Miaminice

Thank you! I can only keep on recommending Rose! Since we posted about her quite a few people followed our recommendation and booked tours with her. They all came back raving abou the experience. She´s a gem! About Hong Kong... we have been there many times so we don´t actually book a guide any more. However, when we booked a guide many years ago it was with www.hellohongkong.com.hk. It was a good tour, so we can recommend them. Otherwise you can try with toursbylocals.com. As a hotel we can recommend The Kowloon Hotel. Very good location and reasonable rates. In Nagasaki I would not do a tour at all. Nagasaki is extremely easy to do DIY. Take a taxi or tram to the Peace Museum and Peace Park, take a tram to Chinatown, walk trough Chinatown and up to Glover Gardens and you´ll have a great day. The ship is within just a few minutes walking distance from Glover Gardens. So really easy. You can also do Hiroshima on your own. However, it is not as easy as Nagasaki. The iconic Hioshima Peace Memorial/Dome and the Museum are must sees. Then I also recommend seeing Myajima. Both can easily be done in one day. If you want to do it with a guide I can recommend trying toursbylocals.co or gowithguide.com (former triplelights). We did Hiroshima on this cruise: https://www.travelandcruise.net/travellove_en/Our-Trips/Celebrity-Millennium-Japan/celebrity-millennium-japan.html The other Japan travelogues are: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2970853-celebrity-millennium-japan-10242023-liveish-report/ and http://www.travelandcruise.net/travellove_en/Our-Trips/HAL-Westerdam-Japan-01/hal-westerdam-japan-01.html

Yes, cruises with more European and British on board do have a better dress code. People in Europe wear on a cruise what they would wear to a good restaurant at home. And that’s more dressy than in the US. I lived on both sides for over 40 years and certainly dress differently in Europe vs US myself.

yes, Kamakura sure is special. On this trip it was like the icing on the cake!

1 per stateroom

Hi and thank you! We did post while on the cruise. You can find it here: If you are looking for private tours in Vietnam, contact Rose! She is absolutely the best!!!

To Japan we usually Fly ANA. Of course, since we start all our flights from Germany, we otherwise often fly Lufthansa. Lufthansa is a reliable and safe airline. Their business class is pretty good. LH is not my favorite airline (for personal reasons) but as an airline they are good. But I also have to say that we don´t have too many expectations. We just want to get there 🙂

we have been to Kagoshima 3 times so far - incl. immigration process. I think it’s fair to say we know our way around there and how to do the things we like to do 😉 On our last visit the only problem we encountered was traffic. We happened to be there on the day of the Ohara Festival. Great experience.

Anyhow... I wouldn´t recommend limiting a visit of Kagoshima to a bus tour of the city. The nice thing about the Cute pass is that the ferry to Sakurajima and the loop bus on Sakurajima are included as well a the public bus which one can take to the Sengan-en Gardens.

in October it was available at the port terminal.

Btw… getting the CUTE card (sold at the port) is a good idea. Very inexpensive and includes the ferry etc. https://www.kagoshima-yokanavi.jp/en/feature/one-day-pass2

We have been to Japan 3 times. Some cabs do, we found most cabs don’t. Check before you get on. In some places - like Tokyo / Yokohama - you can also use the uber app.

We have been to Tokyo / Japan a couple of times and never bothered to buy a suica card or to install it on my phone. Paying for the tickets as we went was OK, easy and worked well.

Another vote for Silhouette. Much nicer ship!

Last experiences on Solstice and Millennium. Food was good… but tbh Blu is not only about the food for us. Blu’s more relaxed ambiance and way more personal service still tops the loud and rushed MDR by far. Plus, we love breakfast at Blu.

Given the distance it is doable... taking for granted that the ship gets to the port on time. Flying back from Japan we always grant ourselves another day which we use for some more sightseeing - Kamakura, Tokyo or Yokohama etc. The day also provides a comfortable buffer. Flying back from Hong Kong the last times we had a 11 pm flight. That was also fine with me. Otherwise I wouldn´t do it for such long haul flights. Within Europe, no problem. Long story short... 11am is doable. If you are up to possible stress due to delays in arrival or disembarkation is something you need to decide.