Do RCCL HI cruises sail past NaPali Coast?

[mlbcruiser]

 If you ever cruised RC  in Hawaii, specifically on one of their May or September repositioning cruises,  assuming your ship visited Kauai, did you sail past the  NaPali Coast?  Since it’s one of the most scenic places in all of Hawaii (IMO THE most!)  I am hoping the captains do Sail by for the benefit of the passengers. I notice on an upcoming itinerary  their ship leaves port from Kauai earlier than any of the other ports in Hawaii. At 4 PM it is still light so I am truly hoping this is included in the cruise but have my doubts. We once were on the north coast of Kauai  on a land vacation and did see one of NCL’s ships going past.   Since that isn’t mentioned  specifically in the ship itinerary, I thought perhaps it was a captains’ choice thing.  I understand that is the situation with regard to sailing past active lava flows along the coast of the Big Island  when that happens to be occurring. Hoping someone sees this who knows for sure. Thanks for any info!

[Coralc]

We have sailed 3 Hawaii cruises with RC and Kauai was scheduled on all 3 cruises...and it has been cancelled well before the cruise every time. Let alone a sail by. We have given up on Kauai. We have decided that if we want to see it, we will just fly there. JMO. 

[Merion_Mom]

We did that on our Hawaii cruise in 2017.  

 

ETA: Oh, wait. I think that we did it on a private excursion.

[mlbcruiser]

Well this is disappointing news, indeed!  

Did you get any explanation as to why the island was removed from your itinerary?

[Coralc]

No. They never had said why. The first time it happened, we wrote letters and actually received $50 OBC for the cancellation. The last two times it was a long ways out. We never did receive an explanation. Just bad luck. But it sounds like some sailings that are scheduled, visit, and maybe cruise the coast line. Best wishes for your sailing. 

[mlbcruiser]

Hope our’s is one of the lucky cruises! Thanks for replying.

[eltigre]

Well that is distressing news. We are doing our 3rd Vancouver to Hawaii in Sept. The other 2 cruises were with Carnival & we sailed by the volcano on the Big Island each way so both sides of the ship got to see the lava flows. We always stoped in Kuaui as well. We did both an April & a Sept.cruise. We did not see the Napali coastline however. 

 

Edited March 25, 2019 by eltigre

[pspercy]

We did the Radiance repo from Vancouver to Honolulu in 2014.

We did NOT sail the Na Pali coast on our way out of Nawiliwili 😞 

To be fair to RCL, it was never stated they would do so.

[Lindanuf]

If your boat stops in kauai you could always do an excursion to see it.  We have gone with Wings Over Kauai twice, it’s a small airplane and you not also see the Napali coast but lots of waterfalls.  It was amazing.

[kgymn]

I am not sure about any other ships other than Pride of America doing a Na Pali sailby. I definitely would not count on it. 
However, as someone who has done the sail by on the POA as well as taken an excursion with a snorkel tour that sailed past the Na Pali coast I will say that you definitely would not regret doing the tour even if the ship happened to sail by. The tour we went on the boat sailed right under a small waterfall and being so up close to the coast was a truly different experience that can't be done on a larger vessel. 

[Biker19]

8 hours ago, mlbcruiser said:

   Since that isn’t mentioned  specifically in the ship itinerary, I thought perhaps it was a captains’ choice thing.  I understand that is the situation with regard to sailing past active lava flows along the coast of the Big Island  when that happens to be occurring. 

It seems that that is a big enough deal that RCI does put it on their itinerary detail - they certainly did for the Ovation repo in May this year. Of course that was cancelled by an extension of the ship's stay in Honolulu but that's a different story.

Edited March 25, 2019 by Biker19

[Cel_cruise]

It seems that that is a big enough deal that RCI does put it on their itinerary detail - they certainly did for the Ovation repo in May this year. Of course that was cancelled by an extension of the ship's stay in Honolulu but that's a different story.

It’s hard for me to believe that this inspection issue won’t come up on other future itineraries. Maybe Royal will start scheduling it accordingly?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Biker19]

3 minutes ago, Cel_cruise said:

It’s hard for me to believe that this inspection issue won’t come up on other future itineraries. Maybe Royal will start scheduling it accordingly?

 

The chances of a combination of location (Hawaii), gov't shutdown and a ship that hasn't sailed to US ports happening again is pretty slim.

[TwinMamainMN]

We are booked on the repo cruise in May 2020 from HI to Vancouver. Our itinerary gives us a full day in Kauai. Sailing past the Na Pali coast would be amazing, but since it's not on the itinerary, we will do a helicopter excursion to experience it instead. I'm really looking forward to seeing this part of HI!

[mlbcruiser]

Thanks for the recommendations but  in our case we actually have gone past the NaPali coast by dive/excursion boat before as well as over it by helicopter. It’s just that it seems such a shame to be in Kauai  and not get to see it again.  (Beauty of a land trip. Time for visiting more than this coast, Waimea Canyon & more! ) Additionally, my spouse has a mobility issue now and can only board a boat from a dock. Unless the boat has easy to access, stable seating - unlike many sailboats and catamarans used on many excursions in HI and elsewhere - excursions offered often are not suitable. (Not to mention being super pricey.)  As for it being on the itinerary or not, cruising past lava flows is not on the itinerary of ships that sometimes do sail past them on the island of HI - IF they are active & the capt. .so chooses according to what has been posted by others.  At any rate, at this point just hoping Kauai stays on our itinerary! 

[Sunny AZ Girl]

We are booked on the Serenade September 2020 cruise and Kauai is on our itinerary.  We sailed past the Napali coast on the POA in 2010 and would love to see it again.  However, it was on the POA itinerary, but not on the Serenade's so I am not counting on it.  I am also just hoping, after reading some of the above reports, that Kauai stays on our itinerary!

 

We are planning a 5 days post cruise stay on one of the islands.  Maybe we should move Kauai to the short list of choices!

Edited March 25, 2019 by Sunny AZ Girl

[squadron]

On 3/24/2019 at 8:40 PM, Coralc said:

We have sailed 3 Hawaii cruises with RC and Kauai was scheduled on all 3 cruises...and it has been cancelled well before the cruise every time. Let alone a sail by. We have given up on Kauai. We have decided that if we want to see it, we will just fly there. JMO. 

Have done Vancouver to Hawaii four times - never been cancelled so think you just had bad luck.  I sailed in Sept.

[dreamer976]

Did the Vancouver to Hawaii on the Radiance Sept. of 2015. Neither the NaPali coast nor passing by the Kilauea eruption were on our itinerary and, of course, we saw neither. Big disappointment. 

 

We didn’t understand (and still don’t) why not; especially the volcano viewing. We ported in Hilo one day, Kailua Kona the next. All RCI had to do was go around the south vs. the north. 

 

If if anyone knows the reason why, I’d love to know. 

 

Ellen

[mlbcruiser]

I have no way to  know if this is sometimes true, but someone else posted on another thread  something about the captain can choose to go past a volcano flow or sometimes will choose to take his ship farther out to sea where gambling is  in Hawaiian waters. This way the ship makes more revenue for that sailing. Again, I don’t know if that is true or not. I will say we were once on a ship and upon leaving St. Lucia our captain made an announcement that he would cruise past the pitons just so the passengers could get a look. It was early evening,  into twilight, but you could at least still see the outline pretty well. It was not listed on the itinerary however.  Remember the cost to ship that wrecked off the coast of Italy or an Italian island a few years back?   I believe one of the big issues was the captain decided to go off course a bit, rather close to the island for some specific reason and it was not part of the cruise route. So I’m wondering if it takes a very special circumstance for a captain to even get permission to alter the planned  route of the ship. Especially now days.

Edited March 26, 2019 by mlbcruiser

[WNcruiser]

We are on the Ovation Sept 20th Hawaii cruise and it specifically says “cruising Napali coast” on our itinerary. Really hoping we actually do it as Ovation is too large to dock in Kauai. 

[Eriksgarden]

We were on NCL Pride Of America...Napali was fogged in, so we saw nothing.  Of course, it is on our TV's screen saver!  LOL

[Lindanuf]

52 minutes ago, WNcruiser said:

We are on the Ovation Sept 20th Hawaii cruise and it specifically says “cruising Napali coast” on our itinerary. Really hoping we actually do it as Ovation is too large to dock in Kauai. 

That picture looks like it taken from a helicopter or plane, not a cruise ship.

[mlbcruiser]

 I am certain that is from the air. Just like the Viking River cruise commercial that comes on PBS when Masterpiece Theatre comes on. I believe this scene is on the Danube River in Budapest.  Nonetheless, the NaPali  coast is beautiful from any angle as long as there is enough light & nothing like fog to obscure your view.

[WNcruiser]

1 hour ago, Lindanuf said:

That picture looks like it taken from a helicopter or plane, not a cruise ship.

Why does that matter? The point of my post is that it is listed on our itinerary which is what the OP was asking.