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Hi all,
I’m looking to book a Hawaiian cruise, which is something totally different for me. Historically I’ve tended to go on beach / city / road trip holidays where I’ve booked everything myself individually, but as this trip will be a honeymoon I want to plan for this to be a great trip and need everything to go smoothly!So, where would you recommend to go to, to seek assistance with booking a cruise with both international and transfer flights? Is this a local travel agent or someone more specialist?
Also regarding the cruise, I’ve no idea what to expect, what levels of drinks and food to include, planning excursions, so could really do with an agent with suitable knowledge.
All recommendations are gratefully received.
Thanks 👍
Vacationstogo.com will give you a good idea of what cruises depart from what ports. You can filter Hawaii and work out where to fly to and from.
Cruise Critic is also a really good source of info.
As to food/drinks/excursions, how long is a piece of string. There is so much variety that it is almost impossible to answer. Sufficed to say cabins are generally small and food is almost always excellent.
When I was new to cruising I used a Company called The Cruise Specialists (part of Barrhead Travel) which I always found very helpful. Not used them for many years now since I became more au fait with cruising – hopefully they still as good.
Am sure other Companies are available!
ps The golden rule for choosing any type/category of cabin – make sure there are cabins either side of you as well as above and below you. And no connecting doors. Noise travels easily on ships – a gym/restaurant/crew area etc next to you can be unbearable.
As strikers said cruise critic is a great source of info for everything you need.Something to remember if you book trips independently from cruise line and you get delayed the ship won’t wait for you, if you book a ships excursion and delayed it will wait.Most cruise lines have cruise air fares with airlines and will sort them out if you want.
Trailfinders is another good company with a dedicated cruise department.
Where are you departing from west coast of USA or Vancouver ? Don’t plan on flying in on same day of cruise that’s asking for world of pain, come day before or few days if you want to explore but certainly day before overnight in hotel near cruise terminal.
Look at taking a drinks package if not included and gratuities lines like Celebrity include these now but you really need to research what cruise line you like. If you are interested in BA shopping portal there is a cruise company you can earn points with. I’d phone up or do all research then book on line but all depends how hard core of a collector you are and of course if they do cruise you want.
You can of course book reward flights use a 241 whatever to book your positioning flight.Not sure you will be able upgrade with points a cruise line air fare as these a different fare bracket.Start with cruise critic that will become your go to place, very knowledgable people on the boards.
I’d maybe look at Iglu or cruise.co.uk for the dates you’re interested in, and see what comes up. You don’t necessarily need to book with them, but it will show you the different cruise lines, routes etc, and help you narrow down what you want.
We’ve just done a Hawaiian cruise this year. We did it with Princess, just because it fitted the dates we were interested in and a good price. It was in February, and I probably wouldn’t recommend going that early in the year, as they had more rain than usual which affected some of our ports (plus the sailing there and back). None of our ports were cancelled, but the cruise before us and after us did due to adverse weather.
As a basic rule of thumb, all main dining room food, buffet and poolside grills are included in your fare. Free drink wise, there are the usual hot drinks in the buffet, plus juices at breakfast as well as water. Sometimes there is a bit more of a selection.
Most cruise lines have what they call speciality dining, which is an extra cost on top if you want to do it (and generally very reasonable). It depends on your food tastes, you can eat perfectly well without having to do any extra paid for dining.
Drink wise, you can either pay as you go, or pay for one of the drinks packages, which these days are often tied in with including gratuities (these are unfortunately a thing on the majority of cruise lines, and are in addition to your fare), some kind of internet access, and sometimes some speciality dining.
Princess have got a deal on at the moment, running until July, where if you book with them their Princess Plus package is half price at £25 per day. That’s fantastic value for all your drinks, tips and wifi. It’s for the majority of cruises they have for next year (the website will tell you if the particular cruise you’re looking at includes that deal or not).
Celebrity run a similar thing, with their all included package, which is drinks, tips and internet. Royal Caribbean is just a drinks package, nothing else included (and is quite expensive I believe). NCL do it slightly different, it’s called Free at Sea and you pay an amount based on the length of the cruise (for 2 weeks I think it is £249) and this includes drinks, tips, 300 minutes of wifi, $50 off the first passengers shore excursions and 2 speciality meals (or 3 if in a balcony or above).
Different cruise lines also have different expectations in terms of dress code etc. NCL is very casual, there are no formal nights, you wear what you want. Others are a bit more formal as in there are formal nights onboard (usually one per week), and depending on the cruise line if you don’t want to dress up, the you might be expected to eat in the buffet that night (P&O do this, but they don’t sail to Hawaii).
For a honeymoon, I’d probably suggest Celebrity or Princess as good mid level cruise lines. Both have some really nice ships, and I particularly like the art work on Celebrity ships. You can obviously google ship names and look at deck plans, and as others have said, the cruise critic forum is a fabulous place for information. I’d also look for a ship that isn’t too old – although they’re obviously well maintained, things like decor, seats in the theatre, even stateroom furniture and decor tend to much nicer on the newer ships.
Excursion wise, you can book through the ship, but these generally cost a lot more than doing it yourself. We happily book through places like Viator. Something to bear in mind is if you’re on a ship excursion and something goes wrong, they guarantee to get you back to the ship. They also refund you if the excursion is cancelled due to weather. If you book through somewhere else, you need to look at this (some tour companies offer the same guarantees for example, if the ship can’t dock due to weather they will refund) and decide what level of risk you’re happy with. We booked all our Hawaiian excursions through Viator, and hired a car at one port through ebookers (was cheapest) and for all of them you could cancel up to 24 hours beforehand for a full refund. Doesn’t help you if you don’t have that much notice, but we decided we were happy with that level of risk.
We generally book our cruises and flights separately, using Avios for flights. The one time we booked a package was at the start of Covid – we’d flown out to Santiago to start a cruise, and when we were in the air pretty much the whole world shut down and cruising was cancelled. We had a nightmare getting home, and ended up having to go through the credit card company for refunds as the travel agent was terrible.
I can recommend both Seabourn and Silversea if looking to sail on a six star ship. Both lines are all inclusive.
If looking to cut costs then choose a verandah but if can afford it they have some great suites (Wintergarden on Seabourn if my fav!)
If booking either of these lines definitely choose a travel agent that specialises in luxury cruises – quick look on net will highlight these agents.
I second Celebity, I was impressed with one of the ‘Edge’ ships. Plenty of places to unwind with live music and overall a calmer clientele.
Of course, destination and seasons limit choice of ships.
Just booked Celebrity Edge for next year, Vancouver – Hawaii, 13 nights. There’s a big sale that ends today, non-refundable deposit unfortunately but only £300 if booked through a UK travel agent. It seemed to be $800-$900 booking through a US company, prices were comparable.
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