Princess Cruises has swapped a Kauai port call for extra time in Honolulu after Hurricane Lowell battered parts of Hawaii, leaving damage across some of the state's western islands.
Guests sailing on the Ruby Princess were told before embarkation that the ship's September 22, 2026 visit to Nawiliwili on Kauai was off. Instead, the vessel will arrive in Honolulu earlier on the same day, stay overnight in port, and depart on schedule the following morning. Princess is refunding in full any shore excursions booked for Kauai, paid back to the original form of payment, and is putting together a fresh lineup of excursions for the longer Honolulu stop.
The Ruby Princess is running a 16-night roundtrip from San Francisco that takes in Hawaii and Mexico, with calls at Kailua Kona, Kahului and Ensenada alongside the new Honolulu overnight. Roughly ten days of the sailing are spent crossing the Pacific.
Lowell was no minor storm. It peaked as a Category 5 hurricane and troubled the Western Hawaiian Islands from August 27 through September 13, 2026, making a direct hit on Niihau and Kauai. The result: damaged structures and power and water outages in several areas.
Princess isn't the only line affected. Norwegian Cruise Line's Pride of America, which runs inter-island cruises in the state, dropped its Kauai call on the sailing that left Honolulu on September 12, 2026. In its place came an overnight stop in Hilo, joining planned visits to Kahului and Kailua Kona.
If you're booked on a Hawaii cruise this season, it's a good reminder that hurricane season (which runs June through November in the Central Pacific) can disrupt even well-planned port calls. Cruise lines usually handle the changes with refunds on affected excursions and substitute time elsewhere, so it's worth watching emails from your line before embarkation and building flexibility into any independent tours you book ashore. Travellers with plans on Kauai specifically may want to check local conditions before travelling, as recovery from the outages continues.
