Asia

[jay888]

For my next cruise I’m looking at Asia, Holland America appear to have the best itineraries.  However, I’ve never sailed with HA before only MSC, NCL, RCI, P&O and Cunard.  Please any information about what they are like to cruise with would be appreciated.

[Hlitner]

3 hours ago, jay888 said:

For my next cruise I’m looking at Asia, Holland America appear to have the best itineraries.  However, I’ve never sailed with HA before only MSC, NCL, RCI, P&O and Cunard.  Please any information about what they are like to cruise with would be appreciated.

With HAL it really matters which ship.  They have quite a few older vessels with few balcony cabins (when compared to newer ships).  HAL also attracts a fiercely loyal clientele who are somewhat "more mature" and can tell you about their hundreds of days on the line :).  As you have discovered, HAL has some of the best itineraries in the industry which is the primary reason we keep returning to the line.  Food/cuisine on their ships is pretty typical of the mass market lines (good but not great).  We think one of the negatives on the line is their entertainment which recently took another interesting turn when they suddenly eliminated all the Production shows from their cruise ships.  

 

Hank

[jay888]

Thank you for your reply, unfortunately I’m no long a spring chicken.  When you say mature do you mean gods waiting room where everyone is asleep during the day in the lounges.  The cruise I’m looking at is on the Westerdam.  I do like a balcony, but the end of the world if I don’t have one.  I like a more relaxing cruise with good coffee, which I don’t mind pairing extra.

[tommui987]

8 hours ago, jay888 said:

 I’m looking at Asia, Holland America appear to have the best itineraries.   Please any information about what they are like to cruise with would be appreciated.

 

It has been a while - two or three years - but we have cruised on 4 occasions in Asia, two on the Volendam.

 

The once and only time we had a balcony was on the Volendam but it was non-usable as it was either too cold or too windy! (November).]

However it was a great cruise with interesting ports - my wife wouldn't mind going back to Hong Kong and I would like to re-visit Seoul and Shanghai!

 

On sea-days there was a lot to do on ship-board - though I confess I would rather read, process photos and the like. Food was good. People were varied, interesting and friendly. We either went on tours with people on the CCs, or using TourbyLocals or on our own. The locals were friendly or at least neutral. And when we made these trips, we had just entered our 80s!

 

 

 

 

[jay888]

My mother was cruising up to her nineties and on one cruise I met a lady who a hundred and still cruising.  I love to sit and read with a glass of wine.

[canadianbear]

4 hours ago, jay888 said:

Thank you for your reply, unfortunately I’m no long a spring chicken.  When you say mature do you mean gods waiting room where everyone is asleep during the day in the lounges.  The cruise I’m looking at is on the Westerdam.  I do like a balcony, but the end of the world if I don’t have one.  I like a more relaxing cruise with good coffee, which I don’t mind pairing extra.

I think you would quite enjoy the Westerdam and could easily get a balcony on her.  I think you’d find a mixture of ages 50 and up.  There is limited night life but should be enough to keep you entertained.  We are not coffee drinkers  but I enjoy lattes from the Explorations cafe often.  

 

If you splurged for a Neptune suite they have a coffee maker in your cabin and the Neptune lounge has coffee, teas and lattes etc.

Edited May 20, 2019 by canadianbear

[St Pete Cruiser]

Westerdam is a very enjoyable ship. We just came back from 29 days doing Japan, Vladivostok and Alaska. Great crew, very good entertainment and dining. There was a production show cast as well as some fun acts plus Billboard, Bb King, and Lincoln Center live music.  

[Corby114]

My family of three did the fifteen night sailing to Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam in January 2019 on the Westerdam from Singapore. The ship was great, the crew wonderful and most of the passengers were in there fifties and above. We met many passengers from Australia and Canada. It was such a great cruise that we plan on returning to Asia in January 2020.

[jay888]

Thank you for all your replies and HA is now at the top of my list to book.

[MAVIP]

We had 3 HAL cruises in Asia: 1st ms Rotterdam Singapore - around Indonesia-Singapore and back to Rotterdam via Malaysia, Sri Lanka, India etc.  2nd  m.s. Volendam Singapore-Thailand-Cambodja, 4 ports in Vietnam, HongKong, Shanghai, Tianjin, Seoul, Japan (Nagasaki, Kagoshima, Yokohama). 3rd: this year: m.s. Maasdam Singapore-HongKong-Singapore (almost same itinerary as first part of m.s. Volendam, but quite often 2 days in a port).    Around Japan and repositioning to Vancouver is on my bucket list. 

We are not so interested in shows, we cruise for the ports the ships visits, the fabulous crew members, the contacts with different nationalities among the passengers and last but not least: being at sea!  (By the way we are in the 2nd half of our seventees). 

[jay888]

17 minutes ago, MAVIP said:

We had 3 HAL cruises in Asia: 1st ms Rotterdam Singapore - around Indonesia-Singapore and back to Rotterdam via Malaysia, Sri Lanka, India etc.  2nd  m.s. Volendam Singapore-Thailand-Cambodja, 4 ports in Vietnam, HongKong, Shanghai, Tianjin, Seoul, Japan (Nagasaki, Kagoshima, Yokohama). 3rd: this year: m.s. Maasdam Singapore-HongKong-Singapore (almost same itinerary as first part of m.s. Volendam, but quite often 2 days in a port).    Around Japan and repositioning to Vancouver is on my bucket list. 

We are not so interested in shows, we cruise for the ports the ships visits, the fabulous crew members, the contacts with different nationalities among the passengers and last but not least: being at sea!  (By the way we are in the 2nd half of our seventees). 

My husband and myself are both in our early sixties and very rarely go to the shows. I love sea days and it is the Vancouver to Japan that I’m interested in. My husband enjoys watching sports and keeping up the news.  I prefer to read and listen to music and dancing.

[MAVIP]

27 minutes ago, jay888 said:

My husband and myself are both in our early sixties and very rarely go to the shows. I love sea days and it is the Vancouver to Japan that I’m interested in. My husband enjoys watching sports and keeping up the news.  I prefer to read and listen to music and dancing.

Japan: I am almost sure you will enjoy your visit. 2 Years ago we wished we could plan as other passengers on board ms Volendam: continue 3 weeks by train all around Japan... Japan even has a fantastic luggage service in the whole country.  OK, we should have done that earlier in life 🙂. If we book the trip around Japan and continue to Vancouver, we hope to visit our family there. I have to hurry 😉 

[bennybear]

We just did the circumnavigation of Japan and it was one of our favourite cruises.  But don’t go that far and not spend at least another week or two seeing Japan!  My cousin continued on to Vancouver and enjoyed it very much,  though they did encounter a little rough weather. 

[ORCRUISER]

I’ve done 2 cruises to Asia with HAL. Loved them both. 

[taxmantoo]

On 5/21/2019 at 12:14 PM, bennybear said:

We just did the circumnavigation of Japan and it was one of our favourite cruises.  But don’t go that far and not spend at least another week or two seeing Japan!  My cousin continued on to Vancouver and enjoyed it very much,  though they did encounter a little rough weather. 

We are looking at that cruise for 2021.  What was the weather like in April-May?  Do not want to do the crossing part, just spend a week or so in Tokyo and then circumnavigate Japan.

[bennybear]

The weather was pleasant,  but varied from 4 degrees Centigrade in the north Hokkaido to low 20 s with very little rain in April.    We may have been lucky! 

I would recommend Kyoto and Hiroshima.  Tokyo was overwhelming and the beginning of May is golden week with masses travelling.   We spent 10 days precruise in the west and saw even more cherry blossoms.   I would suggest you fly to the west and train back to Yokohama for the easiest travel and lower cost.

 

[SetAnOpenCourse]

I apologize if this question drifts from the thread, but, can anyone compare HAL vs Princess for cruises that have mainly Japan ports of call?

[SeaDog-46]

As I cruise mainly with HAL or Princess I compared the cruises for both around Japan.

Found that Diamond Princess did shorted cruises & HAL slightly longer.  Also I thought Princess catered more for the Japanese & HAL for USA.  I liked the longer Westerdam cruises & did 2 x 14 days B2B from 31st March 2019 ex Yokohama.  The passenger mix was Japanese, Chinese from China & overseas, Australians, USA & various European countries. 

A very good cruise with many ports in Japan including Okinawa plus a few in Taiwan, ROK & Russia.

jay 888 you will find HAL considerable better than P&O UK, MSC, NCL & RCI - but Cunard maybe not.