lahore

Eat, read, nap. :D

Same, then repeat.

Rae, We are cruising on sea princess in September and Penang is one of the ports. Do you have any recommendation of a private tour operator to contact?

Lived here, and here (in Penang) right now. What sort of things do you want to see/do?

Bits and pieces

We bought a lot of stuff during our 2014 two weeks in tokyo and last year's month travelling around by cruise and land. Both times we packaged the stuff up and posted it home to Australia by sea mail. You may need a translator in the post office (I downloaded one onto my phone) but with a lot of smiles you will get through. Sea mail taks about three months but have never lost anything. We sent about six - eight large boxes home over the last two years.

We had read about the ATM problem in Japan, so we took a lot of Yen as cash.

 

Post Offices have ATMs that work for US ATM cards. I have read that 7-11 stores do as well.

 

There is a Post Office just outside the West side of Tokyo Station. One issue is what the hours of the Post Offices are.

7/11's and some other convenience stores definitely do. We have spent several weeks over the last few years in Japan and have always withdrawn from ATM's and rarely in a post office.

Intercontinental Tokyo Bay. stayed there for three weeks over the last couple of years and highly recommend it. If you look at the map it's not in the middle of town but it has a really interesting and beautiful view of the bay and a regular shuttle bus. It's also right next to the monorail that takes you to a choice of train stations. Area is lovely perfectly safe to walk around as is all of Japan.

Suspect we are on the same cruise. I think this video will answer your questions. Even if there was an excursion, which I sincerely doubt, I wouldn't be going on it. Ship will be fantastic view. Note cruise ship in this video.

Agree, Himeji Castle is the best choice for a day trip from Kobe/Osaka. We knew we wouldn't have time to see what we wanted in Kyoto so chose Himeji instead. Not at all disappointed.

Exactly what Loeb said. Stunning though...

We've been to Cochin three times, to give you some context, twice on a ship and once for a week travelling independently.

When we travelled independently we went to the backwaters cruise independently (because that's what we always do). There are hundreds of the Kettavellum (converted rice barge) tied up at the departure point and negotiating the hire of was a nightmare as they tried to really price gouge us. However once we organised it, it was one of the highlights of our travels. Being as you don't have any time to waste I would HIGHLY recommend doing a backwaters tour, but I would do it through an agent/tour company.

If for some reason you didn't want to do that, I would advise just getting off the ship and hiring an auto rickshaw into Fort Cochi and meandering around for the day. Everything (fishing nets, shops, restaurants) is walking distance once you get into the tourist area of Fort Chochi. There are two lovely old colonial hotels where you could have a lunch (a quick google will give you more details but get back to me if you donn't find them) with a water view, very nice. I would advise that you agree with the auto rickshaw driver the price that you will pay and whether or not you want him to wait for you. There are plenty of auto rickshaws in Cochi so you should get one back very easily. Also, agree with him beforehand that you do not want to be taken to any 'shopping' stops or else you will spend half your time being dropped off at over priced shops from which he will get a commission (unless you want to do that of course).

Hi folks, I know all about this and how it works but I haven't had need to use it before. I may do this time though and would be very interested to know which company people used and whether you booked it independently and whether you booked it online or at the location. Also has anyone any experience of using it from the pier in Yokohama?

TIA

I've cruised to some of these ports and also lived in Singapore and Malaysia and worked in Hong Kong and Vietnam. So if you have any specific questions please fire away - a general comment would be way too general. One thing I'm not sure if anyone has said (don't have time to read through) is the size of the ship greatly impacts convenience in Ho Chi Minh City and Bangkok. In both the port for large ships is a VERY long way from town, whereas smaller ships (e.g., Oceania Nautica in my personal experience) can get right into town.

Haven't stayed at that hotel but everywhere in Singapore CBD and surrounds is close to an MRT and specifically there is one at Clark Quay.

Thank you both :)

Hello, this weekend coming we are doing a two night cruise on Pacific jewel to Sydney. I want to book Luna restaurant and I'm on the early embarkation time so I have some hope of getting a booking perhaps. Could somebody please tell me where I need to run to to get the booking as soon as I get on. Thank you.

Dawn princess to be "rebirthed". They must be joking. It's a wreck. What an insult.

But contraversally the P&O cruise days will count to your Princess days (but not cruises)

Could I please ask you to clarify this ? The reason I ask is that I have princess credits and am currently booked on to very short P&O Australia cruises. When I login to my cruise history on Princess it shows the upcoming cruises on P&O as one cruise credit each. Given that princess recognises both per cruise credit and numbers of nights to go up to levels, I would have thought that what you're saying is wrong but I may have misunderstood. To be honest I really hope you are wrong because the only reason we're going on this short cruise is so that we will go platinum later in the year for a b2b on Princess

I've done both for different reasons. I've gone to the Indonesian embassy beforehand and got the Visa when I was travelling on one of the more expensive ships that wanted to charge a ridiculous price for the Visa. I did that not because I couldn't afford it because I just don't like being ripped off. last year on Dawn Princess the ship just got blanket Visa's for everyone and we were charged for them even though we didn't get off because of the Chan/Sukumaran atrocity.

We are about to endure two short cruises in Australia so that we can go to platinum for our August back to back in Japan on Princess later this year. So the reciprocal agreement between P&O and Princess does have some affect in our case. Possibly not what they intended.

Thank you. Got it fixed. :)

Hi all, I'm having the worst time trying to get my partner's loyalty program number corrected on my upcoming booking. I can only find P&O's main number where you wait ad infinitum for anyone to answer you. I would love to be able to contact P&O Australia's loyalty club by email or, at worst, phone. Can anyone help?

Sorry, I meant to say I have personally been on them, not you! Whoops.

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Sorry cruisvn but you are not correct. Oceania's ships can come up the river, they are small. You have personally been on them there.

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Suggest perhaps a lunch at Bon Ton resort which has genuine Asian fare and wonderful collection of old Malaysian houses around the pool, great photography opportunity. Or if you want to hire a taxi to go a lot further the beach out at the Datai is spectacular

We used a driver from the recommended driver list on TripAdvisor for Kuala Lumpur for our stop in early April this year.

 

Hi all, I was wondering about getting a driver for KL or maybe a taxi. I've been to KL a couple of times and need to go to a couple of shops where I buy my clothes from. I am concerned about getting back if there is a traffic jam and missing the boat. The cruise's bus trip is $49.95 per person. I thought that $100 for a couple wasn't too bad and it comes with a guarantee, not to miss the boat that you don't get with a private driver.

 

Just wondering people's thoughts and also how much it is for a taxi from the port and how long did it take, did you get held up getting back to the boat, is it a bit risky? Any other time I would do my own thing, but this one port has me a little concerned.

 

thanks for any help.

 

We were there a few weeks ago on Princess and we took the ships' transfer. It is the only time in our lives we have ever taken a ships' transfer, and we used to live in Malaysia. I can tell you for certain that that road into KL is very unpredictable and traffic jams can sometimes last for hours. For the likely price difference of $30 we didn't think it was worth the risk. I can't believe I'm saying that because I really dislike the scaremongering about missing the ship, but in this instance I thought it was actually possible .

I second what Rosebery said.