Hawaii

[Stelladoro]

We're thinking of cruising to the Hawaiian islands, sailing out of LA or San Diego and return. When would be the best time of the year to consider this cruise? We've never been to Hawaii.

[NAS-KARR]

We were sail'n around the islands in Sept. and it was beautiful and hot.

 

 

CIAO, ;)

[melika091900]

as far as weather wise, its always nice in hawaii ;)

 

but if you are worried about the sea conditions, its usually a crap shoot,

you never know

we went in april and it was nice,

coming home we were facing a strong wind, so we were 6 hrs late into port, but it was ok for us since we drove .

I would go anytime, the cruises to hawaii from san diego are amazing, this was our favorite cruise by far !!!

[Putterdude]

People out here on the "Wet Coast" tend to go to Hawaii in January and February and these tend to be regarded as the High Season months. We did the cruise this past Christmas & New Years on the Diamond Princess out of LA rt. and enjoyed it a ton. However next season Princess is using the Golden Princess on this cruise, reducing the cruise to 14 days from 15 days and dropping Kona as a port of call. So the one thing to consider is that it is lot of cruising for only 4 days in Hawaii. That said we felt that we got a pretty good taste of Hawaii and know where we would want to go or not want to go when we go back.

[GTO-Girl]

Next year (2009) we have a big anniversary coming up (40yrs) and my husband will have a big birthday (60). We want to do something really special and this is one of things we are considering. We have never been to Hawaii, but we love to cruise so we thought this would be the best of both worlds.

 

Can anyone give me an idea of the best cruiseline to use? I have been looking at some Princess cruises and they look very good. This is be a very big venture for us as we live in Georgia so we have to also consider flight, pre-cruise hotel, etc into our pricing.

 

Any suggestions and tips will be appreciated.

 

Dianne

[Putterdude]

Next year (2009) we have a big anniversary coming up (40yrs) and my husband will have a big birthday (60). We want to do something really special and this is one of things we are considering. We have never been to Hawaii, but we love to cruise so we thought this would be the best of both worlds.

 

Can anyone give me an idea of the best cruiseline to use? I have been looking at some Princess cruises and they look very good. This is be a very big venture for us as we live in Georgia so we have to also consider flight, pre-cruise hotel, etc into our pricing.

 

Any suggestions and tips will be appreciated.

 

Dianne

 

You will likely get as many opinions as their are cruise lines and ships on this topic. It is our view that Princess probably represents the best value over all. However Celebrity out of San Diego is probably very slightly better with respect to service and presentation but they are not always the best value. We love both cruise lines but you may get the biggest "wow" out of Princess.

[GTO-Girl]

You will likely get as many opinions as their are cruise lines and ships on this topic. It is our view that Princess probably represents the best value over all. However Celebrity out of San Diego is probably very slightly better with respect to service and presentation but they are not always the best value. We love both cruise lines but you may get the biggest "wow" out of Princess.

 

That's was my initial feeling too....thanks for confirming it! I hope we can pull this off because we really, really want to go!

 

Dianne

[Fredr]

Next year (2009) we have a big anniversary coming up (40yrs) and my husband will have a big birthday (60). We want to do something really special and this is one of things we are considering. We have never been to Hawaii, but we love to cruise so we thought this would be the best of both worlds.

 

Can anyone give me an idea of the best cruiseline to use? I have been looking at some Princess cruises and they look very good. This is be a very big venture for us as we live in Georgia so we have to also consider flight, pre-cruise hotel, etc into our pricing.

 

Any suggestions and tips will be appreciated.

 

Dianne

 

Hello,

 

Celebrity's Mercury has round trip sailings from San Diego to Hawaii and back to San Diego. The prices are very reasonable for the February and March sailings. This is a very nice ship, and San Diego is a truly nice port including the fact that the airport is very close to the cruise terminal.

 

Hope that this helps.

 

Fred

[lovesublime]

If weather is your concern; Hawaii has only two seasons-Summer and Winter. Though, the temperature never varies by more than 10 degrees one way or the other. Summer is from May to November and generally when the weather will be best. The cooling trade winds will be blowing most of the time. Winter starts in November. Winter usually brings a lot more rain and it's also when the trade winds can just stop which means hot, humid, sticky winds coming from the opposite side of the islands. We've only been in May and have always enjoyed the most beautiful weather we've ever experienced anywhere.

[murphysmum]

Hello...

 

I've been all over the world and Hawaii is still my favorite destination. I have to get a once a year...or more..."fix".

 

All of the islands are so beautiful and unique with so much to see that, unless you have a reluctance to fly or love ocean cruising, I would fly to Hawaii, saving days at sea for days cruising the islands. It's easy to fly into Honolulu and get to the cruise dock and you have the opportunity for spending much more time actually in Hawaii.

 

Whatever you decide to do, you've picked a wonderful destination!

 

Aloha...

 

murphysmum:)

[RascalAnn]

Next year (2009) we have a big anniversary coming up (40yrs) and my husband will have a big birthday (60). We want to do something really special and this is one of things we are considering. We have never been to Hawaii, but we love to cruise so we thought this would be the best of both worlds.

 

Can anyone give me an idea of the best cruiseline to use? I have been looking at some Princess cruises and they look very good. This is be a very big venture for us as we live in Georgia so we have to also consider flight, pre-cruise hotel, etc into our pricing.

 

Any suggestions and tips will be appreciated.

 

Dianne

 

Hi Dianne.....We did the Diamond Princess Cruise to Hawaii in Nov/07....it was absolutely wonderful! It was my first time to Hawaii....loved Hawaii.....and loved all of the sea days.....it was like 3 different vacations....5 days at sea going.....5 great days in the islands......then 5 more great sea days coming back.....couldn't ask for anything more!

 

Rita

[whale-watcher]

Hi Dianne.....We did the Diamond Princess Cruise to Hawaii in Nov/07....it was absolutely wonderful! It was my first time to Hawaii....loved Hawaii.....and loved all of the sea days.....it was like 3 different vacations....5 days at sea going.....5 great days in the islands......then 5 more great sea days coming back.....couldn't ask for anything more!

 

Rita

Sadly princess has changed the RT Hawaii itinerary to 14 days, with only 4 days on the Islands (Kona stop eliminated)...IMO this is just not enough time...especially if you miss a port (which is possible); I would look at other options, such as longer HAL itineraries if you are a big fan of sea days, or perhaps the one way Carnival itinerary mentioned on another thread on this board. (we chose NCLA for our first Hawaii vacation in order to maximize time on the islands, combining our 7 day cruise with a resort stay as well).