soccermommy

We had thought, and had read the weather in October was much like we have in New England…warm-ish days and cool nights. Well, we had hot days and warm nights in Tokyo, and warm to hot days in various ports. I would take layers, a good rain jacket, and really good walking shoes. Most of the time on the ship, tees are fine, but it could get chilly. So, layers. If, hopefully when, we go back, I would take a couple more lightweight tops, and maybe shorts for the ship. You will be so astonished and excited to be in Japan, the weather won’t bother you much!

I wish we had had more time in Yokohama, we spent only 1 night at the Hyatt Regency. We did visit Chinatown, only a couple of blocks from the hotel, and had a great dinner there. There is quite a large Chinese population in Yokohama, and Chinese food is very popular. Who knew? We got a great rate at the Hyatt, and we really liked the hotel. We were so close to the terminal we just walked a few blocks. Even with our not small suitcases, it only took about 10 minutes, but the weather was good. If I ever get back to Japan, and I really, really want to return, I think we’d spend a few days in Yokohama. Your pictures are great!

I was on Eclipse in March, and thought it was in great shape. Yes, there is some wear and tear, but everything is clean and maintained. The Captain told us the ship will go into dry dock next year for its required five year checkup. He didn’t say, but I think some things like carpets and upholstery will be refreshed. To be honest, nothing really bothered me except maybe the lumpy too-used chairs in Al Bacio, but I too used them. The service was exceptional, and the senior officers were available and approachable. I would happily sail on her again, and I will in October when she transitions to the Caribbean from Boston.

We were on Millennium in October doing the Best of Southern Japan, and it was, hands down, the best and most memorable cruise we have taken on Celebrity. We were in Concierge, and we found the food much improved with the new menus. I don’t remember any particular problems with staffing or service, in fact, the service was stellar. I am excited to follow your posts, because it will bring back great memories of our time in Japan. We’d go back to Japan again, all we have to do is survive the trip from Boston.

If we do it again, we probably skip the wine pairing because it was a lot of wine…glasses got refilled quickly. I do remember feeling VERY good, and I did like most of the wines. But that’s a personal decision, and I don’t think not having the wine pairing spoils the experience.

It was sold out on both Millennium and Summit last year, but on Eclipse in March they added an extra session, which we were able to book after it showed sold out on the app. It was a lot of fun, and imo, the group you are with makes the experience. Our group was wonderful, and the food and service exceptional. We did do the wine pairing, because, we’ll, we could and it was for my birthday, and the total bill was close to $500, including the gratuity. Very pricey. I think, however, I wouldn’t mind doing it again. It might be one and done, depending on how well I convince my DH. Was it worth it, yes, for us, but the cookbook included weighed a ton! Check with the Murano staff, there could be another night added, based on requests. It’s worth a shot.

So sorry, OP, that your Summit cruise was so unsatisfactory. We had our second cruise on her last August and had excellent service in our cabin. We joked we’re actually in steerage, Deck 2 Oceanview, but our cabin was immaculate. The only problem was the repetition of menus in the MDR but that was just before they changed.( There was much more choice on the Millennium in October, btw). I do have to say, though, if anything like your experience happened to us, we would be escalating it to Hotel Director level. I am not an old timer who remembers the old days on Celebrity, but we have been very happy with the product we have now. I have much more experience with NCL. Sadly, for a number of reasons, I don’t think we will be sailing them again. There have been cutbacks all around, but I hope you find someplace that makes you happy to sail.

I posted about my problems trying to watch this latest webinar on Eclipse. I don’t know who was nice, but we got the 3 points!

So I get back from the Eclipse, a wonderful journey around South America, and find another fantastic Jim_Iain cruise adventure. You have inspired us to become more adventurous in our cruising, and we are actually considering this for our 50th anniversary in 2026. Following this with great anticipation!

We just got off Eclipse and nearly threw the computer overboard trying to watch the darn thing. The webinar would stutter, stop and crash completely every minute or so. Finally we could not reconnect at all. When I went to the CC representative to ask about this, she said they knew about the “ glitch”. I am going to contact CC in Miami to see if good intentions and bad webinar on a Celebrity ship count for something. After all, we were on a Celebrity ship at the time! 3 points is still 3 points…. I guess.

We did the World Wine event on the Summit last year, and it was a lot of fun. I found my walking was a little unsteady towards the end…the pours were good and it’s a lot of wine if you try everything. But we did learn a bit about wine regions and their respective wines. We did the food and wine pairing on the last sea day of our Japan Millenium cruise. For some reason, there were a lot of cancellations and the five of us remaining had the choice of canceling or doing the tasting. We all agreed to stay and it was conducted by the Food and Beverage Manager, whose name I unfortunately don’t remember. It was so informative, and he also gave us a lot of information on how (and sometimes if) they get wines onboard. I don’t expect to get this kind of opportunity again, but we are thinking of doing this on the Eclipse ( next week!)

While we were in Tokyo we found a registered tour guide through TripAdvisor who worked with us before our trip to set up an all day tour based on our interests. As a result, we saw the Imperial Palace, several gardens, hit a couple of tourist areas, a museum, and ate at a restaurant in the Fish Market area frequented by locals which allowed us to try some of the freshest tuna we have ever had, and got a saki tasting. He was a lovely elder gentleman whose English was excellent and was probably the most organized guide I’ve ever met. I saw a number of tours on TripAdvisor which mention the guides are registered. I would highly recommend that as a good place to start.

I can’t answer about the Geisha tours, but the trip on the Shinkansen was interesting. We as a group took a bus from the pier to the train station, and they aren’t close, btw. Then as a group we went to the track for the train and were warned that once we arrived in Kyoto, we had one minute to exit the train…Trains in Japan are strict about schedules! Once we boarded, I barely felt the speed or any movement. Then we boarded another bus to visit the first temple, we parked and then walked uphill, then walked up quite a few steps inside the temple. The Golden Temple is much easier to walk because it’s level, but there is a fair amount of it. Yes, most of the tours do feature a lot of temples, and this past year was the first year Japan was fully open, thus there wasn’t a lot of choice in tours. I really enjoyed most of our ship tours, and admit it was a bit top heavy on temples, but there are a lot of them and the Shinto and Buddhist temples are very important to the Japanese. Trains are actually not that hard to figure out, and we found there was always someone who spoke English who could help us. We took the train from Tokyo to Yokohama with just a little help. Trains are relatively inexpensive and frequent, and there are videos online to help explain things. Good luck and just have a ball!

We booked a ship tour on our October Millennium sailing from Osaka to Kyoto which included 2 temples, a lunch and a train trip on the Shinkansen from Osaka to Kyoto (17 minutes!). I too wanted to see something of the Geisha culture and it wasn’t possible for us, but we did really enjoy the tour. Kyoto is so close to Osaka by train, and the temples are beautiful, but the older part of Kyoto is basically uphill, and there is a lot of walking. Imo, getting to and from Kyoto won’t be much to worry about, getting around might be more of a problem. While researching, I did see some tours on TripAdvisor for touring the Geisha district, but never investigated more deeply because we planned to spend our first day exploring Osaka, and the second day doing Kyoto. By the way, we also liked Osaka though it is very different from Kyoto. I sympathize with your knee problems, and for that reason think the idea to explore Tours by Locals or other specialized agent a good idea. You should be able to customize for your needs. I did read that booking a dinner with a geisha can be very expensive, which could explain the pricey quote you got. We did find, however, that many tours are pricey. Japan is expensive! What ever you do, you will have the cruise of a lifetime. We think this cruise was about the best one we have ever had, the ship is lovely, and the crew were fantastic. Please come back and let us know what you decided, and especially how you liked it! We loved Japan, and would go back in a flash, assuming we survive another flight from Boston.

We live in the Boston area, but have never embarked from Boston, just disembarked twice and the best thing about that was getting an Uber home. So, I am happy to see more cruises out of Boston, but understand why people want more cruises from New Jersey. I am getting the feeling Celebrity has made the decision to shorten cruises to 12 days or less, with an occasional 14 day here and there. That could be one reason why there aren’t many long cruises out of Bayonne. A good, comprehensive Canada cruise from Bayonne needs 14 days, imo. We like longer cruises, especially if we have to travel long distances to take them, though I will say the opportunity to see places like Iceland and Japan on a 12 day cruise was no hardship. It’s a shame because the cruise season is fairly short for the Northeast, and the opportunity to not travel long distances for a cruise is such a nice change.

We’ve used FBC a few times and have discovered that there usually isn’t much of a problem when booking domestic flights, like from Boston to Florida, and have gotten some nice price breaks. But on our last booking with them for our trip to Iceland, we could not access our booking to select seats after making final payment. We called FBC and they said we would get access only when the flight was paid for, and we told them it was, considering this was after final payment. The agent sounded surprised when she found our account, and Icelandair allowed access within the hour. Well, mistakes do happen, and ours was fixed, but we decided to book our own flights for our Eclipse cruise. The prices weren’t that different, anyway. I always check FBC’s prices to see if there are any good deals, but for international flights, feel much more comfortable doing our own booking. OP, I hope this gets resolved to your satisfaction.

Our first Celebrity cruise was in Concierge, mostly because it was cheaper than a veranda. With the exception of a TA cruise from Iceland, we have stayed with Concierge since; the prices we’ve gotten were not much more expensive than a Veranda, and the extra points added up since we tend to do longer cruises. It helped us make Elite much sooner! I put the perks in the nice to have but not critical category.

We try to make the Concierge lunch. It’s much less hectic than navigating the buffet. Depending on how crazy port embarkation is, it can be nice to sit and chill. And if necessary, drink. The menu is limited, though, and is, imo, more of a dinner than a lunch with the choices offered.

We’re going to be on the March 14 Eclipse cruise from Valparaiso, and I am trying to get as much information about the boarding process as I can. So far, it doesn’t sound great. If I’m reading this correctly, it’s getting the bus to the actual boarding area from check in that’s the problem? Our check in online starts Monday and I plan to get the earliest time I can and hopefully, just deal with whatever comes. But I think people have been a little hard on the OP. If you have had a bad embarkation, and Perth in 2019 is a vivid example for me, you try your hardest to avoid another one by asking for information. And of course, it’s a first world problem but we never forget how lucky we are to be able to travel. By the way, we just got an email from Celebrity about Buenos Aires. They are changing terminals there. Apparently with the storm damage, operations at the normal cruise terminal were, um, pretty bad. OP, if you do go to Bali, please post about it. It’s on my very long bucket list, but I have hopes for 2026.

Your pictures are stunning! I may have missed this, but what are. you using to take them? As far as the weather goes, I can only hope we get such good weather in March.

I am following this with great pleasure. Your pictures are stunning. We will be on the Santiago to Buenos Aires sailing in March, and am happy to see the Eclipse is in good shape. How have you found the weather? We will be traveling during the beginning of the South American autumn, abut would love some information on what to expect. Please enjoy your trip and keep sending your great pictures!

Well, I’m a sewer, so I never notice, and I’ve trained my husband well! But generally, sewing is noisy. I have to say it has never occurred to me to bring a sewing machine on a cruise, just way too much trouble, imo, and I want to enjoy what the ship offers. But I do understand why the OP would want to sew.

I sympathize with you, OP, I love to sew and quilt, and I still work for a well known chain of sewing and craft stores, even though I “officially” retired after 22 years. I do have a few concerns with this scenario, however. First and foremost, what are the plans for getting a machine to the ship. Some have suggested using a “mini” machine, or a cheap one. I would worry about the stitch quality of some of these cheap machines, you might not be satisfied. Full size machines are not lightweight either. If you are flying, please do not check it. Having seen what could happen to a suitcase, I can only wonder how battered or misaligned a sewing machine could get. As far as actually sewing on the ship, there aren’t a lot of public places I can think of where you can sew undisturbed. In fact, the only place I can think of would be a conference room. I don’t know how much these are utilized, but now that I think of it, if they aren’t being booked, why don’t ships have a quiet room for crafting, especially on a TA? But that is something you would have to ask the ship personnel, preferably before you cruise. I don’t know if a machine would be confiscated, it isn’t prohibited, and I think it might depend on the ship’s interpretation of the rules. You can, of course, use your room. Some machines are noisier than others, it might or might not be a noise problem for your neighbors. I don’t think a machine would be a power drain. I would precut fabrics before cruising, you just won’t have the space to lay out fabric unless you use the bed. Hand quilting might be a good solution here, it takes less space to bring and use. I have sometimes brought knitting, I don’t think hand work bothers anybody and you get to enjoy some of the ship’s sea day activities. Whatever you decide, have a great cruise!

We’ll be on the same itinerary in March, so I am excited to follow your cruise. We’ll be Concierge. Thanks so much for doing this.

I am looking forward to following your adventures. This is a fabulous itinerary and we looked at it, except we already booked a cruise…we are now in Yokohama waiting to board Millenium. Have a wonderful time. Your blog is so much fun to follow!