RJHNorthyorks

10 minutes ago, ARandomTraveler said:

They’ve sent emails to passengers on Asian cruises to warn them that they’ll be denied boarding if they visit or fly through mainland China or Hong Kong. Your travel agent may have gotten a message and not passed it on to you??

We have literally received an email about 1 hour 15 minutes ago. Our travel agent ( American ) says she and other TAs were not informed and there is no reason to doubt this. She is generally highly efficient.
I am also in communication with a nice bloke called Jason who is dealing with their Twitter feed today. He had no idea this was happening and just asked me to forward the RCI email to him.

which ever way you look at this the communication is dire.

27 minutes ago, bearette said:

You barely squeezed in, Australia just banned all flights from China (and Hong Kong) and anyone from entering the country.  I hope they give a refund, but in the meantime I would look into what you want to do in Australia and get your flight home sorted.

Australia hasn’t banned flights from Hong Kong only Chinese citizens or people who have been in China. We were on a flight last night from HK where 50 people were disembarked. It took 2 hours to find and take their luggage off..

coming into Australia a couple of hours ago we had no visible checks re our coming from HK. 

7 minutes ago, Another_Critic said:

 

What did your TA say after they called RCI?

She didn’t. Just emailed her again for details regarding the process.

I’m pretty certain we won’t be the only people affected by this 

We have travelled from the UK to Sydney to go on a long planned cruise to Fiji on Voyager of the Seas on Wednesday. 
We found out from a friend and our TA has confirmed that we will not be able to board the ship because we travelled via Hong Kong. 
RCI do not appear to have informed TAs or passengers. We are feeling very disappointed and are now left with finding alternative accommodation for 2 weeks in Sydney. We do not know how or when compensation will be paid.

We are on the Quest cruise leaving April 27 th and received the email below from Azamara this week ( which doesn’t appear to have also been sent to our TA) saying that we were departing from Daikoku Pier now. It urges us to arrive at the correct check in time as there is no where to wait at this pier. 

I have now rearranged our taxi transfer and have asked the TA to check which pier we will disembark from to ensure our taxi arrangements to the airport are correct. 

This is at least the third pier change since we booked this cruise.

Copy of email:

Dear Valued Guest,

We are excited to have you on board and would like to provide you with the following embarkation pier information for Azamara Quest departing from Yokohama on April 27, 2019.

Check-in for your cruise will take place at Daikoko Pier located at 〒230-0054, T3-4, Tsurumiku, Daikoku Pier, Yokohama, Japan.

Please be informed that there will be 5 cruise ships scheduled to sail from Yokohama and Tokyo on your embarkation day at different berthing pier, please see route map on page 2 & 3 for local driver easy reference.

Please note that the port has basic setup for check-in and limited space for seating area. Restaurants and stores are not available around the area.

We want your vacation to get off on a wonderful start and in order to facilitate your check-in process and ask that you arrive at Daikoko Pier according to the designated appointment time on your Xpress Pass. We understand that you are excited about your upcoming cruise, but we strongly encourage you to arrive within your designated time, this will help ensure a smooth embarkation experience so that you can begin your vacation as soon as possible.

Suite Guests and Le Club Voyage can check-in anytime at their convenience between the hours of 12:30 PM and 3:30 PM.

Additionally, there is no public transportation or train connected to this pier, however, local taxis will be allowed to access to the area.

If you have not made prior arrangement to access to this pier, we will be offering bus transfers on April 27 from both Narita & Haneda Airports for flights arriving before 12:00 PM. These direct transfers to the ship from the airport are only available for pre-purchase and will not be available for purchase on the day of your arrival.

Please contact your local travel partner or call 1-855-AZAMARA (1-855-292-6272) to purchase transfer from the airport to the ship in advance.

We look forward to welcoming you on board Azamara Quest and wish you a pleasant and enjoyable holiday.

Sincerely,

Money Saving Expert has updated their research on the position of travel insurance companies should there be any disruption.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2019/01/revealed--which-travel-insurers-will-cover-you-for-brexit-disrup/

We have stayed a couple of times at the Fairmont. It’s fantastic hotel - we upgraded to an executive suite which was amazing. The hotel is very well situated just over the road from Raffles although I think it is probably still closed for refurbishment. 

Some good news. Today’s Times is reporting some progress on flights post Brexit. Deals have been made with the USA and 9 other countries. The EU have published guidance saying that flights will continue between the U.K. and Europe. Deals are yet to be made with China, Japan and India - we are due to fly to Japan.

Thanks to those posting links to Govt websites for information. I had already read these. I also watch House of Commons Select Committee presentations ( sad I know)  which are far more enlightening but also stressful. 

We are having the same concerns as we are due to fly to Japan to join Azamara Quest in early April. We have had an interview with our MP who tells us that we may/ will have problems if the UK leaves the EU without a deal. We are considering cancelling our cruise if the position is still uncertain when we are due to pay the full amount for the cruise as our insurance company will not cover any Brexit related losses. 

I think that I have figured it out. We depart from Yokohama and we return to Tokyo. If that is true, will I be the only person on the cruise to make the mistake that I did?

 

DON

We had an email from our Travel Agent some time ago saying the departure had changed to Yokohama.

Ahh.. thanks RJHNorthyorks. That's exactly where im sailing too. I have got a midship cabin on the hump on the 6th deck. Hopefully if there is rough seas, that would minimize the rocking motion.

 

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Sounds like you have a better located cabin than we had. It’s an amazing area. Hope you have a great time. Ros.

We’ve been to this port twice this year and on both occasions did a ships trip into Saigon because of the distance. It is about 2 hours each way. The first time we went on a ships tour to visit key sites. The second time we did the ships transfer to Saigon and explored on our own.

We used West Quay in June and it is very close to the piers. There are lots of cafes and restaurants near by as well as parking. The hotel was very busy and people who had not pre-booked breakfast were turned away from the restaurant.

Which ports were you closest to when you experienced the 2-3 days of rough seas?

The port we missed was Nha Trang so rough seas were going up the coast of Vietnam from the port for Saigon to Chan May the port for Hue or Danang. We sailed some of this area again 10 days later and that was ok.

As I said I took medication. I feel sea movement more than my husband. Because we were back to back and did not want to move cabins we had less choice of cabin and were much nearer the front of the ship than we usually choose to be.

I wouldn’t worry too much as we’ve certainly experienced worse seas in other parts of the world.

Hello, I'm sailing on Celebrity Millenium's 7 Night South East Asia in Feb 2019 visiting ports in Vietnam and disembarking in Hong Kong. I'd just like to hear how the seas were from your experiences around this time of year. Also, this is my 2nd cruise in 'open' waters. The first was in the med but was lucky to have calm seas almost like glass for majority of it. I'm slightly worried that waves might be bigger than I anticipated as I have old folks (mid-80's-90) with me. Please enlighten me! :)

We did a back to back on Celebrity Constellation in February this year - 27 nights. We had 2 or 3 days of roughish seas and missed one port. I took sea sickness tablets but my husband didn’t bother and was fine. Rest of the time the seas were fine.

We were in India last year on the Constellation. We did an amazing tour with Mumbai Magic in Mumbai and tours with Lijo in the other 3 ports - Goa, Kerala and New Mangalore. All the tours were excellent and cost a fraction of Celebrity excursions.

We spent 27 nights on Constellation earlier this year, 14 nights last year and we’ve booked again next year. We did feel our cabin was a bit tired and we are a little bored with the Celebrity main dining room menu but despite this we had a fantastic time.

The crew are amazingly helpful and very quick to sort out any issues we had.

We stayed in the Eastin Grand Sathorn for our overnight in Bangkok earlier this year. Large, modern spotlessly clean hotel with amazingly helpful staff.

Also very good value.

The hotel was suggested by our tour company. Sorry I can’t be specific as to the location but it was very close to a metro line which some of our party used to go out in the evening.

Great review thanks. We’re visiting Japan next year for the first time for a cruise on Azamara so finding your review which is so packed with details most helpful.

Hi,

 

Are there any options for an 83 year old to get from Narita to Shinjuku and Shinjuku to Yokohama without having to lug her baggage to and from train/bus stations? Taxis are expensive as well as private transfers. Green Tomato isn't an option because for some reason they don't offer transfers on the day of the cruise. Maybe they are sold out? TIA!:):)

Maybe try posting on the roll call for your cruise as there may be someone prepared to share transport and costs.

We will also be looking for transfers from the airport to hotel and hotel to port for our cruise next April. I don’t know if we will find them but we take the view that this is meant be a holiday and not an ordeal.

Good luck.

We’ve also booked the 27 April cruise on Quest but will be travelling as we have already booked flights and hotels.

It does seem accurate that Golden Week may potentially complicate things as I have today been communicating with a tour guide regarding visiting the Kawachi Fujien Wisteria Garden but she thinks it will be very difficult if not impossible to secure tickets because of Golden Week.

From what I’ve seen only US Ports require everyone to get off the ship. All others portscyou just use your old card to leave the ship and turn around and check in with new card. We’ve always had full use oof our cabin on turn around days.

We had to all disembark in Singapore earlier this year on a back to back. and then had to go through a speedy check in where we were issued with new sea passes.

We did a back to back from Singapore earlier this year and were given priority disembarkation at tendering ports which was useful. We also go along to the cocktail party if we don’t have a complimentary drinks package as well as using laundry bags. Other than that we think the elite “perks” are a bit pointless. It was cheaper to buy an internet package before we set off than to just have the 90 minutes and we thought the free ice cream each was a bit pointless.

We have not always had our own queue for boarding or the separate cocktail party - I think it depends on how many elite passengers are on board.

I just checked the BKK site and it now states that they no longer offer shore excursions from the port of Laem Chabang, (the port we will be docking at)as it is too far from Bangkok. Too bad; it sounds like it would have been a great tour.

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

That’s where we docked so that is very disappointing.

We were in Bangkok on Celebrity Constellation earlier this year and joined a small group tour of 6 people arranged via Cruise Critic with BKK travel. This was a 2 day tour and we spent an overnight in Bangkok. Everything about the tour was excellent. The company suggest an itinerary but it is possible to amend it.

I can’t remember the costs but I do remember that at the time we calculated that our excursion was significantly cheaper than the same trip offered by the ship.