Portolan

The cost will be refunded to your shipboard account. Then it gets a bit tricky because if it was the only use of some non-refundable on-board credits (OBC, like those from a Regent promotion), then if not reused it'll be lost at the end of the cruise. If you've fully used all your non-refundable OBC not including this excursion (i.e., you paid for it with new money at some point) then it will be refunded to the original form of payment at the end of the cruise. Regent has made this much clearer in their on-board accounting within the last couple of years. Your account (via the suite TV) will list the running total of any unused non-refundable OBC...those are the use or lose $$. Ideally, you want to have that amount = $0 at the end of the cruise. Any on-board expenses (shops, spa, fancy wines...anything other than the casino) will reduce the non-refundable amount. There is no provision to carry it over to another cruise.

I think many or most of us use credit cards that earn airline miles or points. Many cards are associated with a specific airline while others may earn points which can be transferred to multiple airlines or used to purchase tickets directly. Especially given the high costs for cruises, these points/miles can add up. Bottom line is that if a credit card earns something based on the amount you spend, they'll reclaim that bonus for any refund made to the card.

Another aspect to this policy is that if you have a refundable credit at the end of the cruise, you might want to take it in cash. Otherwise, the credit will be refunded to the original credit card used...and you'll have the miles/points earned taken away.

I don't think there has been a small Gold-Platinum-Titanium event for a very long time. People are achieving status faster that they are dying. We had a number of memorable events as Gold circa 2006, but now as Platinum (for example, last week on Explorer) they are events with a special cast presentation in the theater to accommodate the very large number of G-P-T. Not even asked for suite number, so no problem in taking <Gold. Admittedly self-serving, but it'd be great if Regent had this type of event for Gold, and the previous really special events for P-T-C. Like our G-P-T nighttime cocktails in the courtyard of the Celsus Library at Ephesus circa 2006 (the whole ship was invited to the subsequent concert in the theater at Ephesus). That WAS a special event!

For completeness, here's a brief summary of our excursions after Naze: Okinawa: Ms. Portolan did the "Bingata Experience" and enjoyed it. She did a bird painting/dying where after the painting is done, the paint has to thoroughly dry and then later you wash it so that much of the paint washes off which won't happen until we get home. I did the "Battle of Okinawa" which focused on memorial sites (think Vietnam Memorial, but with 350k names of Japanese soldiers (150k), Okinawan civilians (150k) and US military (50k)) and the extensive underground HQ of the Japanese Navy. Very sobering and worthwhile. Day at sea: A second Culinary Kitchen, "Wok & Roll", where we made fried rice (using cauliflower, surprisingly similar to actual rice), springs rolls and Pad Thai. Great fun, as usual. Kochi: Ms. Portolan did the "Japanese Papermaking Experience.". The actual papermaking took very little time with not much to do while it dried. The bridge mentioned in the description wasn't very interesting, but it also rained much of the day which didn't help. Not recommended except as shelter from the rain. I did the Regent Choice "Ryugado Caves & Kochi Castle" which was very enjoyable, but again nothing which distinguished the excursion from "free" excursions except the unique combination of two interesting sites. Kochi Castle was beautiful since (finally) surrounded by blooming cherry trees. The cave was wet (meaning still forming features)...in fact, very wet due to a raging underground river running through it. You only get dripped upon. Quite arduous since you climb about 12 stories as you go through the cave. Also some low duck-walking if you are 6'-1". But, overall a great excursion. Shimizu: We did the Regent Choice "Fish Market & Kunozan Toshogu Shrine w/lunch.". The shrine was interesting, but the fish market wasn't. Not a " wet" market, with almost everything shrink-wrapped for sale. The lunch was nice enough, but at $179/pp, we'd recommend other tours which went to the shrine and pass on the market and lunch. The visit to the wet fish market in Busan , though brief, was more interesting with lots of live critters. Again, I'll mention that we had mixed feelings about why some of our tours were extra-cost Regent Choice when not particularly distinguished from the included tours. We have come to think of the excursions, en masse, of having the total cost we paid versus the total enjoyment. All were worthwhile except the last one in Shimizu, and the papermaking experience. In the net, some very memorable experiences!

NO one on our departure 2 weeks ago was asked to provide their results per much discussion earlier in this thread. Obviously the situation changes all the time. We boarded in Tokyo, not Yokohama, so maybe that was a factor???

We spent today on a private tour of Kamakura which also got us picked up at the ship and dropped off at the Hilton Odaiba for an overnight before flying home tomorrow. WRT your questions: we didn't get yen at the airport. We had a prepaid private transfer (we came in a day ahead of the prep cruise program start). Tipped in dollars...no problem. Got yen from a bank ATM about a block from the Hilton. As a general principle, we only use bank ATMs. There is a non-bank ATM in the Hilton Lobby. Got 30000 yen (about $230) which lasted the trip with about 8k to spare which will be used against the hotel cost. That covered all minor expenses. Only consequential costs were at a store (bottle of whiskey) and a shop (ceramic chopstick holders) which were charged. We have AT&T cell service which means free WiFi calling when on a network...even the very slow service on board. Never use the cell phones for anything routine as we have a ridiculous amount of ship-to-shore phone time so we use that when needed. Off the ship, if we have to make or receive a call or use the Internet, it's a flat rate of $10/day which includes data. Never did that this trip. As you mentioned, I use Google off-line maps. BTW, Explorer has a dry dock coming after in reaches Vancouver (May/June-ish) and they'll be installing Starlink which ought to provide a vast improvement. All Regent ships getting Starlink "by this summer." Tipping: you'll find by searching that by and large, Japan doesn't expect tipping except (maybe) for extraordinary service. We weren't sure about this, but noted on our excursions that the guides were typically standing back from the bus door with open and empty hands. On those occasions when we tipped (for extraordinary service), the recipients seemed genuinely startled.

Update since Beppu: Usaki Stone Buddhas & Village (Regent Choice) - very good. While several excursions had stone Buddha (singular) in their description, our excursion went to an area where there were ~60 stone Buddhas carved in groups up the side of a valley. Now protected from the elements with open-sided structures. Our guide had quite detailed descriptions about the significance of each group. Highly recommend this excursion though see my comment below about the inconsistency of Regent Choice excursions. Day at sea: Culinary Kitchen "Taste the World" - 5 dishes in 2 hours! Tuna Tataki, Pho soup, spicy peanut shrimp, lamb chop and crepes. Great fun! Busan: "Highlights of Gyeongju & Busan" - a bit of a drive to Gyeongju, but rewarded with a detailed tour of an extensive mountainside temple complex. Included lunch was a nice buffet at a modern hotel, including some Korean specialties. Then a stop (still in Gyeongju) at a very large ara of hill tombs, one of which you can enter. These never had post-burial entrances, but the modern entrance gets you to the heart of the tomb. They have excavated (and restored to their original grass-covered hills) many of these tombs and found extraordinary artifacts, replicas of which are displayed in the hill tomb you enter. Then back to Busan to a city overlook and finally a walk through the fish market. Excellent excursion...and free! Jeju Island: "Sunrise Peak & Seongeup Folk Village" - rained all day and we got thoroughly drenched despite raincoats and umbrellas so experience greatly diminished, but we think this would have been quite a nice excursion on a nice day. Nagasaki: "The Splendor of Arita & Nagasaki" (Regent Choice) - quite a long drive to Arita, a village totally devoted to ceramics. The local shrine we visited was completely decked out in beautiful ceramics. A local alley was also decorated with kiln stones. Lots of shops selling ceramics both used & inexpensive and extremely expensive works of art. Lunch was a very authentic Japanese meal with a ceramic (of course) bento box and sashimi holder. Restaurant was nicely done up with Tatami mats...but, fortunately, chairs as well. Wine and beer included...the beer was described by the guide in advance as a "small" bottle. It was 500ml! Last stop in Arita was a museum of ceramics masterpieces including one which was awarded a gold medal in Paris in 1900. Finally, back to Nagasaki for a visit to the Peace Park which, of course, is something we needed to do. An excellent excursion. Naze: No excursion for us. We had booked the one Regent Choice offering and were notified when we boarded that it had been cancelled because the operator didn't have enough buses/guides/something to run it. As an earlier post noted, everything else was waitlisted and we were told that there was no ability to add capacity. I noted that when the excursions departed there were just 7 buses compared to 18 or more I'd seen at earlier ports. There was a shuttle bus into town and another to a beach. Given that it rained most of the morning, I figured I'd go into town (where the map had little to indicate things to see). It did show a shrine up a valley into the mountains so I walked a mile or so up a paved path/roadway. Never found the shrine, but the valley was filled with cemeteries. Then the thunderstorm started so, for the second time, I returned to the ship sopping wet from the waist down. Now my comment about Regent Choice excursions. It's hard to understand why something like the Stone Buddhas in Beppu were RC. It was not long or distant, didn't include a meal or food, had entrance fees similar to other sites in Japan (600 yen ish), and wasn't a small group. We still recommend it, but why was it RC? Compared to our Busan excursion which had a much longer full-day bus and guide required, plus a meal. Nagasaki...well, wine or beer were included with lunch which were extra on the regular excursions where lunch was included. And, yea, a very nice traditional lunch, but we had a similar lunch on an earlier non-RC excursion. But, like our criteria for choosing cruises, we pick the itinerary, not the cost.

Our Nagoya excursion, Inuyama Castle and Noritake China, did not include lunch. It was 5 hours long and ran from 11:45 AM to 4:45 PM. Maybe you are on a similar, but longer excursion. We were able to grab a quick bite of lunch at the pool Grill before our excursion.

A short update: headed to Beppu (Stone Buddha's for us) today. Solid overcast, temperature in the mid-50's, but very low probability of rain. This after 3 days of castles and shrines. In Nagoya, the first day after Tokyo, we went to the Inuyama Castle (oldest surviving castle in Japan) which was interesting in design and you could climb what were essentially ship's ladders (think very steep staircases) with low headroom (I'm 6'-1") to the top. Well worth it to see how these towers were constructed and for the view. Then on to the Noritake China factory. Interesting but the castle was the highlight. Castles in Japan are usually surround ed by moats (Inuyama wasn't) on high ground with a multi-tiered tower for observation. Hard to see how these were useful after th advent of muskets and canons. The next two days were at Kobe (as in beef) with an over night. First day we did the Highlights of Osaka. Two stops: Osaka Castle (much bigger than Inuyama, but rebuilt many times into the mid-20 th century) with again the ability to go to the top aided by an elevator for the first 5 of 8 floors added in 1931 when the tower was rebuilt having totally destroyed much earlier. Museum exhibits and dioramas on many of the interior levels. Second stop was Shitennoji, a large temple compound dominated by a classic 5-story pagoda. All of it rebuild many times over the years since 1) made of wood, and 2) WWII. Overall, a pleasant enough tour. The second day in Kobe, we did Highlights of Kyoto. It was 2-1/2 hours through rush-hour traffic. Likely would be the case any week-day. First stop was the Golden Pavilion, a lake side temple with the upper (wood) stories covered in gilt. Surrounded by formal gardens. Well designed route past the pavilion with many vantage points and then through the gardens which kept the large crowds moving in an orderly manner. Then the included lunch which was a very nice bento box meal with authentic Japanese delicacies including sashimi. Final stop was the Hijo Castle, a very large complex with a sprawling "palace" and elaborate gardens. Despite what the excursion description said, there wasn't time to go into the buildings, but exploring the grounds was still quite interesting. We'd received a letter from Destination Services exposing that there wouldn't be an interior visit. The return to the ship, again during rush-hour, was surprisingly just 90 minutes. And as we are arriving in Beppu, there is a patch of sun directly over the town.

Things are off to a good start. After 4 days of overcast skies and one of those quite rainy in Tokyo, the sun came out as we boarded...a good omen. The pre-cruise program was OK and provided some time to (start to) get over jet lag. The hotel was nice with nicely furnished rooms, but as you'd heard, big and busy. We ate in the hotel which has quite a spectrum of restaurants. We liked Dynasty, the Chinese themed venue. The other nights we weren't very hungry and had drinks and light meals in 2 of the bars: Zatta which we enjoyed and St. Georges which was supposed to be an English pub (it wasn't). Both had live music in the evening. As others have noted, there are restaurants in Shinjuku, but they aren't very obvious from the street, so plan in advance and don't wander around expecting to come across one you'd like. In Nagoya yesterday and appearing likely for the rest of the cruise we had our original passports examined thoroughly and matched to our ship card both getting off and reboarding. They also searched bags going ashore, presumably for food. Both the need to be carrying original passports and no food ashore were stressed by the ship in advance.

When they distributed the results of the on-site testing to the handful who took those tests, they did say that they were all negative.

flossie009 Posted 9 hours ago #139 I understand that government regulations changed yesterday March 13, such that the wearing of masks is no longer mandatory only advisory. That is correct. Noticeable reduction in the number of Japanese we saw indoors and out yesterday wearing masks. No doubt there will still be many who continue to wear masks since that was the norm prior to COVID.

Those regulations that you could never produce evidence of? Regent was conducting the on-site testing the day before. You'd (or at least I would) expect that when explicitly asked about why test results weren't checked, they would have mentioned that the non-existent requirement had changed?

And another thing: I had a bit of a panic attack this morning before boarding because at breakfast some folks were talking about the difficulties they had getting a South Korean Electronic Travel Authorization (K-ETA) required even for visa-exempt countries (US and pretty much all of the Western World). And that seemed to be the message on all the obvious Korean government sites that I could find. I thought that surely Regent would have told us of such a requirement. After quite a bit of surfing I found that cruise ships are specifically exempt from this requirement when making port calls. And I verified this once on-board. So, don't panic .

Slight correction: at the desk there is one "anything" socket which will take a US grounded plug, European plugs and British plugs. So that's where you can use you laptop if it had a 3-prong plug.

I promised an update about boarding, so as I sit in the Pool Grill awaiting my ritual Ahi tuna teak sandwich: We arrived at the cruise terminal at 1PM as the lead bus of 6 doing the Vibrant Tokyo pre-cruise tour. 1st stop was filling out a pretty standard health form ("have you had...") and filling out another form for our 2 + 1 vaccination dates. Past an immigration officer who checked passports, then directly on-board to a counter in Compass Rose where we produced our boarding passes, passports and the previously mentioned record of vaccinations. We received our room keys at 1:27 with the word that suites were accessible at 1:30. That's it, Notice the lack of a check of testing results. I asked and they said they didn't need them! So, for those that insisted that this was a Japanese government mandate, I guess you have to believe that Regent is flaunting those "regulations.". I imagine that those who opted to do the testing at the hotel that was offered late in the game are wondering why they spent $65/pp. Judging from the thin stack of test results we saw being passed out at the hotel, that may have been 20 or so.

Certainly has to be the case since the on-site test option only appeared in a handout here at the Hilton for. Never mentioned in any of the emails from Regent.

Will do if, as is probably likely, we meet any on-board.

They may or may not tell us the plan when we are together for the first time later this morning for the morning tour. That's also when they said they'd explain the now-offered on-site testing. It'll be interesting to get a sense of how many do this. We won't because we have their required proof of a negative self-test and 1) see no need to spend $130, and 2) while extremely unlikely, we could have been exposed in the day between our self-test and the on-site test (whose results are certainly shared with Regent). The irony is that springing the on-site option so late may drastically reduce the number of takers so they might feel it is unnecessary for the upcoming cruises. I hope (with no basis) that they will have it arranged to provide our self-test results for verification some time before we head to the ship to board, otherwise I fear a lengthy boarding process. I will certainly report on how that goes...

The relative time issue can be confusing, at least until you get here. Japan is 14 hours ahead of the east coast. We board Explorer on Tuesday the 14th, at noonish. We self-tested at 2 PM on Saturday the 11th...70 hours before our nominal boarding time. Bottom line is that everybody no matter where you are are well within 72 hours at this point.

Mark: that would work if you found yourself here with no other option, but a bit draconian. When we travel here again I'll just bring some 3 prong to 2 blade adapters (aka cheaters) since I still have some around though rarely needed at home anymore.

Some updated information: First, the effort to wade through the Visit Japan process was rewarded by not being diverted on arrival by one of a myriad of airport personnel to do it before proceeding. They'll want to see the non-QR document that says your uploaded documents were verified. Then (for us) 30 minutes of zig zagging to get to the immigration officer who'll want your passports and the immigration QR code. After you get to the baggage area you need to go to a kiosk where your passport and customs QR code are read. Then out passed a customs officer with your identity determined by facial recognition (from the picture taken at immigration). A bit complicated, but there was a horde of helpful people at each step to get you through. Then you have arrived. Second: after we self-tested at the 70 hour mark (both negative) we headed to the bar to celebrate and stopped by the Regent Hospitality desk to get our info for the pre-cruise land tour. And it said that COVID-19 testing would be available on-site the second day for $65/pp! So perhaps someone at Regent realized that this would be helpful though it wasn't mentioned in the most recent email from Regent dated yesterday. However, we are $130 ahead with the self-test assuming that the boarding personnel can handle all of the different self-test kit result presentations. Finally, and totally unrelated to the whole testing issue: you may have discovered that Japan uses US standard two-blade electrical plugs (100v, but that won't bother modern power supplies). But, at least at the Hilton, all sockets were just the two-blades with no ability to use a grounded US 3 prong plug. If you have, for instance, a 3 prong plug like on many laptop power cords, you'll need a "cheater" plug adapter to allow use in the 2-blade sockets.

Not mine to explain. Only to point out that you can't find this posted as a requirement of Japan on a government site. That plus the fact that no country has ever had a testing policy which involved self-testing. Ever.

Please cite one Japanese government site (.jp.go) that mandates this. Just one...a government site, not Princess Cruises. The statement you quote from Regent is boilerplate and only means that (of course) they will follow any local government requirements...not that any decision about imposing test will only be because of a government requirement. And, as I've said many times in this thread, I fully understand that Regent or any provider can set their own standards, so we will test ourselves 72 hours out which proves very little since people can/will make mistakes generating false positives and negatives. I expect chaos on boarding with people trying to find their photographic evidence of the self-test. Which may not have the required elements. Or is out of focus. Or has the wrong time stamp because they didn't switch their phone to Japanese time (if not on a cell network). Etc, etc, etc.