Miaminice

It does match my description... 🙂 To clarify: There are two ports, both belong to Fira # 1 Old Port = Stairs and Cable Car, NO street # 2 New Port = Street for buses etc. There two types of booked excursions which involve buses 1. Tender to NEW port in the morning, drive up and around in a bus. Return to Fira Town and then take the Cable car down to the OLD port. Tender back to the ship from the OLD port 2. Tender to NEW port in the morning, drive up and around in a bus. Eventually return to the NEW port by bus and tender back to the ship from the NEW port. So no cable car. Now if you are looking for a tour without cable car it would be a tour like the second one. However, TBH if the tour description does not explicitly mention "No cable car" it could be either one. The tour described by the OP specifically mentions the return to Athinios port and direct access to tenders - so he or she will not have to take the cable car for sure.

of course you can make reservations. However, there are no fixed dining times as on other ships. Early – late – anytime doesn’t exist. It’s only select on E class.

Please don´t confuse the OP! Despite of booking Aqua their IT system needs the enty of a time just like any other booking. So it can read early/late/select - but you can simply ignore it. Second, there´s no need to speak to the Maitre to dine anywhere else. Especially since we are talking about Beyond here. There are no dining times on E class.

The answer is simple: Ignore the time 🙂 1. Although Aqua and Blu is always anytime dining, their IT system still shows a time (early/late/select) 2. On E class like Beyound there are no fixed dining times. Just go to Blu or any of the MDRs any time you like.

Yes, all the tours visiting Oia will bring you back to Fira. Both tender ports are in Fira - the old port and the new (Athinios) port. The old port is the port with the stairs and cable car. It´s the port that the tender boats for passengers without excursions use. The excursions including a bus tender to the new Athinios port. Is the ferry port and it can be reached by car and bus. Most excursions actually involve a mix - bus in the morning and cable car in the afternoon. However, the message you received clearly reads that you are given a choice #1 to be taken back down to Athinios by bus or #2 to stay in Fira for longer - in which case you´ll have to make your way down to the old port on your own. By cable car or walking down the stairs. BTW: if you want to do Oia (and Fira) on your own, why do you book a tour with the cruise line? You can also book the boat to Oia at the pier for much less. Granted, you´ll have to make your way down to the port in Fira on your own - which we never saw as a problem. We´ll be in Fira again in June on Ascent - for the 10th time or so 🙂 Looking at post #18 might also help you. I tried to give an overview there.

You are welcome! I just checked the time on the photos we took. We took a train to Kamakura around 9 - 9:30am and returned to the hotel at 3:30pm. We did all we did in a very relaxed pace and lingered here and there... so yes, I think 7 hours is enough time.

IMHO reservations are not necessary. If they should be, Koichi would surely recommend it. If your phone supports an eSim, try Ubigi. Worked great for us.

true! As long as it‘s on the inside of their stateroom 🤷🏻😉

Both… but if you fly with a major airline - highly recommend Singapore Airlines - you’ll probably be able to check it in early.

You are welcome! We can HIGHLY recommend booking the Vietnam tours with Rose. Since we got back, a number of people followd our recommendation and booked with her. All came back raving about the experience. She´s a gem!

We have done 3 Japan cruises (4th booked) and two Southeast Asia cruises so far and loved them all. The passengers on board are no different than on European or other cruises. Very few “locals“. It’s a Celebrity cruise! Our latest cruise to Thailand and Vietnam was unbelievable. We planned all of our Vietnam tours with a young Vietnamese lady who made the cruise and experience unforgettable. We loved Vietnam so much that we booked another trip to Vietnam right away - a Mekong River cruise. Here‘s the review of our cruise!

bring your luggage to the airport early and return to town. Wander around China Town, Marina Bay etc. and you‘ll have a great day.

@hummingbird_206 if that should be the case then walking is no problem at all. We walked around that area before we went up to Mount Hakodate. We have done 3 Japan cruises so far - 2 on Millennium and one on Westerdam - and have booked a fourth for next year. So you can tell we really like Japan 👍

@hummingbird_206 I think you are mistaking the pier. When we docked in Hakodate on Westerdam it would have been a 7 km or 1 1/2 hour walk along a non pedestrian friendly road! Safety isn´t really the problem in Japan but this was too far away - and we are walkers 🙂 This is where cruise ships dock https://maps.app.goo.gl/7e5xENTYvvaYkp777 Here´s what we did: https://www.travelandcruise.net/travellove_en/Our-Trips/HAL-Westerdam-Japan-01/HAL-Westerdam-Japan---Hakodate/hal-westerdam-japan---hakodate.html

we only booked him with Tours by Locals the first time. After that we contacted him directly. We are also connected on Facebook. So yes, you can contact him directly… no problem. The last tour was USD 199 for a group of 6 plus JPY 7000 (apx USD 50) per person for train tickets and entrance fees. I usually look up the guides and the post on the Roll Call of the cruise to find people interested in joining us. The maximum group size we do is 6 people. Still a good size to have the private experience but a good number to share the cost.

It’s actually pretty easy. Newer phones allow you to install a secondary virtual sim without actually physically installing a card. However, I have to correct my statement in a previous post. In Japan I used an Ubigi eSim, not an Airalo. I was told Ubigi has the better connection in Japan. I used Airalo in Southeast Asia. Both websites have good video tutorials on how to activate the eSim and which settings to use.

you will not regret it for sure!

Sure, no problem! There’s also a review of our first cruise to Japan on our website. Also on Millennium.

@debfed65 @ClarP Hi, those are Koichi’s details. Let him know I sent you and he’ll surely take good care of you!

Hello and thank you! The Tempozan Metro station is actually not far away from the pier. Maybe five minutes on foot. The trains, incl. Shinkansen, are fairly inexpensive. Japan is the land of trains. The total time to Kyoto is probably around an hour. The Shinkansen part is only 15 minutes or so. However, I would strongly recommend hiring a guide. Since this is your first visit to Japan and Kyoto, you would spend too much time trying to figure out how to get from A to B. Kyoto has so much to offer. We have now been there three times and we still haven’t seen it all. The individual sites are not very close to each other, so it’s really the best to hire a guide, arrange a tour with him and just follow his lead instead of wasting time on figuring out which train to take and were to go. I am no fan of Celebrity tours at all so I can only recommend taking a private guide. I can highly recommend Koichi, with whom we booked our tours over the last cruises. I can give you his contact information. Since this report a few others followed my recommendation and toured with Kochi. All came back very happy. Osaka on the other hand is very easy to do on your own. Walk to the train station take the train to the castle, walk around, visit the castle and then take a train to the Dotonbori area to enjoy the weird and entertaining buzz. Koichi also offers tours in Osaka, but contrary to Kyoto, I‘d say you can easily do it on your own. The best way to find the right train connection is Google Maps or Apple Maps. The pricing is not really a problem because the Metro rides are only between 1 and 4 USD. I used an Airalo eSim so we always had internet to look at maps and connections etc. Oliver

🤔 you also get the snacks in Aqua just like all other perks except for embarkation day lunch. And we actually prefer Blu over Luminae… but each to their own.

I thought the same thing… why not Aqua. Concierge offers nothing. And personally we even prefer Aqua over suites.

We also did this... We booked all of our tours in Vietnam with a young lady called Rose. She organized all the tours in the other ports with young guides and guided the tour in Halong Bay and Hanoi herself. She was the best guide ever!!! On board she cooked for us - outstanding - and at night we did a motor scooter tour to the best places of Hanoi before doing a food and history tour the next day. Some others followed our recommendation and also booked with her. They all came back raving about the experience. She is a gem!!! Here´s where you can see more:

Usually the overnights in Kobe are on a Japan cruise. In that case you don´t go through immigration at all. You just go through security - which is eas easy as anywhere else.

@pseudoware Hotel Andaz Singapore for luxury Pan Pacific for a very good hotel within a medium price range The Scarlett for a boutique hotel We have also done the Marina Bay Sands to check it off our bucket list. Nice but impersonal mass processing. If you haven´t been to Singapore before, be sure to make it two nights. Singapore is fantastic. Don´t worry about transport!!! Taxis in Singapore are incredibly inexpensive. The ride from the airport to the city is just around USD 20. The MRT is also very inexpensive. There are stations everywhere. I highly recommend using the Grab App (the uber of Asia). You can also use it to pay in the Hawker Centers. If you stay in the city the ride to the cruise terminal will probably under USD 10. Maybe our travelogue helps. We started this cruise from Singapore. https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2980155-celebrity-solstice-12222023-thailand-vietnam-liveish-report/