More Hawaii visitors are choosing to voyage either one way or round trip between the west coast and the islands. As for cruise ship safety, the recent disaster will likely put an unprecedented focus on cruise regulations and enforcement. Last year more than 15 million people cruised safely world wide.
Not only is there an increase in the number of cruises coming to Hawaii, there are also more Hawaii cruise deals popping up. So much so in fact, that we’ve written about Hawaii cruise sales four times recently.
In the first eleven month of 2011, the number of people arriving in Hawaii by cruise ship rose nearly 15% from the prior year. At 104,000, that’s still below the 2007 peak. It may not be long, however, until we see a new record being set.
We’ve mentioned before that cruises can make for an ideal first time visit to Hawaii. With multiple stops, you’ll get a brief albeit limited sampler of what each island has to offer. For a more in depth Hawaii experience, of course, cruises do not allow enough time in each port to really do justice to Hawaii.
Here are the top reasons that cruises to Hawaii are regaining momentum:
1. Value.
Just this past week Jeff reported on a round trip 2+ week cruise from San Diego that came out to about $75 per day, all-inclusive. That is still available. The cruise includes transportation to and from Hawaii ($400 average value) as well as inter-island transportation ($300 average value). There are no baggage fees. Also included are 14 nights accommodations ($1,400 average value), and perhaps 42 meals ($420 average value). Even with these conservative calculations, this cruise might be worth $2,500 or more, and yet it is on offer for about $1,000. I simply cannot see any other possible way to have a two week multi-island Hawaii vacation for that price.
2. Convenience.
There’s nothing more convenient than unpacking and packing once, sleeping in the same room every night and not being in any airports or sitting on any crowded planes.
Great prices, but a round trip cruise from the California = a lot of “sea days”, and missed opportunities to explore the islands.
I changed my entire vacation to book this cruise. My husband and I are making our first trip to Hawaii for our 25th Anniversary and we had timeshare reservations on 2 different islands. I figured the value on this was incredible and not having to spend all those hours on a plane was a bonus. Thanks for sending this out. We are really looking forward to our vacation in October.
Hi Ann Marie,
That’s so cool. Glad it worked out for you. Please let us know how you enjoy it.
Aloha,
Jeff