QE from Yokohama??

[bazzaw]

I am in Australia .  I am interested in a cruise which starts in Yokohama Japan and finishes in Vancouver Canada. Booking the cruise is simple enough - either through the Cunard website or though one of the many online TA's or through a "bricks and mortar" TA.  Don't really know the benefits/disadvantages of these three?   BUT - we would need to fly to Japan and home from Vancouver ( there are two International airports in Tokyo ( Yokohama) )  and stay at least for one night in Yokohama before the cruise. I know absolutely nothing about Japan and find the thought of being there for the first time quite daunting.  best airport to fly into - where to get a hotel handy to the ships berth .  So - I really need a cruise specialist who also  knows all about Japan and International flights!! 🙂   Any advice please.  I am not sure this is a job for Flight Centre 🙂 

[Host Hattie]

Cruise Critic guidelines do not allow the naming of Travel Agents so I'm not sure how we can help you.

[erniebernie]

Hi bazzaw we are doing that cruise  (Q027) but in reverse next year and we too are a bit daunted by where to stay,what we did was we went to a Travel Expo  and spoke to a company that specialise in tours of Japan  and asked them about areas/shopping ect they were very helpful even though I told them we had already booked our cruise.  We booked cruise direct with Cunard and just used local T/A for flights  Got It all sorted.Maybe this might help.Cheers Allison

[bazzaw]

Thanks Allison - I have found some recommendations for hotels in Yokohama in the CC Asia Destinations forum - and have found out that flights from where we live only go to the one airport in Tokyo. So things are narrowing down a little for me 🙂 

[resordanis]

Hi there,

We cruised Sydney to Yokohama on QE this year. After the cruise we stayed in Yokohama for 4 nights and used this as our base. This was fine, but if I was to do it again, probably 2 nights in Tokyo and 2 nights in Yokohama.

We stayed at the Sheraton Yokohama Bay Hotel. Couldn’t fault the hotel and 2 minute walk to the  railway station. Once again, if we were going on a cruise, I would stay at a hotel closer to the terminal i.e. Intercontinental, just so close.

Travelling in Japan was very easy by train, many people to assist us. Whether it was because of us being older, but young people wanted to help.

Travelling on trains with luggage, well I would think a bit more difficult, certainly at my age.

We flew Jetstar business which was fine and they left from Narita, but we were having a stopover in Cairns. Once again, if I went again, we would try and fly into Haenda, just a bit closer to Tokyo.

We are also having a look at the cruise to Vancouver in 2020 as we would like to go back to Japan and see other parts that we couldn’t cover on this trip.

We had a great time on QE, but QV would have to be our favourite Cunard ship. In saying that we are considering the cruise to Vancouver for the itinerary.

Hope this might help in some way.

 

[john watson]

17 hours ago, bazzaw said:

I am in Australia .  I am interested in a cruise which starts in Yokohama Japan and finishes in Vancouver Canada. Booking the cruise is simple enough - either through the Cunard website or though one of the many online TA's or through a "bricks and mortar" TA.  Don't really know the benefits/disadvantages of these three?   BUT - we would need to fly to Japan and home from Vancouver ( there are two International airports in Tokyo ( Yokohama) )  and stay at least for one night in Yokohama before the cruise. I know absolutely nothing about Japan and find the thought of being there for the first time quite daunting.  best airport to fly into - where to get a hotel handy to the ships berth .  So - I really need a cruise specialist who also  knows all about Japan and International flights!! 🙂   Any advice please.  I am not sure this is a job for Flight Centre 🙂 

 

I have sailed into Yokohama and stayed in a local hotel.  Intercontinental Hotel Yokohama.  I chose this hotel as it was withing walking distance from the cruise terminal. In addition it is shaped a bit like a huge orange segment and you can identify it on the skyline. A problem you have with Japan is they don't speak English! so getting a taxi is tricky.  There was a shuttle bus from our hotel to the airport but we went for a taxi booked through hotel reception. This hotel did five languages and can speak to your driver before departure or just get the shuttle bus.  It was was also within walking distance of a decent shopping mall and Cosmo's World a theme park with rides etc. (see You Tube).  Narita and Haneda are the two airports but I forget which we used but one is more long haul. You need to have everything printed out in English and Japanese to show people where you want to go like taxi drivers if you travel about alone.

 

For flights you could look on the internet for cheap flights, using a dedicated facility for this purpose. Specify MULTI-TRIP which is A to B then C to A i.e. two separate flights which are associated by the airline.  You enter in the dates for A and C which can be any dates whatsoever when they arrive at B and back at A needs thinking about but beyond your control.  Therefore A is your leaving Australia date, then leave space for hotel nights in Yokohama, then leave space for cruise, then space for hotel in Vancouver then date for flight home.

 

I booked all my flights, cruise and hotels on line.

 

Regards John

Edited May 15, 2019 by john watson

[bazzaw]

On 5/15/2019 at 3:59 PM, resordanis said:

Hi there,

We cruised Sydney to Yokohama on QE this year. After the cruise we stayed in Yokohama for 4 nights and used this as our base. This was fine, but if I was to do it again, probably 2 nights in Tokyo and 2 nights in Yokohama.

We stayed at the Sheraton Yokohama Bay Hotel. Couldn’t fault the hotel and 2 minute walk to the  railway station. Once again, if we were going on a cruise, I would stay at a hotel closer to the terminal i.e. Intercontinental, just so close.

Travelling in Japan was very easy by train, many people to assist us. Whether it was because of us being older, but young people wanted to help.

Travelling on trains with luggage, well I would think a bit more difficult, certainly at my age.

We flew Jetstar business which was fine and they left from Narita, but we were having a stopover in Cairns. Once again, if I went again, we would try and fly into Haenda, just a bit closer to Tokyo.

We are also having a look at the cruise to Vancouver in 2020 as we would like to go back to Japan and see other parts that we couldn’t cover on this trip.

We had a great time on QE, but QV would have to be our favourite Cunard ship. In saying that we are considering the cruise to Vancouver for the itinerary.

Hope this might help in some way.

 

We have now booked the 38 day cruise  Tokyo to Vancouver - with a circumnavigation of Japan added to the start and a 8 day Alaska cruise added to the end. We first went on QE and QV during one of the 3 Queens cruises round 5 years ago - we subsequently went on QE for a couple more cruises and our memories of QV told us that she was our favourite. However last year we did another 3 Queens and preferred QE this time. 🙂  BTW - how did you get from Narita airport to the hotel?

Edited May 21, 2019 by bazzaw

[Elephant1151]

Have you considered booking the flights with Cunard as the transfer will be included.  We are in the UK and on QE later this year Tokyo to Sydney and the Cunard flights were a great price.

 

In the event later on we booked the 3 day pre cruise in Tokyo with Cunard as hotel prices were quite high and again this was reasonable.

[resordanis]

On 5/21/2019 at 2:35 PM, bazzaw said:

We have now booked the 38 day cruise  Tokyo to Vancouver - with a circumnavigation of Japan added to the start and a 8 day Alaska cruise added to the end. We first went on QE and QV during one of the 3 Queens cruises round 5 years ago - we subsequently went on QE for a couple more cruises and our memories of QV told us that she was our favourite. However last year we did another 3 Queens and preferred QE this time. 🙂  BTW - how did you get from Narita airport to the hotel?

 

On 5/21/2019 at 2:35 PM, bazzaw said:

We have now booked the 38 day cruise  Tokyo to Vancouver - with a circumnavigation of Japan added to the start and a 8 day Alaska cruise added to the end. We first went on QE and QV during one of the 3 Queens cruises round 5 years ago - we subsequently went on QE for a couple more cruises and our memories of QV told us that she was our favourite. However last year we did another 3 Queens and preferred QE this time. 🙂  BTW - how did you get from Narita airport to the hotel?

We used the bus. Very convenient and easy, I also think if you stay at the Intercontinental, they have the bus pickup/drop off. We stayed at the Sheraton and they had a price of 4000 yen and that included a taxi to the bus terminal.

Edited May 23, 2019 by resordanis

[alibabacruisers]

Hi Barry,

We just got back from the QE 27 nts Yokohama to Vancouver with Alaska in the middle.  We flew from Melbourne to Narita (Qantas) and used the airport Limo bus that was 7200 yen for the both of us and that worked for us because it has a stop at the Intercontinental.  We stayed at the Intercontinental because it was close to the Osanbashi Cruise Terminal, but then found out we were docking at the Daikoku Pier, which is across the harbor.  They provided a shuttle to the ship from a place close to the Nihon Odori Station but we ended up taking a taxi.  We had printed out a paper with the picture and address of the Daikoku Pier and the IC staff also instructed the driver of the location.  In Vancouver, we used United because we stopped over in Honolulu.