Anyone recommend a cruise to Hawaii?
Sep 24th, 2002, 08:11 PM
#1
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Anyone recommend a cruise to Hawaii?
We're getting married and staying 5 days in Kauai in May. We want to add on about 10 days to that and see the other islands. Would you recommend that a cruise is the best way to do that and is 10 days a good time frame? And, if you've ever cruised to Hawaii or know someone who did, what cruise line did you go on and do you recommend them?
Sep 24th, 2002, 08:21 PM
#2
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No, I'd never recommend a cruise.
Cruises are great for visiting multiple ports of call on different islands too far apart or too costly to fly to (different nations means higher fares etc), especially when nice accommodations aren't plentiful on some of those islands, and when large distances between islands are to be covered. This is why the Caribbean or Mediterranean are perfect places to take a cruise.
The Hawaiian islands are rife with world class hotels at reasonable prices, lots of great food, all are part of one American state so no transfer hassles or high costs to hop from one to another, and there's so much to DO on each island that it would be a shame to be on a ship (in inferior accommodations) every night and have no place on land to simply vegetate (by a pool or beach next to your hotel room preferably) when you feel the urge.
Hawaii is tailor made for honeymoons, particularly land packages on 2 or 3 islands.
You have the best of everything there, and you'll miss a lot of it by using a cruise ship as a base rather than a hotel.
Cruises are great for visiting multiple ports of call on different islands too far apart or too costly to fly to (different nations means higher fares etc), especially when nice accommodations aren't plentiful on some of those islands, and when large distances between islands are to be covered. This is why the Caribbean or Mediterranean are perfect places to take a cruise.
The Hawaiian islands are rife with world class hotels at reasonable prices, lots of great food, all are part of one American state so no transfer hassles or high costs to hop from one to another, and there's so much to DO on each island that it would be a shame to be on a ship (in inferior accommodations) every night and have no place on land to simply vegetate (by a pool or beach next to your hotel room preferably) when you feel the urge.
Hawaii is tailor made for honeymoons, particularly land packages on 2 or 3 islands.
You have the best of everything there, and you'll miss a lot of it by using a cruise ship as a base rather than a hotel.
Sep 25th, 2002, 09:57 AM
#6
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Lille,
We did the 7 day cruise on NCL Star in April and enjoyed it. But there are a couple of things you have to keep in mind to decide if a Hawaii cruise is a good choice for you. Currently the only cruise line that offers roundtrip Hawaii cruises is NCL. Their 10 day itinerary is seasonal so I don't know if it's available in May. Their 7 day sails yearround. The other cruise lines do one way cruises i.e. Honolulu to Ensenada/Honolulu to Vancouver or vice versa, which I suppose would work OK if that's gets you home. Any of these cruises will spend a lot of time at sea vs. actual time in port. If that's something that you like, go for it. However, it's really not the best way to 'see' the islands. For example, on the 7 day NCL cruise actual port time in the Hawaiian islands is less than 24 hours total. Much of the time is spent traveling to and from Fanning Island in the Republic of Kiribati (about 1000 miles away). This is due to the Jones Act which was enacted to protect U.S. maritime interests. Foreign flagged ships (and almost all cruise ships are) aren't allowed to embark & disembark passengers from a U.S. port without stopping at a foreign port in between. Since we'd been to most of the Hawaiian islands before on previous land based trips, we did not feel rushed and just used the time to revisit some of the favorite places. You'll probably want to research the itineraries available for your dates and compare them with land based island hopping.
We did the 7 day cruise on NCL Star in April and enjoyed it. But there are a couple of things you have to keep in mind to decide if a Hawaii cruise is a good choice for you. Currently the only cruise line that offers roundtrip Hawaii cruises is NCL. Their 10 day itinerary is seasonal so I don't know if it's available in May. Their 7 day sails yearround. The other cruise lines do one way cruises i.e. Honolulu to Ensenada/Honolulu to Vancouver or vice versa, which I suppose would work OK if that's gets you home. Any of these cruises will spend a lot of time at sea vs. actual time in port. If that's something that you like, go for it. However, it's really not the best way to 'see' the islands. For example, on the 7 day NCL cruise actual port time in the Hawaiian islands is less than 24 hours total. Much of the time is spent traveling to and from Fanning Island in the Republic of Kiribati (about 1000 miles away). This is due to the Jones Act which was enacted to protect U.S. maritime interests. Foreign flagged ships (and almost all cruise ships are) aren't allowed to embark & disembark passengers from a U.S. port without stopping at a foreign port in between. Since we'd been to most of the Hawaiian islands before on previous land based trips, we did not feel rushed and just used the time to revisit some of the favorite places. You'll probably want to research the itineraries available for your dates and compare them with land based island hopping.
