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The bathrooms, even in the lowest suite levels, are good sized on Azamara. We upgraded to a suite from a Veranda for $800 on a 16 night cruise and were impressed with the bathrooms. I would think Oceania’s R class suites have equally sized bathrooms. Our first Oceania cruise is on the Vista, but I have no problem with R class ships, but their useful lives have to be ticking down.

That’s great to hear. I hope the vision includes new ships. The R class ships, whether on Azamara or Oceania, just cannot last that long. Right now, Azamara, even before this Oceania passive price hike, had better pricing. I have had to cancel two cruises with Azamara though and it’s frustrating. One was pre-sale and one post-sale by RCL and both had significant changes in ports. I got this wonky feel from them that I was never sure what to expect, but our SE cruise with them was outstanding.

We loved our Azamara cruise, but that was before Covid and change of ownership. We would go back, especially considering their pricing was already much better than Oceania’s. We booked our first Oceania cruise, mainly because we were a bit nervous about the new ownership and their struggles migrating their systems. I just wonder if the new owners plans are just to run their old fleet of R class ships into the ground and then just exit the business as the private equity firm they are.

I got $400 pp credit on a 10-day cruise (Lisbon-Southampton on the Vista) Agency threw in gratuities + another $1,000 onboard credit. If I were to switch to One World, or whatever they are calling it, I’d be down $550 plus drinks for both of us. Maybe the agents will now begin to throw in drinks packages instead of gratuities. Maybe it’s more than $550. I don’t see the $125 OBC, so that would be $800 I’d be losing. This will be our first cruise on Oceania. Going in with an open mind on everything and, for future cruises, we’ll always consider total cost to us. Next up would be Celebrity Edge from Sydney to all around New Zealand. After that, who knows?

I have gotten them for less, but it depends on the time of year. Yes, October is rough everywhere. Check TripAdvisor. I see Omni Parker House in the 370s in October. Good luck.

City Trolley is much better than the gimmicky duck boats, which are a show, but you cannot get on an off.

Seaport Hotels are expensive and not convenient to the T (buses, maybe) You can stay in town, near the North End at the Hilton Canopy or the Bostonian (Millennium) Hotel for under $300. From there, you are a quick walk to the North End, several T stations, downtown, and the waterfront. It’s also close to TD Garden if you want to see the Bruins or Celtics. The Bruins games are very expensive, but a great take.

Yes, I might do both. Go West also does Philip Island and the Penguin Parade looks amazing. We are in Maine 5 months a year, so don’t need lighthouses, and want to see things unique to Australia. Also, I am not against all driving. I am willing to rent a car at Adelaide Airport and putting it on the ferry and use it for Kangaroo Island. For city stuff, seeing Sydney and Melbourne would be great. Thanks everyone on here for your help. We always wanted to do this trip, but never had the time to do it.

I certainly understand the size of Australia and we will probably fly from Sydney to Melbourne, after 3-4 days in Sydney. We will stick with our plan of Great Ocean Road tour with Go West Tours. I want to be able to enjoy the scenic drive and not do all of that driving on vacation. I am counting on flying from Sydney to Melbourne and then Melbourne to Adelaide and then flying back from Adelaide to Sydney. We have so many Hilton points that it would cover Hiltons in Sydney, Melbourne and Aukland. Thinking about the Sea Dragon in Kangaroo Island.

Thanks for the ideas. I have been watching videos on YouTube. I don’t know what attracted me to Kangaroo Island. I suppose it’s the scenery and possibly staying at a real nice resort. I had been planning on Great Ocean Road on very long day tour. I have never driven on the left side of the road, otherwise I might do that. I suppose I could get used to it. The other option is Tasmania. I do understand that anything further north than Sydney and I am getting into bad weather risks. I hadn’t even looked at Warrnabool or Manly. We are going more for the nature than the culture. I do appreciate all of the ideas.

Some are saying that it makes sense to rent cars in Adelaide because it’s cheaper. We were going to fly from Melbourne to Adelaide, rent a car there and drive to the ferry and then drive to the ferry on the way back and leave the car back to the airport and fly to Sydney before the cruise from there to NZ. Our cruise is 2/26, so still at beginning of planning land in Australia, Right now, trying figure out 11 days on land in Australia, but thinking Sydney to Melbourne (with Great Ocean Road) and Kangaroo Island. The other option is Tasmania.

Our arrival in Hakodate on the Celebrity Millennium was the first Japanese port after our return from Busan, South Korea. We had a private tour and I was a bit nervous after seeing our group number, which I believe was in the upper 20s. It said to stay in public areas and group numbers would be called. The day before, a sea day, I went to the main desk asking them if we could change our group #. They told me that I was late doing this, but gave me Group 6 or something close to that number. We were in a lounge area before any group numbers were called and were told in the lounge that anyone ready to go could head off the ship, which was a nice surprise. When we exited the ship, we entered into a good sized hall. There was a line, which took about 20 minutes to go through. I am assuming those in front had Celebrity excursions or Retreat status. In any case, there were several people working at immigration and the process in Hakodate had perfect precision. We got out 30 minutes before we were scheduled to meet with our guide. We built in an hour for the process. Fortunately, we found him after 10 minutes with a Tours by Locals sign with my name on it. This was our experience, but it is specific to a ship with 2,000 people and in Hakodate. Our 20-25 minute total process in Hakodate was the longest wait at any port. I will say this about this Millennium itinerary. The buffet areas was overly congested on morning port days and absolutely horrible for Hiroshima with a 1 pm port day. If you have Aqua class, use Blu for breakfast whenever possible (or any class where you can avoid the morning buffet on a morning port day, unless the port time is 7 am or otherwise early. I would recommend booking a private tour and just being in touch with your guide the day of your tour. We did one Celebrity tour because of a 3 pm departure, the second day n Osaka. We went to Nara on the Celebrity bus. The guide was awful. The experience was not as promised. However, we still had a good time experiencing Nara. Overall, we loved this itinerary and the M class ships on Celebrity with Aqua class.

They either figured it out or our cruise lucked out.

That’s what it took. I didn’t anticipate and told my TBL guide to come a little late. Waited only 10 minutes. They told people to wait in lounges, but then just said everyone could go. I’m sure and retreat people had 0-5 minute waits, at most.

That’s what I am thinking now and using Sydney, Melbourne, and Hobart as bases. Thank you, I appreciate the advice.

Our cruise begins in Sydney on Feb 22, 2026 and then spends 12 days in New Zealand. That leaves us with probably 11 days pre-cruise in Australia. I am wondering if it makes sense to go to Cairns for 3 nights, considering the rainy season then (and the stingers on the Great Barrier Reef). We were going to do 4-5 nights in Sydney, 2 in Melbourne and could do 3 in Cairns or could go to Uluru instead. Thanks to any Aussies out there or others who have done land vacations in Australia before the cruise.

For us, it was 25 minutes. They gave out numbers of boarding groups, but ignored them and let everyone lined up early immediate access to immigration. I would count on 25-35 minutes unless you do a Celebrity tour. This was Hakodate for us.

Why JeJu over the itineraries with Busan? I loved Busan.

Loved the 12-night itinerary on the Celebrity Millennium. At the end of the day, find the best itinerary for you. We had Shimizu, two days in Osaka, Hiroshima, Busan SK, Hakodate, and Aomori. To be honest, I wasn’t crazy about Aomori but loved other ports. Before the cruise, we stayed four nights in Tokyo and two Kyoto. Since we did Kyoto pre-cruise, from Osaka, we did a day and night in Osaka and a day in Nara. In Hiroshima, on a private tour we did both Miyajima and Hiroshima. The Millennium is permanently in Asia, mostly in Japan, but offseason is does go to Bali, India, and Vietnam among other itineraries. As far as waits in ports, the longest was 20-25 minutes and that was the port after re-arrival in Japan after Busan. The ship arrives very early in Busan, around 7 am, and our toursbylocals tour didn’t begin until around 9. We had no problems with immigration there. We love the M class ships on Celebrity because you will have sea days and the entertainment is very good and has the advantages of larger ships. The one negative is the Oceanside can get busy and crowded an hour before you can get off the ship in ports. Hiroshima was 1 pm and crowds were insane. Happy to answer more questions. We got back three weeks ago and loved the cruise and also would recommend the Conrad Tokyo (amazing hotel in a convenient location with great views- even saw Mt Fuji) and also Hilton Garden Inn in Kyoto (convenient and can do self serve laundry before your cruise).

I wound up using Google Fi. It worked perfectly at ports and even during many days at sea. It allowed two of us to have 5G to LTE everywhere easy to tether our iPads. I highly recommend Google Fi, if you are from the USA and will be gone for close to 3 weeks. With Google Fi, no extra wires or devices (kept an iphone charger with us - a very lightweight one). You also get the phone option with it, which is great if you need it.

Walking and Metro/subway. I would think a car would be difficult in Tokyo. In Kyoto, and i strongly advise spending pre-cruise nights in both Tokyo and Kyoto, some travel by taxi isn't a bad idea as it's not that expensive and attractions there are a bit spread out. Let the guide know to do what makes sense and you will pick up the taxi fare. Celebrity does the 1.5 days in Osaka, which many use for Kyoto, but we used that for a day in Osaka and a 1/2 day in Nara. By the way, for Busan, we did Tours by Locals with a great guide who speaks perfect English. His name is BK (short for something. he jokingly said not Burger King) and was one of our favorite guides. He has a van. It fits six passengers comfortably. We added two couple from our CC roll call. The cost was $480. Another can't miss on Tours by Locals is Moto for Shimizu. He took us to a family run tea farm with a factory. Very cool experience. We also did the typical stuff and he also took us to one of his favorite lunch spots, which was not touristy at all. It's these kinds of experiences why I love the private tours and just don't like the cruise lines for any of that (only when you have to).

The guides in Tokyo will meet you at your hotel. I had a bunch of Hilton points and free night stays, so we stayed at the Conrad Tokyo. The Hilton would have been fine too. We wanted an American brand with helpful people and larger rooms, but look at TripAdvisor. All of the AMEX Hilton cards right now have sign up bonuses with points and free nights. If you can, take advantage. Definitely get the AMEX Hilton Surpass. The annual fee is $150, but $200 can be earned with quarterly purchases of $50 gift cards, which you would redeem on vacation. That card gives you gold status / free breakfasts as well. If you just get one, get that one and stay at the Hilton. If you get a couple of FNCs, go with the Conrad. Love the location and views.

I can recommend two guides for Tokyo, both with Gowithguide.com. The guides all have bios and tours listed on the site. Kahoko and Yoko were both outstanding. Kahoko’s evening tour with dinner at an Izakaya restaurant was excellent. We did two tours with her and one with Yoko. Yoko lived in Seattle for a while and speaks English like an American. Kahoko is very easy to understand. Both are great guides. I was not crazy about our gowithguide in Kyoto. She is a good guide but skipped lunch and Fushimi Inari (we did on our own). No excuse for not stopping in Arashiyama for street food other than her own pacing. That’s Toshiyo O. If you book Kahoko or Yoko, please let them know Len from Boston recommended them .

According to google, it’s 91 minutes each way. There are also steep slopes on the way up. It is scenic through Motamachi (sp?). We did it on the return with our guide. We also took trams to Fort Goryokuku and saw the morning market. The highlight of the day is the Fort. It and the flowers around the Fort are absolutely beautiful. 3 hours seems like a lot of walking just for the ropeway. It is a stunning view though.

Every tour we have had has been superior to cruise line tours (Shimizu, Hokadate, Hiroshima/Miyajima, Busan, and Osaka and pre-cruise in Tokyo/Kyoto). Look in ToursByLocals. If you have questions about specific ports, I can recommend guides, in particular.