kiwicruisers51

10 hours ago, bluesea777 said:

Bathroom. 
 

Note: the box hair dryer is GONE!!

 

Thank you so much for taking the time to post all the pictures.

Thank goodness there is a slightly better hairdryer.

Is there a clothesline in the shower?

• 37 Days to Go

1 minute ago, cruiserchuck said:

 

And now you should get it all back, plus a 25% future cruise credit.  Assuming you did not buy nonrefundable airline tickets, you may be better off than if they did not take your money.

We booked the Celebrity cruise around Japan and thought it may not be affected.  Our NCL cruise from Singapore to Tokyo has already been cancelled.  The first leg of our cruise which was ending in Singapore is now ending in Greece.  What a mess!!!!

Celebrity took our money today for 21 April cruise 3 hours before they posted the cancellations!!!!!

On 9/6/2019 at 5:41 AM, chicagopaul said:

Our First Transpacific Cruise - Follow us Live! 

 

Hello again Cruise Critic! We’re excited to say it is time for another live cruise blog and this time you’ll be joining us on our very first Transpacific crossing! We’re very excited to bring you along for the journey and share you with the many “firsts” this cruise will be for us.

 

Follow us on Instagram on my personal account if you’d like. PaulKBlackburn is my user name. If you see me in a suit on the cover and pictures of cruises and martinis you’ve hit the right profile! I will be posting on Cruise Critic at least 10 photos a day or more in addition to at least one or two photos a day on Instagram plus lots of short videos on my Instagram story as well.

 

For those of you who have not followed or read my blogs before please allow me to introduce myself! My name is Paul and my partner is Edward and we are from Chicago. We’re both in our 30s (I’m 32 and Edward is 37). We’ve been cruising on Celebrity since 2010 but started cruising on a more regular basis in 2014. This cruise will be our 19th cruise on Celebrity. So let us dive right in and discuss the details of the next cruise we are going on and why we booked it.

 

Originally we were booked on a B2B on the Equinox in November. We were excited for those two cruises, but they were to the same Caribbean ports we’ve been to. As we were booked in a Sky Suite for those cruises the pricing wasn’t cheap coming in around $9800 total for the two cruises plus airfare and hotel stay. Edward loves to check cruise prices daily when he is at work (working hard apparently!) and he ended up coming across the 15 Night Bering Sea & Japan Transpacific Cruise. We LOVE our sea days and have crossed the Atlantic 3 times on Celebrity. A Transpacific was on our bucket list and this seemed like a good way to check it off the list.

 

As always with my blog I will be fully up front and transparent about ALL costs involved, on board credits, airfare costs, hotel costs, transport costs, meal costs, etc. I know talking about money can be “taboo” but at the end of the day lets face it, cruises aren’t free and we’re all paying for them. It is only logical to understand the cost of everything so you at home at accurately assess the true value of the trip to yourself.

 

As always please ask questions and feel free to comment! The more interactive everyone is the more I enjoy writing. Let’s face it, on this cruise I will have plenty of sea days to catch up and answers questions. Let’s have some fun!

 

Ship: Celebrity Millennium

 

Itinerary

 

Day 1: Vancouver

Day 2: At Sea

Day 3: Sitka, Alaska (Our First Time Here)

Days 4 - 12: At Sea (So Many sea days!! Glorious!)

Day 13: Otaru, Japan (Our First Time Here)

Day 14: Hakodate, Japan (Our First Time Here)

Day 15: At Sea

Day 16: Tokyo - Overnight (Our First Time Here

Day 17: Tokyo - Time to head home

 

Now I know what some of you might be thinking…15 nights….17 days???? Don’t forget we’re crossing the dateline!

 

Cabin Class: Aqua

 

Pricing: $4,305.32 Including GO BEST promotion which includes $300 OBC, Unlimited Internet for 2, Premium Drink Package, and Prepaid Gratuities. This price is Total, NOT Per Person.

 

In total we have $750 OBC when we factor in the $300 from the Go Best Promotion, the booking on board promotion (we switched an on board booking to this when we booked) and OBC from our travel agent.

 

Flights

 

We are flying out a day early and we did book through Flights by Celebrity (also known as Choice Air). We’re flying Air Canada in economy non-stop from ORD to YVR. Our flight departs Chicago at 5:00pm. This Air Canada flight is on their CRJ9 which really is not a bad aircraft. Seat pitch is decent in economy and seats are in a 2 - 2 configuration so perfect if you’re traveling with another person.

 

Flight Costs to Vancouver

 

$180.58 Per Person Airfare

$110.00 for bagged (3 checked bags total)

$37.82 for seat selection ($50 Canadian)

 

$508.98 Total

 

Return Flights

 

We are flying home September 22nd from Tokyo. We booked American Airlines on their 787 (dreamliner) in Prem7ium Economy to LAX and then switch planes to an A321 to ORD. On our NRT to LAX flight we were able to snag the bulkhead seats in Premium Economy.

 

This was not booked through Celebrity. We used Google Flights to search and ended up booking through the Japanese version of the AA website.

 

Cost: $1289 per person.

 

Hotel in Vancouver

 

We are staying at Hyatt Regency in Vancouver which is only a few blocks from the port. We booked this using points transferred from Chase. In total it is only costing us 12,000 points. Points from Chase to Hyatt transfer at 1 to 1 ratio. Chase points I’d say are valued around 1.6cents per point so this ended up being a pretty decent redemption.

 

We also have Explorist status with Hyatt (the equivalent of staying 30nights or more with Hyatt per year). We have this because of Celebrity. I know I’ve mentioned this in the past. We are Elite Plus on Celebrity which transfers to Platinum Status for MLife (MGM Casino Players program) which then has a reciprocal program with Hyatt and gets us Explorist status.

 

Travel Insurance

 

We booked this cruise with our Chase Sapphire Reserve card which gives us travel insurance for the trip itself up to $10,000. That covers any issues we might have with the cruise. We do however always purchase separate medical travel insurance. We purchased a policy through InsureMyTrip. We chose GeoBlue Voyager Choice for medical coverage. I bumped up Medical to $100k per person, with $500k per person for MedVac coverage. In total for the two of us we are paying $58 and change for medical travel insurance for this cruise.

 

OK Almost time to leave!

 

OK Now that I have all that fun stuff out of the way I can finally write like a normal person! It is just past Noon here in Chicago. I am all packed and ready to go. Edward is at work and will be home around 1:30pm. Once he gets back home we will order an Uber and head to ORD. We like to show up early, have a drink and relax.

 

I was thinking this morning “I can’t wait to just get on the ship!” And the more I thought about that I realized that is the wrong way to think about travel. The whole journey itself should be a trip. Now maybe taking an Uber to the airport and checking your bags and going through security is not the most glamorous part of travel but it is still part of it and a very necessary part of the journey. So why not make the best of it! So with that being said, I will no longer think “I cannot wait to…” at all during this trip. If you catch me writing that call me out! Soon enough we will be back at home from this trip and I will be hoping that I could be dealing with the aggravation of airport security and lugging luggage in anticipation of a cruise.

 

Like I mentioned. If you have any questions at all regarding the cruise please feel free to ask. If you want me to check on something on the ship just ask. Wondering if a certain crew member is still on board? Just ask. I will do my best to answer all questions.

 

Thank you again for following along and helping make our trip that much better for us!

Following with interest. Cant wait to read about Japan. A bit of reading to do!! Thank you

11 hours ago, nekzaadvakil said:

 

Its funny you mentioned it. RCCL's land based service has been awful. If their ships and on board staff were not so good, they would have lost my business a long time ago. We had a horrible experience, where we had booked our future cruises on board, and were told that we could change them anytime, but could not cancel them since they gave us onboard credit. The land staff refused to honour this and I ended up losing 4-5 bookings. 

 

I stopped entering the future cruise section on the cruiseship after that. 

 

 

 

Thanks for taking the time to share.  We are doing a cruise next year and you reviews are so helpful.  When we get off the ship in Yokohama following a couple of days stay down by Haneda Airport we fly up to Sapporo for a 9 day tour back down to Tokyo.  We are there at the beginning of May so hope to see some cherry blossom up North.  Happy planning. Sue

20 hours ago, Miaminice said:

Japan Cruise 2019 - Day 16 - The End

In the morning we took the train and monorail to Haneda Airport. We had time to spare and had not had breakfast yet, so we looked at the upper level of the terminal and found the restaurants and shops designed like a Japanese Village - nice!

 

 

 

A Ramen place caught our attention and you know by now what’s about to come. We had a last Ramen in Japan. 

 

 

 

In one of the sweets shops we bought a „Tokyo Banana“ for dessert before heading to our gate.

 

 

 

The flight back to Frankfurt took a bit over 11 hours and by now we are already back home.

 

Thank you for following along on our trip to beautiful Japan - a place well worth visiting. I sure hope we were able to convey that it was a beautiful cruise. Not just for the country but also because of the great people we met along the way. Again Birgit and I enjoyed Japan immensely - so much that we are already looking into another Japan cruise for 2021.

 

If you are interested in more photos and places of Japan please look at the more extensive travelogue of our previous Japan cruise.

http://www.travelandcruise.net/travellove_en/Our-Trips/Celebrity-Millennium-Japan/celebrity-millennium-japan.html

 

Arigatou gozaimashita and Sayonara!

 

Oliver

 

 

 

 

Amazing information.  So helpful.  I bet you are now ready to plan your next trip already, or maybe that is already done. Thanks and regards Sue

5 hours ago, Miaminice said:

 

We had only organized and booked a transfer to Hirosaki for 8 people with triplelights.com

 thank you.🙂

12 hours ago, Miaminice said:

Japan Cruise 2019 - Day 13 - Aomori/Hirosaki

Today was our last port day of this cruise. In terms of cherry blossom viewing it was supposed to be the highlight of the cruise... so spoiler alert - you are going to see a lot of cherry blossom photos. 

 

Unfortunately today’s weather was rainy and miserable. However, the clouds in the sky could not cloud our joy and amazement when we entered the Cherry Blossom Festival at Hirosaki Park. Again, no words could describe the experience, so I‘ll just give you the photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An area of the park was reserved for food stalls and vendors offering all kinds of Japanese specialties catering to the people celebrating Hanami despite the cold. By now the rain had really set in and Birgit and I warmed up by having a nice and hot bowl of Ramen in one of the stalls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Writing this we are having a hot cup of tea as we are waving Aomori goodbye and head out into the stormy sea.

We have the same feeling like two years ago when we left the last port of the cruise - we miss Japan already.

 

The cherry blossoms look amazing.  Did you do this port as part of a tour or did you do it solo??  Thanks

Awesome photos thanks. Makes us excited to be there the same time next year.

Thank you for this great report we will be cruising to Japan next year so it is very helpful.  Sue

Revitalized Norwegian Spirit to Serve China Market Seasonally Beginning Summer 2020

Norwegian Cruise Line remains committed to serving the Chinese cruise market and will deploy the 2,000 passenger Norwegian Spirit seasonally to the region beginning in summer 2020.  Prior to her arrival, Norwegian Spirit will undergo a previously scheduled bow-to-stern revitalization as the final ship to undergo enhancements under the Norwegian Edge^® fleet refurbishment program.  In February 2020 her journey from Europe to Asia will feature several exclusive sailings with new calls for Norwegian Cruise Line including South Africa, Mauritius, Seychelles and Maldives.

From that CNN cable news network story in late July about the “30 best things to do in Cape Town”, below are four of their visual highlights. Fun!! These and others bring back nice memories from our five days in Cape Town two years ago. More on this live/blog for that adventure.

 

Full story at:

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/cape-town-best-things/index.html

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

Did a June 7-19, 2011, cruise from Barcelona that had stops in Villefranche, ports near Pisa and Rome, Naples, Kotor, Venice and Dubrovnik. Dozens of nice visuals with key highlights, tips, comments, etc. We are now at 237,356 views for this live/blog re-cap, including much on wonderful Barcelona. Check these postings and added info at:

www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1426474

 

Here are just four of the 22 visuals used in this CNN piece. First is a sampling of sumptuous high tea at the luxurious Mount Nelson Hotel across from the Company's Garden. Second features Bo-Kaap, the brightly-painted homes along cobblestone streets reflecting this multicultural neighborhood. Many freed slaves settled there after emancipation, giving rise to the Cape Malay culture. Third is Chapman's Peak Drive, a winding, cliffside route clinging to the edge of the mountain, with a sheer drop to the ocean below. Fourth is Boulders Beach/Simon's Town with its cute colony of African penguins.:

(Open your screen/viewer wider to see these pictures larger/better!)

 

 

A wealth of info. Thank you. Just booked a cruise from Capetown and will spend time in Africa prior so yr feedback is appreciated.

Am just glad the Bliss and the Joy will be in Alaska next year. Am just glad it is not just the Jewel !

She is having a major tefurb when she gets down to Singapore in October. Maybe that will make a difference.

Not the greatest thing to read as I am embarking next month in Yokohama. As that is the first time NCL is doing that transpacific repositioning I fear worst in regards of how smoothly things will be organized.

 

I never know what to expect from latitudes embarkation as well. Last time in New York I was sent to a single line bypassing everyone waiting for the security X-ray machine getting there directly to the front and then a special platinum plus/ambassador check-in. Would love if that is the worldwide standard.

It's the first and last repositioning cruise on this route. We are so disappointed we had to cancel. 2019 the Jewel is coming back down through Hawaii and the Pacific islands.

Sue

Going into dry dock in January 2020 for Edge enhancements.

Sorry it took so long to get back to you. I wanted to email our “tour organizer” to get his permission before I posted his email ..... and kept forgetting to email him! Finally did .... here is the info.

 

We used a tour company called China Discovery. Be aware there are 2 different companies with the same name. One based in California (which does not have very good reviews) - and one in China (this is the one we used - picked it from reviews on trip advisor).

 

Our tour organizer for this part of our land tour adventure was Johnson - email: johnson@chinadiscovery.com

 

Our land tour in China was HK, Xi’an & Beijing - this included 2 domestic flights in China. We normally book everything on our own but it was actually SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper (and much easier) to custom book a tour using this company. They must get an amazing discount at the hotels. We did not join a group tour - it was just my husband and I.

 

We were very happy with our hotels (but we did pay for the higher star level) and more importantly extremely happy with the tour guides we had.

 

I’m guessing you will not be staying overnight in a hotel. But drop him an email with times you are in port and see what he can offer you. Unfortunately HK tours were expensive compared to other ports when we were researching (but for us a much better experience than the huge group experience offered by ship shore excursions)

Thx for your reply. We are booked with another company.:)

We disembarked in HK and booked a private tour for the entire time we were in HK. The tour guide picked us up a the port so have no experience with taxi’s.

 

Our cruise did dock at Kai Tak port if that’s any help.

Thanks for port confirmation. What company did you use?

Sue

There are a ton of taxis to take you into town. We went to Kowloon area . There, at the harbor area is where you pick up the ferry for the harbor cruise. At night, they have the laser light show which is fabulous from the water while on the ferry. Starts each night at 8pm.

Also, you can use metro with octopus card purchased at main stations.

Thank you. Can you recall how much the taxi cost?

We are bringing the Jewel back from Vancouver to Singapore in September. We are docking overnight in Hong Kong. Did The Jewel dock at Kai Tak Runway Park? If so how did you travel about? It would appear there is a bus to the nearest train station or a short ferry ride to then catch another ferry. Any assistance appreciated. Thanks Sue

Glad to hear they didn't start refurbishment en route like they did on The Sun!!!

A little sour note to the end of an otherwise amazing vacation.

 

After the cruise we toured China by land and ended in Beijing. We flew home Beijing to HK to JFK. We had our camera bag (with 2 cameras in it) and a set of headphones with and iPod stolen from my husband’s carry on bag while in one of the airports in China.

 

We did not notice until we were in the air on the way to JFK that this had happened. Looking back, we think it happened when we went through the security screening at the airport in Beijing. Let me know what you think.

 

On the screening belt my carryon went through first, then my purse, then my husbands laptop (in a tray) then my husbands carryon.

 

As the bags came out the other end, the belt was stopped and my carryon was searched. The laptop and my husbands carryon was in the screening area an not visible to us.

 

My carryon was “cleared” and the belt starts to move again. My purse was behind my carryon, then the laptop comes out THEN SOMEONE ELSE’S BAG, then my husbands carryon. My husband actually noticed and said that’s weird, how did someone else’s bag get in front of mine, but we didn’t give it any further thought. It wasn’t until he went to look for his headphones on the 2nd flight that we put 2 and 2 together. I am 98% sure that the people who screened our bags stole these items.

 

The other scenario is that he was pickpocketed at one of the airports. Less likely as these were large, awkward shaped items and it was an over the shoulder bag (not a knapsack which is easier to lift items out of).

 

Either way - lesson learned. We will now be locking our carryon’s and unlocking them if they need to be searched. And if our bags ever come out again not in the order they went in we will investigate further on the spot and I encourage everyone else to do the same!

 

I am SOOOO grateful that I did a live review as at least we have pictures of almost everywhere we went. I never take photos with my iPad. But because I only know how to post photos to this forum from my ipad I hauled it around and took quite a few. We will also be pulling our the memory card out of the camera when in transit - its the photos on the camera’s that we miss the most as they cannot be replaced.

 

We were both quite upset for an hour or so, then chalked it up to an experience. But because it’s not a pleasant experience, I am sharing this with you :)

Thanks for the warnings. I feel sad and upset for you. I lost 800 photos off my tablet last year. Petra Jerusalem. Suez Canal amongst them. The other half had photos so all was not lost. I can remember how upset I was. But we can't lose the memories (Hopefully lol).

Oh wowwww that sounds like an amazing trip! How long are you on the ship?!

 

Koh Samui was the longest tender I’ve experienced, think it was about 25 minutes or so but it was an enjoyable ride. Because I’m latitudes gold I didn’t have to queue for tender tickets, I don’t tend to rush to get off first thing anyways so I found it quick and easy to get onto the tender a couple hours after docking but I gather from other passengers it was busy and hectic if you were rushing off promptly. We did a taxi tour, there’s lots of taxis as soon as you get to shore waiting to take you anywhere you want to go! We went to the Big Buddha, to another temple and then Chaweng beach which had some nice bars, massage places etc. Was a nice wee day. We navigated that to 3200 baht between 7 people so it was cheap as chips, guy sat and waited as long as we wanted. The tender on the way back was a bit mental, the queues were long and only seemed to be one boat going back and forward so a lot of people were getting angry about that but we didn’t head back until close to “closing time” so you kind of expect it to be busy at peak time! I’d just give yourself extra time and you should dodge the crowds.

 

Bangkok I organised a bus for our group via a company called Oriental Escape (who I’d really recommend if you wanted to do your own transport - very prompt, decent English, reasonably priced, air conditioned buses with water etc.) We got picked up at 1pm at the ship then 1am. I didn’t speak to anyone who did a NCL tour in Bangkok so I can’t speak for those but it might not be the worst idea. Bangkok is MENTAL. Traffic is hellish! We went to the Grand Palace but it closes at 4pm so if you want to get in and about then I’d go early. The Reclining Buddha is right next to it which is a spectacle anencephaly open later. From there you’re right at the river and the Wat Arun is just across which is beautiful. We got a private longboat for our group - definitely an experience - they’ll take you anywhere! I have friends in bangkok so we met them at Asiatique which is on the riverfront, it’s a complex with lots of bars, restaurants, markets, open air. It’s quite western and popular with tourists. Khaosan Road is supposed to be a taste of “real bangkok” but we never made it this trip (ie got a bit too caught up drinking with our friends!) If you don’t do a tour in Bangkok when planning your day I’d just keep in mind it can take a long time to travel a short distance if you’re unlucky with traffic. Download an app called Grab, it’s just like Uber so super handy. Tuk Tuks are a bit quicker than taxis I think! If you’re doing an overnight on the ship I’d maybe book a hotel, if I was going back I’d have done that just to give yourself more time to get about. Was just over an hour and a half drive for us to get to Bangkok itself (and then another 45 minutes or so just getting off the motorway to get dropped off!)[/quote

 

Thanks so much. That's really helpful. Our cruise is 35 days. A bit shorter than our 57 days last year on The Star :)

Sue

Our 35 day cruise booked on The Jewel in September may well be our last with NCL. After 7 cruises we hope not. She is going into dry dock when we disembark in Singapore. We hope NCL are listening to the people and we don't have these same issues. We had enough stress last year with the azipod issues on The Star!!

Following since we are on The Jewel which goes into dry dock after we get off in Singapore this October.

We took Celebrity's version of this cruise last year from Tokyo (Yokohama) to Vancouver. In addition to Yokohama, we stopped at two Japanese ports, Hokadate and Muroran (Sapparo). We also made a pit-stop at Petropaviosk. The only reason we took it was it gave us an opportunity to return to Tokyo where we lived from 1992 to 1996. We wished the itinerary would have included an Alaska port. It is a two hour bus ride from Muroran to downtown Sapporo. Petropaviosk is a pit. Take a ship sponsored excursion in that city. Weather ranged from sunny and hot to blustery cold. Most passengers did not pack heavy coats and when we hit cold weather there was a run on them in the shops. Sea conditions were never an issue.

Thanks for your feedback :)