Hawaii vs. Mexico Cruise

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Hawaii Five-0 is in the news, the last couple of episodes did really well in the ratings so of course that’s giving the Hawaii Visitors Bureau a reason to have all Luau in their pants; it’s really great for tourism. I enjoyed the last episode even though it’s pretty much fantasy, not all that believable but extremely entertaining.

Hawaiian Airlines and Delta have signed a code share agreement that gives Delta passengers access to interisland connecting flights within Hawaii for the first time. Fares for the new interisland connections are available and we have good Delta contracts which we use for our “Book now Pay later program” This code share will allow us to defr payment on Hawaiian Air interisland flights. Delta is offering nonstop flights now between Honolulu and Detroit, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Atlanta, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Salt Lake City.

Yaling and i just got back from our Mexican vacation. We went on a Mexican Riviera cruise on the Royal Caribbean Mariner of the Seas. We have gone to Mexico a couple of times but never cruised there. I have talked about Mexico in general as a destination in the past so today it I thought i would compare the Hawaii cruise with the Mexican cruise. Obviously I’m a Hawaii travel agent; I’m partial to Hawaii, however I am trying to be objective. Note: When talking about Hawaiian cruises, I’m talking strictly about the seven day Norwegian cruise line itinerary around the Islands, We recommend this Hawaiian over all others because you can experience more of Hawaii. Less time at sea give you more time here.

In general, Royal Caribbean, Princess Holland sail nicer ships, have a foreign crew and higher staff to passenger a ratio and better service then the NCL Pride of America which is a US flagged ship.

We spent the first two days at sea and then because of the tropical storm we had to spend a third day at sea and our entire itinerary got reversed. This allowed us to see what goes on when you have nothing else to do but stay on the ship. Bingo, belly flopping contests, shopping, casino, cheesy seminars that lead to expensive sales pitches, food, food and more food. I was laughing because one day they had napkin folding and puffy dark circles under your eyes seminars. To their credit they do a great job of coming up with things for people to do if that’s your sort of thing. Our free time was spent mostly hanging out at the pool, in the gym or just in our state room. Warning: There is a lot of smoking aboard the ship which limited my time in the casino which was probably a good thing.

On the Hawaii cruise there is freestyle dining so you can go into any restaurant anytime you want you don’t need reservations. You’re spending a lot of land time when you come to Hawaii so it’s much better to have flexibility. We only ate in the main dining room once, took a long time food was just okay. The rest of the time we spent at the buffet or we can eat whatever we want. We took excursions at each port but felt rushed which took away from the experience. The quality of the tours and the beauty of Hawaii is so such better.

The Mexican Rivera cruise is a lot less expensive however, the old saying” you get what you pay for” definately applies here.