Back 2 Back: Alaska then Hawaii

[stephuney]

Looking for feedback on whether anyone has ever done a B2B Alaska then Hawaii on NCL. If you've done it, I would love to hear about your experience. Pros/Cons, tips, etc. If there is already a thread on this, feel free to point me in that direction! Thanks!!

[Pitzel]

Likely not allowed, as it may violate the Passenger Vessel Services Act, depending on the departure port for the Alaska cruise (any US departure city would be in violation).

[casofilia]

If you are travelling Alaska-Vancouver-Honolulu, on the same ship, it is NOT allowed as per the PVSA as stated above. There are people who were doing it on the Jewel later this year who were told, after final payment, that they had to cancel one or other cruise.

You might get away with it if it were different ships with a break in Vancouver.

One of the people quoted had done bookings as separate cruises some days apart and still couldn't do it. Some comments were from people who had been told by NCL at the outset that it was not allowed. The most likely way some bookings got through was by TAs who didn't know the PVSA well enough, took the booking and then only sent the booking to NCL at the last minute.

[Silver Sweethearts]

Looking for feedback on whether anyone has ever done a B2B Alaska then Hawaii on NCL. If you've done it, I would love to hear about your experience. Pros/Cons, tips, etc. If there is already a thread on this, feel free to point me in that direction! Thanks!!

 

Google "Cruise Critic Back to Back Alaska/Hawaii Inquiry". The PVSA is indeed the sticky part.

 

Just as a side note, do realize you will have to pack two separate wardrobes for this.

[stephuney]

Ok, so admittedly ... never heard of PVSA, will have to research. When I called NCL to talk about the possibility, they didnt tell me I couldnt do it. I am booked on the Bliss next summer em/disembark out of Seattle. I am looking at the possibility of flying from Seattle to Honolulu to take the Pride of America around the islands. Note: I've checked ... there are flights that will make this possible (the time difference helps) ... and pretty obvious that two sets of clothes. Thanks ... still wondering if someone out there has done this?

[Pitzel]

Ok, so admittedly ... never heard of PVSA, will have to research. When I called NCL to talk about the possibility, they didnt tell me I couldnt do it. I am booked on the Bliss next summer em/disembark out of Seattle. I am looking at the possibility of flying from Seattle to Honolulu to take the Pride of America around the islands. Note: I've checked ... there are flights that will make this possible (the time difference helps) ... and pretty obvious that two sets of clothes. Thanks ... still wondering if someone out there has done this?

 

Ah, well if you are flying between the two cruises, you should be just fine.

 

Typically, when people say B2B, they mean the same ship (or adjacent ships), where the second leaves from the same port as the first.

[GeezerCouple]

Ok, so admittedly ... never heard of PVSA, will have to research. When I called NCL to talk about the possibility, they didnt tell me I couldnt do it. I am booked on the Bliss next summer em/disembark out of Seattle. I am looking at the possibility of flying from Seattle to Honolulu to take the Pride of America around the islands. Note: I've checked ... there are flights that will make this possible (the time difference helps) ... and pretty obvious that two sets of clothes. Thanks ... still wondering if someone out there has done this?

 

Wait... are you asking about taking an "Alaska cruise" and then FLYING to Hawaii for another cruise?

 

This wouldn't be a B2B,

 

If you are asking about an actual B2B, not something where you fly across an ocean between cruises, tell us the embarkation/disembarkation ports for both cruises, and we can be of more help.

 

The regulation cited prevents a foreign carrier from transporting pax between two USA ports.

(The PoA in Hawaii is allowed, because that one NCL ship is flagged as an American carrier, and is not a "foreign flagged ship" like just about all of the other mainline cruise ships.)

 

The problem referred to above was that two separate cruises, truly B2B "ended up" transporting" pax between two USA ports, even if cruise A ended in Vancouver, and cruise B began in Vancouver, for example.

This would occur if A started in the USA, and B ended in the USA, even though it was labelled as two different cruises, in sequence.

[KeithJenner]

I was looking at doing this for next year. We were considering doing the Northbound Alaska trip, spending a couple of days in Alaska, then flying to Hawaii to get on the POA.

 

In the end we decided against it. There were a number of problems that messed up the planning, and we decided that it wasn't going to work well for us.

 

However, those problems were kind of unique to us. We wanted to try to fit in a couple of days in San Francisco, and also had plans for after the Hawaii section, which started to take the whole trip up to around 5 weeks, which was pushing it really, so we decided to drop the bit we've done previously (Alaska).

 

The concept is fine though. If you were to do the Seattle round trip then you certainly have plenty of time to get to Hawaii for part 2. As we were looking at the Northbound, which runs Monday to Monday then this left a quite annoying length of time to get to Honolulu for the Saturday sailing (at least for what we wanted to do). It would probably work for others though.

 

If time wasn't an issue then I'd do something like this:

 

A few days in Alaska before the cruise

Southbound to Vancouver (Monday-Monday)

Fly to Honolulu, maybe with a day or two in Vancouver first.

Couple of days in Honolulu before the cruise

Hawaii cruise (Sat-Sat).

 

Just writing that makes me want to consider revisiting the idea, but I know it isn't practical for us. If you can do it (or something similar) then go for it. :)

 

Edit: I see you say you are on the Bliss. I think that runs Saturday to Saturday doesn't it? We considered that too, and I think it makes some good sense. You have six full days to travel and relax/sightsee in between, which is obviously plenty. It looks a good plan to me. We only really ruled that one out because we really wanted to add the land section in Alaska, which was tricky to work in with the Seattle round trip itinerary.

[stephuney]

Ah!! Gotcha!! I can see how that would make a big difference with PVSA. Thank you!

 

 

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[stephuney]

I was looking at doing this for next year. We were considering doing the Northbound Alaska trip, spending a couple of days in Alaska, then flying to Hawaii to get on the POA.

 

In the end we decided against it. There were a number of problems that messed up the planning, and we decided that it wasn't going to work well for us.

 

However, those problems were kind of unique to us. We wanted to try to fit in a couple of days in San Francisco, and also had plans for after the Hawaii section, which started to take the whole trip up to around 5 weeks, which was pushing it really, so we decided to drop the bit we've done previously (Alaska).

 

The concept is fine though. If you were to do the Seattle round trip then you certainly have plenty of time to get to Hawaii for part 2. As we were looking at the Northbound, which runs Monday to Monday then this left a quite annoying length of time to get to Honolulu for the Saturday sailing (at least for what we wanted to do). It would probably work for others though.

 

If time wasn't an issue then I'd do something like this:

 

A few days in Alaska before the cruise

Southbound to Vancouver (Monday-Monday)

Fly to Honolulu, maybe with a day or two in Vancouver first.

Couple of days in Honolulu before the cruise

Hawaii cruise (Sat-Sat).

 

Just writing that makes me want to consider revisiting the idea, but I know it isn't practical for us. If you can do it (or something similar) then go for it. :)

 

Edit: I see you say you are on the Bliss. I think that runs Saturday to Saturday doesn't it? We considered that too, and I think it makes some good sense. You have six full days to travel and relax/sightsee in between, which is obviously plenty. It looks a good plan to me. We only really ruled that one out because we really wanted to add the land section in Alaska, which was tricky to work in with the Seattle round trip itinerary.

 

 

 

Thanks for the tips here. Bliss is Sat to Sat.

 

 

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