Just booked Hawaii for December 2023!

[OttawaJohn]

Been waiting months for the cruises to be posted and they just popped up.  Cannot wait.

 

Time for some luaus, gorgeous beaches and singing Mele Kalikimaka!

[CruizinSusan70]

Kinda jealous.  Wanted to do this cruise in early 2024 and the March sailing would have been nice.  Unfortunately Princess drug their feet regarding when bookings would open.  Already booked a B2B on the Wonder OTS for April of 2024 when their bookings first opened up.

Now I need to hope that the Discovery will be doing it again in early 2025 or late 2024. Or one of the larger Royal Class ships does the 35 day that includes the South Pacific and Hawaii in late 2024 or early 2025.  But Princess usually picks one of the older ships in the fleet to do these types of cruises.

[OttawaJohn]

I understand.  We had another cruise booked but happily cancelled it for this one.  Not sure why it took so long to post, maybe they were concerned about stuff or evaluating their programs.  But our TA, Princess reps, no one seemed to know when they were coming.  I figured September so was pleased they posted earlier then that.

[cr8tiv1]

On 8/10/2022 at 9:27 AM, CruizinSusan70 said:

Kinda jealous.  Wanted to do this cruise in early 2024 and the March sailing would have been nice.  Unfortunately Princess drug their feet regarding when bookings would open.  Already booked a B2B on the Wonder OTS for April of 2024 when their bookings first opened up.

Now I need to hope that the Discovery will be doing it again in early 2025 or late 2024. Or one of the larger Royal Class ships does the 35 day that includes the South Pacific and Hawaii in late 2024 or early 2025.  But Princess usually picks one of the older ships in the fleet to do these types of cruises.

 

Princess picks a smaller ship (Grand Class) to do the Hawaii run since there are 2 ports that can not handle the Royal Class ships (Hilo/Hawaii Island and Nawiliwili/Kauai).  Those ports have been replaced with overnight in Honolulu, Kona (water shuttle nightmare) and hopefully Lahaina (water shuttle nightmare).

[JudithLynne]

We just booked Hawaii on the Crown for September 2023.  We chose this cruise because it is RT from Seattle, our favorite port as we live in Oregon, and it is easy to get to and to get home.  It is the only Hawaii cruise from Seattle listed.  Love the ports and we will get a full day and evening in Victoria.  So pleased!

Ottawa John you will be in Hawaii for whale season!  Enjoy your cruise.

Edited August 12, 2022 by JudithLynne

[emairs]

We just booked a 15 day Hawaii cruise on Discovery Princess in March 2024, LA to LA. We seem to be booking cruises a few years ahead in order to get our desired cabins. Looking forward to it!

[PTMary]

We had booked Ruby out of San Francisco in March 2023 but the ship got swapped with Royal. It's a newer ship with more amenities, but due to it's size we lost Hilo and Kauai, both docked ports, replaced by Kona, a tender port. Both itineraries stopped at Maui, another tender port, so now we have to tender at two out of our three Hawaii stops. 🙁

 

We now overnight in Honolulu, with a departure at 4:00 pm the 2nd day. All other Royal cruises before and after us also overnight in Honolulu, but stay until 11:00 instead of 4:00, allowing people to enjoy two evenings on shore. For some reason we're the only rescheduled cruise that has to leave early, eliminating 7 precious hours we could have spent on shore. That 2nd evening would certainly have been nice to have. We almost cancelled due to one less port visited and a shorter stop in Honolulu than all the other Royal cruises.  ☹️

[abbottfam]

On 8/11/2022 at 2:28 PM, cr8tiv1 said:

 

Princess picks a smaller ship (Grand Class) to do the Hawaii run since there are 2 ports that can not handle the Royal Class ships (Hilo/Hawaii Island and Nawiliwili/Kauai).  Those ports have been replaced with overnight in Honolulu, Kona (water shuttle nightmare) and hopefully Lahaina (water shuttle nightmare).

My family and I are brand new to cruises and water shuttle - could you provide some details on why Lahaina and Kona would be 'nightmares'?

[NownZen]

15 minutes ago, abbottfam said:

My family and I are brand new to cruises and water shuttle - could you provide some details on why Lahaina and Kona would be 'nightmares'?

The water shuttles (lifeboats) take forever get all the passengers off and back on. If you have 3000 passengers and the lifeboat hold 100, you need 30 trips. Lines can be hours long.

[cr8tiv1]

44 minutes ago, NownZen said:

The water shuttles (lifeboats) take forever get all the passengers off and back on. If you have 3000 passengers and the lifeboat hold 100, you need 30 trips. Lines can be hours long.

The tenders will hold more than 100.  But there will be long lines to get off and back…in the hot sun…even in the early months.  Lahaina is worth getting off to walk around. Lots of history. It used to be the Capitol city.  Kona, not so much to see and do without a car.  Rent one now.  Harpers truck rental might have a place in the Kona side.  

[NownZen]

1 minute ago, cr8tiv1 said:

The tenders will hold more than 100.  But there will be long lines to get off and back…in the hot sun…even in the early months.  Lahaina is worth getting off to walk around. Lots of history. It used to be the Capitol city.  Kona, not so much to see and do without a car.  Rent one now.  Harpers truck rental might have a place in the Kona side.  

There is a sign inside the tenders saying what the capacity is for shuttle and lifeboat. The lifeboat number is about 50% more than the tender number. Seeing how full they are for tenders, it would not be fun as a lifeboat. Better than the crew life pods witch you could put in the back of a pickup and are rated for (I recall) 120 people.

[NownZen]

I got curious and looked up lifeboat capacity. The answer (for the reasonable sized ships) seems to be 150. This capacity over the shuttle capacity is done by filling in the isles with seats so instead of 8 across, you can get maybe 12. That would give a shuttle capacity of 100-110.

Maybe someone on a ship now could quote the number in the shuttle.

[cr8tiv1]

This is the information from crew chat. 
 

[2 cruises a year]

3 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

This is the information from crew chat. 
 

I guess that answer is correct, but what we all want to know is: How many passengers are normally, or typically, loaded on to a tender, not the maximum.  I think to seat the maximum would take some additional seating (in the aisles for example) to stuff a life boat with 150 very cozy passengers, that won't happen as a tender.

[cr8tiv1]

1 minute ago, 2 cruises a year said:

I guess that answer is correct, but what we all want to know is: How many passengers are normally, or typically, loaded on to a tender, not the maximum.  I think to seat the maximum would take some additional seating (in the aisles for example) to stuff a life boat with 150 very cozy passengers, that won't happen as a tender.

The first few tenders out are normally packed.  There could be as much as an hour’s wait to get off the ship in the morning and there could be a hour plus in the afternoon.  Numbers are relative.  
 

Princess excursions have priority. I am rarely in such a rush that I need to be off the ship with the hoards.  
 

Hawaii does not use local tenders. Princess usually has 3-4 in the water at one time.  One at the ship.  One at the pier.  One of two coming or going.  

[NownZen]

32 minutes ago, 2 cruises a year said:

I guess that answer is correct, but what we all want to know is: How many passengers are normally, or typically, loaded on to a tender, not the maximum.  I think to seat the maximum would take some additional seating (in the aisles for example) to stuff a life boat with 150 very cozy passengers, that won't happen as a tender.

There is a nice youtube video showing how to put 150 people in a tender. The isles have been turned into seats and people are lining the walls.

[2 cruises a year]

54 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

The first few tenders out are normally packed.  There could be as much as an hour’s wait to get off the ship in the morning and there could be a hour plus in the afternoon.  Numbers are relative.  
 

Princess excursions have priority. I am rarely in such a rush that I need to be off the ship with the hoards.  
 

Hawaii does not use local tenders. Princess usually has 3-4 in the water at one time.  One at the ship.  One at the pier.  One of two coming or going.  

That is still not 150 passengers, packed yes, but not full to capacity.  Please see NownZen's post below.

28 minutes ago, NownZen said:

There is a nice youtube video showing how to put 150 people in a tender. The isles have been turned into seats and people are lining the walls.

 

Edited September 29, 2022 by 2 cruises a year

[cr8tiv1]

The single story boat has the numbers 150 passengers on the outside. I could not see what the number is for the boats with the “observation” decks.  

[skynight]

On 9/28/2022 at 5:55 PM, abbottfam said:

My family and I are brand new to cruises and water shuttle - could you provide some details on why Lahaina and Kona would be 'nightmares'?

It takes a long time to off load 3,00 passengers. If you are on a morning ship's tour you will meet on board and the tour will have have priority tendering. If not on a ship's tour you will have to get a tender ticket. It is one tender ticket/person. One family member can not pick up tickets for the entire family. All must be present. Tender ticket location is usually in a DR. Lahaina port was closed for some time for construction. It used to be one small dock shared by both ship's tenders and the public. Was very slow. Maybe it is better now. During peak times the lines to return to the ship are long. Can't comment on Kona.