Miaminice

@hummingbird_206 if that should be the case then walking is no problem at all. We walked around that area before we went up to Mount Hakodate. We have done 3 Japan cruises so far - 2 on Millennium and one on Westerdam - and have booked a fourth for next year. So you can tell we really like Japan 👍

@hummingbird_206 I think you are mistaking the pier. When we docked in Hakodate on Westerdam it would have been a 7 km or 1 1/2 hour walk along a non pedestrian friendly road! Safety isn´t really the problem in Japan but this was too far away - and we are walkers 🙂 This is where cruise ships dock https://maps.app.goo.gl/7e5xENTYvvaYkp777 Here´s what we did: https://www.travelandcruise.net/travellove_en/Our-Trips/HAL-Westerdam-Japan-01/HAL-Westerdam-Japan---Hakodate/hal-westerdam-japan---hakodate.html

we only booked him with Tours by Locals the first time. After that we contacted him directly. We are also connected on Facebook. So yes, you can contact him directly… no problem. The last tour was USD 199 for a group of 6 plus JPY 7000 (apx USD 50) per person for train tickets and entrance fees. I usually look up the guides and the post on the Roll Call of the cruise to find people interested in joining us. The maximum group size we do is 6 people. Still a good size to have the private experience but a good number to share the cost.

It’s actually pretty easy. Newer phones allow you to install a secondary virtual sim without actually physically installing a card. However, I have to correct my statement in a previous post. In Japan I used an Ubigi eSim, not an Airalo. I was told Ubigi has the better connection in Japan. I used Airalo in Southeast Asia. Both websites have good video tutorials on how to activate the eSim and which settings to use.

you will not regret it for sure!

Sure, no problem! There’s also a review of our first cruise to Japan on our website. Also on Millennium.

@debfed65 @ClarP Hi, those are Koichi’s details. Let him know I sent you and he’ll surely take good care of you!

Hello and thank you! The Tempozan Metro station is actually not far away from the pier. Maybe five minutes on foot. The trains, incl. Shinkansen, are fairly inexpensive. Japan is the land of trains. The total time to Kyoto is probably around an hour. The Shinkansen part is only 15 minutes or so. However, I would strongly recommend hiring a guide. Since this is your first visit to Japan and Kyoto, you would spend too much time trying to figure out how to get from A to B. Kyoto has so much to offer. We have now been there three times and we still haven’t seen it all. The individual sites are not very close to each other, so it’s really the best to hire a guide, arrange a tour with him and just follow his lead instead of wasting time on figuring out which train to take and were to go. I am no fan of Celebrity tours at all so I can only recommend taking a private guide. I can highly recommend Koichi, with whom we booked our tours over the last cruises. I can give you his contact information. Since this report a few others followed my recommendation and toured with Kochi. All came back very happy. Osaka on the other hand is very easy to do on your own. Walk to the train station take the train to the castle, walk around, visit the castle and then take a train to the Dotonbori area to enjoy the weird and entertaining buzz. Koichi also offers tours in Osaka, but contrary to Kyoto, I‘d say you can easily do it on your own. The best way to find the right train connection is Google Maps or Apple Maps. The pricing is not really a problem because the Metro rides are only between 1 and 4 USD. I used an Airalo eSim so we always had internet to look at maps and connections etc. Oliver

🤔 you also get the snacks in Aqua just like all other perks except for embarkation day lunch. And we actually prefer Blu over Luminae… but each to their own.

I thought the same thing… why not Aqua. Concierge offers nothing. And personally we even prefer Aqua over suites.

We also did this... We booked all of our tours in Vietnam with a young lady called Rose. She organized all the tours in the other ports with young guides and guided the tour in Halong Bay and Hanoi herself. She was the best guide ever!!! On board she cooked for us - outstanding - and at night we did a motor scooter tour to the best places of Hanoi before doing a food and history tour the next day. Some others followed our recommendation and also booked with her. They all came back raving about the experience. She is a gem!!! Here´s where you can see more:

Usually the overnights in Kobe are on a Japan cruise. In that case you don´t go through immigration at all. You just go through security - which is eas easy as anywhere else.

@pseudoware Hotel Andaz Singapore for luxury Pan Pacific for a very good hotel within a medium price range The Scarlett for a boutique hotel We have also done the Marina Bay Sands to check it off our bucket list. Nice but impersonal mass processing. If you haven´t been to Singapore before, be sure to make it two nights. Singapore is fantastic. Don´t worry about transport!!! Taxis in Singapore are incredibly inexpensive. The ride from the airport to the city is just around USD 20. The MRT is also very inexpensive. There are stations everywhere. I highly recommend using the Grab App (the uber of Asia). You can also use it to pay in the Hawker Centers. If you stay in the city the ride to the cruise terminal will probably under USD 10. Maybe our travelogue helps. We started this cruise from Singapore. https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2980155-celebrity-solstice-12222023-thailand-vietnam-liveish-report/

Thank you! I can only keep on recommending Rose! Since we posted about her quite a few people followed our recommendation and booked tours with her. They all came back raving abou the experience. She´s a gem! About Hong Kong... we have been there many times so we don´t actually book a guide any more. However, when we booked a guide many years ago it was with www.hellohongkong.com.hk. It was a good tour, so we can recommend them. Otherwise you can try with toursbylocals.com. As a hotel we can recommend The Kowloon Hotel. Very good location and reasonable rates. In Nagasaki I would not do a tour at all. Nagasaki is extremely easy to do DIY. Take a taxi or tram to the Peace Museum and Peace Park, take a tram to Chinatown, walk trough Chinatown and up to Glover Gardens and you´ll have a great day. The ship is within just a few minutes walking distance from Glover Gardens. So really easy. You can also do Hiroshima on your own. However, it is not as easy as Nagasaki. The iconic Hioshima Peace Memorial/Dome and the Museum are must sees. Then I also recommend seeing Myajima. Both can easily be done in one day. If you want to do it with a guide I can recommend trying toursbylocals.co or gowithguide.com (former triplelights). We did Hiroshima on this cruise: https://www.travelandcruise.net/travellove_en/Our-Trips/Celebrity-Millennium-Japan/celebrity-millennium-japan.html The other Japan travelogues are: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2970853-celebrity-millennium-japan-10242023-liveish-report/ and http://www.travelandcruise.net/travellove_en/Our-Trips/HAL-Westerdam-Japan-01/hal-westerdam-japan-01.html

Yes, cruises with more European and British on board do have a better dress code. People in Europe wear on a cruise what they would wear to a good restaurant at home. And that’s more dressy than in the US. I lived on both sides for over 40 years and certainly dress differently in Europe vs US myself.

yes, Kamakura sure is special. On this trip it was like the icing on the cake!

1 per stateroom

Hi and thank you! We did post while on the cruise. You can find it here: If you are looking for private tours in Vietnam, contact Rose! She is absolutely the best!!!

To Japan we usually Fly ANA. Of course, since we start all our flights from Germany, we otherwise often fly Lufthansa. Lufthansa is a reliable and safe airline. Their business class is pretty good. LH is not my favorite airline (for personal reasons) but as an airline they are good. But I also have to say that we don´t have too many expectations. We just want to get there 🙂

we have been to Kagoshima 3 times so far - incl. immigration process. I think it’s fair to say we know our way around there and how to do the things we like to do 😉 On our last visit the only problem we encountered was traffic. We happened to be there on the day of the Ohara Festival. Great experience.

Anyhow... I wouldn´t recommend limiting a visit of Kagoshima to a bus tour of the city. The nice thing about the Cute pass is that the ferry to Sakurajima and the loop bus on Sakurajima are included as well a the public bus which one can take to the Sengan-en Gardens.

in October it was available at the port terminal.

Btw… getting the CUTE card (sold at the port) is a good idea. Very inexpensive and includes the ferry etc. https://www.kagoshima-yokanavi.jp/en/feature/one-day-pass2

We have been to Japan 3 times. Some cabs do, we found most cabs don’t. Check before you get on. In some places - like Tokyo / Yokohama - you can also use the uber app.

We have been to Tokyo / Japan a couple of times and never bothered to buy a suica card or to install it on my phone. Paying for the tickets as we went was OK, easy and worked well.