Celebrity Millennium or Diamond Princess for Japan cruise?

[kj_connections]

Any thoughts on which ship/itinerary is better?  All I know is the Celebrity ship is a lot smaller but with so many ports I won't be spending much time on board.  I also believe the Celebrity ship has been renovated recently so aesthetically is more modern.

 

Celebrity Millennium 12 days:

Tokyo - At Sea - Osaka (Kyoto) - Osaka (Kyoto) - Kochi - Hiroshima - At Sea - Jeju Island - Nagasaki - Kigoshima - At Sea - Shimizu - Tokyo

 

Diamond Princess 10 days:

Tokyo - At Sea - Beppu - Miyazaki - Kagoshima - Nagasaki - Busan - Sasebo - At Sea - Toba - Tokyo

[Reisdawg]

We picked the Celebrity Cruise primarily because of the ports visited. Because this is our first visit to Japan, we wanted to see some of the major cities like Kyoto.  This will be our third cruise with Celebrity but our primary focus is on the places visited and that the food is good (so no Carnival for us again).

[Miaminice]

We have done three Japan cruises already - 2 on Millennium and 1 on HAL.
We just booked our fourth - on Millennium again (05/14/25). I was tempted to book the one on Princess to see something new. However, I compared the Japanese ports and quickly found out that the little known ports of Princess have much less to offer. 

So I don´t just say I´d book Millennium, but I actually did.

Plus, the refurbished Millennium is really nice. On our last cruise in October - Japan as well - we really enjoyed our time on her.

 

Edited February 2 by Miaminice

[BruceMuzz]

Celebrity has a slightly better itinerary.

Diamond Princess was purpose-built for Japan.

There will be more Japanese passengers on Diamond, and more authentic Japanese offerings as well.

[loeb]

We have been on both ships on Japan cruises, both are older ships.  As Bruce mentioned, the Diamond Princess was built in Japan and focuses on the Japanese market, but I would base my decision on the itinerary.

 

The Celebrity cruise as mentioned has the better ports. If you go to Japan, Kyoto and Tokyo are two places you want to see and, you also get to visit both Hiroshima and Nagasaki (the Atomic Bomb sites).  Shimizu will also allow you to visit Hakone (a mountain area near Mt Fuji.).  To us, those are the major sites if your time is limited and you are on a cruise.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

I have done 2 Japan Cruises 2017 and 2019 both on Diamond and totally agree that Princess and the Diamond Princess definitely know Japan and you will get a more Japanese feel. Princess tends to know the various regulations and rules and can change in Japan and things tend to go a lot smoother. But with that being said the itinerary for Diamond is not very good and the Celebrity itinerary is definitely much better.