bennybear

We stayed at the Hotel New Grand in Yokohama. It is a historic hotel where General MacArthur stayed after WW2. It is extremely convenient, directly across from the port and one block from Chinatown. We had lovely spacious rooms and it’s next door to a McDonald’s. It also was a stop for the Narita bus in 2019. We found it reasonable for location and quality. I will add, we loved Japan and found it a wonderful place to visit. I would seriously consider adding on some time precruise to enjoy Japan, and recover a bit from jet lag. Friends who joined us on the cruise did exactly what you did, and it took them several days before they were fully able to enjoy the cruise,

Good morning and thanks all! @Denise T big thanks for all the photos! Very cool! Happy birthday to Annie @marshhawkand Charlene @cunnorl! @smitty34877 I am so sorry to hear about the oxygen, absolutely unconscionable! Driving in Ireland is one of the toughest places! Yes, I love to read! Just finished The Golden son, an interesting story written about a Dr from India training in Texas, written by a woman born in Canada who lives in the US. Kinda reminds me of the daily! How wonderful! Very cool! This is a wonderful story! Our DGD who raised several hundred dollars in grade three for animal rescue lost her pet gecko this week. She was devastated, but now I’m happy to report she is now the proud caregiver to sibling Guinea pigs. Yesterday, we had a surprise visit with my friend who lives several hours away and she brought us a lovely cake!

Glad you saw such great blossoms! Thanks for your interesting posts and great photos, Safe travels,home!

I hope you get to visit the beautiful star shaped fortress. Also included also a clip of some of the entertainment that came aboard. the crab is definitely worth having IMG_1774.mov

Many, many thanks for the good wishes and kind comments. ❤️🌹🙏. I don’t want to omit anyone, so won’t do individual thanks, but all were deeply appreciated!

We just arranged it at the port, sorry I can’t recall the company, We just asked and he offered to wait for us and we thought it was quite reasonable for around four hours total.

Good morning and thanks all! We found a lovely letter of congratulations from the Governor General in our mail, DH thought we were being invited for tea, lol! Hard to believe we have been married longer than either of our parents. The big 50! lovely to have some celebrations! @superomathanks for the lists today! @kazu for the hope for a new canine companion! Lucky Ivan!

After reading about celebrity yesterday, I think you should make a decision relatively quickly while space is still available with a refundable deposit. Most of HAL’s itineraries are 14 days, so something else to consider. But I too think you need to plan to spend a couple of weeks pre or post cruise to really experience Japan. It is very easy to travel in Japan, so don’t be overly concerned about the language barrier. One other option is Cunard, but most of their itineraries are shorter with less ports. They are also more formal with IMO not as good food in the MDR. Perhaps get some travel guides to see what you are interested in. We highly recommend Hiroshima, Kyoto and some time in the countryside at a ryokan and onsen. We worked up to Tokyo which can be very overwhelming with over 37 million people. The rest will depend on your interests, we loved visiting the amazing gardens.

So glad you got to enjoy Hirosaki castle and park, with improved weather! @cruisemom42 those floats looked amazing. A third option is to take a taxi to Hirosaki for the approximately one hour trip. We split it with another couple so it was quite reasonable and very convenient as the driver waited for us as we toured the park for a couple of hours. love those cherry blossoms, we had some pink snow when we visited as well

Sorry to hear you’re not having any onboard local entertainment. We had the port side entertainment several places. And we also had an all female Taiko drum group come aboard that was phenomenal. We were amazed how clean the country is with nary a garbage can to be found. And the polite acknowledgment of others on a train or even leaving a public washroom is something to experience. My husband dropped a coin purse and it was immediately returned to him. In 2019 we also waited a long time onboard in Otaru after returning from Vladivostok to clear customs. I think @cruisemom42picked a good place to use her cruise OBC for a tour.

We really enjoyed Desenzano as well. We got there easily by train and rented a car. Felt dinner was absolutely magical. Always worth exploring the lesser known places.

I’m curious as well, we had some amazing Taiko drummers come on board in the past.

I can’t speak to celebrity but we loved our circumnavigation of Japan on HAL. Now we did this in 2019, so I’m sure some things have changed. But we found it was one of the best cruises we have ever done. I think you always have to take opinions with a grain of salt. For us, we were very busy touring Japan, and we really enjoyed the food onshore and onboard. Most nights we were too tired to worry about the entertainment but did enjoy the extensive films available on Japan. For me, I would decide based on itinerary. HAL usually has a series of 14 day cruises that you can combine if you so wish. Highly recommend that you also spend a few weeks in Japan pre or post cruise. Kyoto truly needs several days to best enjoy.

We enjoyed Otaru, where a lot of sushi chefs are trained. Beautiful glassware and lacquered things. I love my inlaid cherry blossom jewellery box. Sorry Hank, but it’s hard not to get the impression that you are not enjoying this cruise. The customs is a pain, but it’s a known thing, would love to hear what you are enjoying in Japan.

@marshhawk yippee!

Thanks so much for a great thread! So enjoyed your photos and reporting. I can see the videos without any issue. Such a nice balance! We loved Rotterdam, found its energy amazing, such a vibrant city, I’m shocked anyone could call it ugly.

In honour of the 150 th anniversary of Holland America I thought it might be fun to share some photos and memories of our cruises. One of our favourite cruises ever, the Westerdam awaiting us in Yokohama before circumnavigating Japan, and the view of Mr. Fuji from our cabin.

Good morning and happy 150 th Holland america! It’s such a lovely cruise line that has brought us together on this thread. We had the pleasure of sailing out of Rotterdam on the last Rotterdam and it was amazing! I’m sure the Dailyites aboard will have an amazing time! In honour, perhaps we all could share one of our favourite memories aboard HAL! Wishing a very happy birthday to those celebrating. I try not to stress about stress, better to just take each day as it comes and let the past be the past! Sometimes easier said than done, but we all have to learn to let things go. @kazu think you’ll be a goner, Ivan looks lovely! ❤️ A photo of the Westie in Yokohama, at the beginning of a most excellent adventure aboard as we circumnavigated Japan.

Finally hope for spring!

@Mr. Bostonhow tragic! I am sending you and your family my deepest condolences, words are truly inadequate. May you find peace and strength in the coming days.

Hoping you improve rapidly. When I had pneumonia, it later spread into my sinuses making flying very difficult. I got campylobacter in France, and flying home was not a lot of fun. I wasn’t aware at the time. So my advice to you is make sure you’re recovered enough to actually enjoy the trip. There will be others, and timing is everything.

Good morning and thanks all! I think we can all agree that @cruising sisterembodies the quote today as does @ger_77 Whittier is one of the ports often used for Anchorage so a few photos from there. I don’t think you’ll need to worry about snow @marshhawk but of course anything can happen. Do try the fresh salmon or halibut. A sign from the Fstreet station pub

@cruisemom42 glad you got to experience the lovely Shirakawa go in decent weather. It is one of the top places to visit in Japan, and the cruise makes it easy to visit there. We truly enjoyed this village as one of our favourite spots. We grabbed a taxi when we got back to the ship to visit the amazing gardens too. Hank, sorry to hear you are not enjoying this cruise. It was one of our favourites, but our main focus is on what we see and visit. We often fall into bed exhausted because we have been so busy during the day exploring.

@Quartzsite Cruiser agree about the magic! So I too will share a few more of my favourites. @Cruising-along hope you are soon negative. I just had another booster, hoping to stay clear.

Checking in late, glad to hear most made it to their cruises with luggage! That seems like a huge accomplishment these days! Bon voyage! @RMLincolnsorry to hear of the loss of your cousin’s DH, my condolences. @DeniseT welcome, sounds like a spectacular cruise, enjoy! Venice is one of my favourite cities, it’s magical at night when the day trippers leave so I highly recommend staying there. One of those places that are expensive but worth it. We suggest staying in a smaller area and enjoy exploring, We’ve been many times and it never gets old wandering around. Always something new to see, we love checking out the markets and eating cicchetis, small Venetian sandwiches. Recommend going when the biennale is on and seeing some of the world class art.