nonrev1

Yes…..or if you get pocket wifi, no need.

Today we had a private tour with a company called Edge of Niigata. Great tour and guide. It was a 3 1/2 hour walking tour which covered the original old port town. We started at Minato pia and ended at the Saito Family Villa. We saw several shrines along the way and learned about the interesting history of the ordinal port area. The tour was very informative and woild recommend it. When the tour was over, we went for a saki tour and tasting. Before the ship departed they brought 3 Geishas onboard. With a translator, they answered questions and then one sang and played a musical instrument while the other two danced. An amazing experience.

Our pocket Wi-Fi is Japan Wireless and the google translate app. We have had no issues. It has been very helpful especially with translating text and also conversation.

I am happy to say that after 4 days onboard and quite a few hours working to resolve my refund for canceled tours……it was finally resolved this evening. It would not have resolved itself and it is unfortunate that I came onboard for vacation and still had to spend time trying to get my money back. This morning they put my credit into my onboard account as a non refundable credit. This is money that was already charged to my credit card weeks before the website meltdown. All I wanted was a credit back to my card. They said the only way to put the credit back on my card was to wait until the last day and they would sort it out. That did not go over well. Spoke with accounting and it has now been fixed. Wahoo! Now I am on 100% vacation mode. My next Azamara cruise is not until August…..🙏🏻🙏🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻by then all is back to normal.

What we have learned so far…… I am sure there will be more to come and these are only our opinions. We picked up pocket wifi at the airport. We are finding it extremely helpful since we mostly try to go out on our own. Which leads to #2….download a translation app. ( the pocket wifi keeps you connected during your adventure) I use google translate. It lets you have a “conversation”, convert English to Japanese / vice versa, and the camera lets you point at a menu for translation or point at different signs and it translates. It is not always perfect, but we would have missed out on a lot without it. Going through the Samurai houses you just point at one of the information plaques and it translates for you.

Akita- today we went to Kakunodate to see the Samurai houses. We booked train tickets in advance so we just had to get to the station and print them out. As previously posted, if you want to take an early train, you will need to take a taxi to the station, The tourist information people at the terminal called for us and one arrived within 5 minutes. It was a great visit and the tourism people in Kakunodate were wonderful helping us plan our Samurai house visits, provided maps and suggested a local noodle restaurant. There is also very good information available on Frommers if you want some ideas in advance. Today was an example of having too much to do in too little time. When we arrived back in Akita we walked to the ship shuttle bus and on the way stopped at Senshu Park. Could have spent much longer. There is a lot to do in Akita that we missed but we wanted to return to the ship because they arranged to have 2 Akita’s ( the dogs😄) onboard and shortly after, a Namahage Drum performance.

Check posts on April 3 and your cruise. I posted a testing company that does online proctored tests with your own kits. You can do it when your flight arrives. Yes…. You have to take a Covid test before you board. It is not an Azamara thing. It is Japan. ( crazy since you don’t need one to enter Japan). For our cruise(3rd) - they had extra staffing and those that needed a Covid test did not have long waits as the 19th did.

I was told around 653. ( don’t hold me to it but think it holds 680) No, it does not feel crowded.

Aomori - we chose to do a ship’s tour because we wanted to visit Hirosaki Castle/park and Neputa Village. It is an hour from the port so a ships tour was the best option available. We were a little early for the Cherry Blossoms…..but, if the cruise after ours has this port on their itinerary, it should be beautiful. The tour was definitely worth the price and besides walking through the castle and park, also saw two shows at Neputa Village. We had a beautiful view of Mt. Iwaki which was still covered in snow. The guide was very good and provided a lot of information. When we returned to the ship we walked over to the Tourist Information Center and went through the duty free shops and split a delicious apple pie. ( this was after the yummy apple sherbet at Hirosaki park)

Today is a much needed sea day especially for those of us that are adjusting to a 13 hour time difference. The daily program is filled with fun things like necklace making, sip and paint and Easter egg decorating. There is a future cruise presentation along with a destination speaker, shore excursion presentation and various trivia games. Definitely enough to keep us busy. A few missteps? There is a write your name in Chinese activity which I wonder why it is not Japanese since this is a Japan intensive cruise. Dinner tonight in Discoveries also has Chinese as the destination immersion cuisine.

I truly understand everyone’s stresses and the poster that wanted to cry. Especially those close in to cruising. Someone told me I sounded stressed and worried about it too much. When you pay this much for a suite, first class air and other miscellaneous travel related expenses, there is an expectation that everything should be done correctly. ( unless weather is involved) We all have reasons for taking trips…. this was my bucket list and splurge after going through some personal issues. It just kept getting moved due to Covid so it became even more important. Yes, the ship still sailed and yes the onboard crew are wonderful but that does not make up for the experience that led up to boarding the ship. ( owing money on a fully paid cruise, no information, misinformation, no refund on canceled tours, hours on hold) an email that said there could be no changes 2 days prior to the cruise otherwise it is my fault if things are incorrect. ( seriously hope they reword that before they send it out again) My tours that were canceled and never refunded are still a mystery. 2 mysteriously popped up just prior to boarding and when I got onboard there was a long line at excursions. They canceled the two but asked me to have patience for about a week because the cancel has to go back through the office. Since I am now canceling onboard they will probably issue me an OBC. I don’t want or need an OBC- just the credit back to the card I used. Does this tarnish the cruise experience. Absolutely. For those of you sailing in a few weeks or a month this should all be resolved. As of now they do not have correct loyalty info onboard …. Maybe next week.

Check in: check in was easy and from what I read last cruise, this went much smoother. They had a lot of people helping with check in and everything moved pretty fast. For those on the next cruise still wondering about a photo of a negative test that was not proctored, it will NOT be accepted. We saw people sent over to the Covid testing area. It seemed to move pretty fast, too. But, if you have the opportunity to test ahead of time or take an online proctored test like we did, I would suggest it.

We just tried a practice walk from our hotel to the cruise ship. It took less than 15 minutes and is a very easy walk for anyone who chooses this hotel, and does not have a lot of luggage.

Total testing solutions. We used the virtual testing option. We signed up before we left the US. We put in the country where we were taking the test and it automatically put in the correct time zone. You picked the timeslot you wanted and put in some information and immediately got an email giving you more information about the test. We got several email reminders and we clicked on a link and did a video call. It was very easy. After we received an email and a text with our test results.

We are now in Tokyo and getting ready to board the ship for the April 3 sailing. Can’t believe after three years this day is finally here. We flew in and stayed at the Grand Nikko Tokyo Daiba ( wonderful hotel) and from our window we can see the Azamara Quest. This morning we took our online proctored Covid test, so we did not have to do it at the cruise terminal. It was a very convenient service and took less than 20 minutes. All from the convenience of our hotel room. We studied hard for it and passed. Lol. If anyone is interested in their information, let me know and I will post it.

Mine is booked through an agent and since we are sailing in 2 days it should definitely show paid in full. I think that and my loyalty points will be resolved easier than the ship tours. That will be yet another wait in line. I have spent hours on the phone with Azamara regarding this cruise. ( we were not getting any communication at all) I have been disconnected, transferred and disconnected and given some really bad information. My agent received nothing from Azamara regarding this cruise. When I finally spoke to an agent and canceled the two tours ( that now reappeared) I asked where my credit card credit was for the tours canceled a month prior. She said I see we owe you money but not sure why you are not getting it. She said it takes two business weeks. I said it has been a month. She could not help me or answer why I do not have the credit. All she said is I now see we owe you 1,200.00 on your credit card. This is not going to resolve itself. So, my patience is wearing thin and yes, it will be something that I am sure will be another line and wait when we board the ship to straighten this out.

I will definitely check in when I board. I don’t believe the tour information will be correct because things I canceled prior to this mess have not been credited to my credit card. Two tours I canceled during the transition with an agent ( also paid by credit card) have magically reappeared from yesterday to today. I agree about the patience. It might be ok when I board the ship but that does not explain why no refund on my credit card.

On our way…… now we owe even more money, our missing loyalty points have been doubled ( I am thinking they added our two accounts together), and 3 tours I had previously canceled are now showing still booked. The additional money owed cannot be from the tours added back in as those were paid by credit card and never refunded. Thank goodness our first day is a sea day so we can sort this out.

Thanks for your review!

We finally had access the other day to our cruise. As I mentioned previously, our loyalty points were incorrect. But, it did show, that we were paid in full on our cruise. ( leaves in 3 days) Today it shows we have a balance due of $553.24. I had previously booked shore excursions using my credit card, and before the system went down I had canceled two of them. Still no credit on my card.

We will be leaving for Tokyo more than three days in advance due to the time zone difference. We are bringing a self test kit, but will sign up with a service that proctors it for you. You get a certificate and it is a proctored test. If you want the information, let me know. It is $25 if you don’t have insurance and free if your insurance will cover it . The company is based in Los Angeles, but put in the time zone for Japan and it will give you available test times.

Mine just showed up….but missing some points and I can see my cruises but that is it.

Yes, we got ours too. We were just not sure if it was needed or not.

I do have a question. We have had a lot of back and forth whether we needed a K - ETA for Korea since we were arriving by ship and in transit. Did they require one? Thanks.

Thank you so much. You are really helping those of us on the April 3 cruise. I will definitely post some of our adventures. We have quite a few of the same things planned - but differences, too. We have a Good will Guide for Ritsurin Gardens and our day in Takamatsu.Did you use any Good Will Guides?