Disappointed with Celebrity's 2010 Itinerary

[2Canucks]

We were hoping that Celebrity would be offering something else besides the Caribbean for JAN and FEB 2010. (done many times) We're not interested in South America or the Auzzie cruises either...airfares are ridiculous!

 

We had picked "HAWAII" as the place to go in 2010. Our problem is we can only cruise during Jan or Feb so we are really disappointed that a Hawaii option isn't available during those 2 months. :(

 

There's a blank spot in Millennium's cruise schedule during the first part of FEB 2010...is there a chance she'll be going to Hawaii?? Keeping my fingers (and toes) crossed.

 

Does anyone know when Celebrity will fill in all the blank spots in the 2010 cruise schedule?

 

Are we the only cruisers that want a Hawaii cruise in Jan or Feb on Celebrity??

 

Pat :)

[chessbriar]

You can put part of the blame on no Hawaii on NCL and their working to protect their one ship in Hawaii with getting the government to redifine the passenger services act.

 

The holes will be filled, but not with any Hawaii cruises.

 

I would reccomend you look at the Golden Princess, they are creating a product onboard dedicated to Hawaiian cruises. No other ship will offer what she does.

[JanineM]

There are some really lengthy posts about the legislation that is giving NCL the lead in Hawaii. They would probably answer the question about why other lines aren't sailing there ...

 

My sister (from Calgary!) sailed NCL in Hawaii last year and she swore, "never again".

[Susan-M]

 

We had picked "HAWAII" as the place to go in 2010.

Hi Pat,

We did a land vacation to Hawaii this past April and loved it. If I had the option of cruising there or doing another land vacation, the land vacation would win hands down....something to think about as an alternative to cruising there.

[ECCruise]

The lack of Celebrity sailings to Hawai'i in 2010 has nothing to do with NCL working the refs to have the law enforced. Carnival and Princess have a number of Hawai'ian cruises scheduled well into Spring, 2010.

[rolfecms]

Hi Pat,

We did a land vacation to Hawaii this past April and loved it. If I had the option of cruising there or doing another land vacation, the land vacation would win hands down....something to think about as an alternative to cruising there.

 

In your opinion what makes a Hawaii land vacation better than a cruise there? :confused:

[bar_20]

I have done both. I prefer the cruise that starts in California and returns there. I have not done one where you fly there, spend a week on the ship and then fly back. Restaurants in Hawaii are about twice the price as on the mainland. You need to rent a car if you are staying there. The days at sea are very restfull and when you get there you are ready to go and used to the time difference.

[Susan-M]

In your opinion what makes a Hawaii land vacation better than a cruise there? :confused:

 

• If comparing it to a cruise from the west coast, I would rather have two weeks in Hawaii as opposed to only 5 or 6 days. Snorkelling, swimming, hiking, exploring & sightseeing are all great activities on Hawaii & much more interesting than anything I could find to do during a sea day.
  

• Being able to spend days in one location, e.g. the North Shore of Kauai.
  

• Being able to go for a walk and/or swim in the ocean early in the morning and late in the day.
  

• Not having to look at my watch to see if I'm running out of time.
  

• Staying in a condo, overlooking the ocean - with accommodations and lania much larger than a cruise ship cabin, and a pool that will fit 100 people, but is often empty or only has a handful of people in it.
  

• The convenience of walking from your condo to the beach...swimming/ snorkelling, walking back to the condo & getting cleaned up & ready for the next activity..and doing this several times/day.
  

• Only having to arrange one or two car rentals instead of one every day.
  

• The ease of scheduling activities (e.g. helicopter tours) on days when there are no cruise ships in port.
  

• Going to the farmers market and picking up local fruit and vegetables, and buying fish at the fish market to BBQ at the condo.
  

 

We enjoy cruising, but for some destinations, a land vacation is much more appealing to us.:)

[chessbriar]

The lack of Celebrity sailings to Hawai'i in 2010 has nothing to do with NCL working the refs to have the law enforced. Carnival and Princess have a number of Hawai'ian cruises scheduled well into Spring, 2010.

Different companies are handling the situation differently. Carnival and Princess are taking a risk hoping cooler heads will prevail.

 

With that in mind combined with rising fuel prices, Royal Caribbean as a corporation has decided to pass on Hawaii with the new schedules. Neither RCCL or X will be going to Hawaii outside their repositioning cruises.

 

Just because everyone else is jumping of the bridge should you?

[rolfecms]

• If comparing it to a cruise from the west coast, I would rather have two weeks in Hawaii as opposed to only 5 or 6 days. Snorkelling, swimming, hiking, exploring & sightseeing are all great activities on Hawaii & much more interesting than anything I could find to do during a sea day.

• Being able to spend days in one location, e.g. the North Shore of Kauai.

• Being able to go for a walk and/or swim in the ocean early in the morning and late in the day.

• Not having to look at my watch to see if I'm running out of time.

• Staying in a condo, overlooking the ocean - with accommodations and lania much larger than a cruise ship cabin, and a pool that will fit 100 people, but is often empty or only has a handful of people in it.

• The convenience of walking from your condo to the beach...swimming/ snorkelling, walking back to the condo & getting cleaned up & ready for the next activity..and doing this several times/day.

• Only having to arrange one or two car rentals instead of one every day.

• The ease of scheduling activities (e.g. helicopter tours) on days when there are no cruise ships in port.

• Going to the farmers market and picking up local fruit and vegetables, and buying fish at the fish market to BBQ at the condo.

We enjoy cruising, but for some destinations, a land vacation is much more appealing to us.:)

 

Thanks for that. The only way we've been to Hawaii is on a cruise five years ago. What I did not like about that cruise:

• Spent 9 hours on an airplane from ORD
  
• Suffered jet lag due to the 5 hour time difference
  
• Went directly from the plane to the ship
  
• Did not go to bed for several more hours after that (due to shipboard departure activities and dinner)
  
• Had to get up early the next morning for our first port
  
• Every morning after that required awaking early for that day's port call

This was anything but a relaxing vacation - never got to catch up on rest.

 

For anyone contemplating a Hawaiian cruise I would strongly recommend arriving in Hawaii at least one day early so you can catch your breath or alternatively leave from the mainland US so that once you arrive in Hawaii you are refreshed and ready to go.

 

Over and above all this we did not care for the cruise line - let's just say that NCL is not one of our favorites.

[micmacmissy]

We enjoy cruising, but for some destinations, a land vacation is much more appealing to us.:)

 

Could not agree more!

 

I love, love, love cruising...but if I were to go to Hawaii again, it would be a land vacation. We spent 10 days there for our honeymoon and it wasn't enough!

 

There is just so much to do and each island is very different. The resorts are beautiful, and on a cruise you'd miss out on a lot of fantastic restaurants.

 

Go to Hawaii anyway...you won't be sorry! Unlike some caribbean islands, Hawaii isn't a "day trip" sort of place.

[hcat]

cruising Rt on Summit from LA was great way to go there--but we did have many Sea Days & only 5 days to cruise Hawaii--

 

it worked well--saw alot but nothing in depth ...just getting to Pearl Harbor Memorial and Volcanos nat' l Parkwas worth the whole trip & we did see so much more.. next time we'd do more land trips--the snorkeling we did was not really so great!

 

it is vey far away & a long flight so for now we are happy we did it when we could... No one I have met has any postiives about the NCL experience in hawaii--even the American staff we met on one of our excursions!

[Duanerice1]

Agree, in my opinion, Hawaii is best seen from land. It is such a pretty place that a cruise doesn't do it justice. But that may be just me. That is really the only part I don't like about cruising, you only get a few hours in a port. We rarely pick a cruise based on ports. Now a Mediterranean cruise might be different becasue you see so many different ports but again, you don't get a lot of time in ports. We never really get a good taste of what the area has to offer. We've been to Hawaii 6 times and have been to all the main Islands and can't wait to go back.

 

If it was me, and it isn't so you have to decide, I'd take the money and spend 2 weeks visiting 2 of the islands. I wouldn't bounce around too much because you'll be in the same situation as a cruise. Rent a car and a house or a condo and move in for a week (don't use a hotel if you can help it). You'll love it!

 

enjoy,

Duane

[ccletzgo]

There are some really lengthy posts about the legislation that is giving NCL the lead in Hawaii. They would probably answer the question about why other lines aren't sailing there ...

 

My sister (from Calgary!) sailed NCL in Hawaii last year and she swore, "never again".

 

 

I guess NCL thinks competition is the problem. :rolleyes: They should look more closely at the horrid quality of there Hawaii cruise. Maybe... if I heard a bad review just here and there, I could give them the benefit of the doubt, but every single person I talk to that has done that cruise said it was absolutely awful. (service)

How sad after fighting for this legislation and they continue with such a poor quality product.

[lambs2]

We combined days pre and post days on Waikiki with our Hawaiian cruise on NCL. We rented a car in every port except Kona and had a fabulous trip! We really thought of the ship as our floating hotel for sleeping and eating breakfast and dinner. Other than that we were rarely on the ship!!

 

With that in mind it was a FABULOUS experience for us, at a very affordable cost (but this was two years ago before the rise in airline tickets). words can not express our delight with our port side balcony view of the Kauai coast line and the night we went by the active glacier on the Big Island. Both are way up there on our list of the most amazing sights we have ever seen! We saw it from the air too, which is a MUST when seeing Kauai as well. Getting to five different ports on four islands was a wonderful introdution to the whole of Hawaii, and at an affordable price when compared to doing the same thing with hopper flights - unless you own your own plane!

 

Now when we go back we will do a Hawaiian land vacation - the problem is we have to decide WHICH island! Each is glorious in its own right!!

[jaybee]

"We enjoy cruising, but for some destinations, a land vacation is much more appealing to us."

 

I agree with all of you who vote for a land vs. cruise vacation in Hawaii. We get our fix of sea days on TA cruises. We enjoy every minute we are in Hawaii, rain or shine. There is so much to see, do, and enjoy in the islands.

 

Of course, we're West Coasters, too, and don't have to face the "endless" plane trip to get there.

 

Lambs2, you made an excellent choice by adding some land time to your cruise to Hawaii, and renting a car to be able to see even more.

 

Oops! It's sure easy to get off topic, isn't it? Jean

[Susan-M]

 

Oops! It's sure easy to get off topic, isn't it? Jean

 

Hawaii sure is a popular destination for Californians! But even with a 10 hour flight, it was more than worth it for us... just need to go for a longer vacation next time.

 

I think it's good to point out to those who really want to go to Hawaii that there are alternatives to cruising, or cruising on Celebrity. If Celebrity discontinues cruising to Hawaii along with some of the other west coast itineraries, it might be a good time for disappointed Celebrity cruisers to follow Rick Steves' advice: "If something's not to your liking, change your liking." :)

[Duanerice1]

words can not express our delight with our port side balcony view of the Kauai coast line and the night we went by the active glacier on the Big Island.

 

Impressive. I've been to the Big Island but have never seen the glacier:) I know what you mean. Do you have Alaska on your mind.....

 

enjoy,

Duane

[Linda-E]

Impressive. I've been to the Big Island but have never seen the glacier:) I know what you mean. Do you have Alaska on your mind.....

 

enjoy,

Duane

 

I'm guessing the glacier is a volcano! :D

[Kathie44]

We were in Hawaii in March of '87-- a long time ago, I know, but we did a 2 week package trip booked by our TA through Pleasant Hawaiian (Later it became Pleasant Holiday). It was the best of both worlds--a trip for two with optional guided motorcoach tours/shows on Oahu (5 days) and included rental cars on the other 3 islands of Hawaii (Big Island), Maui and Kuai. Excursions/events also included were: snorkelling and luau on Hawaii, Fern grotto boat tour on Kuai. We had a Pleasant Hawaiian info desk in each place in case we had problems/questions. We had more time to explore, great hotels, and freedom to do our own thing. As much as we love cruising, in this case we would rather do this again if we wanted to return.

I don't know if this kind of package is available today or what the cost would be, but it might be worth checking out for those who want a land trip.

[Cruise Junky]

Hands down a land vacation to Hawaii wins everytime. There is no substitue for being on the islands 24/7. Just our humble opinion, but 5 days there and 5 days back is an absolute waste of our vacation time.

[PHYLLISR]

Any thoughts on Hawaii Honolulu to Vancouver 15 days?

[Cruise Junky]

Any thoughts on Hawaii Honolulu to Vancouver 15 days?

 

I thought of suggesting that one, but the OP wants Jan or Feb. and that awesome itinerary is April.

[JNCRUISEBUMS]

We did the rt from San Diego in September 2oo7 and it was fabulous! We have been to Hawaii several times before and loved it...So..both ways are charmed, IMHO.:cool: :cool:

[AZjohn]

Like many of you, we enjoy cruises very much and feel it’s a great way to visit a lot of ports in a short amount of time. Hawaii is the only place in the world (thus far) that staying on the island is far better than a cruise.

 

We spent our Honeymoon in Maui for a week at a nice hotel (very expensive). Next year we did the 10 day NCL cruise around all the islands. It was OK but nothing close to the feel we had staying in Maui. One week after that cruise I purchased a yearly timeshare in Maui and ever since we return once a year to our favorite beach. This was the only way we could afford to go once a year, and it is a lot cheaper than a cruise.

 

John