Emmasoma

[Emmasoma]

Hawaii:

Better to cruise there and back from California or to fly to Hawaii and just cruise the islands? Who has done either and what is your advice?

[Bonnie J.]

To get replies to your question put a subject in your title. If you don't CC puts your name there and no one knows what your asking so many don't open it.

What ship just does Hawaii from there?

[CruiserBruce]

What ship just does Hawaii from there?

 

NCL's Pride of America.

[CruiserBruce]

Hawaii:

Better to cruise there and back from California or to fly to Hawaii and just cruise the islands? Who has done either and what is your advice?

 

If you look over on the Hawaii board, here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=62

 

You will see this question asked many times, and with MANY, MANY different answers. And NONE of them are wrong. Because it is all about personal preference.

 

Some like the several days at sea going over and coming back, some like the larger amount of time spent at each island on the Pride of America. Again, strictly personal preference.

[paul929207]

The NCL Pride of America is the only ship doing cruises that start and end in Hawaii. Most of the others start and end in San Diego, LA or SF. There are a few one way cruises between Vancouver and Honolulu.

 

As to which is better, that is a matter of personal preference. I would prefer the west coast sailings. However, I love sea days and prefer to reduce flying if possible. Others don't like sea days

[Nebr.cruiser]

Although we enjoyed our cruise from LA to Hawaii and back, I will say that, to us, Hawaii is best enjoyed on a land trip, especially if it is your first time. Part of this, for us, was that we had not so great weather on the sea days, both going and coming--and we normally love lots of sea days. We were on Princess.

 

Weather in Hawaii (Feb.) was also rainier than we had encountered before, on our land trips, but that's just luck.

 

The nice thing about cruising there was that we got to have a taste of the four main islands. I'd still rather spend more time on each island,and for us the least amount of time on Oahu, which is just too busy.

 

If you are sailing NCL, you'll be flying over anyhow, since their ship is based in Hawaii.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Our last three cruises have been the two-week ones on Princess out of LA. No flying for us and plenty of sea days, which we love. Princess has a Hawaiian cultural program on the ships doing this itinerary, and if you have Elua on board, you're in for a treat -- a musical duo who performed beautiful Hawaiian music every day either in the Piazza or up on deck, and they also teach the uke and hula classes, as well as give talks on the culture of the Islands.

 

My hubby and I have been to Hawaii twice before on land trips so to us, the cruise is great, and Hawaii is the bonus. If we just want to enjoy Hawaii, we would do what we did on our honeymoon and fly there and stay in a hotel.

[Emmasoma]

This will be our first trip to Hawaii and just thought the cruise would be a good way to touch on four main islands and then if we get "hooked" we could return for a more intensive stay. Neither of us love seadays but we don't like long flights either and live in Virginia. Fairly long flight to California and not excited to get back on for a long one to Hawaii so thought the long cruise might be nicer. Looking at November and no idea what the weather or seas might be like. We welcome any and all input and advice! Also better to leave from LA or SF? Thanks.

[CruiserBruce]

Looking at November and no idea what the weather or seas might be like. We welcome any and all input and advice! Also better to leave from LA or SF? Thanks.

 

Again, some reading on the Hawaii board would reveal that it typically be cooler (in November cold) and possibly rougher the first couple of days out of the West Coast, and the last couple of days coming back. Warmer, and could be smoother getting close to Hawaii. This, and huge volumes of other info can be found on the Hawaii board.

 

Which port -you should add San Diego, because at least one cruise line, Holland America- leaves from there. Believe only Princess leaves from San Francisco. So which is "best" is going to depend on what cruise line you might use.

 

There is rarely a single, absolutely right answer to many of these "best" questions.

Edited March 31, 2014 by CruiserBruce

[NoobCruise]

It all depends on your own preferences. POA is on my bucket list because DH and I prefer port intensive itineraries. We prefer port days to sea days. We also want to spend time in Hawaii before or after the cruise. DH is a scuba diver and wants to get several dive days in.

[terri-eddie]

My husband and I have recently returned from a cruise from Los Angeles to Hawaii and back, on Carnival Miracle. We love cruising, and we both thought this would be a great trip, with lots of sea days.

 

The trip over was very chilly and windy, so the outer decks were not very comfortable. I think I only saw a handful of people laying out or using the pools on most days. That, of course, is not always the case...you may cruise and find the days sunny and calm.

 

The port days in the islands were great, even though we had to skip our last port of call, Kona, since the tenders couldn't safely dock.

 

The trip home seemed too long to us. I guess we were just "done" with sea days at that point!

 

Several years ago we spent 10 days on Oahu, flying from our home in Nova Scotia [Canada, East coast] to Los Angeles, then on to Honolulu. We traveled for a total of 22 hours, including layovers, and that was just too much.

 

In future, I would prefer to visit the islands by flying in and staying, although we would stay overnight in LA on our way there.

[Hlitner]

Have to agree with the other post that recommends doing Hawaii as a land trip. We love to cruise (and cruise over 70 days a year) and have actually cruised to Hawaii a couple of times (while on longer cruises to the South Pacific) but Hawaii is best enjoyed as a land vacation. Personally, we could care less if we ever go back to Oahu and Honolulu (and we will be back there soon on another Transpacific cruise) since we find that Maui, Kauai, and the Big Island are just so much nicer.

 

Hank

[cb at sea]

On that ship, you will have to fly from Va. to Hawaii to catch the ship....I would say you might as well just do a land vacation in Hawaii! You would get so much more out of the islands if you aren't cruising. And, since you'd have to fly to Hawaii anyway.....

 

Hotel rooms will be much nicer and larger than a ship's cabin. Food on the islands will be nicer than ship's food.

 

Just do the land vacation to really experience Hawaii!!

[rwr235]

Hi,

 

Since you stated you don't like sea days...a roundtrip cruise to Hawaii, with 9 or 10 sea days, might not be what you are looking for ! You perhaps want to consider a one-way cruise ?...Celebrity offers a couple a year...to/from Vancouver...and you could stay a few nights in Hawaii or Vancouver...or both. We did a one-way on Celebrity in 2012 (when they were still doing Ensenada)...which was ideal, we spent a few nights in San Diego pre-cruise, and then spent 4 nights on Kauai after the cruise.

 

We would have broken up the long flights back to Virginia from Hawaii with a night or two in Seattle, but family matters required getting home ASAP.

 

I think it was a great way to give my wife and our friends a brief sampling of Hawaii (they had never been before)...and enjoy the wonderful benefits of a cruise as well.

 

Woody

[Emmasoma]

If we opt out of a cruise and just do land, flying to and from Hawaii, what do you recommend? If you base in, say, Maui, how do you go to the other islands? Are there ferries or do you have to fly? Do you stay a few nights on more than one island? Then rent cars in each place? Only need to go to Oahu is to see Pearl Harbor Memorial, otherwise prefer to be based somewhere else. The cruise idea just seamed easy as the ship would move us from place to place and would transport us on excursions. Want to see a volcano, a rainforest, etc. and I understand they are all on different islands.

I promished DH I would get him to Hawaii this year and it has been confusing in taking the first step of just how to do this.

[CruiserBruce]

If we opt out of a cruise and just do land, flying to and from Hawaii, what do you recommend? If you base in, say, Maui, how do you go to the other islands? You fly between the islands. Short flights.Are there ferries or do you have to fly? Do you stay a few nights on more than one island? That would be a good start.Then rent cars in each place? Yes. Only need to go to Oahu is to see Pearl Harbor Memorial, otherwise prefer to be based somewhere else. The cruise idea just seamed easy as the ship would move us from place to place and would transport us on excursions. Want to see a volcano, a rainforest, etc. and I understand they are all on different islands.

I promished DH I would get him to Hawaii this year and it has been confusing in taking the first step of just how to do this.

 

Again, some reading on the Hawaii board would answer your questions and give you tons of info.

 

It is quite common to go to, say, two islands in a trip, and spend 3-4 nights on each. This is a good way to get a solid taste of each island.

 

We have been to Hawaii over 20 times. Maui is our favorite island. You can fly there non-stop from the West Coast.

Edited April 2, 2014 by CruiserBruce

[Nebr.cruiser]

If you decide to do a land tour rather than a cruise, there are plenty of places to find information on the internet or books.

 

Touring on your own in Hawaii is really easy. We just rent a car and drive where we want. Since it is part of the United States, driving, money, language, customs, etc. are what we are used to. We have always flown between the islands, but I think there are ferries as well.

 

Depending on how long you plan on being gone, I'd spend about two days on Oahu, which is enough to go to Pearl Harbor, experience Wakiki briefly and the other main sights and maybe drive up to the North Shore, which is fun and kitchy, if busy, and back on around the island.

 

Then I'd fly to at least one or two of the other islands, more if you have time. We like them all, but do some research to figure out what you want to see. Three or four days on each island is enough time to really be able to explore or relax, or both. We've spent an entire week on the Big Island and had a great time. We used B&B's that time, which worked out perfectly, but their are many hotel choices on all the islands, or condo rentals.

 

There are also tours you can pick up on each island, if you don't want to go on your own. On our cruise to Hawaii, we rented cars on each island except for Maui, where we just walked around Lahaina and to a nearby beach. Since we'd been there before we just preferred to relax and not go through the hassle of picking up and dropping off a car during limited port times. An advantage of a land tour is that you keep the car for several days, so it's easier.

Edited April 2, 2014 by Nebr.cruiser

[Hlitner]

If we opt out of a cruise and just do land, flying to and from Hawaii, what do you recommend? If you base in, say, Maui, how do you go to the other islands? Are there ferries or do you have to fly? Do you stay a few nights on more than one island? Then rent cars in each place? Only need to go to Oahu is to see Pearl Harbor Memorial, otherwise prefer to be based somewhere else. The cruise idea just seamed easy as the ship would move us from place to place and would transport us on excursions. Want to see a volcano, a rainforest, etc. and I understand they are all on different islands.

I promished DH I would get him to Hawaii this year and it has been confusing in taking the first step of just how to do this.

 

There is no decent boat service between the islands because of the distance and the idiocy of some Hawaiian "environmentalists" who have managed to throw road blocks up at attempts for regular boat service. So, to get between the islands you simply fly. There are many intra island flights (sometimes more then once an hour) and the main airline is Hawaiian Airlines. There are often some excellent prices if you book in advance.

 

There are excellent flight connections from the mainland to either Honolulu or Maui. Keep in mind that Honolulu is a large urban city which can be a turn-off for those looking for the charm of the Hawaiian Islands. Each island has its pros and cons, so it does pay to do a little research before booking a trip.

 

Hank

[NMLady]

Hawaii:

Better to cruise there and back from California or to fly to Hawaii and just cruise the islands? Who has done either and what is your advice?

 

Depends. Do you want lots of time at several Hawaiian ports, then fly to Honolulu and cruise on NCL's Pride of America.

 

Also, book that cruise if you do not want lots of sea days with no ports since ships from CA take about 5-6 days each way with no ports.

 

My husband and I love sea days so we did a cruise from CA that had four HI ports then back to CA. We loved it, but that many sea days is not for everyone.