Hawaii Travel Update: Cruise Ships To Return To Honolulu In January?

A cruise ship hasn’t docked in Hawaii since the beginning of the pandemic, but if all goes according to plan, ships will kick off their long-awaited return next month.

In January, five cruise ships are scheduled to make port at Honolulu harbor, bringing more than 8,000 passengers to the island of Oahu.

All along, people pictured that this would be something to celebrate, a sign that the tourism industry – and the global situation – had crawled its way back to normalcy.

But medical experts interviewed by Hawaii News Now said the timing couldn’t be worse, with the Omicron variant spreading rapidly and case counts rising.

While the Hawaii government has not reinstated any travel restrictions, it did issue strong recommendations and warnings against large gatherings.

“At this stage, there is absolutely no way we should be considering having cruise ships stopping in Honolulu or any of our neighbor islands,” one doctor told the outlet.

Still, some in the travel industry are trying to make the case that it’s safer to have passengers arrive via cruise ship than by plane.

“Cruise ships have already gone through the process of shutting down and quarantining and it’s keeping people in one place — as opposed to people who fly here and are going through [the] Safe Travels [program]… who are going to disperse all throughout our community,” said Toni Marie Davis, executive director of the Activities & Attractions Association.

Of course, cruise ships in other destinations aren’t passing with flying colors, as Royal Caribbean finds itself in the midst of COVID outbreaks onboard two of its ships.

But that doesn’t necessarily spell disaster in Hawaii. Cruise ship travel could be efficient and safe if the proper protocols are followed.

Hawaii is requiring all cruise ship passengers to abide by the Safe Travels Hawaii requirements, which include proof of vaccination or a negative test. And if outbreaks are caught quickly on board via testing, passengers can be quarantined on the ship and not released into the destination.

Officials said that these requirements and others are still in the process of being formalized in agreements with the cruise lines, who will be legally bound to follow them once signed. The exact specifics have yet to be released.

With just a few days left before January, it will certainly be interesting to see how this one plays out, both in politics and public health. As of this writing, the expectation is that the ships will be allowed to dock next month.

But as with everything pandemic related, things often change quickly, and there’s no doubt that the post-holiday COVID numbers will play a major role in the decision making as we head into 2022.