Live-ish from the Jewel, Seattle - Tokyo - Taipei - Singapore, Oct 3 2023, 39 days

[Rob_H]

The captain has just announced a route change. We will be heading in a more southerly route, rather than the original planned route through the Aleutian islands and the Bering Sea. Due to expected poor weather in the Bering sea.

 

He said this route will be longer, so the ship will go at maximum speed. It's unclear so far if we'll arrive late in Japan. Probably depends on weather.

 

 

[www3traveler]

1 hour ago, Rob_H said:

The captain has just announced a route change. We will be heading in a more southerly route, rather than the original planned route through the Aleutian islands and the Bering Sea. Due to expected poor weather in the Bering sea.

 

He said this route will be longer, so the ship will go at maximum speed. It's unclear so far if we'll arrive late in Japan. Probably depends on weather.

 

 

Prayers for everyone on board The Jewel for this very long journey.

[Rob_H]

The captain will announce tomorrow (11th) what the plans are to get to Japan. He said (during a well-attended Q&A yesterday) he has to thread us between a hurricane force storm to the north, and a typhoon further south (both are evolving).

 

Although most outside furniture has been removed (such as all the chairs in the Great Outdoors), the ship hasn't been moving much yet, so the captain is doing a good job!

 

 

 

[ggTexasGal]

10 minutes ago, Rob_H said:

The captain will announce tomorrow (11th) what the plans are to get to Japan. He said (during a well-attended Q&A yesterday) he has to thread us between a hurricane force storm to the north, and a typhoon further south (both are evolving).

 

Although most outside furniture has been removed (such as all the chairs in the Great Outdoors), the ship hasn't been moving much yet, so the captain is doing a good job!

😬 Wishing you the very best!!!

[www3traveler]

18 minutes ago, Rob_H said:

The captain will announce tomorrow (11th) what the plans are to get to Japan. He said (during a well-attended Q&A yesterday) he has to thread us between a hurricane force storm to the north, and a typhoon further south (both are evolving).

 

Although most outside furniture has been removed (such as all the chairs in the Great Outdoors), the ship hasn't been moving much yet, so the captain is doing a good job!

 

 

 

If you have not cruised with this Captain before, you are in very good hands.

[firstimer2009]

Are you going home after Singapore? Or is there another cruise on the horizon?  How do you deal with being gone from home for so long? My husband and I were lottery dreaming today in the states and I told him we would sell off the house and combine cruising with home basing in Italy as our new way of life.  😍

[Rob_H]

We're still heading South West, to try to pass south of super typhoon Bolaven, which is merging with a storm to the north.

 

Not very rough yet but that might change.

 

No news of whether the first or second ports in Japan will be skipped but given our longer route it wouldn't be a surprise. We don't mind, we prefer to skip ports rather than sail through a typhoon...

[Rob_H]

Víctor Stevenson (France) returned as the Cruise Director a couple of days ago.

 

We've mostly had lunch in the Buffet, to try to eat a bit lighter. Tried the Palace MDR today for lunch and really it's too slow to be usable, we won't be back often.

 

Last night we tried Chin Chin, the complementary Asian restaurant. After some poor experiences in the similar restaurant on other ships we were pleasantly surprised, excellent food served very fast and efficiently, one dish after another. A good place, very busy as this cruise has many Asian passengers.

 

The night before we went to Moderno. We might give it a miss in future, like other ships this year the quality of the meat and how it is cooked has really dropped. Still a superb salad bar with sushi, I'm now happy to just eat that and skip the poor quality poorly presented meat. Which shouldn't be the case in a meat restaurant!  

 

Earlier in the cruise we went to Le Bistro. Very good, no complaints.

 

Other nights we've eaten in Azura the MDR. Sometimes a little slow but the food is perfectly acceptable, better meat than Moderno.

 

Edited October 12, 2023 by Rob_H

[Rob_H]

Tonight was dinner with the Captain. Great conversation!

[mistertomatoe]

We're in the future now. Happy Friday the 13th! A few more times going back an hour and we'll match Japan time. I calculate we're losing a day but will gain 8 hours by the end. Net loss is 16 hours. (I hope I'm not wrong about this.)

 

I'm not sure how I feel about paying for an extra day (or 16 hours actually) of the daily service charge, open bar gratuities, and Internet. 

 

Am I thinking about this wrong? Still pretty cool to skip the day since it's my first time.

[mking8288]

8 hours ago, Rob_H said:

Tonight was dinner with the Captain. Great conversation!

Very nice, been following along ...  Dine With Officers and you ended up with the Captain hosting the table or ?? 

 

Very interested to see your plans for those oversea ports as far as private or independent shore excursions, as others & you all noted - I concur - with the absurd prices asked by NCL.  

 

How's the ship's satellite WiFi internet, assumed that Starlink has been turned on for the Jewel yet and can't imagine good or acceptable coverage sailing that long stretch between Alaska and Japan - are you just sticking with the FAS minutes or upgraded to unlimited ?  

 

Thank you for sharing and taking time to post, much appreciated.   Happy cruising 😎

[Rob_H]

32 minutes ago, mking8288 said:

Very nice, been following along ...  Dine With Officers and you ended up with the Captain hosting the table or ?? 

 

Yes, dinner with officers was at the Captain's table. Over 100 people signed up for dinner with officers so it ran over three nights., there was a second larger table with other officers each night.

 

There were three Ambassadors (including us) at our table, and some Haven people (not us!) so those may be both be part of the selection criteria.

 

32 minutes ago, mking8288 said:

 

How's the ship's satellite WiFi internet, assumed that Starlink has been turned on for the Jewel yet and can't imagine good or acceptable coverage sailing that long stretch between Alaska and Japan - are you just sticking with the FAS minutes or upgraded to unlimited ?  

 

No starlink here, just the old system. Starlink won't work well far from land anyway until the V2 satellites are more widely available (current generation needs to see a ground station).

 

Cruisecritic is still free to use without minutes. Too slow to be usable at times but off peak, like now,  is ok. Just using the FAS minutes, even those are too slow at times, unlimited wouldn't help much 

 

32 minutes ago, mking8288 said:

 

  Happy cruising 😎

 

 

 

[Rob_H]

The navigation channel has been updated to show our next port is Tokyo, not Hakodate.

 

This appears to confirm we'll skip both Hakodate and Sendai. Not a surprise as we've gone so far south to avoid the typhoon that getting back north to either port would take too long.

[mistertomatoe]

3 hours ago, Rob_H said:

The navigation channel has been updated to show our next port is Tokyo, not Hakodate.

 

This appears to confirm we'll skip both Hakodate and Sendai. Not a surprise as we've gone so far south to avoid the typhoon that getting back north to either port would take too long.

 

In the past they’ve refunded NCL shore excursions but what do they do with port fees and taxes? I’m also curious about those that booked their own excursions too.

 

Maybe someone will bring it up at the Captain’s Q&A tomorrow if they don’t address it.

 

In January, the Gem skipped Bermuda due to weather but nothing was given for the port fees and taxes. 

[sailingships]

3 hours ago, mistertomatoe said:

In January, the Gem skipped Bermuda due to weather but nothing was given for the port fees and taxes. 

If you are referring to the Panama Canal cruise, you had to ask about the refund for Bermuda. We got money back. When it didnt show up in our account, I went to Guest Services.

[Rob_H]

As expected, the Captain has announced that we will miss the northern Japan ports of Hakodate and Sendai. We've had to go very far south to avoid the typhoon (and the earlier three storms!).

 

Instead, we'll be arriving in Tokyo on the 18th, at 8am (subject to weather) for an overnight.

 

The super typhoon has rapidly weakened over the past 24 hours and is still moving northeast. We might get some weather as we go west behind it today and tomorrow, but similar to what we've already experienced (not worse).

 

There is also storm five developing near Japan, but that looks small.

 

The Captain, Chief Engineer and General Manager had a very well attended Q&A in the Stardust theatre this morning. The captain went into a lot of detail about the weather conditions that caused our evolving route changes. The audience were almost all very happy with the way the captain has kept us safe through very complex weather! 

 

Each cabin will receive a $100 non refundable on board credit, as well as a port fee refund. Neither have appeared in the accounts yet.

 

The Internet in this part of the ocean is close to unusable, especially for Cruise Critic which performs poorly at the best of times. During the day (Saturday) I've been unable to post anything. If you read this I've finally succeeded!

[www3traveler]

1 hour ago, Rob_H said:

As expected, the Captain has announced that we will miss the northern Japan ports of Hakodate and Sendai. We've had to go very far south to avoid the typhoon (and the earlier three storms!).

 

Instead, we'll be arriving in Tokyo on the 18th, at 8am (subject to weather) for an overnight.

 

The super typhoon has rapidly weakened over the past 24 hours and is still moving northeast. We might get some weather as we go west behind it today and tomorrow, but similar to what we've already experienced (not worse).

 

There is also storm five developing near Japan, but that looks small.

 

The Captain, Chief Engineer and General Manager had a very well attended Q&A in the Stardust theatre this morning. The captain went into a lot of detail about the weather conditions that caused our evolving route changes. The audience were almost all very happy with the way the captain has kept us safe through very complex weather! 

 

Each cabin will receive a $100 non refundable on board credit, as well as a port fee refund. Neither have appeared in the accounts yet.

 

The Internet in this part of the ocean is close to unusable, especially for Cruise Critic which performs poorly at the best of times. During the day (Saturday) I've been unable to post anything. If you read this I've finally succeeded!

WOW!!  What an adventure.  I hope that the rest of your journey goes well.

[Rob_H]

There was a back-to-back meeting this morning in the theatre for those who are back to back to the next cruise (or beyond), like us.

 

Over 300 passengers are back to back to the next cruise!

 

Unusually, there will be a separate place set up to print new keycards on disembarkation morning. That's a good change, to avoid the guest services queue. 

 

Also unusual, we're actually staying in the same room, first time in our more than twenty Norwegian back to backs! Nice not to have to pack up.

 

Our speed slowed down a lot in rough weather earlier this morning so I think the scheduled arrival time of 8am Wednesday is optimistic. But still possible.

 

 

Edited October 15, 2023 by Rob_H

[Castaway Cowgirl]

Thanks for posting your trip

[Kalynan]

Great itinerary, been following along and interesting to see how the Captain & staff handled the route changes due to weather conditions.

 

Never done any B2B cruises, therefore curious how it works with cabin allocation after you mentioned that it was unusual to remain in the same cabin for the following cruise?

 

Safe travels and enjoy your holidays !!

[lorif]

I saw an NCL post that you have arrived in Tokyo.  When you have time, if you have any advice for the return TP in April it would be welcomed. 

I know you missed Sendai (Ishinomaki) but did they clarify which port it would have been?  Cruisemapper still showed your  cruise and the spring cruise as Sendai itself.

Happy travels!

[bluesea777]

2 hours ago, lorif said:

I saw an NCL post that you have arrived in Tokyo.  When you have time, if you have any advice for the return TP in April it would be welcomed. 

I know you missed Sendai (Ishinomaki) but did they clarify which port it would have been?  Cruisemapper still showed your  cruise and the spring cruise as Sendai itself.

Happy travels!

 

Not on the ship, but it looks like @Rob_H is either busy or not getting good wifi signal, so I'll answer you. They missed both Japanese ports: Hakodate and Sendai before Tokyo because they had to take a longer route from Seward AK - 9 long sea days - to circumvent the two typhoons that were in the Pacific Ocean. These two ports weren't substituted.

 

Next spring two NCL ships will do the transpacific: the Jewel eastbound from Tokyo to Seward in April, and the Spirit westbound from Vancouver to Tokyo via Seward in May.

 

@Rob_H hope you two are well and enjoying the cruise & ship ... haven't seen your post for a while now 😉

 

 

[yakcruiser]

I just booked the transpacific on the Spirit next May and on to Taipei. Will be following this thread closely.

[Rob_H]

10 hours ago, bluesea777 said:

 

Not on the ship, but it looks like @Rob_H is either busy or not getting good wifi signal

 

 

We got busy, two port days in Tokyo.

 

The first day, with a friend we explored the nice modern area near the cruise ship terminal, nice food court in the nearby mall, I had an excellent eel on rice, one of more expensive options at about $12. A noodle soup was $3. Japan isn't really expensive.

 

We then took the water bus up the river. Got a day pass on the metro 800 yen and went to a few places shopping. The day pass though only covers the Metro, so things like the monorail (U line) back out to the port need separate tickets. It was nice not to have to rush back to the ship as it was an overnight. That port day replaced Sendai.

 

The next, shorter, day we got a day pass on the monorail, it has nice views, and used the remainder of our 24 hour Metro pass to go places. We had a week around Tokyo last time we were here so didn't need to do the tourist sights.

 

 

[Rob_H]

Getting a haircut in Tokyo was interesting. There's a chain called QB House (mostly in stations) which specializes in a "ten minute cut" for 1350 yen ($9). 

 

You pay at a machine when you enter, take your ticket and join the end of a line along a bench. When the first person leaves the bench everybody slides along. The cut is very fast and good, your head gets vacuumed after to remove loose hair  🙂