Cruising Japan.

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

We are on a cruise in Japan in June. The excursions just opened up but there aren’t many. Is that common for this cruise or will more open up as we get closer? For one port there are only two options right now.

 

Thoughts.

[cruzsnooze]

I just cancelled my June 8 cruise to japan. Besides the excursions the airfare was unreasonable. I hope you find something good for excursions.

[moki'smommy]

Wow--we did a 20 night Japan cruise last summer. There were lots of excursions, although some of them were quite far from the port. We also participated with a roll call group and there were lots of things we could do on our own. Many of the Japanese ports will have courtesy guides available (this is not thru Princess, one of the roll call people had used them on a previous cruise). They are volunteers; you pay for their meals and any admissions. They'll do local walking tours or farther away tours based on what you want to do or see. At some of the ports, the city provided complimentary bus transportation from the port to their downtown area or to the train station.

 

I'd suggest that you research the ports and what there is to do near them. We found most of the Princess excursions horrendously overpriced, but they had the advantage of seamless transportation. For instance, one excursion thru Princess was $125 while the admission to the site was under $10. BUT with Princess we could get a bus from the ship to the location and back, while on our own it would have involved a bus to the train, train to near the location, and taxi or a second bus to the final destination. Also look at private tour companies.

 

We were there for the festivals; I'd STRONGLY recommend these on your own. In one location, there was a local (free) city bus from the ship to the area. From there we could watch the festival and catch the bus back. Granted, we didn't have a reserved chair, but we weren't tied to one viewing site either. The people who paid to do it on Princess had the same drop off point, but a separate line for a bus back to the ship and a reserved wooden chair to watch the parade. In another location, we did a Princess tour but then did a courtesy bus back as daughter really wanted a shirt that we hadn't gotten. We totally hit the jackpot as the floats were being brought back in preparation for the evening parade and we could see them "up close" as they were being taken to their garages!

[ggprincess2004]

We cruised Japan in fall 2017. In some ports PRINCESS had very few shore excursion options, in others a good variety. Most of the English speaking guides did pretty well, just a few really were difficult to understand. We were on for 42 days. Also, some of the excursions shown as moderate were actually pretty darn strenuous due to very long walks up and down steep steep inclines .