What are the rules about round trips from a US port to a US ports. Wouldn't they have to stop in Mexico? Or Could they do Roundtrips from Vancouver? I forget what the rules are.
If it is a closed loop cruise from a US port (round trip sailing, beginning and ending in the same port) then they could just have any foreign port call (like they did with the Hawaii cruises in 2012 that were roundtrip LA, they made one port call in Ensenada). If they wanted, they could do roundtrip from Vancouver but that would put restrictions on travelers - US citizens flying in would have to have a passport; the international flight is more expensive for a lot of people. So for RT cruises, it would make sense for DCL to do it from a US port (like LA or San Diego).
If they do one way cruises, there are too many limitations to be able to start in a US city on the west coast and end in Honolulu. So that is why their last set of Hawaii cruises were one way between Vancouver and Honolulu. A lot less restrictions if the cruise starts or ends in a non-US city (could be Vancouver; could be Ensenada).
I asked the captain of the Wonder about this in Dec. He said they don't sell very well so he wasn't sure. I told him if they could figure out a way to do the cruises in October they might sell better. A lot of Western states have Fall break in October. They don't seem to have not trouble selling the TA's and Panama so I'm not sure what the issue is with Hawaii.
I think there were a couple problems with the Hawaii cruises causing them to be poor sellers. The first sailing was not a poor seller. It was sold out in one day and people were always checking for availability. It sold out so quickly because it was a completely new itinerary and the opening rates were FANTASTIC. Once they added the October date for 2012, those opening rates were dramatically higher than the April cruise so I think they had a harder time filling that sailing. So the problem with the first cruise for DCL was that they left a lot of money on the table by underpricing the opening rates. Then caused themselves more problems because people knew what the opening April rates were and many had some sticker shock to the October rates (or to the rates whenever a cabin opened on the April cruise). I believe both these cruises were 15 nights -- hard to sell to families during the school year even if they plan it while schools have spring or fall breaks.
The two one way cruises weren't very family friendly either. First the cruise fare was pretty steep. Then you had a long flight on one end of the cruise or the other and the price of airfare wasn't exactly cheap either. The reason we loved the RT was that we got to see Hawaii without having to endure a long flight from the east coast. These one way cruises took that benefit off the table. People say the benefit of the one way cruise is that you get to combine the cruise with a stay in Honolulu. But at that time of the year, I don't know many families that can take the time (10 day cruise plus more time for a Hawaii stay??). So you end up with a lot of cabins booked with just 2 adults rather than a good mix of adults and families.
I think DCL puts up with making the TA and PC cruises interesting and not
too overpriced so they can sell them because they aren't really interested in making a killing on these particular sailings. These sailings are required to get the ships to their very profitable itineraries (Europe and Alaska). If they have to price them at a break even point or even at a loss (which I'm sure some the TA's have had to have been), they make that sacrifice. But if they are adding on Hawaii itineraries, it has to be a money maker or there is no reason to offer them. So they haven't figured out how to balance the Hawaii itineraries with the price to make the itinerary attractive and the price palatable.
I'm hoping they give it one more shot because like cgolf, that first Hawaii cruise was one of the best we've ever taken.