DCL or Aulani?

[MEC004]

I was wondering the benefits of going to Hawaii via or Aulani. My son and I have never been. Hubby went on a cruise when he was a kid and loved every minute of it.

We are looking at Summer/Fall 2023 to vacation. Princess or DCL cruise lines. Hubby loves the different islands, and I would love to see the historical sites that are offered.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

A cruise is more about a cruise than about Hawaii. You get short port stops and are quite constrained.

Aulani is a very bubble Hawaii, but you can explore Oahu with Aulani as a base.

 

[5onadime]

You might consider the 7 day NCL Pride of America that is round trip from Honolulu then a stay at Aulani. We have done this a few times and have found it to be a great vacation.

 

[Inga]

I’m shy of cruises right now, so for us it’s Aulani all the way!

 

[jimmymc]

The only cruise that really sees Hawaii is the Pride of America. All the others start on the west coast and have a bunch of sea days before making 1 or 2 stops in Hawaii. If you have enough time, then Aulani is an excellent pre or post-cruise stay because the cruise leaves from Honolulu.

 

[nkereina]

To my knowledge, DCL or Princess cruises that port in Hawaii will have to originate somewhere on the mainland and also visit a foreign port. This makes you have less time in Hawaii overall.

I know the Pride of America referenced above visits Oahu, Maui, Kauai, and the Big Island and I believe overnights in one or two ports, so the focus is more on the ports than the ship or the cruise itself. That's the best way to get a little taste of each of the main islands if that's what you're looking for. If you did it yourself by taking inter-island flights, it would be far less efficient since travel days with flights can be time consuming. It could also become cost prohibitive, although I know when I priced out the POA cruise when booking my honeymoon, it was much more expensive than we anticipated. We ended up doing inter-island flights and limited ourselves to three islands.

We've cruised several times in the Caribbean. We enjoy it, but the main thing I dislike about it is having to be on a pretty strict time schedule. You are relegated to the port of call hours, logistical/transportation timeframes which can be time consuming in high traffic areas like Oahu/Waikiki, and if you do an excursion through the ship then you have little flexibility to do what you want. If you happen to have inclement weather on your port day, you're out of luck. The lack of flexibility would make want to avoid a cruise to Hawaii.

 

[bwmjam]

I just got back from Aulani 2 weeks ago and even though we really loved the resort (I mean it's absolutely beautiful), I spent a large amount of my time wishing I was on a cruise. (We've been on around 20 cruises on several cruise lines.) I don't know what Hawaii will look like in 2023, however, currently several restaurants did not survive the pandemic and the ones that did, can't get any help. Most places had 0 reservations or wait times of 1 - 2 hours. That's tough when you have a hungry gang to feed. I couldn't help but thinking this would be a non-issue on a cruise where an amazing 4 course dinner is ready every night at 6. This was a major problem on Kauai where the resort we stayed at had no reservations for our entire stay, we then started calling every restaurant in a 30 mile radius and they also had no reservations. Maui has straight up said - don't come, we have no restaurants to feed you.

The other major issue is the abysmal housekeeping at Aulani, they will empty your trash every day, that's it. You can call down and have fresh towels delivered but I find this unacceptable for what they charge. Again, I couldn't help but think that on a cruise, my cabin would be cleaned twice a day - a real treat on vacation!

I think most Hawaiian cruises spend 2 days on each island which I would find ample time. You have to fly out a least 1 day early for a cruise anyway so maybe just a few days at Aulani before the cruise would be ideal.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

DCL does not regularly cruise Hawaii, so do keep that in mind. The Wonder is not doing a Hawaii loop in fall 2022. Fall 2023 is not announced, but it is an uncommon itinerary for DCL.