AKJonesy

Note to others although monkey@cruise mentioned the above, I was told that the busses can be full. Two stops after our HND pickup and I believe at Terminal 1 we picked up passengers that filled our bus. There was no queue at the ticket desk and it was nice the "know" exactly what to expect and that is why I mentioned it. We "booked" our transfer for a specific time departure. Also, if you can avoid to transfer with luggage at YCAT or the train station is Yokohama, I would do that because we were told by others that it can be very busy and hauling luggage isn't easy. This advice is based on what was easiest for us but it may not be for you. Osanbashi Pier is a hop skip from Shinko Pier. I'll try to find the Yokohama things to do map source that was given to me which had a lot of information and if I can, I will post it.

I was one of those on the Westerdam crossing from Tokyo and we missed the Inside Passage. We were compensated fairly well, so I was happy about that PLUS we lucked out on the outside of the passage with "fairly" calm waters. If anyone has traveled up the coast, you know it can get rough. I was a bit suspicious about the whole thing because in the morning, I went up to get coffee in Crow's Nest at Explorations Cafe and noticed on the monitor we were heading to the OUTSIDE of the island. Many hours later, we were somewhat along the outside of the island and the Captain made an announcement around 2pm that we would NOT be going on the inside passage. What? They didn't know we were coming? LOL. OK so jk but the reasoning sounded strange and I did think "bait and switch" also but was happy we were compensated. I had been on the inside passage before, so for me it wasn't a huge deal. Yes, I agree there seems to be more and more itinerary changes. We also missed Key West, Barbados, St. Kitts on other recent sailings. These WERE NOT due to medical emergencies. What I don't like is the standard, "operational reasons" excuse. It's a good thing we are pretty low key cruisers, but it "seems" there is something more going on. IMHO.

We recently returned from our cruise from Japan and I thought it might be helpful for some to share my research and experience. I started out actually watching some you tube vids of the airport because many people have shared their "how to dos" so that was very helpful. MY CHOICE for how we navigated and where we stayed was based on the fact that right now, I am using a cane due to a hip replacement so I have about a 2 mile max walking limit per day before I get tired out, so keep that in mind as you read on. Also, WHAT TIME YOU ARRIVE will influence choices for transportation into the city or Yokohama. More on that. We ordered some YEN in advance from our bank. We inquired as to the exchange and when we compared it to what we were going to be charged using credit or debit card, it was fair. So, we arrived with YEN in hand, but in the end, we didn't need ANY. More on that. We arrived in Haneda HND at 8 pm and had no idea how long customs and immigration were going to take. It was quite a walk from arrivals to customs and immigration. Walking at a very fast pace (with a cane - lol), it took about 15-20 minutes. There were 3 arrivals around the same time so the lines became long very quickly. Since we hustled, it took about 15 minutes through customs and immigration AFTER walking the 15 to 20 minutes. But, if you walk more slowly and if there are other flights, then the queue could get long. So, you have to consider this when arriving at night. Considering the arrival time and unknown regarding customs and immigration, we opted for one of the hotels at the airport. Also, some of the you tubers mentioned that busses and trains are limited later in the evening and taxis are also more expensive. It just wasn't worth the guess. Also, at the time of booking a hotel, we still didn't have confirmation from Holland of which pier, so that influenced the decision to stay at hotel in addition to most likely being very tired on arrival. We stayed two nights right at the hotel. No, it wasn't one of those airport hotel experiences where you heard flights coming and going. I guess the word was "serene". We stayed at the Hotel Villa Fontaine Grand Haneda. In addition, the hotel's Onsen was included in our price which was about $185 per night. An onsen is a hot spring with many pools and separate for men and women. OMG, the experience of this was like a luxury spa. You are provided with spa clothes and slippers in your hotel room and instructions. There are hot pools, cold pools, outside hot spring, inside hot spring, showers, sleeping rooms, hot slabs, and more. I would do this again in a heartbeat. In addition, the hotel had a wonderful breakfast. Ours was not included but I believe it was about $22-$25PP and worth it. They had everything and we leisurely had our breakfast. For lunch or dinner, we went to the Haneda Garden (mall) attached to the airport. BTW, everything is inside on the unsecured side of the airport. The food was beautiful and fabulous. You could get just about anything you wanted. There are drug stores, shopping stores, and more. Watch a YT vid of the Haneda Garden Mall. Transportation to Yokohama - On our cruise day, we checked out at the last minute. This was intentional because we didn't want to experience the rush of all those people who like to get to the ship first. Plus, we are 4 star so we got priority boarding anyway. But, I do suggest from the number of people to get there later than earlier. Many people were sitting down in what appeared to be groups awaiting boarding. We checked out late then took the Keikyu Bus which was the best option to get to Yokohama for us. I had already known from watching YT vids that there was a manned bus ticketing counter at the airport, so we didn't have to fiddle figuring out how to buy the tickets. The counter is right when you come out of arrivals after clearing customs. We paid with cc and opted for the YEN price vs USD (better rate). The cost was $6.60 each. We took the elevator down one floor to #8 bus stand. The bus stand attendant took our tickets and put our luggage under the bus. We did not have to handle it as you would on the train. (A downside to the train was having to transfer at the big station and we didn't want to do that, nor take a taxi from there to the pier as many did). We were dropped about 100m from the pier and it was easy to roll the bag on the sidewalk. We got on board all said and done around 2pm and left the ship to walk around Yokohama (much to do there) until dinner time. Our ship departed at 8pm. Keikyu Bus: https://www.keikyu-bus.co.jp/en/airport/h-yamashita/ NOTE: As mentioned, trains become limited later in evening and prices for taxis go up. Plus, we did not know how tired we would be when we arrived and all of this worked out perfect. Keep in mind that trains have limited space for luggage; another reason not to use train and I did NOT want to do a transfer either for train or bus because the stations are huge and walking around with luggage was not going to be fun. A few more things. In the end, we never needed any Yen because we were able to pay with CC for transportation and food. However, in saying that, there are many mom and pop places in Japan and they don't take CC. So, I still advise getting some Yen. We had about the equiv of $200 and we brought about $100 home. On one of our stops we decided on a picnic, picking up some beautiful food at the grocery store and using Yen to pay for it. We will use the remainder on another trip. No tipping is done in Japan. Don't sweat the small stuff; you'll figure it out. There are many people to help you. We filled out the forms for custom and immigration in advance and got the QR code, but don't panic; you can still fill out the paper form they give you on the airplane. Some people mentioned on this forum that the QR code was faster. We ended up just handing the paper form and we were never asked about the QR code. PRESCIPTION MEDS - Make SURE you understand which drugs are allowed into Japan. Don't make any assumptions. Please be advised that you should apply for the Yunyu Kakunin-sho at least two weeks in advance of your travel date to Japan. We had to get approval for my husband's Vit B 12 shots and syringes. Some people said it could take a bit to receive the official form in return. We got ours back in a few days. I also inquired in general regarding vitamins and they replied that those could be brought in without the form. I didn't use original bottles; I used the daily pill plastic containers. DO NOT BRING in any narcotics. If you have a scipt for that, you have to use the official form and get that approved. Website: https://www.us.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_en/bringing-medications-to-japan.html

@Trophy199 @SClakeliving @luckybecky Another consideration is the arrival time. We arrived in Haneda HND at 8 pm and had no idea how long customs and immigration were going to take. Considering late night travel into Yokohama, we opted for one of the hotels at the airport because busses and trains become more limited in late evening and taxis cost way more in late evening. It just wasn't worth the guess. More on that in a minute. We did not learn of our pier until quite late. In addition, when I booked the hotel at HND, we didn't know which pier and had I booked a hotel in Yokohama I would want to know which pier so that I didn't have to use additional transportation getting to the pier. It was quite a walk from arrivals to customs and immigration. Walking at a very fast pace, it took about 15-20 minutes. There were 3 arrivals around the same time so the lines became long very quickly. Since we hustled, it took about 15 minutes through customs and immigration AFTER walking the 15 to 20 minutes. But, if you walk more slowly and if there are other flights, then the queue could get long. So, you have to consider this when arriving at night. Also, the reason we stayed at airport was that we did not want to hassle looking for getting yen, figuring out the train or more. I just knew we would be too tired to deal with it. Also, there is NOT a lot of room on the trains for luggage. In the end, we stayed at the Hotel Villa Fontaine Grand Haneda. It was a lovely hotel with an Onsen included in the price. The Onsen is a hot spring with many pools (women and men separate) The food at the hotel was excellent, but Haneda airport has many eateries with excellent food on the NON secured side of the airport. We took the Keikyu Bus to 100 meters of Shinko Pier. We purchased the tickets using a cc at the manned ticketing desk which is right outside of the arrivals at Haneda. The cost was about $6 USD which was far cheaper than the Holland America Line price of $49 PP. More on that. It took about 45 minutes to drop us at the closest point to the Shinko Pier (use google maps to figure it out). Also, when you come out of arrivals after customs there is a manned Information desk straight ahead. So, for our ticket there was no figuring out how to buy a ticket at a machine. In the end, we never need ANY yen for our two days there. But, we did use some of it up in various ports. We stayed two nights at the hotel mentioned. We walked through the Haneda Garden (mall) and ate at various eateries and we visited the Onsen twice which was so relaxing. I was glad we stayed at the airport because I wasn't sure of our pier when I booked the hotel months in advance. The bus that took us into Yokohama stopped at a number of places (see the schedule). They loaded our luggage under the bus so no worrying about the train or transferring at the bus or train station which was way to complicated IMHO and I would avoid that. Taxis from HND to Yoko are expensive and probably on par with what the cruise line is going to charge you. We didn't want to do that because there are too many people to wait for. So, we checked out at the last minute, took the Keikyu Bus, which arrived around 1:30pm, walked right in, dropped out luggage, checked in and left the ship to go out and explore some of the many things around Yoko. Our ship did not leave until 8pm. That was a wonderful experience, easy, quiet and comfortable. Go on you tube and look up some of the things I mentioned and you'll be very prepared, which I was. https://www.keikyu-bus.co.jp/en/airport/h-yamashita/

Drill baby drill! Gas prices near my home in Alaska 4.86. Out on Kodiak price was $5.15.

In the Mariner Society Membership awards, priority tendering, embarkation and disembarkation is an EARNED benefit. If HAL REVISED and published the MS benefits, then that is one thing, but they have not as far as I know and as a LOYAL HAL cruiser, yes, I would like the benefits as earned and as promised. If they have published something new that changes the benefits, then that is something else. To put this in a little more perspective it was the disorganization of how HAL was going about it. The left did not seem to know what the right was doing. I was not one of the people that went to the desk when this happened but many mariners did and guess what...we received a letter apologizing and the next tender port was open to mariners as a priority. I am pretty low key on these things, but it was the snotty officer that angered me as if he had a right to talk down to me. "Well, you got priority tendering in Sitka; didn't you?" Still...no priority disembarkation and that was the biggest cluster.

I was on the same cruise. I'm a bit skeptical of the captain's response. In the morning, I was up in the Crow's Nest getting coffee and I noticed the tracking on the board. I was wondering why we were sailing to the outside of the island instead of in the inside passage. It was around 2pm when the Captain made the announcement that we were not going on inside passage, even though we were far past that point already. I was on the cruise, and I have read many posts from people that have been talking about cut backs, etc. IDK, maybe "someone filed the wrong paperwork" or something. LOL. OK, jk, but yes, itinerary changes ARE not an uncommon thing and it is clearly spelled out. We also received some compensation so I'm happy about that, AND the outside of the island was fairly smooth sailing. HOWEVER IN SAYING ALL OF THAT...I did confirm what other people have been saying on this board regarding cutbacks. I have never responded very negatively to HAL when I've seen cut backs over years, but this time, I am. It was beyond ridiculous...4/5 star mariners not allowed their loyalty benefit of having ANY priority for tenders? I had to wait 45 minutes IN THE LOUNGE to receive a tender ticket AND to hear my number called. The dining room staff cut-backs were evident and our MDR meal took 30 minutes between courses. We did talk to the dining room manager about it and it seemed to improve, BUT it probably just meant the poor guys and gals just had to hustle even more. WE are very simple cruisers. We don't go to entertainment and we don't require much. But, when we do give loyalty we do hope for that in return. There is more, but I don't want to hijack the OP. When I disembarked finally, I did talk to one of the officers for a minute saying that we were disappointed about the tendering, etc., and sadly he gave me a snotty remark. IDK, we keep dummying down expectations, but might consider an alternative in future. Just sayin'.

I'm only going to be there for two nights and first night, due to late arrival from the states, I am staying in one of the wonderful airport hotels. I have some Yen and plan to use the Keikyu Bus so I can easily take my luggage. If you are arriving at HND airport, stop at the Bus counter and they will help you out. I think you can buy the tickets at the counter as well with a credit card...but can't say positively. The bus is going to take us very close to the Shinko Pier but it's going to depend on your pier and ability. https://www.keikyu-bus.co.jp/en/airport/h-yamashita/

Taxi's are right outside baggage claim cross over via the pedestrian walkway. https://dot.alaska.gov/anc/travelerInfo/taxiSrvcs.shtml

Bruno, I have seen your posts over the years. My deepest condolences for your loss. Karen

@ralfrick You might do a search everywhere and include the words ACT and bus and cross post this on the Ports of Call board. This service is not just used by Holland America, so you might expand your results. You didn't mention the cost and I'm wondering why you are not taking the Holland transfer.

Last year on a SAN to FL through PC we missed two ports due to medical emergencies. Four days out I could not wait to get off and vowed only to sail on port heavy cruises. But, now we are going on Westerdam from Tokyo to SEA beginning end of April. Fortunately, I have a major pilot exam when I get back so I need the sea days for studying. Otherwise, I don't think I would like all of those crossing days. On the other hand, my husband loves sea days, but it's about eating, exercising and resting for him. I once brought my laptop and organized all of my files. I'm not much for entertainment so that doesn't work for me.

Pardon me. The Coast is a block away. The Lakefront is the name of the Millennium and part of the millennium chain.

Dumb down your expectations for Anchorage when it comes to a hotel. Prices will be insane. I like the Captain Cook the best, but you will also hear street noise. Take a look at airbnb and vrbo also. Someone mentioned The Coast which is at Lake Hood by the airport. That would be ok also. It is the former Millenium Hotel.

Probably not. There is the issue of the tunnel and the northbound cars for those that work in Anchorage. The Anchorage streets will be busy with people getting to work.

Definitely Antarctica. Bucket list.

Upvote #3. We have used Seattle Express a number of times. We also arrived day before and just didn't want to deal with logistics after traveling. Also, Seattle Express will pick you up at one of the Sea Tac hotels. My advice is arrive, stay in SeaTac if your time is limited, grab your hotel transfer at SeaTac and have Seattle Express pick you up next day.

I think people are just sick and tired of people bringing their emotional support dogs everywhere and then on top of it, they want to make sure you notice them. I sat down in ANC concourse a couple of weeks ago next to a young woman who had a dog in a carrier. The dog was completely quiet. Then, after a few seconds after I sat down, the girl stared talking to the silent dog asking it questions. 🙂 (Are you doing ok?) Now, if that dog had responded and said something like, "'Im ok", then I would've been impressed. Seriously asking the dog if it's doing ok? It was completely silent. I moved away. As I said, I give them a wide berth. Another situation, I get on a plane and this guy has a lapdog out of it's carrier on my seat. I just stood there and finally said, this is my seat. Last summer, a flight attendant asked me if someone could put their dog under my bigger middle seat opening. I asked where the person was sitting and they were in the aisle. I said I would sit in the aisle seat, but no, I would not have the dog under my seat opening. I think we are tired of people bringing their dogs everywhere...in the carts at the grocery store, etc. What's the deal? They can't leave them at home while they shop? Bologna. You can spot the fake service dogs everywhere because the owner generally wants you to fawn all over them. My advice, give these people a wide berth.

This thread reminds me of covid threads. I've got the popcorn!

Hmmmm. Looks an awful lot like this Temu $10 harness. Could be wrong but I doubt legitimate service dog harnesses are coming from Temu.

That is correct. The handler/owner may harness them close to the chest for those who have a glucose alert dog. Otherwise, the dog is tethered on the floor.

Japan is extreme strict. They only allow X number in. It's a lot more than rabies shots; it's microchips, quarantine, etc. I doubt most people would bring their dogs in and then you would really have to ask if it is worth it to travel to such a place.

It's not the dog; it's the owner. My niece puts her dogs up on the counter and lets them eat from her plate with her. I look for hotels that do not allow pets because I know how nuts people are putting them up on the beds. This is just my preference and may not be what others think. When I see someone with their non service dog, I give them a wide berth.

I think we will see more and more of this. My husband would love cruises to nowhere.

I'm having a hard time reading this thread. I can't believe people are asking people to report back on what they found out. Just don't. Period. These SCAMS are targeted at seniors. Go back to your common sense, "if it sounds too good to be true". Throw it in the trash and don't look back.