When's better time for Hawaii Cruises?

[Paulinda]

We are thinking about doing a cruise to Hawaii and just wondering if the seas are calmer at any certain time of the year versus others. I wouldn't want to cruise to the Bahamas or Caribbean in October because of hurricane season. I have no idea about storm seasons in the Pacific. Is later in the year a better time than early spring or is spring time better?

 

We recently did a Caribbean cruise and it blew my mind when my wife asked me if we could do one to Hawaii so I guess I need to start planning before she changes her mind. And, yes we realize no one can predict but there must be a general pattern even in today's crazy weather patterns.

[Skipper's Mom]

We did our first HAL cruise to Hawaii on the Zaandam in late October.

Chilly first couple of days.

 

 

 

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[Dancing Shoes]

If you want to go on a whale watch trip I suggest end of February. We are also not in hurricane season, which is June through November. I have not sailed to Hawaii or around the islands.

[Sue from Canada]

We are thinking about doing a cruise to Hawaii and just wondering if the seas are calmer at any certain time of the year versus others. I wouldn't want to cruise to the Bahamas or Caribbean in October because of hurricane season. I have no idea about storm seasons in the Pacific. Is later in the year a better time than early spring or is spring time better?

 

We recently did a Caribbean cruise and it blew my mind when my wife asked me if we could do one to Hawaii so I guess I need to start planning before she changes her mind. And, yes we realize no one can predict but there must be a general pattern even in today's crazy weather patterns.

 

I did two cruises to Hawaii from Vancouver. One was in April and the other in October. I would never do it in April again - I could have used my ski jacket and gloves for the first 3.5 days (it took 5.5 days to get to Honolulu). October was lovely and we had the calmest seas.

[Keith1010]

My experience is that you never know what the sea will be like so I would find a date that works best for your schedule.

 

Keith

[Krazy Kruizers]

We did a Hawaiian cruise the end of March/first part of April.

We had tons of rain and many excursions were cancelled.

[kazu]

We went in the spring - April, I believe. And the seas were very good. Calmer than I have heard from San Diego for some time. A bit of motion to the ocean on the way back, but nothing serious.

 

But our weather was horrendous. And I am not a complainer. I think we missed three ports and it teemed too many days. We were told it was the worst spring in 50 years.

 

I had followed reports of other years for this cruise and they were good. timing seemed to be good - but that wasn't the case. But, in all fairness, HAL was fair to us in view of the weather and missed ports (which is not their fault).

 

Bottom line? No amount of research or replies will help as the weather is ever changing as is King Neptune. Sadly, it's reported that climate change is affecting a lot of weather and I fear it will affect it more and more as time goes on.

 

Choose your time - choose your cruise and enjoy. Weather can't be counted on and if it is bad - just try to make the best of it.

[JeanieCM]

We cruised to Hawaii in late February last year. We had pretty rocky seas and the weather was quite chilly out on the water. But I still was able to bundle up in a hoodie for a brisk walk on the promenade deck...and the Hawaiian islands themselves had beautiful weather--shorts or capris & sleeveless shirts. Oh, and we saw lots of whales--just as many swimming near the ship as on our whale watch later that day! It was thrilling!

[Wishing on a star]

I am not expert... We have been to Hawaii in late May... and it was def. warm by then.

I would go for the earliest cruise in the Fall, over April.

I like 'warm'!!!

 

In Winter months, the issue with the weather are the cold fronts and huge waves coming in from the North.

That is when the fearless surfing fanatics go looking for those 30+ footers.

 

That would be a much bigger concern to me than the Fall.

[Lizzie68]

Before we started cruising our favourite vacation spot was Maui and always in April to very early May. The weather was always lovely.

Now I have a cruise to Hawaii coming up in April and these comments make me quite nervous. Think I'd better pack a parka lol.

 

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[dogo88]

We are thinking about doing a cruise to Hawaii and just wondering if the seas are calmer at any certain time of the year versus others. I wouldn't want to cruise to the Bahamas or Caribbean in October because of hurricane season. I have no idea about storm seasons in the Pacific. Is later in the year a better time than early spring or is spring time better?

 

We recently did a Caribbean cruise and it blew my mind when my wife asked me if we could do one to Hawaii so I guess I need to start planning before she changes her mind. And, yes we realize no one can predict but there must be a general pattern even in today's crazy weather patterns.

 

We decided that sailing over and back to Hawaii had too many sea days with questionable weather and seas. So we flew over a few days early and stayed at a local hotel and took the seven day NCL cruise on the Pride of America. We went in late Aug to just after Labor Day. Weather was perfect. No rough seas. We were docked every day at a new port. Ship, service and crew were awesome. Planning on doing it again.

 

We've sailed on a lot of HAL cruises and still will but spending 10 days at sea and 5 on Hawaii with questionable seas and weather the first and last couple of days wasn't worth it to us.

 

Dan

[catnana]

Last April we flew to Honolulu from Vancouver and boarded the Noordam as she repositioned up from Australia to Vancouver for the Alaska season.

The cruise was April 23 for 7 days, 5 days across the Pacific, stopping in Victoria and then Vancouver. I was worried about seasickness out in the open ocean but

the seas were like glass! We had absolutely no rough spots at all. The first 2-3 days were still warm, then each day got cooler as we got closer to Vancouver.

We have booked the same cruise again this April ( it's 8 days this time) it was so nice!

[Paulinda]

Thanks for all the responses. Sounds like maybe a fly over to Honolulu and a cruise around the islands might be a better option. I was looking at the NCL Pride of America and will see if other options are available. Thanks again.

[Overhead Fred]

We did an 18 day Hawaii RT from San Diego on the Oosterdam 12/2 - 12/20/17. The seas were pretty rough on the trips over and back, but the weather in Hawaii was beautiful. The temperatures on the sea days were on the cool side; not terrible, but not exactly lay-out-by-the-pool-and-tan kind of temps! The rough seas did not particularly bother us, but it did get annoying after a while. I know it caused queasiness for a lot of folks. Some of the mobility challenged passengers had some difficulties moving about and I saw more than a few folks in arm slings and with splints on fingers and such.

[Haboob]

Thanks for all the responses. Sounds like maybe a fly over to Honolulu and a cruise around the islands might be a better option. I was looking at the NCL Pride of America and will see if other options are available. Thanks again.

 

There is only a minor (6°F) difference in the monthly average temps *in* Honolulu,

so where you're leaving from makes more of a difference in that regard. You're

gonna get rain in Honolulu, period; just less in June/July. The Pacific can get

bumpy *any* time of the year -- swells travel a long ways and there's a lot of

Pacific in which to have storms to generate them.

 

As for the Pride, I've never sailed on her because when I looked into it, her cabins

in each category looked to be significantly smaller than on other ships.

[DaveOKC]

We did an 18 day Hawaii RT from San Diego on the Oosterdam 12/2 - 12/20/17. The seas were pretty rough on the trips over and back, but the weather in Hawaii was beautiful. The temperatures on the sea days were on the cool side; not terrible, but not exactly lay-out-by-the-pool-and-tan kind of temps! The rough seas did not particularly bother us, but it did get annoying after a while. I know it caused queasiness for a lot of folks. Some of the mobility challenged passengers had some difficulties moving about and I saw more than a few folks in arm slings and with splints on fingers and such.

 

We were on the same cruise and have to agree about the bumpy ride, but it was not real bad as we were in an aft-wrap cabin (usually not the place to be in rough seas) and it did not affect us all that much.

[tommui987]

Chilly first couple of days.

 

If you are taking a cruise from the Continental US to Hawaii, you are traveling about 2500 miles over the ocean. Depending on the time of year, it is going to be quite a temperature change when Hawaii is usually around 80F degrees and the West Coast is around 60ish (or less).

 

The cabins on the Pride of America may be smaller but the ship sails from island to island in the evenings (except for the sail-by the Na Pali Cliffs on Kauai) and your stay in your cabin is mostly for sleeping.

 

While we may have had near-misses during hurricane season, the last one was about ten-years ago unlike the Carribean which is almost yearly.

 

Lived and still living in Honolulu for 78 years!