Seven Seas Explorer Tokyo to Vancouver April - May 2023

[Scout16]

This is about the cruise from Tokyo to Vancouver by the Seven Seas Explorer, this was a Tokyo to Tokyo leg followed by the Tokyo to Vancouver leg from April 25 to May 22, 2023.  There was also a pre cruise  tour of Tokyo.

                                                                        Japan

Japan is very clean with polite, helpful, and physically fit people.  I saw many younger adults wearing traditional clothing.  The guide said that it was common to rent the fancy clothing to honor their traditions and elders.  I would have been able to travel through the cities on my own, but after decades as a Boy Scout leader, I am not comfortable traveling without using the buddy system.  Experience with the government - It may be that tourism was just starting back up, but I was impressed that they actually asked all the immigration questions and listened to the proper answers.  The asked about any plant or animal imports, took your picture, and took two finger prints.  This was made more difficult for me since I was just off a fourteen hour flight and had been up for over twenty hours.  When the entire ship had to go through immigration, in the theater, after the ship spent a day in Korea, I was asked if the reason for my travel was vacation.

 

                                                                     Shore Trips

There are some shore trips that I take just to see a key location or thing, but for me I mostly like to see the country, the people, what they wear, where the live and work, what is traffic like, and what do they drive.  This is in addition to what the guide says.  Physical fitness - My leg muscles acted up when I got to Tokyo an made it difficult to walk quickly for any distance.  In Japan it appears that most people think nothing of walking at rapid pace for miles.   In Tokyo it was normal that you had to leave the bus blocks away from where you were going and that there was a law that forced everyone to leave the bus since the buses normally did not stay where they dropped you off.  When I got to the ship I found that several of the tours I had signed up for had increased activity levels so I dropped most of the trips with more than easy activity levels. 

Tokyo - The pre cruise tour was not the small group that I expected but was over two hundred people.  The first day was to the natural history museum, a long fast walk to the museum where we were given a half an hour to go on our own through the museum, followed by another long fast walk back to the bus.  We did see a local religious procession that was passing though the park we were traveling through.  We then went to see a temple and a shrine which only required a walk of one and a half blocks to and from the bus.  This was very interesting and was where I first noticed the people wearing traditional clothing.  I skipped the second day and did my self inflicted Covid test since the tour was going to cover the shopping district and modern buildings.  The third day was the tour on way to board the ship.  First we went to se a shrine in a nice wooded park.  We could stay on the bus since the bus was parked in a shaded parking lot.  I went to see the shrine, but turned back to the bus when after a quarter of a mile walk down well paved walkways I saw the our group disappear in the distance.  The next stop was for a tower with a view of the city.  Everyone had to get off the bus since it could not park, at least two people had walkers and to get off.  I am not impressed with cities and considered this stop to be a waste of time.

Shimizu - I skipped this one because it was pouring down rain with less than a mile visibly and the main purpose of the trip was to get a view of Mt. Fuji.

Kyoto - Sorakuen Gardens - There was a four to five block walk to the gardens which were nice and a two block walk down hill to return to bus.  The extra distance to the gardens was so we could see a shrine which was twenty to thirty yards behind trees from the sidewalk.  We left there and went to a nice overview of the city.

Kochi - Japanese papermaking - The papermaking was interesting, but I really liked the drive though the countryside where we saw rice paddies and commercial gardens.

Hiroshima - There was a nice drive to the bomb park where I was able to listen to the introduction and then could sit on the wall while the rest of the tour went around the park.

Nagasaki - There we many steps and steep paths to get to the Ropeway (aerial tram) to an overview of the city.  We then went to the cathedral which I skipped due to a steep path and sat on a bench and watched a very nice playground.  We went to the Peace Park which was full of modern sculpture, I heard the introduction and sat on a bench as they went through the park (about half the group was sitting near me before the tour officially completed the park).  Finally we stopped at an open air museum of the early trading with the Europeans.   We had a go tour of the city from the bus.

Muroran - We had a nice drive to the volcano.  The Ropeway to the observation point on the volcano was accessible with few steps.  This was an interesting tour. 

Dutch Harbor - There were no tours here, but we were originally going to tender into town.  The ship docked away from town so they set up a last minute shuttle school bus.  It was raining and the World War Two museum was closed so I stayed on the ship.

Kodiak - City overview - This was a nice tour where you heard about local life from the guide and the bus driver.  The only problem was that it was in a school bus.

Seward - Wildlife cruise - This was a five hour boat trip where we saw two types of whale, eagles, two types of puffins, sealions, seals, sea otters, a mountain goat, and bears (close enough to count the legs).  It got a bit chilly at times and after five hours the seats got a bit hard.

Juneau and Ketchikan - I skipped these since I had been there before and wanted to be sure I would be able to go through the airports on the way home.

[Scout16]

Part Two

Boarding the Ship - The Covid check by the Japanese government allowed a fast boarding check in on the ship since we were only released in small groups.  The Covid check is no longer being done, but you entered by the bus, were seated, and then placed in line in small groups. You then had to fill out the health questions, list your vaccination history and show a picture of your negative Covid test.  This took a while.

Covid - Beyond the self test and the paperwork there was very little sign of Covid.  I lost track of two of the people that were on my trivia team for about a week and they told me that they had been quarantined due to Covid.

Cabin - I was in 640, a G2 Deluxe Veranda. There was plenty of room for a single, there was a US style plug at the bed side table which allowed me to plug in my Capp machine.  The shower was large and had a good spray but on rough days I could have wished for another grab bar to hang on.  The only reason I missed having a bathtub was that I normally use it to hang used towels on.  The only time that there was noise was the nights when the whole ship creaked due to the weather.  I do not like the TV screen being mostly visible from the bed and i have never liked having to put your room key in the slot to keep the lights on.

Entertainment - The cast shows were good, some of the people in the cruise director's area did acts which also were very well done.  We had a violinist who I missed due to late dinner.  The comedian was not really my style.  I found the magician to be more humorous than the comedian but magic is hard to follow in a large theater.  The Tenor and the piano play both did very good shows and then did joint performances.  There were local culture shows of drummers and geisha.  I spent most late evening listening to the piano player in the Observation Lounge.  I like most of the music he selected and I normally could move away from and load groups.

Speakers - There was a good history speaker who covered Japanese and Alaskan history, a very good nature speaker, and a speaker who talked on using you i phone which I really had no interest in.

Social Travelers - There were a reasonable number of Social Travelers on both legs of the cruise. They were interesting.  We had a group for most dinners and met for breakfast on sea days.  We normally went to Copass Rose for dinner, but we went to Pacific Rim and Sette Mari once.  The only drawback was that on the nights when we had eight to ten at a table, the meal took a long time to serve.

Food - The food was mostly good.  There were a large number of destination dishes which added extra choices.  I was not really sold on the Sunday Brunch, it is impressive but I really am just as happy with the normal breakfast at the Veranda.

Weather - It rained often, was chilly, and rough but this was the north Pacific.  The rain and cold reduced the seating for La Veranda (they closed the outside deck), but there was no problem with chair hogs.  I also had a hard time losing and hour each night for a week.

[Kwaj girl]

1 hour ago, Scout16 said:

Juneau and Ketchikan - I skipped these since I had been there before and wanted to be sure I would be able to go through the airports on the way home.

 

Not sure what you mean here?  

 

Thank you, though, for the rest of your assessment. Good information as we will be doing the reverse this fall.

[frantic36]

2 hours ago, Scout16 said:

i have never liked having to put your room key in the slot to keep the lights on.

Thank you for your interesting and informative review as I will be touring Japan with Regent next year. 

 

On Seabourn you also need to put a card in the slot to keep on lights but we use a different plastic card and leave it in. We always switch off all lights when we go out anyway. I'm not sure if it is the same on Regent but a regular may be able to let us know.

Edited July 10, 2023 by frantic36

[Kwaj girl]

2 minutes ago, frantic36 said:

 

On Seabourn you also need to put a card in the slot to keep on lights but we use a different plastic card and leave it is. We always switch off all lights when we go out anyway. I'm not sure if it is the same on Regent but a regular may be able to let us know.

 

yes...any card will work.  I think I used my AARP card last time on Explorer. 😉

[Anchorbuoy]

1 hour ago, Kwaj girl said:

 

yes...any card will work.  I think I used my AARP card last time on Explorer. 😉

The folded map of the ship works great. You get one in the folio with your keycard. 

[mj_holiday]

Thank you so much for all of your information on your Tokyo to Vancouver cruise. We are on this cruise in 2024. I am going to compare your comments on the various tours with the tours that I have scheduled for us already. I know weather can change, but how was the weather in Japan chilly cold,  mild.

[1982CruzStart]

Thanks for taking the time to post your review. 

[Scout16]

The weather in south and central Japan was comfortable when it was not raining, sixty to seventy  degrees, but it was rather cool when it rained all day.  Northern Japan was like Alaska with maybe fifty to sixty degrees.  This was for the end of April to mid May so I have no idea what the other times of the year would be like.