Hawaiian Cruise?

[jdb in AZ]

We've cruised around Hawaii three times on three lines. The old America Hawaii Independence (which went out of business after 9-11) NCL Hawaii, then Disney. We enjoyed Disney the best, partly because of all the relaxing sea days coming and going. They also had the best entertainment.

The Independence was an old(!) classic ship. She was the twin sister of the ship used to film "An Affair to Remember." The rooms were roomy but the plumbing belched every night.

We were booked on NCL Pride of America for one of the first cruises, but when she was under construction in Germany a freak storm sank the hull, and that was just the beginning of the problems. Our extended family (about 30 people) were rebooked on Pride of Aloha, but it was a much smaller ship so they had trouble accommodating everyone. Our travel agent really earned her commission on that one -- she had to escalate the situation all the way to a vice president to get us the rooms we needed. After we boarded we found out that 1/3 of the crew had walked off in a labor dispute the week before, so service was deplorable at best. We haven't sailed with NCL since, and our travel agent refuses to do any more business with them. and yes, I realize NCL is more than NCL-Hawaii.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

I cruised Hawaii on a TransPac RCCL. Of course, Hawaii was everything you hope it would be. Huge craters, active flows, amazing pineapple and snorkeling and dolphins and luaus and helicopters over waterfalls in Kauai and more.

Can a cruise line differ? U bet. As good as Hawaii was and all our great memories, I don't even remember the name of the ship I was on....

Probably a great Hawaiian cruise on DCL would knock em all out the park. In the mean time, I'm looking forward to seeing the baby seal lions (have you seen them on Dolphin Encounter FB? Omg they so cute!) And getting back on the new Magic without having to pay airfare. Even if they went to Hawaii, it'd prob be super duper pricey. I have decided if my husband ever makes me go to Alaska, its ONLY gonna be on Disney. (Cuz I have no personal interest at all in Alaska but hey I would love the ship!)

 

[FJS961]

Just me personally ... I would not want to take a 14/15 day Hawaiian vacation and only get 4 days actually visiting the islands. I loved the two overnights in port where we didn't get back to the ship until way after sunset.

I'm not into multiple back to back sea days, 2 max good for me.

There are folks who LOVE sea days and that's cool.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

Our RCCL wasn't bad. It was 4 (kinda bad) sea days in the open pacific. That was it. We also had an overnight stay in Maui, the night we got engaged, we could wander all thru the night life after our awesome Luau. We flew back from Honolulu so we didn't have any more than the 4 initial sea days... I think the total cruise was 10 days, but its not impossible that it might have been 12. I seem to remember 10 though...

 

[Grammy4Lizzy]

I was on the April Hawaii cruise.
I thought that Disney choose ports very poorly. Every excursion had long bus rides, we were on the wrong side to see the lava flows, and we went to Hilo with the highest rainfall in the United States. I would have liked to stay later in the ports and not go to Oaho on Sunday. The biggest tourist place is closed on Sundays. ( Polynesian Culture Center)
The crossing weather was not good, very cold. One nice day to use the pools just before we got to Hawaii. The pool water was all over the decks.
I was seasick more days than not. I had never been seasick until this trip. I love Hawaii but never that way again.
The late dining had a rotation that was empty. That affected the tips for alot of crew mwmbers.
I don't think Disney will ever do Hawaii as a 14 or 15 day cruise again. If they do get some new ships, maybe they could station one in Hawaii for the non Alaska time and then not have to use the Canal for that ship at all. I heard a rumor that they may build some ships smaller than Dream and Fanatsy but bigger than the classics.
I am not complaining about the CM at all. They were so kind to everyone, they worked very hard and really earned the pay for those 2 weeks. The food (when I could eat) was very good. I really enjoyed the entertainment.
Thanks for listening to me.

 

[jdb in AZ]

I was on the April Hawaii cruise.
I thought that Disney choose ports very poorly. Every excursion had long bus rides, we were on the wrong side to see the lava flows, and we went to Hilo with the highest rainfall in the United States. I would have liked to stay later in the ports and not go to Oaho on Sunday. The biggest tourist place is closed on Sundays. ( Polynesian Culture Center)
The crossing weather was not good, very cold. One nice day to use the pools just before we got to Hawaii. The pool water was all over the decks.
I was seasick more days than not. I had never been seasick until this trip. I love Hawaii but never that way again.
The late dining had a rotation that was empty. That affected the tips for alot of crew mwmbers.
I don't think Disney will ever do Hawaii as a 14 or 15 day cruise again. If they do get some new ships, maybe they could station one in Hawaii for the non Alaska time and then not have to use the Canal for that ship at all. I heard a rumor that they may build some ships smaller than Dream and Fanatsy but bigger than the classics.
I am not complaining about the CM at all. They were so kind to everyone, they worked very hard and really earned the pay for those 2 weeks. The food (when I could eat) was very good. I really enjoyed the entertainment.
Thanks for listening to me.

Sorry, but DCL isn't allowed to do that because they're registered in the Bahamas. To sail exclusively around the Hawaiian islands without visiting a distant foreign port, the ship would have to be built and registered in the U.S. Part of the NCL-Hawaii ship was built overseas and it took an act of Congress to allow them to sail around the islands exclusively.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

Speaking of which, I kinda had a mini argument with a friend of mine. He is going on NCL for a cruise in the Hawaiian islands. I told him I thought he would end up on the Pride of America then. He was emphatic that that one isn't around anymore. I told him that one did end but that Pride of America was the only one I knew of with NCL that was cruising the islands to islands exclusively. He was fairly adamant he wasn't going to be on one that was flagged US because US Service Stinks, he said. (True from what I've heard about others sailing it.) Anyway, I'm pretty sure in order to sail the islands exclusively, it HAS to be flagged US and I thought NCL was the only one that had that... he doesn't know what ship he is going on, but I think I do...

 

[jrabbit]

Captain Pucket, he used to be a canal pilot, told me on this years WBPC that according to the people who he knows down there, they are approximately 15 months behind the 2015 date. It can all change for the better but doubtful.

Sent from my iPhone 5 using DISBoards

From May, the Pacific side "locks" - There's a whole lotta of work to make them functional - like "floors" and walls and the gates and ....

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

This is moving as fast as our local bridge is....

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Speaking of which, I kinda had a mini argument with a friend of mine. He is going on NCL for a cruise in the Hawaiian islands. I told him I thought he would end up on the Pride of America then. He was emphatic that that one isn't around anymore. I told him that one did end but that Pride of America was the only one I knew of with NCL that was cruising the islands to islands exclusively. He was fairly adamant he wasn't going to be on one that was flagged US because US Service Stinks, he said. (True from what I've heard about others sailing it.) Anyway, I'm pretty sure in order to sail the islands exclusively, it HAS to be flagged US and I thought NCL was the only one that had that... he doesn't know what ship he is going on, but I think I do...

I believe you win this one. AFAIK, the Pride of America is the only (NCL) ship doing Hawaiian island cruises.

And she's US flagged.

 

[jrabbit]

...

We were booked on NCL Pride of America for one of the first cruises, but when she was under construction in Germany a freak storm sank the hull, and that was just the beginning of the problems. Our extended family (about 30 people) were rebooked on Pride of Aloha, but it was a much smaller ship so they had trouble accommodating everyone. Our travel agent really earned her commission on that one -- she had to escalate the situation all the way to a vice president to get us the rooms we needed. After we boarded we found out that 1/3 of the crew had walked off in a labor dispute the week before, so service was deplorable at best. We haven't sailed with NCL since, and our travel agent refuses to do any more business with them. and yes, I realize NCL is more than NCL-Hawaii.

We sailed on the NCL "Pride of Hawaii" ... er .. I mean the NCL Jade in Europe several years ago. It was weird going to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Egypt on a ship themed to the Hawaiian Islands / Polynesia!! Oh yea, NCL is more than just Hawaii - but don't count on any service. NCL Freestyle means that as a guest you are invisible at all times (even at sit down dinner) and an annoyance if they happen to run into you. And almost impossible to have the standard gratuities removed because you didn't actually receive any service - no matter how many times you tried to give them a chance.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

...Speaking of invisible service (or worse, plain rude being SHUSHED by your main waiter?)

You weren't on my CCL Dream by chance...

 

[woody73]

. . . I know one of the servers didn't think the Europe itineraries were a hit after the first year either because their tips were way down. But they see things from a different perspective.

I spoke with some servers after the Magic's first season in the Med. At the time, gratuities were entirely voluntary.

The Med cruises attracted a broader spectrum of guests than the Caribbean cruises. DCL hadn't considered the cultural differences about tipping, and waitstaff tips were way down.

DCL later implemented auto gratuities, which has helped the waitstaff considerably.

Woody

 

[FJS961]

We sailed on the NCL "Pride of Hawaii" ... er .. I mean the NCL Jade in Europe several years ago. It was weird going to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Egypt on a ship themed to the Hawaiian Islands / Polynesia!! Oh yea, NCL is more than just Hawaii - but don't count on any service. NCL Freestyle means that as a guest you are invisible at all times (even at sit down dinner) and an annoyance if they happen to run into you. And almost impossible to have the standard gratuities removed because you didn't actually receive any service - no matter how many times you tried to give them a chance.

I can tell you it is different if you sail NCL in a suite / Haven. We have sailed Pride of America and Breakaway this year and had excellent service overall. On POA, we had access to Cagney's (converted from Lazy J's) for breakfast and wound up having 4 dinners there as well. The wait staff got to know us and service was awesome. On Breakaway, we had almost every meal in the Haven restaurant with a select dining staff and we were treated like royalty. It was better than eating in Palo every night because of both food quality and variety as the special starters and entrees changed daily in addition to an awesome fixed menu.

It's a shame that you have to pay extra on NCL to get good service like on DCL, but you are paying a premium for DCL in the first place so it felt comparable.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

Difference being that DC treats us ALL like princesses regardless of the level of room purchased...

 

[woody73]

I can tell you it is different if you sail NCL in a suite / Haven.

. . . It's a shame that you have to pay extra on NCL to get good service like on DCL, but you are paying a premium for DCL in the first place so it felt comparable.

I typically cruise 10 or so weeks a year, so I like to mix it up. One year it was 20+ weeks at sea.

In the last two months, we sailed on DCL and NCL. While on NCL, we did not sail in a suite / Haven.

We experienced consistent excellent service in DCL's MDR. While the overall service in NCL's MDR was very good (service some nights was excellent, other nights was just okay), it was not up to DCL's standards. (Again, we did not sail in an NCL suite / Haven).

That said, the NCL sailing costs much, much, much less than a DCL cruise with a comparable itinerary.

Hopefully one day we'll experience an NCL suite / Haven.

While I love DCL (and I have sailed more cruises on DCL than on any other cruise line), I don't cruise DCL exclusively. I generally look at itinerary first, then the price.

Woody

 

[FJS961]

Difference being that DC treats us ALL like princesses regardless of the level of room purchased...

That was my point that you have to pay extra on NCL to get the kind of service you expect on DCL routinely.

We have always experienced consistent high levels of service and friendliness from all DCL crew members.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]