While the size of your ship and length of the cruise determine the variety and number of ports you visit, so will the type of itinerary and departure point. Loop cruises start and end at the same point and usually explore ports close to one another; one-way cruises start at one point and end at another and cover more distance. Inter-island Hawaii cruises are loop cruises; cruises from the mainland U.S. and Canada can be loop or one-way cruises, though one-way cruises predominate. Many itineraries include at least one overnight port stay, which affords the opportunity to enjoy an evening luau ashore. A World Cruise might include a few Hawaiian ports of call on their itinerary.

NCL America has these cruises wrapped up with week-long departures from either Honolulu, on Oahu, or Kahului on Maui. With no sea days, these predictable itineraries spend more time docked in the islands and include port calls at Nawiliwili, Kauai; Kona and Hilo on Hawaii, the Big Island; and, of course, the respective embarkation ports. Ten-and eleven-night inter-island cruises that also call at Fanning Island spend two days at sea and eliminate one Big Island port.

Lengthier cruises of 14 fourteen or 15 days that embark in San Diego or Los Angeles call at Ensenada, Mexico, to satisfy the foreign port requirement and spend seven or eight days sailing between the west coast and Hawaii. They generally visit four or five Hawaiian ports.

When repositioning ships between the Caribbean and Alaska in spring and fall, some cruise lines make a wide detour to Hawaii. These one-way cruises between Ensenada, Mexico, or Vancouver, Canada, and Hawaii are typically 11 to 13 nights in duration, visit five ports, and spend four to five days at sea.