Why Doesn't Celebrity do a Round Trip Hawaii Cruise?

[mcrcruiser]

We have had to sail on Holland  America  recently for a  R/T SanDiego  to Hawaii   .not that HAL is a bad cruise line  but we are Elite + & would enjoy this cruise . We had done that cruise on the Infiniti  in the past long ago 

[kasijab]

They do sometimes .. we did it  end of 2019 rt from Los Angeles.

 

[WestLakeGirl]

We heard that the potential for rough seas going both ways with so many sea days put people off and it never sold well

[hcat]

We did RT Hawaii long ago on Summit when she was in great shape..Had nice relaxing days at sea..but many activities also available. It made for fewer days in Hawaii ports but no long air flights to get there. They had a Hawaii Ambasador on board to guide activities.. lei making, learned the hula!

 

It had a stop in Mexico to fit the rules.

[Grandmaanne7]

I would love to do this with Celebrity! Loved it once on Princess. I'm sure we would love it more with Celebrity. 

[prmssk]

We were originally scheduled on a round-trip to Hawaii, first on HAL and then the pandemic hit, then on Princess when we rescheduled, but after some research, we decided a one-way would actually be a much better trip as it would give us a chance to add extra days in Hawaii.  So we cancelled our Princess round-trip and booked the Eclipse for next spring from Honolulu to Vancouver.

 

Round-trip would have been much nicer with regard to flights but it really doesn't give you much time to enjoy Hawaii.  And although I'm not one of those people, I think the number of sea days for a round-trip would be more than a lot would want.  I fear my husband and maybe even his Mom would have found it way too much if we had stuck with the round-trip.

[Sigyn]

1 hour ago, hcat said:

We did RT Hawaii long ago on Summit when she was in great shape..Had nice relaxing days at sea..but many activities also available. It made for fewer days in Hawaii ports but no long air flights to get there. They had a Hawaii Ambasador on board to guide activities.. lei making, learned the hula!

 

It had a stop in Mexico to fit the rules.

What rules require a stop in Mexico? I'm curious and learning. 🙂

[PTC DAWG]

2 minutes ago, njsmom said:

What rules require a stop in Mexico? I'm curious and learning. 🙂

Closed loop cruises (leaving and returning to the same port) from the US require a foreign port stop.  

[canderson]

13 minutes ago, njsmom said:

What rules require a stop in Mexico? I'm curious and learning. 🙂

Here's a couple of articles.  NCL has the only mass market ship (Pride of America) flagged in the U.S. which allows it to do Hawaii-only cruises.

 

 

https://thepointsguy.com/guide/what-is-the-jones-act-for-cruise-ships/

 

https://www.cruiselawnews.com/2011/09/articles/flags-of-convenience/why-cant-you-cruise-from-one-us-port-to-another-us-port/

 

 

[1025cruise]

Probably not enough interest in the long cruise to fill another ship.

[NutsAboutGolf]

[Arizona Wildcat]

3 hours ago, WestLakeGirl said:

We heard that the potential for rough seas going both ways with so many sea days put people off and it never sold well

Huh?  Was sold out in 2019 and 2017 pretty much when announced.  The required Ensenada stop always fun for a few trinkets.

Celebrity obviously decided it was more profitable to deploy ships elsewhere.

[NutsAboutGolf]

The budget airlines (spirit and even SouthWest with it's free baggage) entry into Hawaii has significantly lowered airfare and also the pandemic.  Was on the NCL PoA in August 2016, LAX to HNL round trip airfare was $600 for economy.  Despite having a lot of flexibility to arrive days earlier or departing days later, there wasn't really a fare difference. Went this past august and several airlines had basic economy for $200 round trip.  Right now if you have some flexibility, airfare from the west coast can be had for $200 round trip and east cost $500 round trip. 

Edited October 17, 2022 by NutsAboutGolf

[dlh015]

I did the Princess R/T from San Francisco this past March. Loved it...but I love sea days. The ship was almost full. I hope X decides to do one...I'd be the first to book it...😃

[GORDONCHICK]

1 hour ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

The OP specifically asked about RT Hawaii on X.

[NutsAboutGolf]

17 minutes ago, GORDONCHICK said:

The OP specifically asked about RT Hawaii on X.

Which don’t exist at the moment, I was providing the next best route which may or may not be attractive to the OP

[mcrcruiser]

11 hours ago, GORDONCHICK said:

The OP specifically asked about RT Hawaii on X.

 

11 hours ago, GORDONCHICK said:

The OP specifically asked about RT Hawaii on X.

 

11 hours ago, GORDONCHICK said:

The OP specifically asked about RT Hawaii on X.

 

[mcrcruiser]

Just now, mcrcruiser said:

 

We see that the above  Hawaii schedule   It  must be tied in with Alaska   itineraries  because of the dating of those cruises . However ,Celebrity could send one of those S class ships to San  Diego  or San Pedro (LA county ) to do a R/T Hawaii October ;which is still a decent month   or January to February  .   Even run alternate Mexican Riviera cruise with Hawaii cruise or combine the 2 routes for even a longer cruise  with the option of booking one but not the other , They would fill the ship 

 

[Denny01]

17 hours ago, WestLakeGirl said:

We heard that the potential for rough seas going both ways with so many sea days put people off and it never sold well

Did the Hawaii R/T on Princess. You get a bit of sea just out of LA (or San Diego) crossing the California current which lasted a few hrs, and the rest was very nice. Our cruise was pretty sold out, and just as TransAtlantics, many love sea days and they are very popular. 

 

We enjoyed the 4 islands we stopped in. Agree I wish Celebrity would do it. I would jump on it again 

 

den

[mauimary]

We did RT Hawaii years ago on RCCL out if LA. Turned out to be one of our fav cruises. Many folks like ourselves do it for all the sea days. Seas we’re quite smooth.    Granted you do not spend much time in the Islands. You really need a land trip there.   We definitely would do it again. Bring it on Celebrity!!  

[hcat]

20 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

The budget airlines (spirit and even SouthWest with it's free baggage) entry into Hawaii has significantly lowered airfare and also the pandemic.  Was on the NCL PoA in August 2016, LAX to HNL round trip airfare was $600 for economy.  Despite having a lot of flexibility to arrive days earlier or departing days later, there wasn't really a fare difference. Went this past august and several airlines had basic economy for $200 round trip.  Right now if you have some flexibility, airfare from the west coast can be had for $200 round trip and east cost $500 round trip. 

Wasn't a pricing issue for us..We just wanted to avoid  long distance flights.  

We flew from NY to Long Beach, Ca, .stayed 2 days to adjust to time diff  and sailed from there.  The days at sea gradually eased the time chages  as well.

 

Not sure we'd do it that way again but we enjoyed our trip

 

. For us, the Carib is much closer and the water activities  more enjoyable,  but the Volcanos Natl Park, the Arizona Memorial and beautiful landscape were worth the trip..

 

[AnnaNicole]

Years ago, we did a 14 day RT San Diego to Hawaii (stopped in Ensenada) on the Infinity.  We had one of the triple sized balcony cabins.   It was perfect for the three of us (DD was 10 yo).   It was by far one of our favorite cruises.   Hopefully, they will restart these cruises as we are interested in doing another one.

[prmssk]

14 hours ago, mcrcruiser said:

It  must be tied in with Alaska   itineraries  because of the dating of those cruises .

In the case of the Eclipse one-way itineraries mentioned in this thread, it is a repositioning cruise.  The Eclipse does Alaska during the Alaska season and Australia the rest of the year.

[CruisingWalter]

I agree it would be nice for Celebrity to do a roundtrip Hawaii, but I will say Princess has quite a few 15 day roundtrips from LA, San Francisco, Seattle and Vancouver BC that all look amazing. They're showing 11 Itineraries including a few longer repositioning cruises. Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald and Crown Princess are four of the ship, all of them quite lovely. My personal favorite of the four is the Sapphire which we sailed to Alaska. If you're a Celebrity fan, you'll probably like Princess as well. The decor is a bit more 'classic' with more wood, more earth tones and of course the Italian piazza as the atrium, but I think they match up with Celebrity Solstice and Millennium class ships closer than most people think. And that new Sun Princess, well that is going to be crazy beautiful with shades of the Edge class. 

[dlh015]

5 minutes ago, WheresWalter said:

I agree it would be nice for Celebrity to do a roundtrip Hawaii, but I will say Princess has quite a few 15 day roundtrips from LA, San Francisco, Seattle and Vancouver BC that all look amazing. They're showing 11 Itineraries including a few longer repositioning cruises. Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald and Crown Princess are four of the ship, all of them quite lovely. My personal favorite of the four is the Sapphire which we sailed to Alaska. If you're a Celebrity fan, you'll probably like Princess as well. The decor is a bit more 'classic' with more wood, more earth tones and of course the Italian piazza as the atrium, but I think they match up with Celebrity Solstice and Millennium class ships closer than most people think. And that new Sun Princess, well that is going to be crazy beautiful with shades of the Edge class. 

Yes, I did that cruise on the Ruby Princess out of San Francisco last March. Love the ship *except* for the buffet...much too congested and it was its own 'spreader event' on my cruise. (Assumption on my part, no real proof) But still had a great time with all the sea days and exploring the islands....didn't test positive until I was home a couple of days...( a mild case...)