JulieAgain

We "hate!" the airport hassles & the uncomfortable long distance flights to Europe. So, we cruise back & forth & much more reasonably, and definitely much more luxurious, than flying first class.

So, anyone know if there are such cruises across the Pacific? We don't want to cruise 'around' Asia, we want crossings. However, the tricky part is we are not Silver Sea wallet category!

Also, do you know of any that cross, we could stay on that side of the Pacific pond for a while & tour, & then catch one coming back? Would be so great!

If these cruises are not available, sounds like a good market! Cunard is doing OK (I guess) with their transatlantics.

Thanks, Julie

traveller69

Yes Holland America does a crossing to Hawaii and return. It leaves and returns to San Diego. Check their website and perhaps cruise.com or vacations to go - they usually have very good prices on that cruise. Here is one link for those cruises http://www.vacationstogo.com/ticker.cfm

doug_stallings

Such cruises exist. They go to Australia and New Zealand calling in Hawaii along the way, but they are expensive. No regularly scheduled cruises that I know of to Asia, though round-the-world itineraries do go there.

The reason this isn't done regularly is that you'd probably have to spend a full week at sea, if not more. No one in their right mind would choose to travel this way unless they had all the time in the world, and few poeple do, which is why passenger liners no longer sail these long itineraries anymore for transportation (even Transatlantic cruises are used to reposition the ships in most cases, not to offer regularly scheduled cruises, except for Cunard, which does this a few months of the year). But if you think this is going to be comparable to a Transatlantic fare, you're fooling yourself. These are $10K+ cruises that take 2 or 3 weeks to get to New Zealand. Holland America does this route every year, but I don't know about the return.

JulieAgain

Thanks for your responses.

Looks like you are correct Doug_Stallings. From what I have been able to discover, there is not a transpacific cruise like Cunard does transatlantic - too bad. We are not interested in a world cruise at even a cheap price (which doesn't exist!) - we would be bored to death with a cruise that long & we don't think that port calls count as 'seeing' a city/country!

Princess appears to have the best price for 1 way - about $1200 for inside cabin/$1600-1900 for balcony for 15 nites; leaves & returns from/to Alaska one way in spring/fall; other end is Xingang/Beijing, China. Actually this is a good choice - could use it one way as a substitute for flying & therefore only fly one way. I found 1 way airfare, business class, on United for $1322 LAX/Tokyo - that's good.

traveller69, thanks for the info, but vacationstogo link requires signing in for an account - don't want to mess with & cruise.com didn't have Asia as a choice. However, I did research the HAL cruise and it is $1800-2800 for an inside, 19 nites; Kobe, Japan & LA, and San Diego & Sydney, Australia. Looks like Princess is a better deal. We don't really like either cruiseline, but Princess is tolerable at that price just to avoid the airport hassle.

So, looks like 1 way by air & 1 way by Princess, or 2 ways by air are our 2 choices.

Thanks again, Julie