Which Hawaii itinerary?

[FSU Girl]

We like the 9 night because of how it falls in the work week. We are coming from the East Coast so all flights are long no matter which way we do it.

I just checked prices for 2019 for the same month and the prices really weren't bad, wish the cruise was then lol. That's why I went with the 9 night, it's way easier to do it with taking off time from work.

 

[NancyIL]

One more consideration: sailing from Hawaii to Vancouver makes it much easier to cruise to Alaska afterwards - whether on DCL or another cruise line. That's what I did in 2017 on RCI.

 

[Ralph&Pam]

We are booked on the 9 night even though we would normally opt for a longer cruise when possible. There are multiple reasons why we opted for 9 nights rather than 10. Sailing west means we get the benefit of the time change with longer sea days on the trip to the islands, as we acclimate. There's a good chance this will be our only trip to Hawaii, so we plan to spend at least four nights there after we arrive (at Aulani if we can use DVC points at our seven month booking window, although we expect that might be tough to get due to the number of other cruisers with the same idea; at some other resort if we cannot get in there). We generally prefer to cruise first and do a land extension after the cruise when it's possible, planning that way for the transatlantic, Bahamas, and Caribbean cruises we have done, although we did land first for the EBPC last year and will do both a before stay at WDW and an after stay at DL for the WBPC this coming February. The 9 night cruise with sea days up front followed by the island hopping stops ending at Honolulu and an island visit for four additional nights in O'ahu will make for a nice two-week vacation for us since we'll fly into Vancouver at least one day before we sail. We spent one night in Vancouver before and two nights after the DCL Alaska cruise we did in 2015, so we probably don't need more than one night there before the cruise, as beautiful as we found Vancouver to be.

 

[southerngirl528]

ctually... does anyone know if Aluani is close to where there cruise will be embarking?

Aulani is in KoOlina which is about 40-45 minutes north/NW of Honolulu. If you get caught in rush hour, it will take longer.