Which Cruise??

[CruiseMad99]

Hi,

 

I am new to this boards and hope I will be able to get some help to a few questions I have going round in my head at the moment.

 

We are looking to do an Hawaii cruise in March/April 08.

 

My husband would like to actually stay on the Islands but I am not sure if there is enough to do for say a week. Any thoughts on this?

 

Also, that means we are using up our holiday time. We are looking at having three weeks off work, bearing in mind we are in the UK we are going to be losing about 3 days travelling. The majority of cruises I have seen are 15 nights. We love sea days so I am not sure that one of the week around the islands would do for us as they seem pretty full on and no time to enjoy the ship. Are there any cruises that start in Hawaii, go around the islands and then return to LA/San Diago?

 

A guess the answers on the above would then dictate the answer to my next question - which line to go with. We have only ever cruised DCL before and love it. We are going without children so there is just me and my husband (in our early 40s). We like dressing up for dinner and sitting with other people and talking about our day.

 

Any suggestions/hints would be very much appreciated.

 

cruisemad99

[psklak]

NCL does primarily just the islands. You fly into and out of Honolulu. Princess and Holland American (plus others I'm sure) are 15 day round trip (Los Angeles/or San Diego). However, Carnival has a 12 day trip. In April the Carnival Spirit does San Diego/Ensenada, Mexico to Hawaii. There are 5 sea days over and 7 days in the islands. You would have to fly home out of Honolulu. When this ship docks in Honolulu, their next trip is the islands for 7 days and 5 sea days to Vancouver. In September, this ship does the Vancouver/Hawaii and the Hawaii/San Diego trip.

 

We are on the 9/19/07 Vancouver to Hawaii trip. We thought about the 15 day trips (We love Princess) but schedules and 10 sea days were too much. Carnival has a party reputation and this will be our 1st trip with them in 20 years. My understanding is a 12 day cruise attracts a slightly more sedate group while still fun.

 

Check these boards for opinions of the cruises under reviews. Whatever you choose, I'm sure you'll have a great time!

[beachchick]

CruiseMad99: In response to this:

 

My husband would like to actually stay on the Islands but I am not sure if there is enough to do for say a week. Any thoughts on this?

 

You will have NO worries about no having enough to do--even with a week on any island. In fact, a week is barely enough time for one island. DH and I visit often, and we never run of "things to do." There is a caveat though. If by this you mean a hundred different things that you can do all day, every day and cramming your days full of activity with no breaks, then maybe you would not find enough to do, but you'd have to try really hard to be bored. It would take me so long to list all the various things to do that I'd be here all night. Each island is different with its own vibe. Some activities are common on all the islands (beaching, snorkeling, swimming, and so forth); others are island specific (VNP on the Big Island, Haleakala or the road to Hana on Maui; Waimea Canyon on Kauai; Pearl Harbor and the north shore on Oahu).

 

In addition, I am a huge nag regarding NOT trying to cram every minute of every day full to the brim in Hawaii. "Plan" plenty of time to just hang loose on a beach or to relax by a pool or anything else that says, "I'm in Hawaii, I'm going to just let things be." Once you've been to Hawaii, I suspect you'll want to go back again because there's NEVER enough time to do it all--on a cruise, there's not even enough time to do "a bunch."

 

NCLA is the only cruise line to do the Hawaii-only itineraries. Other lines do one-way repositioning cruises in the spring and fall (to and from Alaska). In the spring, you would either go from the mainland (probably San Diego or LA, sometimes Ensenada) to Hawaii (and around the islands) or around the islands and then over to Vancouver. Those one-way cruises have about 4 sea days and usually total 11 or 12 nights.

 

If your DH wants to do some land time, I suggest you look into flying to Hawaii, staying on one of the islands for a few days (to recover and also to start to experience all that Hawaii has to offer), then take an NCLA 7-night cruise around the islands (this will give you a taste of all four major islands), after the cruise you could stay for a few nights on another one of the islands. (Or you could do all of your land time pre-cruise and fly home directly after the cruise.) Factoring in travel days, you could do 6 land days and the 7-night cruise, and still have a few days leftover.

 

There is an issue with NCL and NCLA that might factor into your decision. The Freestyle dining concept doesn't have required (or even "recommended") formal nights. Just optional ones. OTOH, with Freestyle you can dress up every night if you choose, and you will not be alone. You also do not have assigned dining, so meeting other pax at dinner is more of a challenge. You can ask to be seated with others, which may mitigate that, but you aren't guaranteed to be seated with others. (On the plus side, if you don't like your table mates, you never need to dine with them again.)

 

Another option would be to find a spring repo cruise. Fly directly to Hawaii, stay a few nights in the islands, take the repo cruise (which will end in Vancouver or Seattle), and then fly home from there. Or you could fly to the west coast, take a repo over to Hawaii and around the island, stay post-cruise for a few days, and then fly home from Hawaii.

 

It depends on what things are the deal makers and deal breakers for you. If the ship and a "traditional" cruise environment is your primary objective, then you should look at a repo because the NCLA ships are more focused on the fact that they are port-intensive. The Pride of Aloha is going to do several Hawaii-only 10 and 11 night cruises this year. You would have a few "sea" days just cruising around the islands in between port stops.

 

Hope that helps steer you in the right direction (whatever that turns out to be).

 

beachchick

[ASue]

Great advise Beachchick. We just did the 7 day cruise on NCL POA. I loved it. We are booked to take a 14 day cruise from Los Angles to Hawaii and back the end of March. This cruise is 4 days over and 4 days back. So this is a total of 8 sea days. A friend of mine took the 10 day cruise with NCL and had 2 sea days to and from Fanning Island. She enjoyed that. I liked the freestyle dinning. You could dress up if you wanted or not. I'm not sure but I've been told that the NCL ships are the only ones now doing the sail by the Lava flow at night. I agree with you on going earlier and staying a few days in Hawaii before you board the ship. Maui is our favorite island.

[CruisinMK]

You say you like traditional dining and some sea days.

I recommend a one way cruise (like carnival) because

 

1) You can extend your stay in a hawaiian hotel, unlike west coast roundtrips

2) traditional/dressier dining you say you prefer, unlike NCL

3) some sea days (4), but not a ridiculous number like the west coast roundtrips (8 or 9)

4) carnival usually includes kauai, most west coast round trips don't

5) Because one way cruises are great in general :)

 

Another possibility, since this isn't til 2008, is the 10/11 pure-hawaii itineraries on the Pride of Aloha.

* You still can extend your stay a bit in a hawaiian hotel.

* This would get you nearly twice as many port days in hawaii as either the one ways or west coast roundtrips

* includes a couple of sea days you say you love.

PLUS these are SCENIC HAWAIIAN sea days, where the ship slowly cruises past some of the most beautiful scenery in the world -- including

1) Na Pali coast (only american flagged NCL ships see it. No other cruiseline sees this.)

2) Molokai coast (only the pride of Aloha sees this on 10/11 day pure-hawaii itineraries. I don't think any other ships currently see it. Includes father damien's leper colony, amazing to see)

These hawaiian sea days are very different from the sea days to the west coast, where the ship is going full blast across big swells on the windy open ocean :)

The pride of Aloha has "freestyle" dining instead of traditional though, less dressy and not usually with the same strangers each night unless you specially arranged it that way with people you meet.

[CruiseMad99]

Thank you so much everyone for the great advice. I have just been checking out the 10/11 night cruises on PPAloha and think that may be the one for us.

I have one concern - and i will post this question also on the NCL board. I hope I wont get flamed, but I want to make an informed choice. I understand smoking is allowed in the cabins as well as on the balconies, although I am quite happy to take a chance on the balacony side of things as we have cruised 5 times so far and luckily never had a problem, I really cant imagine anything worse that being in a cabing that stank of smoke for 10 nights.

 

If anyone has any thoughts on this I would appreciated it.

 

CruiseMad99 (AKA Lorraine)

[ASue]

I don't think you will have to worry about any smoke smell in your cabin. I know if you smoke in your cabin they put a little machine in there to clean up the smoke. And I hope no one flames you. If they do just ignore them

[beachchick]

I believe that smoking is allowed in the cabins on virtually all mass-market cruise lines. I know for sure it is on RCI and Carnival. I'm pretty sure it is on HAL, Celebrity, and Princess.

 

No flames from me. Your concerns are perfectly valid ones. DH and I don't smoke and DH has asthma, so it is a concern for us as well. We've never had a problem on any ship with having that horrid "stale smoke" smell. The ionizer machines they use really do work.

 

beachchick