Celebrity Milennium Japan April 21 2020

[CruisingAnywhere]

This is my first cruise with Celebrity and am a little disappointed with the excursion options they are providing for the 7 different stops. 

Is anyone else going on this cruise also and might be interested to share a private tour guide/van . 

We are 2 couples (4 total) in age range 50 ‘s early 60 . 

This way $700 to $900 price tag becomes more palatable. 

If anyone else in the cruise community has good experience with some vendors , we are open to referrals. 

Our  stops are:1 Tokyo,2  Shimizu (Mt Fiji) 3 Kobe, 4 Kochi , 5 Kagoshima, 6 Busan , 7 Aomori

Thank you all in advance. 

 

Barbara 

[lyndarra]

you will find this question has been asked here.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com.au/topic/2581655-april-21-2020-millenium-japanese-explorer-cruise/

enjoy your cruise.

[MicCanberra]

First stop would be the roll call (above link) and you may have some luck in joining others or have them join you. Try looking at TripAdvisor at the 'Things to do' area for each port and have a look to see what is of interest, note that Japan is expensive. Also look at 'local tour guides'.

[pink845]

Shimizu is a port that you can do on your own.  Which is what we did and it cost us so very little.   Did everything the cruise ship tours did on our own.  Went to the beach, got the requisite pic of Mount Fuji,  from the beach saw the weird tree there on the beach, saw the temples, and on and on.   No tour needed at all. 

 

Toyko, no tour needed there also.  I see that the ship is Toyko to Toyko round trip.  We spent four days in Tokyo prior to our cruise and saw it all and I mean all.  We had a Japan Rail pass and we were able to use it for travel on the JR lines within the city as well as outside of the city. 

 

I see that your itinerary also has an overnight in Osaka for Kyoto.  That is fabulous. Again, avoid tour groups.  Take the ever efficient trains and subways.  In Osaka where you dock, the subway is just a couple of blocks away from the the dock.  

 

You can choose to stay in Osaka and roam around  or take the train to the Kyoto station and then grab the bus right at the Kyoto station and go see the Golden Temple and then catch another bus to the Silver Temple. 

 

You could alternatively take the train from Osaka and go to the Himjei White Castle (fabulous). Again, all of these spots on your own!!!  And be it for a fraction of the cruise ship tour costs.   Many many English language directions everywhere and everyone in Japan wants to practice English and help tourists. 

 

The only spot we did a tour was Busan as the language there was a bit spottier and the bus to get to the temple by the sea (big long name) would have been a big hassle to use so we went with the overpriced tour !!!  Also, it was bloody hot and the public buses did not have air con. 

 

Our ship did not go to the other places on your itinerary so no comment on those.