Best time to cruise to Hawaii?

[Dee777]

Forgive me if I am posting something that has been overkilled... I just had a question regarding a cruise to Hawaii from Vancouver, British Columbia. Our family (17 in total) are wanting to plan the aforementioned cruise for 2010, preferably in February. We would like to go with Carnival. We will have all ages in our group, have all cruised with Carnival before, and enjoyed their party atmosphere. However, when I check with their website, I do not see anything that departs at that time of the year... so is February a bad time to go to Hawaii, or am I missing something? Thank you to any or all who can enlighten me!

 

Dee

[CC Help Michell]

Forgive me if I am posting something that has been overkilled... I just had a question regarding a cruise to Hawaii from Vancouver, British Columbia. Our family (17 in total) are wanting to plan the aforementioned cruise for 2010, preferably in February. We would like to go with Carnival. We will have all ages in our group, have all cruised with Carnival before, and enjoyed their party atmosphere. However, when I check with their website, I do not see anything that departs at that time of the year... so is February a bad time to go to Hawaii, or am I missing something? Thank you to any or all who can enlighten me!

 

Dee

 

There is no bad time to go to Hawaii! :) Lots to do there in February, including the fact that it's whale season, and big surf time. But all cruise lines do not sail to/from the islands year-round -- most do not. Some visit Hawaii a few times per year (Holland America and Princess come to mind, as part of their South Pacific itineraries). Other lines include Hawaii trips only during Alaska transition season (late spring and early fall -- they will bop over to Hawaii before or after transiting the Panama Canal for the Alaska season), and I think Carnival and probably RCCL are in that category -- something like late April and early October? I'm not positive where Celebrity falls in the mix, and some of the luxe lines like Seabourn also stop in Hawaii from time to time. Finally, NCLA has a ship in Hawaii year-round, the Pride of America -- which offers seven night cruises beginning and ending in Honolulu.

 

If you click on "Find a Cruise" at the top of this board (in orange), you can select Hawaii as the destination and get information on every cruiseline that visit Hawaii, which might help guide your planning. You might need to think about a different time of year, or a different cruise line, depending on which is most important to your family.

 

Welcome to the Hawaii boards -- this is a great community full of helpful information from Hawaii residents, frequent visitors, and past cruisers.

[Dee777]

Thank you so much for your response, it was so very helpful, and shed some light on something that was boggling what little is left of my mind :)

 

Perhaps flying to Hawaii as a group and cruising the islands for a week will be an option for us, thanks again!

 

Dee

[beachchick]

Aloha and welcome. True, this is a subject that comes up regularly, but don't fret. Since the search function is down (again!), I scrolled back and found this thread for you:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=793119

 

My post on it has links to several detailed discussions about the various pros and cons of visiting throughout the year. We love Hawaii at all times of the year, but are partial to late spring and mid fall. We don't prefer July or August, but wouldn't say no to a visit in those months if that's when we could get there. In our personal order of preference: October, May, November, April, March, February, December, September, June. February is absolutely an excellent time to visit Hawaii. MichellP is right that about why you don't find Carnival cruises to Hawaii in February. They only do the positioning cruises to/from Alaska for the season. If spending the most time in Hawaii is your goal with the cruise being a nice way to do it, then the Pride of America is a great choice. If the ship experience is primary with Hawaii being a nice destination but not the only focus, then there are many mainland-Hawaii options (both one-way and round-trip) at different times of the year.

 

Sometimes when we suggest that a member do a specific search, it's not that we don't want to help. It's because we suspect that a new thread on a frequent question might not get as much attention. For example, I'll sometimes think, "Didn't I just answer that question--whatever the question is--at length last week? I really don't feel like spending the time to write it all out yet again." Sometimes I don't answer on the new thread; other times I do a quick search to see if I can link a few recent threads; when the search is down, I sometimes scroll back a bit through my posts if I know I've answered that question recently so that I can give that link. Honest, it's not that we get "mad" about frequent questions. It's natural for some topics to come up more than others.

 

beachchick