Rob_H

In Hiroshima a free shuttle bus was provided from the ship to Hiroden-Itsukaichi station, which is on the JR line and the Hiroshima Electric Railway (tram) number 2 line. We got off early and there was a massive queue for the shuttle bus so we walked instead, a couple of km. We brought a tram and ferry day pass from an information desk outside the station for 1000 yen ($6). A tram only pass would be 700 yen. We rode the 2 tram (red line) many stops until the stop outside the atomic bomb dome. We visited there and other places in the nearby park, and some essential shopping, then jumped back on the tram ro Hiroshima station where we we grabbed a lunch. Then back on the 2 tram, all the way to the far end where it connects with a ferry (every 15 minutes) to the island of Miyajima, a very touristy but peaceful island with an unusual shrine in the water, and a nice waterfront. Stayed until sunset then back to the ferry then tram then shuttle bus. Norwegian offered a tour to the island for $150 (before discounts), or to both the island and the atomic bomb site for $250. We were happy doing both by public transport. It's nice to have a late port (all aboard 8.30pm) which made it possible to take our time!

Osaka is an overnight (day and a half). First day, we got off early, walked a couple of blocks to the Metro at Osakako. 40 minutes later with a change of train we were at Shin-Osaka, the shinkansen (bullet train) station, for 290 yen each. We brought reserved seat tickets to Nagoya, for a train leaving a few minutes later. If reserved seats are not available, or if you want to pay a bit less, there are few train cars with unreserved seats on a space-available basis. Should be fine outside of extremely busy times, there's a train every few minutes, but it can be hard to get two seats together. Our fare was around $45 per person, one way. Fifty minutes after leaving Osaka we were in Nagoya, reaching speeds of 280km/hr on the way. The only intermediate stop was Kyoto. We went to Nagoya to visit a cousin and their family, that Yanet hasn't seen for years. They met us at the station and we had a good day together, with no need to rush back to the ship. In the evening we retraced our steps, then rode the giant Ferris wheel next to the port late at night. So not really a conventional tourist day but our first bullet train rides and a great day with family!

BTW it was "just" 8 sea days from Seward, as Sendai was replaced with the overnight in Tokyo. Those who went on ship tours on Tokyo were generally unhappy. The tours were arranged at very short notice, but that's no excuse for what I heard were poor quality guides and missed stops. As usual, very pricey, $150 for a couple of hours panoramic bus ride, more for anything longer. We have lots of onboard credit on these cruises but we're going to struggle to spend the nonrefundable. We used to do tours but on all our cruises this year the prices have been very poor value. Today (Friday) we're in Shimizu. It's just a short port (all aboard 2.30pm) that is really just for "view of Mount Fuji" tours. We've done that before (and you can see it from the city) so just having a relaxing day in the small city.

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 🙂

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.

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.

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!

We didn't pay any Hawaii tax on prepaid DSC on either the Tahiti to Honolulu or Honolulu to Vancouver legs of our Spirit cruises in March/April 2023. Maybe the tax only applies to the Price of America (domestic ship).

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.

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. 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

Tonight was dinner with the Captain. Great conversation!

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.

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...

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!

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.

We've got almost no plans for any of the ports in any of the countries. This is about the third time we've tried to do this itinerary, after the prvious NCL cancellations (and increasing tensions in Taiwan) we were doubtful it would happen. Plus, we find we've been enjoying not having planned shore excusions in each place this year, doing a lot more spur of the moment at the pier or by public transport. I'm sure we'll miss some "unmissable" things that way (many tours are booked out and often not available at the pier) but that's OK, something interesting usually happens! And we'll be back, East Asia is almost local for us in Australia.

Yesterday was quite cloudy while the ship went to Hubbard Glacier for an hour or so in the morning, but not too much fog. Very monochrome viewing, we were lucky we'd already seen it under much better conditions recently. Today is Seward. 7C (45ish) and light rain. Free shuttle to downtown.

Bridge: Captain: Vincente Amicone (Uruguay) Chief Engineer: Igor Sanje (Croatia) Staff Captain: Mikko Kovalainen (Finland)

Take a look at Norwegian as well. Much more port intensive. Still only one day in Honolulu but that's enough for Pearl Harbor, it's close to the port. We took the Norwegian Spirit in March 2023, Sydney to Tahiti to Hawaii to Vancouver 3 cruises 43 days, many stops in French polynesia and Hawaii

Yes, Rumi (GM) and Tahaini (CD) left for vacation recently, according to a friend who was onboard a couple of weeks ago. Today was Icy Strait Point. Not a day for the Skyglider mountain gondola (lots of low cloud, some light rain). Ship docks at the secondary port (next to the Skyglider), there is a free gondola along to the Cannery which has a $5 shuttle bus into Hoonah. We've given up even looking at Norwegian Shorex this year, except as an idea of what to look for in an outside tour. The Skyglider was $50 in April, which with the $50 shorex credit and Latitudes discount isn't too bad for two. Now it's $70. The zipline shorex is a crazy $270 for one hour. Still, not as bad as the $550 Norwegian shorex we saw for two hours of kayaking in Iceland a few months ago! BTW, in what will probably be normal for Asia cruises, the ship has run out of green tea teabags by day 4. Most cruises run out of green tea at some point (so we bring our own as a backup), but not usually this quick!

Hotel: General Manager, Hannah Han Food & Bev. Director, Fabrice De Cotte Cruise Director, Victor Stevenson (currently unavailable, acting CD is Robert Deane) Guest Services Mgr. Charlyn Pacilla Exec. Housekeeper, Eric De Leon I'll see if I can find the bridge officer details. This ship doesn't have a board with photos, just a scrolling list on the TV. Didn't see anybody VIP, but I'm not good at recognizing faces! We went back out shopping late morning, didn't get back to 1.30 so probably missed anything. Was this to celebrate the return to Asia?

No, these cruises are mostly on the east side of the main Japanese islands, with island-hopping southwards towards Taiwan. We did go through the Kanmon Strait in 2019 on the Diamond Princess on a cruise that went around Japan plus Busan, Korea. Here's the current itinerary for our three cruises: Oct-03 Seattle Oct-04 At Sea Oct-05 Ketchikan, Alaska Oct-06 Icy Strait Point, Alaska Oct-07 Hubbard Glacier Oct-08 Seward, Alaska Oct-09 At Sea Oct-10 At Sea Oct-11 At Sea Oct-12 Day skipped (dateline) Oct-13 At Sea Oct-14 At Sea Oct-15 At Sea Oct-16 At Sea Oct-17 Hakodate, Japan Oct-18 Sendai (Ishonomaki) Oct-19 Tokyo, Japan - new cruise Oct-20 Shimizu, Japan Oct-21 Osaka, Japan overnight Oct-22 Osaka, Japan Oct-23 Hiroshima, Japan Oct-24 Miyazaki (Aburatsu), Japan Oct-25 Sasebo, Japan Oct-26 Naze (Oshima), Japan Oct-27 Naha (Okinawa), Japan Oct-28 Miyako-Jima, Japan Oct-29 Hualien, Taiwan Oct-30 Keelung (Taipei) - new cruise Oct-31 Kaoshiung, Taiwan Nov-01 Salomague, Philippines Nov-02 Manila, Philippines Nov-03 Boracay, Philippines Nov-04 Puerto Princesa, Philippines Nov-05 Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia Nov-06 Muara, Brunei Nov-07 At Sea Nov-08 Na Trang, Vietnam Nov-09 Phu My (Ho Ch1 Minh City), Vietnam Nov-10 At Sea Nov-11 Singapore

We're on the Jewel, from Seattle to Singapore (3 cruises b2b2b, departed 3 Oct 2023). This is NCL's first ship back to Asia after the interruption. It has some maiden ports, including in the Philippines. We've been to Alaska and a couple of the Japanese ports before, but most of the rest is new to us. I'm starting this "live" report a bit late as we (Rob and Yanet) were busy, just got off the Jade in the Eastern Med, two days before this. Amazingly, our flights and hotels betweens Athens and Seattle all went well. Before the cruise we had a night at the Holiday Inn Express at Seatac (using the IHG credit card free room night for a King Suite). Free airport shuttle. Very efficient cruise shuttle in the morning (booked at hotel front desk), $20 per person to pier 66. Easy check-in at around 10.30am, no queues. Got our cards within minutes. Took some time to be allowed through to the main waiting area (no special treatment for priority) but once there we could board immediately. Unusually, the rooms were available as soon as we boarded, as the ship had come in empty overnight from Vancouver. That was nice. We dropped the carry-ons and headed back out to Seattle for a couple of hours for some last minute shopping. Even better, it wasn't raining in Seattle! Lunch was in the Tsar's Palace MDR (now called just the Palace, perhaps for geopolitical reasons). Open for embarkation lunch from 12 to 2. Signed up for all the usual stuff at Cruisenext that afternoon. Looks like everything is running (unlike on our Jade cruises): Behind the Scenes, Speed Wine Tasting, Dinner with Officers, Latitudes Party, Sail and Sustain Mixology. We have many sea days so these events have been spead over different days, which is sensible. Laundry benefit is twice per person on this 16 day cruise. Day two was a sea day, heading north outside Vancouver Island. Progressive trivia started, at a good time of 2.30pm. Ship doesn't feel crowded. There are probably lots of solos on board as the solo price has been good for a while. Only 15 children on board. Very nice meal at Le Bistro in the evening. One show only this evening (8.30pm) so a full house in the theatre: Dave Rave, a comedy juggler. Day three is Ketchikan, Alaska. Light rain and cool. Super busy in Ward Cove as we're docked next to the Bliss and using the same shuttle buses to/from Berth four in town. I'll update this thread every few days when I get time. It'll be easy to get time on the sea days, but nothing to report... Once we get to Hakodate in Japan we have TWENTY-ONE consecutive port days before the next sea day! That will be busy and tiring! If you have questions about the ship, or want any photos, ask away! Also for Japan and elsewhere in Asia, once we get nearer.

For tendering there are normally (free) tender tickets, in numbered groups. These are available early in the morning (sometimes previous night) at a location specified in Freestyle. Go early to get a low tender ticket number (just one person from your group needs to go). When the tendering starts, a few ship (not private) excursions may be let off, then they'll call tenders by number. When (or just before...) your tender ticket number is called, you can join the queue. After all the numbers have been called (can be hours), there are "open tenders" and anybody can go with no ticket. If you're Latitudes gold or above, you can join the queue at any time, without needing a tender ticket. If you're on a ship shorex, no tender ticket is needed (and you probably get to jump the queue). If you're solo, the solos host will often give out tender tickets the night before at the solos meetup. But no special treatment for those who have private tours planned. Tendering can be slow, no guarantees you can get off quick even with a low ticket number. No tickets are needed to get back to the ship, just join the queue on shore.

We've received the "sail safe travel requirements" email for every cruise in the past couple of years, sometimes several times for each, it's nothing specific to your cruise. The vaccine and testing rules for Australia were abolished about ten days ago, NCL hasn't updated their pages yet. That was the last country (that NCL sails to) that had any rules, so that page should go away soon. The cruise travel documents page is the important one. Even for Canada, it's worth checking exactly what is needed.