purpose of seeing Hawaii, you should do a land vacation. It's much easier for Americans than most places that cruise ships sail. If you want to do a cruise with a little bit of Hawaii thrown in, by all meals do the NCLA cruise.

 

Hawaii is all about the Aloha spirit, the relaxed way of life etc. You won't get that on a cruise. There are so many things to do on Hawaii - I've spent several months and have only scratched the surface.

 

If you want to get the best of both worlds, you could do one of the one way cruises that go to or depart Honolulu and do a land vacation before or after your cruise. Radiance of the Seas does two cruises each year in transit between Vancouver and Sydney. Celebrity's Solstice does the same.

 

Went to Hawaii a few years back and I agree completely! If you've never been there, pick and island and stay for a week. There is so much to see and do that I honestly don't think a cruise will add to the experience...and I love cruising :cool:

 

We stayed in Honolulu where you can do all the traditional 'Hawaii experience' stuff, but Maui and Kauai are very popular as well.

[impatientlywaiting]

We've done the 14 and 15 day trips several times on different lines. The sea days at the beginning of the cruise are great, but the return trip seems endless and almost depressing. We have never done a one way trip but if we did, we would do the sea days at the beginning.

 

We just did a trans-Atlantic from Florida to northern Europe with 7 sea days at the beginning of the cruise. When we finally left the ship in Copenhagen, we were worn out and wished we'd had the sea days at the end of the cruise. It was non-stop ports almost every day.

[Paulette3028]

We just did a trans-Atlantic from Florida to northern Europe with 7 sea days at the beginning of the cruise. When we finally left the ship in Copenhagen, we were worn out and wished we'd had the sea days at the end of the cruise. It was non-stop ports almost every day.

 

We have the luxury of living in S. Florida, so our plan, when we can do a transatlantic cruise is to fly to the European port; spend a few days there pre-cruise, then cruise home, so that the sea days are at the end of the cruise. Then for us, we are home.

[griffy116]

We've done a land based trip to Hawaii and then a few years later, a cruise with RCCL. As a family of four, we would never have been able to afford to island hop on a land vacation. We spent a week on Oahu. With the cruise, we got to see each of the islands with two days for the Big Island and for Maui. Being able to see each of the islands was just the BEST! We were able to to to a Luau (Old Lahaina) in Maui and to go on a whale watch, plus be able to do the beach and see the island a bit. On the other islands we saw Volcano National Park. We didn't realize how amazing this island would be and had never thought of visiting it. It was great. We saw were Jurassic Park was filmed, saw gorgeous waterfalls and rain forests. In Oahu, we spent a few days at the beginning of the cruise, revisiting Pearl Harbor, Punch Bowl, Waikkii Beach and all the other spots on our lists. The five days at sea were the only bad thing about this trip. The further from Hawaii we got, the rougher the seas and the colder it got. By the time we got off in Ensenada, we were shivering in sweat shirt jackets we had been wearing every day. The immigration authorities were in full winter jackets (late April). The seas had been so rough that some outdoor areas were off limits (including the pool area) and the water was coming out of the indoor pool in WAVES). There were no outdoor activities due to the rough seas so it was sad when we found our two children in the card room for lack of anything to do. We were unable to enjoy the balcony at all. If I had to do it over again, I would plan to spend a few days in Oahu at the beginning of the cruise (cough...NCL) and then board the ship for a taste of the different islands. It's the best of both worlds.

[kstom1]

Ok experts here's my quandary,. I'm a loyal Royal and thinking of going to Hawaii. As most of you know NCL has a great cruise, all Hawaii and no Sea days. Royal has a cruise but involves 5 sea days. I'm thinking of doing a b2b on NCL due to the great ports. With a eleven hour flight as much as I love Sea days I think spending 5 days at sea instead of the islands can be counter productive. Any thoughts?

 

I've done the Hawaiian cruise with NCLA for the same reason. I am loyal to Royal also and our Hawaii cruise was the only other cruise we've taken that wasn't Royal. I have to say the Hawaii experience was nice, but I will never cruise NCL again. It just wasn't the same high level of service as Royal.

[Cruisin' Chick]

My first time in Hawaii was on one of those 3 islands in 9 days tours (my college roomie was separating from her hubby and asked if I wanted to buy his spot). Not inexpensive, but we were well taken care of.

 

Next time was for my honeymoon. Hubby had been there once before (maybe just O'ahu). We stayed in a ritzy resort on Kauai, rented a car and went all over the island in a few days. Flew back to Oahu and stayed a couple more days in Honolulu.

 

Ten years later, we did the LA to Hawaii RT on the Island Princess (which was on our dream list) along with our then-8-year-old. The highpoint undoubtedly for everyone was the sail by Kilauea at night as the lava was flowing into the ocean.

 

We enjoyed ourselves so much that we wanted to repeat this cruise, but unfortunately for a few years we had things happening that kept us from taking vacations, including my MIL's terminal diagnosis. Finally, my hubby said let's see if we can book the next holiday sailing (the only time we can go with a school-aged kid) and I was able to book it, the sailing date exactly five years after our last one. This cruise, even though 14 days instead of 15, was even more fun as Princess has really stepped up and developed a cultural program that has to be better than any other cruiseline. We didn't do any excursions as hubby wanted to just relax (no rental cars, no plans set in stone) as a very difficult five years for him.

 

Two years later, we were once again on the holiday Hawaiian cruise.

 

I could honestly say I was not bored at any time on those cruises. But then I have found that being at sea is very relaxing. Taking hula or lei making lessons or participating in killer trivia matches very fun. Hubby brought his guitar on all three of these cruises (since we're an hour away from the port of LA, not a problem) and found a place to relax with music. No flights to try to catch, no cleaning nor cooking, and during the holidays, we don't have to spend 30 minutes trying to find a parking space at the mall. To us, Hawaii is just the bonus.

 

If the goal is to spend a lot of time in the islands, we would go fly there (even though I hate flying) and stay in a hotel or two. I have no interest in flying there and staying on a ship just to get around, especially when it's a NCL one (sorry, but I've talked with close friends who have done this cruise and it doesn't seem all that special).