Cruise to Hawaii

YES and I loved it. Hawaii is one of the best places I went, and I loved being able to visit multiple islands. We flew into Honolulu and stayed a couple of days there after the cruise. I loved every part of it. I don't care about cruises so much, but it was awesome to be able to spend time on Oahu, Maui, Hawaii and Kauai. We were on Norwegian (ILs picked) and our ship stayed 2 days in Maui and 2 in Kauai, plus Hilo and Kona. We got to sail past the active Kilauea, too, and see the lava going into the sea.

Highly recommend. I can share what excursions we did, too, if you're interested. The one thing I would absolutely NOT miss is sunrise at Haleakala.

During our last trip to Hawaii, we were on the Big Island and we were inadvertently following the ship around the island.  So while they were at sea, we were sightseeing the Big Island, got a lei from a lei stand, saw the Painted Church, had a fantastic lunch and arrived in Kona shortly after the ship arrived.  One of the places told us to come back later on when the cruisers all get back on the boat.  We had treated ourselves to a hotel that night (hubby's family has a home in a small town there, but it has nothing there like TV, wifi, etc - I was having withdrawals and needed a hotel!).  So we sat and watched all the cruise people line up and wait to get back on board then toddled off to a nice quiet dinner.    

My husband's family is on Oahu, but we love the variety of the Big Island and there's so much to do.  Can't wait to go back.
I actually talked my Mom out of the cruise because I had her look at how short the stay was on each island.  

You might consider flying to San Diego, and after a day or two flying direct to Oahu or Maui or Kauai or Hawaii, the Big Island. It's much easier now to fly from San Diego to other islands without having to go through Honolulu if you don't want to.

I would also reccomend tbe NCL cruise because it has no sea days. I want to do it. I have been to Maui and lanai, and I think a cruise would be a great way to see all the islands (I would take a day trip from Maui and go to Molokai so I could see all the inhabited islands) . It is not that I wouldn’t love to spend ten days on another island, but it is expensive and cruising isn’t cheap, but again, you can get a taste of all/most the islands that way for “cheaper” than the alternative (there are hundreds of places I want to travel to, so I won’t do five trips to Hawaii in my lifetime).

I would fly into San Francisco and spend a few days there - one of my favorite cities - and then fly to Honolulu.  

It's a long haul from East coast to Hawaii.  Similar to West Coast to Europe.  
I would dread it as well, but I think flying to San Francisco, staying two days, and then flying to Hawaii could be a good compromise.
and then do the same thing on the way back. Lots to see and do in SF!

Hawaii is awesome - we go every other year for 2 weeks, strictly to Maui.  We go in September - and we are counting the days!

I’ve been to Hawaii three times. First on my honeymoon in ‘89, again on a cruise with my mom and sisters in ‘02 and again with DH in ‘05.

I had a similar experience when I went on my cruise and I loved it too. We flew from the Twin Cities to LA, stayed overnight in an airport hotel and then flew over 10 hours from there to Papeete Tahiti to board the ship. The cruise was 13 days long which included stops in Kiribati, Bora Bora, Moorea, one other place in the S. Pacific that I don’t remember, and then several of the Hawaiian islands.

Honestly if you’ve never been to Hawaii before it’s a great way to get a feel for the different islands to see where you might want to visit again in more depth. Hawaii is CRAZY expensive because everything (and I do mean EVERYTHING) must be shipped in. If you are staying on land, all of your food, drinks, entertainment, you pay $$$ for yourself. If you are staying on multiple islands, you are hassling with airports, security, luggage, changing hotels and that’s a time consuming PITA. When you do the same on a cruise ship all of your food is included. (When DH and I were on our honeymoon on Oahu and Maui 30 years ago, two glasses of orange juice cost $13. We ate either PB&J sandwiches in our hotel room or we ate at McDonald’s sparingly every day. That was all we could afford because everything was so expensive there. Let that sink in.) Sometimes some or all of your drinks are included on the cruise ship depending on the package you choose, and other than excursions your entertainment is also included. Best of all, you have the same “home base” room to come back to every night and no shuffling all of your clothes and junk from place to place. It saves so much time and hassle to just be able to take yourself off the boat and back on again at the end of the day. Easy peasy.

The islands all have very different atmospheres and some islands may not be to your liking. Honolulu is very busy, very touristy, very commercial. Maui and Kawaii are a lot more laid back. When DH and I first went, the Big Island was the least commercial. DH and I had a land based trip on our honeymoon where we spent five days on Oahu and five days on Maui and what we learned was that we could have easily skipped Oahu/Honolulu entirely because it was so commercial and touristy and that wasn’t what we were looking for. A cruise would have given us a taste of that without having to spend five days there. We loved Maui though and went back there for ten days in 2005, and thankfully it was a business sponsored trip and a lot of our food and drinks were paid for by vendors and the hotel (Maui Westin) was much more affordable because we were traveling with such a big group.

If I have never been to Hawaii, I wouldn't want to cruise because of the short time you spend at each port.

I have family in Hawaii and have been many times, so I would love to take the cruise just for the relaxation aspect of it. I wouldn't mind 4-5 days at sea, just sitting by the pool and eating!