Our 25th(ish) Anniversary Hawaiian Adventure: Cruise Ship Economics

Needless to say, there are countless ways to visit Hawaii, with so many islands and experiences from which to choose. We were aware of Norwegian's exclusive inter-island cruise for years and, after much debate, decided it was a good way to visit four of the islands and get a flavor for each, while minimizing the planning and logistics for the two of us. That said, the cruise is much more expensive that any we'd taken before, and that is not due to the level of service or luxury, but rather pure economics. If you are already familiar with the intricacies of ship's registries and work requirements, feel free to skip to the next paragraph. Any commercial ship flagged in the United States has to abide by U.S. labor laws. For cruise ships, they are usually flagged in countries like Panama or Malta, as those countries have very favorable labor laws for the industry. While there are hundreds of cruises that call on U.S. ports, they almost all also visit foreign ports as part of their itineraries. Even cruises to Alaska stop at a Canadian port along the way, so they don't have to abide by U.S. labor law. All cruises that call on Hawaii, except for the Pride of America (POA), touch a foreign port. Some leave from Vancouver in Canada, and then sail three or four days at sea to reach Hawaii. Others come from Japan or Australia, also requiring lengthy stints at sea. We didn't have that kind of time, so POA was our best (and really only) choice. Norwegian has permanently based the POA in Hawaii, and it sails identical inter-island seven-day cruises every week, round-trip from Honolulu. As such, the ship is flagged in the U.S. and every worker on the ship is paid commensurate American wages, receives mandatory entitlements, are limited in their work hours, and must be U.S. citizens. Close to 100% of cruise ships in the world are staffed by cheap labor (usually from Southeast Asia), but POA doesn't have that luxury. That is the primary driver for the significantly higher costs of a cruise aboard the POA, as opposed to other lines.

As we had originally decided on this trip nearly three years ago, we kind of just booked it and then forgot about it. Many other trips came and went in the interim, and we didn't really make planning a priority until earlier this year, and only after returning from Poland did we really begin working in earnest to lock down our plans.

The cruise departs Honolulu every Saturday evening throughout the year, and we theoretically could have flown in the same day of departure. That said, given all of the nightmares associated with air travel this year, the sheer distances involved, and the six-hour time change (seven in winter), we wanted to allow ourselves a day of cushion on the front end. For the distances of travel, too, I wanted to be sure we could fly in business class, so we could get some sleep and reduce the problems of jetlag. We had credit with Delta Airlines (from our Covid-cancelled African safari) that we had to use by the end of this year, so we used that to buy our tickets to Honolulu. For the return, United operates a once-a-week nonstop flight on Saturdays, which lined up with the end of our cruise, and we were able to use miles to secure award tickets for the trip home.

We left VERY early on a Friday morning. We had to connect in Atlanta, and our original flight from Dulles was to leave at 7:15am. That left us just under an hour to connect in Atlanta. Worrying about delays and the chaos that can be the Atlanta airport, I asked Delta to move us to their 6:00am flight. The price of the extra cushion was having to leave for the airport at 4:30am, which wasn't ideal. Still everything worked out fine, and we were able to enjoy a surprisingly good breakfast in the SkyMiles Club in Atlanta. All of our flights were on time and our seats for the 10+ hour flight to Honolulu were very comfortable. Both of us got more than four hours of sleep along the way, which proved crucial later in the day.