Shadow Hong Kong to Tokyo to Seward

[Emtbsam]

Your fabulous photos and descriptions are making us want to take the trip some time. Thanks so much for sharing.

[Stumblefoot]

Beautiful little city! Thanks for sharing your photos with us Wellseasoned.

[RachelG]

We were just in Shanghai last month, so very much enjoyed your pics!

[jtm1]

So, now that you have been on The Shadow for a few days, how is her condition? Worn and tired, as some have commented? Hoping not as we are cruising on her in June.

[Wellseasoned]

Just a quick reply this Sunday night, since the Japanese block all the satellite communications. We have about an hour tonight online time between Nagasaki and Kagoshima. Jeju, korea was a very interesting Korean island. The time today in Nagasaki was more interesting, with the somber atom bomb sites, museum, etc. I have a certain personal perspective on this as a U.S. Navy veteran and a father in law who commanded a U.S. sub in WWII. But it was a good tour and presentation of what occurred here. And one of the best and liveliest guides we've ever had!

 

Tomorrow Kagoshima, and hope we get some online time again. Shadow dinner great tonight. Yesterday we had a night time in La Terrazza with the duck ragout(!) and our bottle of the Pommery Louise 1999 which the ship (or travel agent?) provided. Tomorrow we've arranged our traditional dover sole and rack of lamb with our bottle of Dom. Sigh, life is hard.

 

Yes, there are issues with the Shadow's cosmetics which we and others aboard (including two couples with over 500 days) have noted. The HD we dined with is well aware of these and knows that they must be addressed with an extensive dry dock, which SS is presumably working on. But the day to day functioning, service, suites, and enjoyment are not impaired. I certainly would not consider cancelling a cruise for this. It's still a terrific and luxurious experience. Our butler and suite attendant are the best we've had, and we've had many very good ones. More on this later.

[jtm1]

Thanks so much for taking the (limited) time you have to reply. Safe travels.

[spinnaker2]

Enjoying the commentary thanks!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

[duct tape]

Keep enjoying and reporting, when possible. We appreciate the effort.

[WesW]

Thanks Dieter & Debbie, wonderful on board report..am sure Debbie reflected with pride her father's WWII selfless service during your port visit to Nagaski. David and I last week on the Cloud, also got the Louise Pommery that Annette provided--delish. If you have time Dieter, can you pls find out who the Capt., HD and CD will be on the Shadow this December. Thanks in advance.

Edited April 27, 2014 by Colonel(Ret.)Wes

[RachelG]

Thank you for keeping us updated with your limited time!

 

A quick question, though if you want you can wait till later when Internet time is not at a premium to answer. How does this Internet thing in Japan work? Does the Internet work if you are a certain distance away from land? And why do they block it in the first place? Do they tell you ahead of time when Internet connections will be available?

 

We will be in Japan on silver explorer in September, and I am trying to figure this out as I need to have at least some contact with my office.

[ging466]

That is one of the best sunset pics I've seen and the rest of the pics are stunning too.

 

Brilliant photography Wellseasoned, thankx for posting.

 

Cheers

Jennifer

[Tothesunset]

Agree with wellseasoned's comments throughout the thread. As it happens, Dieter and Debbie are sitting in the same small room as us at Osaka port making use of the available wifi!

 

Quite why the Japanese have restrictions on the ships satellite use, we have no Idea but it is rather irksome.

 

The Shadow is proving a kindly host. There are some superficial cosmetic issues but we find this doesn't detract from the Silversea experience. Food, service and ambience are of the expected high standard.

 

See Dieter's posts for more eloquent and in-depth analysis.

[Silver Spectre]

You stumped me with this one Wes. I have never heard of it. Glad that you enjoyed it!

 

They shared some with us at the Grill one night, and it was very good.

[Silver Spectre]

That is one of the best sunset pics I've seen and the rest of the pics are stunning too.

 

Brilliant photography Wellseasoned, thankx for posting.

 

Cheers

Jennifer

 

My thoughts exactly Jennifer.

[Silver Spectre]

The time today in Nagasaki was more interesting, with the somber atom bomb sites, museum, etc. I have a certain personal perspective on this as a U.S. Navy veteran and a father in law who commanded a U.S. sub in WWII. But it was a good tour and presentation of what occurred here. And one of the best and liveliest guides we've ever had!

 

When you get back to having reliable internet I would be interested in your take on the Nagasaki Bomb Museum. We were there a few years back as part of a Pacific Theatre WWII cruise and were surprised at the lack of understanding of why it happened and also a strange lack of humility in the commentary on the exhibits.

 

I am also interested in Wes's request as we get off in BA when he and Ida get on.

[Wellseasoned]

Rachel, The Japanese don't physically block the satellite communications, but they require that the ships turn them off in ports and Japanese waters within 12 miles of shore. Nobody seems to know why they do this. But it also cuts out our phone service aboard the ship, as well as the ship's newspaper downloads. Cruise Consultant Karl is unable to do do his bookings work during these times.

April 28 in Kagoshima was our first rainy day. We had a nice tour to Sakurajima Island, which has a big, very active volcano which has already had 120 mini eruptions this year. Then some beautiful gardens in the rain, a museum, and lots of Samurai history. That overnight the seas were quite rough and the winds high, but passengers seemed to have tolerated it well. Calmer the next afternoon but still raining as we reached Osaka the evening of the 29th.

April 30 we took a 10 1/2 hour tour to Nara and Kyoto. We saw very beautiful and historic Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines. And we appreciated the extensive, elevated expressway system and the six km long tunnel under the mountains between Osaka and Nara. Osaka is a huge city, and it and Kyoto have very slow traffic on the regular streets through their urban areas.

May 1 we enjoyed the port area in the morning, particularly the tremendous Osaka Aquarium, the largest and best we've ever seen (second largest in Asia). Not to be missed! There is a huge ferris wheel adjacent to our dock . So far, all of the Japanese cities we've visited have boasted a prominent ferris wheel. Don't know why. Wonderful sailaway in the afternoon. Japanese drummers at the dock, hundreds of school children and others shouting goodbyes, fireboat water salutes. There was a good free wi-fi at the terminal in the morning as Tothesunset reported. I was still able to access it from our portside veranda before departure! Then blank. Formal farewell in the evening.

May 2, Friday we arrived in Tokyo at 1 PM. With the great help of the tour desk, we had booked an excellent sushi restaurant to share with our son who leaves the ship in Tokyo. We continue to Seward. The restaurant, Kyubei, in the Ginza area was phenomenal. By far the best sushi we've ever had.

May 3, turnaround day, we had a long Tokyo tour for in-transit passengers. It was a special holiday in Japan and all venues and streets were packed with people.

Here are a few photos. More recent ones to come, bandwidth willing.

 

Buddha Yakcheonsa Temple, Jeju, S Korea

 

Gardens in Jungmun Resort, Jeju

 

Atomic bomb hypocenter (ground zero) Nagasaki

 

Statue at atomic bomb hypocenter park

[Wellseasoned]

Another post since we have internet until Kushiro tomorrow morning! Silver Spectre, I agree about the Nagasaki bomb museum. They really say very little about Japan's role in the events of those years.

Wes, they are not really sure of the future Shadow officer assignments, but Capt Destefano expects to be aboard in December. The HD will probably be Martin Blanar (sp?) . CD could be Moss Hills, who left for the Whisper yesterday, or Don Fluke, who boarded yesterday and has been on the Shadow for much of the past year.

There are about 320 passengers on this Tokyo to Seward leg. This includes a group of 93 who are in an organization of alumni of various universities. Don't know much about them yet, but they seem to be typical passengers in the typical age group.

David Bilsland is to board tomorrow!

We had the CC Meet and Mingle this morning, eight of us present, as well as CC Carl and CD Don Fluke. Pleasant hour of chat, drinks, and canapes!

There is an interesting change in internet options starting this segment. I am told that this will be a month-long trial period on the Shadow and Cloud, to see how it works out and what passengers think of it. There will still be a 1000 minutes for $250 option, but the other buying a group of minutes options do not exist. Instead, you can buy unlimited access for 1 day (24 hours continuous from time of purchase) for $30; 2 day unlimited for $50; 3 day for $60; 7day for $130; and 8+ days for $16 per day. These times cannot be split up. They are a continuous period of time starting when you purchase. If you buy 1 day, it expires after 24 hours, whether you used it continuously or used it for one minute. Should be interesting.

 

Shimazu Samurai garb, Kagushima

 

Todaji Temple, Nara

 

Golden Pavilion, Kyoto

 

Drummer farewell, Osaka

 

Imperial Palace grounds, Tokyo

 

Silver Shadow docked in Tokyo

[derbylane]

You are very creative. Just wonderful pictures!

[spinnaker2]

Enjoying the commentary and the terrific photos, thanks much for sharing

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[duct tape]

Great pix! Internet charges sound interesting. Could be very pricy on a B2B2B2B etc.

[WesW]

Hi Dieter (and Debbie ); thanks again for sharing your terrific port visits pix--bravo! (esp enjoyed the Budha pix, Gardens and Drummers)

 

Also, appreciate (thank you) the Shadow crew leadership update as of today for our December cruise. We have sailed with Karl & CD Don and would enjoy sailing with either of them again. Pls pass our warm regards along to both.

 

Hope Debbie and you enjoy Chef David's Le Ecole des Chef's program--if y'all have time please also pass our warm regards along to Chef David--and pls let David know Wes expects a book report (he can send via email or FB) on "Eating on the Wildside," by Dr. Jo Robinson--best food lit book we've ever read.

[Stumblefoot]

Fantastic photos Wellseasoned! Thank you for sharing along with your regular updates.

[RachelG]

The no Internet thing seems very weird to me, since you could go to an Internet cafe anywhere on land in Japan and do emails or post. Why do they do this!? It is bad for business.

[diane.in.ny]

 

Yesterday the muster was held shortly before sailing. Not at all pleasant. Unlike the other ships, the Shadow does not assemble passengers in a lounge for muster. We were ushered straight outside to the midship port or starboard deck 5 outdoors, packed into mass crowd, standing there for 30 minutes or more. Told to don life jackets with no demo. Then the standard talk by the CD was played over the speakers, which were barely audible on the starboard side. And the in-transit passengers must repeat this for each segment on the Shadow. Groan.

 

I haven't examined things in detail yet, but it does look as if the Shadow could stand some updating of electronics, and repairs of things like aging veranda door latches, cabinet doors, wood dings and dents, things that need more than the short superficial dry docks. Some bathroom updates such as the rain showers added to the Cloud would also be nice.

 

I was on the same cruise ... actually think I might have said something to you in the buffet dining room when I overheard someone mention Cruise Critic.

 

Anyway, I agree with you 100% about the muster. A joke.

 

To your list of needed updates, I would add new carpeting in both the cabins and the hallways.

[Wellseasoned]

Diane, happily the muster on the next leg, in Tokyo was entirely different. It took only a few minutes, was organized, the speakers worked. They were very aware of how bad the previous one was and corrected their problems.

 

Today, May 6, we are at sea and will anchor at Petropavlosk, Russia May 8. It is rainy and so foggy today that visibility is only a few yards. Yesterday the weather was sunny in Kushiro, Hokkaido Island, Japan. But it was a national holiday, again, Children's Day, so many places were closed. There were some festivities. Today we no longer have the Japanese restrictions on satellite communications! But the signal is not very strong today, probably because of the weather.

There was a particularly wonderful pappardelle with duck ragout in La Terrazza last night (it's back on the menu), which went very well with the Pommery Louise 1999 (what doesn't?).

Chef David Bilsland did board in Kushiro. Today he did his first cooking demo, " Crab-Tastic", making three crab dishes, including a crab souffle. It was great fun as usual, with his mix of skill and humor.

In our experience on this cruise, the food and service have been excellent in all of the venues. We've arranged an Indian dinner for a group of eight tomorrow: four of us Americans and four Brits. The chefs are happy to plan a menu for us.

Right now the weather in Petropavlosk is the great unknown. We are booked for the volcano ATV excursion. From previous reposts this can be great or awful depending on the weather. There is said to be considerable snow still on the ground. If there are low clouds the volcano visibility may be very limited. They have changed the description of the tour difficulties from moderate to extensive. We'll see. At present, it's supposed to be sunny when we are there, so hope for the best.

 

Kushiro wharf area

 

Child Drummers, Kushiro

 

CRAB-TASTIC Menu cover

 

Culinary Trainer David Bilsland at work