I'll be the voice of dissent, but only kind of.
HAWAII is expensive and the plane flight (especially from where you live) is LONG LONG LONG. You're looking at 10 hours on a plane from ATL.
Go to the BVI or something; you can fly to St. Maarten N.A. direct from ATL in 3 hours., and your flight will be $500 instead of $1kplus.
You can Do a Virgin Islands/ST. Maarten/St. Barths/Nevis or a Grenadines/Barbados CRUISE, but
DONT DONT DONT do a standard CRUISE SHIP crap-mobile. Everybody is right on the money as far as that goes.
Do a tall sailing ship or boutique yacht trip, like one of these.
www.starclippers.com
www.windjammer.com
IMO you will spend LESS money than Hawaii and have a much more unique experience. These kind of ships don't dock where the cruise ships do, so you don't have ANY of the cruise-ship touristy lameness that comes with a big boat. Most (like the Star Clippers) offer complete (meal included) packages, 5 meals a day. And not CHICKEN FINGERS like on Carnival or something.
Check this out just for fun:
www.bhtmcruise.com
Also, the guy who does our cruises also does unique Virgin Islands CATAMARAN charters as well, sleep 6-8 people and if you love boats and fishing and your wife can handle it, it's fantastic.
I Love Hawaii too, but it's a money pit and it (FWIW) still has a kind of USA vibe to it, and if you're not a Left-Coaster, the flight SUCKS.