What happened to the Hawaiian Cruises?

[KyCruisinSusan]

My mother and I have been bouncing around the idea of taking a 14 day Hawaiian cruise in October 2014. This cruise had recently been seen on DCLs website but I was just checking tonight and there are no longer ANY cruises to Hawaii mentioned. Do these come and go? Is Hawaii being replaced by Alaska? I really wanna sail to Hawaii on DCL and I've been lookin soooo forward to booking it. Have my dreams been for naught?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

My mother and I have been bouncing around the idea of taking a 14 day Hawaiian cruise in October 2014. This cruise had recently been seen on DCLs website but I was just checking tonight and there are no longer ANY cruises to Hawaii mentioned. Do these come and go? Is Hawaii being replaced by Alaska? I really wanna sail to Hawaii on DCL and I've been lookin soooo forward to booking it. Have my dreams been for naught?

DCL has done Alaska in the summer since 2011. This last year they added an April Hawaii cruise prior to going to Alaska for the summer, and then added one in October afterwards.

DCL Hawaii cruises have never happened before this year. At this time there are no Hawaii cruises scheduled for DCL. We don't know about 2014 yet.

 

[TDC Nala]

I was on the DCL Hawaii cruise in April/May of this year.

While the staterooms were pretty much sold out, the ship was nowhere near capacity. This was because most staterooms were apparently sold to either singles or couples. There weren't a lot of families. This wasn't a good time for school-age kids to take a two week cruise.

I don't know if DCL will go with it again if they can't draw the families.

 

[luv2sleep]

I was on the DCL Hawaii cruise in April/May of this year.

While the staterooms were pretty much sold out, the ship was nowhere near capacity. This was because most staterooms were apparently sold to either singles or couples. There weren't a lot of families. This wasn't a good time for school-age kids to take a two week cruise.

I don't know if DCL will go with it again if they can't draw the families.

Too bad they can't take one month to do 2 repositionings and one roundtrip Hawaii cruise in the middle of the summer Alaska cruise season. I'd be on that trip for sure.

 

[MAJPLO]

I sure would rather go to Hawaii than Alaska!

 

[jdb in AZ]

When they offered the April 2012 cruise, DCL started a stampede. So they added the Oct cruise and had trouble filling it. Maybe they'll do one a year or every other year but I don't see them offering Hawaii very often.

When there's a ship on the west coast for Alaska I doubt they'd take two weeks out of a lucrative summer season to go to Hawaii, even tho the kids are out of school. I do wish they would offer it and see what happens.

Hawaii has great weather year round, tho I prefer the cooler winter months. I wonder how two weeks for a Hawaii cruise over Christmas would sell. But DCL tends to make more money on shorter cruises, and after they stop offering Mexican Riviera cruises next month, it's doubtful they'll have a ship on the west coast during the winter season.

 

[luv2sleep]

When they offered the April 2012 cruise, DCL started a stampede. So they added the Oct cruise and had trouble filling it. Maybe they'll do one a year or every other year but I don't see them offering Hawaii very often.

When there's a ship on the west coast for Alaska I doubt they'd take two weeks out of a lucrative summer season to go to Hawaii, even tho the kids are out of school. I do wish they would offer it and see what happens.

Hawaii has great weather year round, tho I prefer the cooler winter months. I wonder how two weeks for a Hawaii cruise over Christmas would sell. But DCL tends to make more money on shorter cruises, and after they stop offering Mexican Riviera cruises next month, it's doubtful they'll have a ship on the west coast during the winter season.

I think the problem was a 2 week cruise in the middle of the school year. I took my son but doing homework was challenging and when he got back he didn't adjust well being back in school. I doubt I'd do another cruise during school again. I bet a cruise during winter or summer break would sell quickly and fill with more families.

 

[carpenta]

......pirates?.........

 

[jdb in AZ]

......pirates?.........

Don't understand the question. There have been pirates -- lots of them -- on all of our Disney cruises.

If you're worried about real pirates, Hawaii is a long way from Somalia.

 

[TDC Nala]

Hawaii has great weather year round, tho I prefer the cooler winter months.

Hawaii may have great weather year-round. But the middle of the Pacific does not. One of the major complaints about the May cruise (not by me; I'm not a pool sitter so I didn't care) was that on the sea days it was generally not warm and sunny like in the Caribbean. And there were a couple days of rough seas.

 

[luv2sleep]

Hawaii may have great weather year-round. But the middle of the Pacific does not. One of the major complaints about the May cruise (not by me; I'm not a pool sitter so I didn't care) was that on the sea days it was generally not warm and sunny like in the Caribbean. And there were a couple days of rough seas.

On the October cruise our first sea day was cool, rocky and windy but the subsequent 3 were perfect. Sunny, calm and just beautiful. On the way back it was cool after the first couple of sea days and our last couple of days were rocky. I thought it was a wonderful cruise. Best ever. I've heard that Sept is the warmest month in Hawaii so we could have had better weather on the way there because we sailed in October.

 

[ksucats]

Too bad they can't take one month to do 2 repositionings and one roundtrip Hawaii cruise in the middle of the summer Alaska cruise season. I'd be on that trip for sure.

Unfortunately, it will never happen. They can make a LOT more money with shorter cruises during the summer months.

 

[luv2sleep]

Unfortunately, it will never happen. They can make a LOT more money with shorter cruises during the summer months.

In my above example that would be 3 cruises instead of 4. Not a huge difference but I see what you are saying.

 

["Cinder" Ella's Mom]

Hawaii in the summer...we would book in a heartbeat. I am a teacher so that is the only good time for us except holiday sailings.

 

[NancyIL]

A roundtrip Hawaii cruise in the summer from Vancouver would take a minimum of 14 days. That's 2 Alaska cruises, so take the lowest price of an Alaska cruise and multiply that by 2. That's how much money DCL would want to make to forego Alaska cruises for 2 weeks during high season. Two one-way Hawaii cruises (to/from Vancouver) @ 10 or 11 nights each would = ~ 3 Alaska cruises.

 

[luv2sleep]

Sounds like summer Med pricing. I guess prices will always be higher when kids are out if school and more families can go. I'm glad I got to go on at least one long cruise during the school year. Wish I could do it again but I won't be able to.

 

[NancyIL]

If you want a long, relatively inexpensive (for Disney) cruise - consider the May 18-June 1, 2013 Transatlantic. Transatlantic cruises in general are among cruise lines' best values, and you get a lot of sea days on most itineraries.

 

[luv2sleep]

If you want a long, relatively inexpensive (for Disney) cruise - consider the May 18-June 1, 2013 Transatlantic. Transatlantic cruises in general are among cruise lines' best values, and you get a lot of sea days on most itineraries.

I'd love to but unfortunately that's still during the school year. My son is 5 and although he did great on the ship, he had a difficult time adjusting at school when we got back from the Hawaii cruise. So, I will likely not pull him out again. Hopefully we can try again when he's older because I loved the long cruise on Disney.

 

[EastYorkDisneyFan]

I think another problem with why they don't do the longer cruises is when they do them they have to take some of the inside cabins out of commission for extra dry goods storage. The Magic and Wonder are only designed to have enough space for about a weeks worth of food on board.

 

[KingRichard]

I think another problem with why they don't do the longer cruises is when they do them they have to take some of the inside cabins out of commission for extra dry goods storage. The Magic and Wonder are only designed to have enough space for about a weeks worth of food on board.

They pack more on at the next port!