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prudence passenger

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About Me

  • Location
    USA
  • Interests
    genealogy, travel, yoga
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    Crystal, Celebrity, RCI
  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
    Northern Europe

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Cool Cruiser (2/15)

  1. I have a fractured ankle. I used both wheelchair and walker. I needed the aisle wheelchair to get to my seat. Airline very happy to assist, they just need notice. Walker could not fit down aisle. Good luck
  2. I just returned from a month in Japan, partial cruise, partial land. We notified the airlines, and a wheelchair was brought outside for me. I even needed the aisle chair to get on and off the plane.. We did purchase a manual wheelchair on amazon.jp, which was delivered to our pre cruise hotel. We used it to get onboard, and also on the ship. The ship did have a number of wheelchairs that could be used onboard, but could not be taken off the ship. They did not fit through the doorway, unless in an accessible cabin.
  3. We just returned from a 2 week cruise and 2 week land portion in Japan. I brought a small manual collapsible wheelchair. Our cruise line had included tours at each port. I could not get up stairs at all at this point in time, even onto a bus. It was really difficult to even get up the step into a van. We ended up cancelling all the included tours and had our own car with driver and English speaking guide pick us up at the ports we decided to get off. Sometimes a half day, sometimes a whole day. This made it so much easier for us. We could leave when we wanted, return if I got very tired. We visited accessible places and avoided inconveniencing anyone else. It did turn out to be a very unexpected and expensive solution.
  4. I think it also depends on where you are going, We just returned from Japan. I was unable to rent most equipment and have it delivered there. I ended up purchasing a small narrow manual wheelchair from amazon.jp. and had it delivered to our first hotel before we boarded our cruise. It still did not fit through the doorway. The wheelchairs the cruise line had onboard also did not fit through the doorway. There is a small threshold at the doorway. Our problem was a huge step to get into the bathroom, which we had been told was also just a threshold. If we had known that we would have had to get the accessible suite, or cancelled our trip. Somehow, with my husband's ingenuity and McGiverism, with the wheelchair and my walker he assisted me to get it to work. In two weeks, we only had one port where the tide changed so much I needed 3 staff to carry me up the ramp in my wheelchair. Japan is a very accessible country, with clean bathrooms everywhere. There is a great website, accessible Japan, it was very helpful to me in picking places to visit and those to avoid. The airport personnel go beyond in assistance. Do your homework, and with extensive preplanning, your trip will be great.
  5. Review trip to Japan September/October 2023 You may see the review of the first two weeks of our trip in the section on Silversea, the Silver Muse. This includes the ports we visited. Also information on the fact I purchased a wheelchair on amazon.jp, and the wonderful hotel that received and held it for me. Much information and assistance was received by using the website Accessible Japan. After we disembarked the cruise line in Yokohama, we continued our Japanese adventure with 5 nights in Kyoto, and 6 nights in Tokyo. We flew JAL from Haneda to Itami. What a wonderful airline! We were helped from the moment we got into the airport, and taken to a special assistance area. The Japanese are very serious about supporting the elderly. Also families with young children and their strollers. I was given an airport wheelchair ( used inside), and my wheelchair and also my walker were wrapped in plastic. Staff were with us every step of the way, and we were met at the other end as well. Excellent service. Would recommend JAL. We stayed at the Hotel Mitsui Kyoto. I can not say enough wonderful things about this property. We were wowed from the moment we approached and entered. This was definitely built and decorated with feng shui in mind. There is a feeling of calm and peacefulness as soon as one enters the lobby and sees the pond and interior garden. The outside disappears, and one feels relaxed. The attention to detail is phenomenal. The lighting was exquisite. The staff is professional and highly trained. We have stayed at many wonderful properties all over the world, and we can say this was in the top 3! We had a lovely room overlooking the garden. Even the hallways were well done. When have you ever remembered what the hallway was like? This property has it’s own onsen spa from their own underground spring on the lower level. Stone and water, soft lighting, rain waterfalls in the pools, comfortable seating. It was visually stunning. There are two restaurants on property. Forni, also has the bar, and is great for breakfast overlooking the garden. The other was Toki – Innovative Kyoto - French for dinner, and lovingly prepared and served. Our concierge par excellance, Patricia, went above and beyond to assist us with our needs. We always required accessible friendly transport, and dinner recommendations at accessible restaurants. Patricia found us some remarkable restaurants to try different types of Japanese style meals. We tried Kaiseki, Yakitori, Izakaya, and Yakiniku. We truly loved our experiences in Kyoto. There are no tall office and apartment complexes as in Osaka or Tokyo. The Geisha district is charming. We went to the Arashiyama Bamboo forest. The amount of tour buses and tourists was incredible. Packed. Luckily our driver knew a back area entrance to a less popular section and dropped us off there. We did not stay very long, but got to hear the wind rustling the bamboo, and hear the clacking and see them swaying. It would be beautiful if not so many people! One of our most favorite stops was the Fushimi Inari shrine with the 10,000 Torii gates. We were unable to walk up the mountain, but there were plenty of gates to see and walk through with the wheelchair. Of course, no trip here would be complete without the famous Kinkakuji (Gold pavilion) Temple and gardens. It is truly glorious, and there is a way to go halfway around without steps, and when others started climbing, we just turned around to go back the way we had come. We also visited Kiyomizu-dera Temple way up above the city. The views here are fabulous.. There is a special entrance our guide was allowed to drive up since we had the wheelchair. This is close to the Gion Geisha district. We saw tons of tourists dressed in kimono taking photos for Instagram. Nijo Castle was around the corner from our hotel. As soon as we got on the grounds, with thick gravel, so difficult to manuever, we were able to use a power assisted wheelchair, and ours was stored. Upon getting to the castle section, an inside wheelchair is used. Unfortunately, no photos allowed inside. The screens are very beautiful, and the 33 rooms impressive. We also went to Ginkakuji ( Silver Pavilion) zen temple and garden. We arrived late in the day and it was not crowded at all, very peaceful and lovely. Another interesting Buddist temple was Sanjusangendo, totally accessible pathways, and inside as well, and there are 1001 life size statues inside, also no photos. Each statue has its own distinctive face. Another great recommendation from our concierge extraordinaire, Patricia, was a nearby millennial age forest with mostly accessible pathways to a shrine, Shimogamo Jinja, Kyoto’s oldest Shinto shrine. Have you read about forest bathing? It was lovely and peaceful, not many tourists. We saw a young couple in traditional dress taking wedding photos. Delightful. After the amazing time we spent in Kyoto, we traveled on to Tokyo. It was New York City on steroids. So many large towers of buildings, offices and apartments. Our hotel, the Prince Gallery Kioicho was on the top floors. Our room was on the 34th with amazing city views, especially at night. The room had a long window seat with pillows across a room width window. Electronic curtains and blackout shade. This room was also large by Japanese standards. We had a huge walk in shower for two. The hotel bar looked out on the wonderful city view as well. We had club level, which was on our floor. Unfortunately, no breakfast served, except coffee, and maybe a small sweet. This was unusual for a club. There was afternoon tea, and also a cocktail hour with small bites. This club also looked out over the view. The restaurants were not good, noisy, devoid of ambiance, but had the view, and we went elsewhere. Because the hotel is in a large building, the first 3 or 4 floors had restaurants, shops, a mini mart, and a small supermarket.. A couple of coffee shops, with outdoor seating, nice for breakfast. We had wonderful concierge service here as well. The staff made sure our dinner reservations were in an accessible venue, and also arranged accessible Kabuki tickets for us. The staff always made sure I had a vehicle that would accommodate the wheelchair everytime we went out. This is such an easy city to navigate. We were able to take taxis everywhere, and they were easy to get wherever we went. Our concierge always gave us a paper with our destination in kanji, and we kept a hotel card with its address in kanji as well for our return. The hotel is located near the Imperial Palace, and we were told it was the Political area. It was nice to not have hoards of tourists and noise outside the hotel. Yet, it was close to all the areas we went to visit. One of our first stops, was the fully accessible Senso-ji Shrine. There is even an elevator into the shrine, built to look as though it was always there, so mobility challenged individuals can make devotion without climbing many stairs. There is a five story pagoda on the property. This is in the Asakusa neighborhood, great for strolling ( or pushing) around afterwards, with many shops and restaurants in small narrow streets, very atmospheric. At this point in time, after 3 weeks, I think my husband was Buddhist Temple, Shinto Shrine, and Japanese gardened out! We decided to do more city things here. We did go to the National Museum and the Modern Art museum which were both great. The National is really a few different museums and by Ueno park where the zoo is located. This was the only place in the entire country we visited that we saw a few homeless people in tents. We got tickets to Team Lab Planets, which was an immersive visual experience. Such a lot of fun, and reminiscent of the Van Gogh show we saw in Los Angeles. We were able to participate in almost every experience. We opted out of the water one, where it could come up to your knees. They gave me an inside wheelchair, and parked mine. Every room was a totally different feel, and so cleverly implemented. Definitely Instagram popular! We did our shopping in Tokyo, heading to the well known restaurant kitchen wonderland Kappabashi to purchase some magnificent knives. We met some chefs while we were there at Tsubaya, we definitely recommend this shop for quality and expertise. We also made a stop in Harajuku to pick up anime gifts, and also to an iconic department store in Ginza, Mitsukoshi. Two basement floors of food stalls to make your mouth water. There is also an exhibition space and we found an Art Aquarium installation that was just amazing. A unique find. We went one evening to Shibuya Crossing, famous in movies, TV, and music videos. It made Times Square look small. About 3000 people cross every 2-3 minutes, in all directions. Multiple video screens above, and tons of advertising. There is also an area you can walk with no car traffic with lots of shops and restaurants, and karaoke bars. This is also the site of the famous dog statute, that patiently waited for his master for years, after he passed away, and did not come home from his office. Our last evening we attended two different Kabuki theater performances. No photos allowed here sadly. One was dancing, and the other more traditional theater. The translation headphones were pretty useless, just read the program. Most of the female parts were still played by men. We enjoyed it very much. Some last minute gift shopping for Japanese tshirts for the grandkids at the Uniqlo store. If we had more time we could have gotten custom shirts, or at least personalized. The ones we saw and we leafed through the books, looked really fun. We did find really fun T-shirts for all the grandchildren here. Think dumplings, sushi, noodle bowls, and also dragons, geisha, ninja, and even Hokusai’s wave The marathon trip back home is never easy, but we are so so glad we made the effort to travel to Japan and explore this amazing country.
  6. Any info on accessibility at ports in Japan? With a manual wheelchair, thank you - Judi
  7. Due to a fractured ankle, I am traveling with a manual folding wheelchair. I cannot put any weight on my foot. We have had to cancel our planned tours, and have hired a van at ports that can take the wheelchair, we were told it would not fit in trunk of a car, we will also go to Kyoto for 5 days, and Tokyo for 6 days after a 2 week cruise circumnavigating Japan. I have tried watching YouTube’s on accessible tours in Japan. Any hints, or definitely do not go there tips for us? My hubby will be pushing me. I can also roll along a little bit myself. We are hoping our driver/guide will also assist us a little bit. When there are only short port stops, for ½ a day, we will stay onboard. We do have 2 overnight port stops, so no worries to be back on time. Still looking forward to finally traveling to Japan after Covid cancellations, even with my left foot 🙂 thanks for any suggestions, I have never broken anything before, and I am 71- I was hiking in Iceland, so previously pretty active. Judi
  8. Thank you very much I’ve looked at these, but I read the 3 wheel not as stable as 4 wheel, not sure what to get, will do more research, thank you ☺️
  9. I recently broke my ankle and probably cannot put weight on it for my Japan cruise on Muse end September, I hate to cancel, I rented a lightweight folding wheelchair at home, and plan to get a knee scooter soon, what are my best options to stay on this cruise? I am fine renting any gear and also changing all excursions to a private car , I have a silver suite, but not accessible, thanks for any advice, I never broke anything before, and this will be first trip needing assistance, except home from Iceland where I slipped hiking
  10. The Machu Picchu land tour portion of our trip is going to be reimbursed, yes it is a 4 on state dept but, Lima is still a 3. There will be police escort for Passengers leaving the ship to get to the airport in Lima. That makes me believe the cruise line does not believe it is safe for travel the state dept website also says road blocks can happen at any time Another passenger also told me their flight from Paris to Lima was cancelled Safety first!
  11. Our pre cruise tour to Machu Picchu has been cancelled by silversea on silversea facebook, passengers tell of being confined to hotel there and cannot go home many are frightened We are supposed to fly now on Monday, instead of today to Lima for cruise portion, our insurance, purchased through silversea, with Allianz, says civil unrest is not covered to cancel a cruise, only terrorism is covered How can Silversea guarantee passengers safety at Lima airport? travel from airport to hotel? from hotel to cruise port? Roads are blocked in many places. We are very concerned Last night the city of Lima was covered in tear gas
  12. We will be cruising on our first Silversea cruise for the holidays in December/ January It has been three years since we have cruised and are looking forward to the opportunity to cruise again We have never been to the west coast of South America and are very unfamiliar with the ports We got the best recommendations for our trip around the UK, and am hoping to find similar advice We are very happy to book private tours and cars for the best experiences Appreciate any tips and suggestions for these ports above, thanks so much Judi and Barry (Prudence Passenger)
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