floridatravelersforlife

Hi Bruce Thanks for the update. What's the mask wearing situation around the various cities in Japan? Are visitors still required to wear masks? Is compliance low? How about the Japanese citizens in public? Do they continue to wear masks on the street, in the metro, elevators?

Two luggages each unless you do laundry every other day.

As others have stated, too soon to tell. No one knows how the metrics will turn out for Covid cases starting with next month's cruises, and how Japan will react. Best advice, for the worst case, is to make sure all your transportation, hotels, excursions are cancellable and refundable and continue planning. We look forward to our trip to Japan and hope for the best.

United Airlines UGH! Our Summit cruise last year ended in Reyklavik and we had booked a homeward bound flight four days after ship arrival. We booked this flight ourselves, on a full refund basis - concern about Covid. On T minus 3 days of wheels up, we received an email from Delta advising our flight, might be cancelled due to weather and suggested we make other arrangements. The gall. We canceled and booked a Delta flight. It worked out. By the way, we checked on the Delta flight - the connecting flight to EWR arrived on time, but Newark flights to Orlando were cancelled for two days. Hope you succeed. Keep us posted on the nonsense.

FWIW, we have jumped back and forth. We are Celebrity Elite Plus and we left C after an awful Infinity Cruise in 2014. Service and food were declining as well as crew attitude. We switched to O until Covid and went back to C after Covid. Found C with much improved food and service since then. Next two cruises, one each for O and C,,will determine our next move. No need to be dedicated to one line.

I'm sure veteran Celebrity cruisers will recall there were cutbacks after the 9/11 dry spell and the Great Recession. To us the cut backs reached their peak around 2014 and ,after a very disappointing Infinity cruise, we Elite Plus jumped lines to Oceania which we cruised until the Covid shutdown. We tried several Celebrity cruises after restart and found food quality was up, although perks and other aspects were down. So we are taking some future Celebrity cruises in the Suites. If our satisfaction is down we will vote with our wallet and go with Oceania. It all depends if a Recession happens to the Cruise Industry and how the cruise lines react

That's five days too late. Italy two days ago, started screening inbound flights from China to Milan, Italy. About 200 pax on the inbound planes tested Covid positive. They went right to isolation. I don't want to fathom how many Chinese citizens are already in the US.

The CDC is considering Covid testing measures on travelers from China. Japan already announced yesterday it is checking all inbound travelers from China with a covid test upon arriving

There are many people who think they are invincible. Cruise ships visiting China before other Asian countries are suspect spreaders IMHO.

Per the media today, China is opening to foreigners, adding to the Covid contagion complexity. We will stick with our Oct 23 Japan itinerary and see what happens. We have plenty of lead time and travel options.

Re PCR tests, we were required to take pre cruise PCR tests for a cruise this past August. Once we debarked my wife and I got Covid and were stuck in Reykjavik for 6 days week. We managed with a supply of flu medicines and Paxlovid. Luckily we had refundable airline tickets. Mind you we had all our up to date vaccines and wore masks. I think the crew infected us.

I just don't want to get rerouted at the last minute, on an alternate route that goes to other Asian countries, in which I have no interest. Right now we are booked on an October 23 sailing, which we feel has enough lead time to have things sort out.

According to what Japanese govt document please? I'm looking to put 5 figures on a trip and I would like to have assurance this is not wishful thinking. I'm also concerned the Government will reverse its direction if Covid from China and the Western Hemisphere countries start infecting Japan. I know the Japanese citizens are still sensitive to the Princess Cruise debacle in March 2020

FYI we ordered steak on eggs benedict in Luminae on the day before. We expected a nice rare steak under the eggs instead of ham, like we experienced at the Sherboune Hotel in Dublin years ago (best we ever had), but to our surprise Luminae delivered EB with side of thick, eight ounce, rare sirloin steak. What a surprise and belly buster! It was delicious, though we did not eat lunch.

We did this itinerary on one of the inaugural cruises on the Infinity. First point - over 12 seasons, the Infinity has done the trip at least 36 times, encountering severe wind and waves and she still floats! Pretty great stats. Having gone thru 75 knot winds and 38 ft seas myself in the Drake, I was amazed at the engineering and construction aspect that such a ship could handle mother nature so well. I would not hesitate to take this cruise again. Second point. Abandon higher level cabins and choose a cabin midship on Deck 6 or 7. It is so much stable in heavy weather so you are covered if you encounter it., During our cruise pax from high and forward cabins slept in the grand Foyer because it was so bad up above,. just sayin

I hope its not one of those over the top cruise brochures.

I second the train situation. I would add consideration for the day of the week of your debarkation. Weekends are usually lighter in traffic except if it is a national holiday or a special event occurs along the route.

Any experience with wifi calling on the cell?

Not worth the trouble on the Edge class ships. LPC is effected by the traveling noise from the Martini Bar and the story line is spoiled by the ruckus from the bar. However, on the Solstice class ships, the experience is delightful due to the silence outside the restaurant. I would stick with Luminae.

At least they don't have the last name on the card. On our Nov19 cruise, our full names were displayed. Not good.

Funny we were on the Infinity early Feb 2010 and we hit a Drake's passage storm with 38 ft seas and 75 knot winds. The Captain diverted to Ushuia and we still hit the tail end of the storm. There was no direction to hide. Noise was extreme - the sliders were vibrating from the air pressure and the ship shuddered all nigh from waves hitting the hull. Creaking was the less of the evils.

We board this Saturday. Maybe we can cajole them when visit the Spa desk.

And heavy weather which the Apex will encounter this week

We also did two since last year. The Reflection during T week, last year was 10 for food quality, service, MDR alternatives and wait times. This past August the Summit was 8,6,9,10. We are on the Apex for T week in a couple weeks, and I think the ratings may suffer

Just saw your post. We were on one of the Inaugural Infinity cruises to the Antarctic peninsula back in February 2010. To answer a question you didn't ask: The earlier the season, the better chance that you will successfully reach each of the destinations. We missed the Falklands due to heavy weather and had to initially divert from crossing the Drake passage due to a huge storm. We still hit part of the storm with 10m seas and 75 knot winds. We went to Ushuaia first and then to the Peninsula. The rest of the trip was uneventful. Some cruises are on flat water . But if we were to do it again, we wouldn't take the chance to miss any of these important stops.